Start & Run a Computer Repair Service (Start & Run Business Series) (2012)
4
Free (or Almost Free) Advertising
One of the things every business owner learns is that everyone wants to sell you marketing and advertising. Everything from Yellow Pages ads, to pages in the school yearbook; you will be approached to buy it all. Unfortunately, most of this advertising doesn’t work.
At one time, we were paying more than $6,000 per month in advertising. We had multiple ads running in all the local papers, we had full-page ads in magazines, we were on the back of supermarket receipts, and even on bulletin boards at RV parks. We were skeptical that it was actually paying for itself so we took a month and asked every single person who walked in or called how they’d heard about us. We were astounded. The great majority had heard about us from friends or had just walked by. This ran counter to what we’d thought and when we ran the numbers we were just sick to our stomachs. The advertising generated many calls but it didn’t translate into revenue. The issue we had was that people were calling from all over the valley and didn’t want to drive 45 minutes to get their computers fixed when they could drive 3 minutes to a more local store. In addition, the calls chewed up most of the day so we found we were falling behind on actual work! Based on this, we dropped the advertising and, although our call volume declined, our profit remained about the same and we were able to get more work out the door.
As a new business owner, instead of spending thousands of dollars on advertising, take advantage of all the free advertising you can get. As soon as you launch, you will be deluged with people who want to sell you every kind of advertising under the sun. Don’t be fooled. They will promise you the world and you’ll rationalize and justify how spending a few hundred dollars will turn into many thousands of dollars in sales. It may, but it is not guaranteed. Once we sent out 280,000 flyers and got only one phone call.
Spend your time advertising for free. In the early stages of your business this is where you need to put your time, not in worrying that the thousand dollars you just spent was wasted. Free advertising includes, but isn’t limited to, everything from websites to word of mouth. There are many resources you can use; this chapter includes the forms of advertising we like to use.
1. Creating Craigslist Ads
If you are looking for customers immediately, the fastest and least expensive place to advertise is Craigslist. This website allows you to post your ad for free; however, in most areas there is significant competition. In general, you should start these ads as soon as you launch your business. Some companies make a living from these ads alone. One computer store we know believes these ads are so valuable they have hired a part-time person who posts these ads for them every day.
Although Craigslist discourages you from putting up multiple ads, if you offer something different each day, you will be able to have your ads available regularly. Here are a few tips and tricks:
• Create multiple versions of the same ad. Craigslist will notice if you post the same ad over and over, but different ads with different wording will be accepted. Be careful, as competitors will flag your posts as unacceptable just to keep you from advertising services they provide.
• Reuse old ads. Craigslist lets you “renew” old ads, so you can just reuse postings again and again.
• Craigslist allows you to reference images on other sites. If you create a slick ad that is a .jpg, post it on your website and just reference it in the ad. The image will be displayed on Craigslist and Craigslist doesn’t read it as a duplicate.
• Post at different times during the day. Craigslist can be cutthroat. Sometimes other companies will report your ads to discourage competition. Therefore, repost during various times of the day to ensure that you always have an ad available.
• There is software that your competition can purchase that will auto-flag posts with certain keywords. If you advertise “virus removal” and they are scanning for those keywords, your post will be auto-flagged and it will be removed minutes after you post. To avoid this, try to link images whenever possible.
• Don’t get discouraged. Just because your first ad doesn’t bring in any customers doesn’t mean that you should stop. Sometimes it takes some ad “tuning” to find the right ad that will return results.
2. Investing in Happy Customers
Whatever your business sells, happy customers are always your best advertising. Typically they live in your area, they know other people who live near you, and often have friends and neighbors with similar problems. Happy customers like to recommend a new business because people feel good when they are able to talk about a great experience. Our business currently spends no money on monthly advertising and yet we get plenty of new customers. Almost all of them are recommendations from other people who had a great experience with us. This type of advertising is worth the time it takes to earn it.
There are plenty of ways to earn happy, excited customers. While it may take more time and effort, it is certainly worth the sales it generates. Some ways to get people excited about your business include:
• Save your customers money. Many businesses take advantage of ignorant customers to up sell unnecessary products and services. If your recommendations save your customers money, they will appreciate it and feel grateful. Letting them know you can fix their computer for $100 instead of selling them a new one for $400 may make you the same amount of money (typically new computers have low margins) but save the customers $300!
• Be competitively priced and let your customers know it! When you are saving them money, don’t be afraid to let them know. Although you don’t want to mention any company by name, you can mention the prices at the local big box store and let them know how much lower your prices are.
• Thank your customers for their business. Let them know how much you appreciate their patronage. If your customers want to thank you, ask them to refer a friend. We get customers that are so happy that we solved their problem that they want to do something nice for us or leave a tip. Instead of accepting a gift, we generally ask them to just refer a friend. Usually they will leave with a stack of cards in hand and a promise to give out the cards! You can’t buy that type of advertising.
With that said, unhappy customers can sink your business. How often have you had a friend ask you about a local restaurant or store? You know that when you tell your friends about a terrible experience you had it stays with them. Unless it is unavoidable, always try to resolve problems with your customers to everyone’s satisfaction. It used to be that 1 angry person would tell 10 to 20 people about his or her experience with a business. Now, that 1 person can spread negative comments much more. In a few seconds he or she can post to theripoffreport.com or yelp.com and when people search your name, the first thing they’ll see is a bad report about you. Do everything you can to keep your customers happy.
3. Writing an Internet Blog
Posting new content on your website is a great way to get new hits — especially if you offer online sales. Even small articles on current events, new viruses, recently released computer games, or spotlights on new technology will help bring traffic to your site. This is an especially good thing to focus on when you are first building your business. Writing these articles will help you learn more about the industry and what customers are looking for. In general, try to update your blog daily. One way to do this is to read recent tech news and blog about it.
4. Social Media
Another way businesses generate traffic is through social media. This area has grown so large in recent years that you now have many different choices and methods of expanding your business with these free social sites. Some sites that you should consider include:
• Facebook: Create a page for your business. You can start managing updates that give your customers information about how your business is growing, any special deals or offers, or maybe just some tech tips.
• Twitter: These feeds allow you to send out updates to readers. As you are regularly working on repairs, you may find items of interest. Have you just found a new virus? Is there a new product release? Tweet about it!
• Google: Google often tracks business information and allows you to update your business information directly on its site. The more hits you get, the better. Recently, Google even sent a photographer to one of our stores to photograph it inside and out!
• Merchant Circle, and other merchant groups: Today, many merchant associations are forming. These websites usually allow you to create a page for your business for free and often let you link to other business in your area.
Take advantage of each of these sites to start creating buzz about your business or your services. When we started Computers for Soldiers, a charitable program that offers laptops and desktop computers at affordable prices for the military and their families, we started a Facebook page for the program. Since our program is about helping military families find affordable computers, we didn’t sell the computers on our Facebook page. Most of our updates are about visiting military families, getting the word out on army bases, and getting feedback from our customers. What was amazing was how much excitement and traffic it generated.
Just remember to keep your web presence professional. Don’t include cute stories about your pets or your kids and certainly don’t get involved in “wars” with customers and competitors. Remember, the Internet is forever; once you hit submit, the comment you made will exist somewhere on the Internet.
Marketing in the New Media, by Holly Berkley: This book is a great start if you are looking for more information on how to market using the Internet and mobile media. It covers tips on using social marketing, boosting website traffic, and monitoring online customer behaviors.
5. Networking with Complementary Businesses
If you choose to open a retail location, you can network with other business owners in your area. If you are working from home, why not try to do the same thing? Get to know your neighbors and the businesses in your immediate area. Walk around, talk to people, ask them how their systems are running, and just be friendly and approachable.
Take every chance to tell people about your business. For instance, the other day I was in a small coffee shop doing some writing. I asked the owner if she had wireless access for customers and couldn’t believe how convoluted it was to connect. She started telling me about all the problems they had been having, how they couldn’t even change the access credentials to something simple, and people had to input a long alphanumeric string to connect. Of course, I offered to help. A few minutes later, I had her network back together and she was thrilled. Now, was it profitable? A little bit; she gave me a free coffee and soup, but most importantly, she now knows that I am a technician who can solve problems quickly and easily. Taking advantage of opportunities like this builds your reputation in the business community quickly.
Another way to grow in your community is to get involved with a local charity. Donating your time is a free way to get some publicity for your business. Even if it doesn’t result in any sales, you can use these experiences to build your online and in-store reputation. If you are at a charity event or donate an item, add that to your website. If charity organizers thank you with a plaque or certificate, hang it in your business and make a copy available on your website. While these activities may not result in immediate direct sales, it will build your reputation and show your customers that you are reliable and caring.
6. Paid Advertising
There are many business owners who swear that their advertising keeps them in business. The key is to know what advertising costs and what it brings in. Before you buy any advertising, you need to make sure the vendor can show you how many people actually read its advertising (versus how many people “could” read it) and what the results are like for businesses like yours.
Keep in mind, vendors will exaggerate. If the advertising salesperson tells you the vendor has a circulation of 50,000, ask him or her what that means. Is the circulation in your immediate area? If your business targets families, does the advertising go to neighborhood homes or is it distributed at college campuses? Make sure that the advertising is actually going to be distributed to your customer base. Many times, we’ve seen stacks of magazines in a garbage and wondered how much people paid to advertise with them. Be very careful. Ask to speak to other people who advertise with them. Make sure you aren’t competing against multiple businesses like yours.
If, after all your research, you think that a particular type of advertising is for you, begin working on the right ad. The content of the ad often makes a big difference in the results. For instance, if an ad is too wordy, some people don’t even bother to read it. If an ad looks too unprofessional, people may doubt the quality of your computers and your service. Therefore, spend the time to make your ad look professional. Get as much feedback as you can before you ever run the ad. Ask your friends, family, and customers and listen to their feedback. Ask them for candid feedback and never be insulted by their responses. After all, you want an ad that sells.
Another thing to consider is tracking. Once the ad is running you will need a way to measure the results; therefore, include a “call to action” in the advertisement. For instance, asking the customer to “bring in this coupon” is an easy way to know that your advertising worked. If you are doing Internet advertising, provide a link to a custom-made page or create a custom email address so that you can track every single response or hit.
Once you have an ad that appears to work, continue to fine tune it and track results. Change small elements and try to improve your sales. If most of your customers are calling about your laptops, see what happens when your ad dedicates more space to selling your laptops. Whatever you do, continue to measure not just hits (e.g., calls) but also sales. We had one ad, a newspaper classified, that resulted in many phone calls, but little to no sales. As a result, we not only spent money on the ad, but we spent our time fielding calls from people that lived too far away to become customers.
Do not sign a long-term contract. Salespeople will suggest you advertise with their vendor for six months as if that were a short period of time. It isn’t. Try for a month and track the results. If the salesperson won’t let you test the results, he or she doesn’t have confidence in his or her product. If the salesperson truly believes you’ll be successful through his or her vendor, the person will have no objection to you trying it. If it brings in customers, keep going! If not, drop it and try something else.