Hi everyone,
I was looking for some opinions on the best spent advertising dollar. In the past my buisness has relied soley on “word of mouth” advertising. While this method has been both cheap and effctive I feel it may be time to start expanding my network of potential clients.
I am a one man shop specializing in custom furniture, architectural millwork and high end finish carpentry. I am having a website built as we speak, and was thinking about approaching local interior design firms. Any thoughts are welcome.
Thanks in advance,
Matt
Replies
Matt,
I think the market for custom work is the stuff that customers can't find in a store. At least, that is the story I hear most often. Built in media centers are a big business right now, for example. So, how do you reach those people? Word of mouth is a great way, but business is inconsistent. I am thinking of banding together with other local craftsmen to do a show, perhaps annually like a guild. The emphasis of the show would be to educate potential customers about the value of custom work through examples of problems solved in this way, and showing examples of the work.
A group of craftsmen could afford to do some local advertising to stimulate attendance. Interior decorators might jump at the chance to cooperate with you and help with marketing. Certain local stores might also be interested.
Those are my thoughts. Good luck.
Best regards, Tom.
From the consumer side, it was the decorator we were working with that put us on to the maker. Perhaps a small portfolio of your best work along with a lunch or coffee with the busier decorators/designers/architects in your area would start the ball rolling. Just be careful about under charging your bids. You could end-up going broke with an increase in business. You can't lose on every sale and make it up on volume.
Good Luck.
Matt,
It's an ongoing pursuit to find what works for you. It depends on a lot of factors that dramatically affect the situation, and each one of them warrants looking at in depth. Just for instance:
Do you want to encourage people to visit your shop? Are you set up to WOW them if they arrive, or will it put them off?
What is it that you are REALLY selling. I mean, lots of people do custom furniture; what makes YOU special?
Who are the people you want to reach? Architects and designers, or homeowners?
Is there a local market for hand-crafted merchandise in your location, or do you need to reach out?
Are you trying to build a long-term image, or get a bunch of orders right now?
...I'm just scratching the surface here.
All I can recommend in general is to try to define as best you can what your aims are and how much money and time you are going to spend on it over the next year. Keep records of what you try and how it works out. For instance, if you do a mailing, how many replies are there? Re-evaluate all the time. And try thinking a bit "out of the box". One of the best advertising tricks I ever pulled was to donate kitchen cabinets to a TV cooking show. It cost me the cabinets but the exposure, week after week in the credits, was terrific.
good luck,
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
Last year a furniture builder rented out the space above and around the Cubs' dugouts (yes, it was so memorable I forget the name). For a few zillion dollars, you could do the same.
Go cubbies!
Websites are ok but you really need to be sure people see your site. Another low tech idea are signs on your van or truck if you do the instillation of your work. As with all advertising repetitiveness is extremely important.
Troy
Hey everyone,Thanks for the positive feedback. You've given me some good things to think about. I'll keep you all posted on what I try.Matt
Troy,You make a good point there !
I will start a new thread on web site visibility and see what kind of response it will generate.C.
Any time, I was reminded of the signs on the van because a local hardwood floor refinishing company has them on their vans and they are always busy inspite of so-so prices and so-so work.Troy
Advertising on the van was the best money I ever spent.http://www.wikihow.com/Turn-a-Car-Into-a-Moving-Advertisement
In Michigan I was told if I advertised my business on my truck I'd need a commercial drivers license and my insurance would go through the roof because I'd also need commercial auto insurance...what a rip-off!
It's always something, all I can say is shop around for the insurance some carriers are more reasonable than others. What a pain.Good luckTroy
Designers, for sure. But here's another contact group I just found out about: The people who "stage" homes for sale. I have an acquaintance who's built a huge business doing this, and he's always looking for pieces to put in the homes, and sometimes a woodworker to build something custom for one of the high-end homes. While some of the homes he stages are on the re-sale market, and he doesn't spend much money on those, the bulk of his business is new homes (models) and apt.-to-condo conversions. Big bucks spent on the presentation of those homes.
OK, rambling, sorry. Point is, when getting the word out to the standard designer crowd, see if you can find out who's staging new high-end homes in the area. Those buyers have the money to spend and will pay for custom work. A really nice accent table or two, something unusual, in the home with your card and a price.
There's no info in your profile. Does your area have any galleries you could display in?
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 3/30/2007 1:30 am by forestgirl
Most of my work came from Designers that I sent short letters to that basically guided them to my website.
I did mail 3,000 post cards to every house in the area over $500K and never got a single call from any of those cards yet 35 letters to designers got me dozens of jobs.
Good luck!
Matt, different things work well for different business'. I'm in the high end window coverings business and direct mail works great for me. Another thing that works well is to send a letter/flyer to your old customers outlining the entire scope of what your capable of. Chances are they will get ideas from that. For instance, the customer who had you build a coffee table might not have thought that you could build them lamps?, entertainment center?, wet bar, jewelry box, etc. You have recieved some good advice here and I think any or all of it would prove effective. Good Luck, Chris
Just wrote a piece for a greenhouse grower magazine, but most of it applies to anything. It's copyrighted so please do not reproduce it ............... FWIW .............
ADVERTISING FOR THE SMALL GROWER
Deciding To Advertise
From a wholesaler’s perspective, the effects of advertising are more intangible than we’d like. You place an ad and hope it makes a difference. And much of the time, you’re never sure. Even if sales don’t increase, you ask yourself, “Would I have done less if I’d not done the ad?” Thus is just one of the anxieties facing the fledgling advertiser.
In spite of its ethereal nature, you now find yourself compelled to begin advertising. After all, your neighbors are doing it. Where does that leave you? And how does a small producer go about it?
Well, first we’ve got to make smart decisions. Face reality. Giant companies can throw tons of dollars at a thing and muscle its way to sales. For the smaller firm, muscle-money is something we only dream about. In addition, giant companies enjoy economies of scale. They’re capacity to produce cheaply is greater than ours. So, not only must we be smarter: we must be more efficient in alternative areas.
A wholesaler’s sale comes from the retailer. So, if consumer advertising is to help market our product, it must be repetitive, appealing and strong enough to filter back through the system. In other words, the consumer must be impressed enough to go to the retailer and request our brand in a manner and frequency powerful enough that word is carried back to the decision-maker, who in turn must be convinced (amongst a sea of competing brands) that ours is worth her time, money and risk. A tall order? Yes. Impossible? No.
They say experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want. Let me provide you with a few experience-based lessons learned. Stuff that works.
Work Your Reach
Once (with a 25-state reach shipping capacity), we placed ads in a 50-state magazine. The long and short of it is we spent more time explaining why we couldn’t deliver the product than we spent actually delivering it. Why? Chances are, what you offer has more recognition in your region than in others. Your product might enjoy some recollection, and that’s a help, right?
Right. But look at it from the opposite side. Ads that reach beyond your serviceable area can spark exceptional levels of interest because of newness and scarcity. That’s great if you’re willing to ship that far: not so great if you can’t.
So, ask yourself how far you’re going to take this. The answer to that will help you decide where to focus your ad.
Choose Your Crowd
We dumped a ton of money into a periodical whose following was agenda-based, consisting of consumers in pursuit of strict organic methodology. While we initially stirred interest in our product, ultimately, readers wouldn’t buy it because it was not produced within the contingency’s stern guidelines. In other words, it turned out to be a huge waste of time and money.
Some might enjoy the challenge of selling snow to Eskimos. Me, I’ve learned the hard way to make certain that the crowd I’m preaching to will not brace up an impenetrable barrier to my message.
Remember, Size Matters, But Maybe Not The Way You Think
The first time we saw our full page ad in a glossy glittzy magazine, we just impressed the livin’ heck out of ourselves. Chests out. We’ve hit the big time. Yeah! Then, the bill came due. Then, we waited for customers to tear the doors down, which they didn’t.
Full page ads in Martha Stewart may pump up your company’s ego, but consider your budget-reality. What can you afford, and for how long? But here’s the good news. You don’t have to go big. Maybe there’s some reverse psychology or snob affect with full page ads. I dunno. But we’ve often felt we’ve gotten as much (or more) mileage from a half or quarter page ad as we did with a full page ad.
Think Machine Gun
As I stated above, even with glitzy ads, customers didn’t exactly beat the door down right away. Why? Because we hadn’t shot the idea out there enough to impact the consumer yet. As a reader turns a page, he or she will glance for 1-5 seconds. Your message isn’t going to stick unless it’s repeated. It takes at least seven shots to establish an aire of legitmacy and knock‘em over. Patience and commitment.
If you remember nothing else, remember this. It’s not advertising: it’s an advertising program. When you begin this journey, make sure everyone (especially the bill payer) is on-board and willing to re-load and go the distance.
Send a Powerful Small Message
When we first took the plunge into advertising we dedicated a lot of words and space telling about how great our product is. It does this and that, and that, and that, and............... And guess what. Nobody read all that stuff. We were hitting the customer with too much information.
Maybe your product has sixteen stunning attributes. But if you try to explain them all, the impact will be lost. Besides, most readers don’t believe lists of claims. Pick one to three of your strengths and punch at them hard. Beat them (the consumers) to death with these points and these points only. The message will eventually connect and trigger a sale.
Make The Magic
Advertising is not a stand-alone show. It only works as part of a comprehensive approach. Produce the product. Fit quality and value levels to your customer. Package it right. Deliver it on time. With those factors in place, advertising is a tool to help you get sales and keep the magic going.
copyright R. Denny Blew, 2007
Excellent post, I would like to add, advertising creates opportunity, it's your job to close the sale. be prepared to wow them! Chris
That IS a good point. Thank you.
Excelent article. Thanks for the advice.
Just wanted to say thanks again to everyone for their advice. It has given me a lot to think about. Also, I wanted to let you all know that I have a simple web site up finally. Still doing some work to it, but it's a start. Please check it out and let me know what you think.Thanks,
Matthttp://www.oldgreenwoodworking.com
Matt,I had a quick look at your website. Basically I like it, but I'm gonna make one critique. The photos need to be of the highest quality only. They should be professional quality photos, equal to the level of your craftsmanship. Use less, but only the best. good start,
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
Local Radio do some research.
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