Best form of advertising ?

[Gazzer]

What has been your most profitable form of advertising.Pound for pound, what do you think works best....Now before anyone says "Word of mouth" That is not what I am asking.
If you had to pay for some form of advertising to get yourself recognised, what would it be ?
Poll added

 

[widler]

mmmm,only tried newspapers,never got one call. don't bother with anything now,although my van is signwrote,so signwritten van it is.

i always find word of mouth the best

 

[enduro]

Just done some tiling for a guy who sorts out the advertising on TV...A 8 second one off ad in the middle of Coronation street is £80,000 or a 8 second ad during the break of the final of X factor will cost you £240,000...Need a few tiling jobs to make that pay..:lol:

 

[DHTiling]

For me it has to be a Website... then sign written van.. but the website does work very well.

 

[chrisroe]

church mags or newspaper shop windows

 

[user123]

Website, without a doubt.

 

[Ian]

Van has earnt its keep, but for me the best form of advertising is a local magazine which goes out to 90 villages surrounding Grantham, worth its weight in gold and is the only paid form of advertising I do.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

'Other' - point of sale(estimate) pen - timeless tiling solutions, which I hand to all good prospects.
Being on time and being as pleasant (as I can) to the customer.
Having an up to date portfolio of all work.
Directing them to the web page and Tilers Forum while I'am measuring up.

And what you don't want to know - recommendations.

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

Signed van for me, but hoping website might help. Also I still have one of TJs pens, very nice pen too

 

[Andy Allen]

i belive in covering all bases, sign written van, web site, parrish mag, yellow pages, cards in tile shops and word of mouth....think thats it..

 

[Colour Republic]

website without any shadow of a doubt.

If I had to choose just one form of advertising that would be it. Even over the sign written van. Pound for pound a decent website, well optimised, will knock anything else for six.

My website has cost me very little in hard cold cash but maybe 200 hundreds of hours of my time (and that includes learning how to build a website in the first place!). Knowing what I know now I would have no hesitation in spending £5k plus on a good website and still think it was cheap, it brings in that much business.

 

[Aston]

my top 3 would be..
1. a website - but get some advice on how to optimize it!!
2. local press
3. a combination of sign written van, printed clothing and locally distributed high quality fliers.

 

[Rich]

For me around here in the sticks, little shop windows believe it or not, £1 per month and has got me loads of work.

 

[jay]

Word of mouth

 

[Rich]

Word of mouth

:lol: Did you not read the first post. or are trying to upset Neale?

 

[jay]

Sorry Neil :mad2:

 

[Spud]

For me it has to be a Website... then sign written van.. but the website does work very well.

its a banging website too

 

[Daz]

Most of my work comes from Tile Shops and I know this is "recommendations" but my local outlets are more than happy to recommend me over "other" tilers because I have proven that I deliver quality and I am reliable (I turn up when I say I will).

My secondary sources of work come from a classified ad in the local (paid) newspaper and my sign written van. I believe that the classified and van act more as PR rather than lead generation though. Clients see my van around and see my name in the local paper so know that I am still trading which gives them the confidence to use or recommend me.

I realise that my comments are recurring and contradictory to Neales request so my apologies, but that is the way it is.

Daz

 

[Sean Kelly]

I put 'Other'. 'Other' being networking. Going into tile shops, talking to the owners etc. There will always be a time when one of their tilers will let them down, or they have so much work on that they have to give me a call. You have to keep popping in too, even just to buy a tube of sealant (even though I don't need it!). This is followed by 'Business Cards'. You always have to carry a few. They only cost pennies, but could make you £thousands. Cheers Sean

 

[Sam Gouche]

What has been your most profitable form of advertising.Pound for pound, what do you think works best....Now before anyone says "Word of mouth" That is not what I am asking.
If you had to pay for some form of advertising to get yourself recognised, what would it be ?
Poll added

Word of mouth is by far the best....not the quickest but it's a very good seal of approval.
offering "free" products services always peaks interest but nothing ground breaking.

 

[bugs183]

Sorry but number one has always been word of mouth, reputation is everything, plus keeping the staff in shops stocked up with sweets and biscuits!
Then it's business cards, i've had loads printed, and now can hand them out to anyone that asks, plus i always pop a few with any invoices i send out.
I have a website, but so far i've had nothing off it, i probably needs optimising, but the last few weeks the phone has been red hot, and i can't cope with what i have.

 

[Captain]

I would go for recommendation, i have done flyers when i started up and got one job from 800 leaflets, so that was a waste of money, i have an advert running in a Surrey magazine for three months, nothing yet with one month gone....

 

[andy-p]

What bugs said, i get all my work through recommendations and reputation , no website or adverts apart from signwriting on the van , great deal of work in tandem with bathroom fitters , builders etc, never short of work ....

 

[martin1c]

The only form of advertising I have is website, or 6 websites in my case and they keep me very busy.

 

[Peter]

At the minute in terms of cold calls with no contacts it would be from business cards left in shops etc. £50 for 1000 best quality glossy cards and probably get a job from every 50-100 so a very economical way to get leads providing you have a professional looking card. Going to get the van sign written over the summer too, for more of a presence than anything else.

Set a website up in January but it's not optimised properly so ranking quite low, same as Google Places, haven't got myself up as the first name on it. Something I've always been meaning to look into but never really got the time to read up on it fully. Would happily pay someone a few quid if they could put me at the top of Google search and Google Places.