Business Starting Grants - What are some good ways to advertise a new business?

What are some good ways to advertise a new business?

I've started a new business and want to know what form of advertising is the most productive. Website? Flyers?.......... My husband and I have a computer repairs company. We are also thinking of going into designing websites.

Public Comments

I would say flyers are a pretty inexpensive way to get the word out about your business. Put them on car windows, hang up at local grocery stores and other bulletin boards around your area. Also get in touch with local radio stations and see if they have anything they could offer you as far as advertising. the website below has quite a few inexpensive and effective ideas on how to advertise for your new business. Congratulations and good luck in your new venture!
Flyers have less than .01of 1% success rate . Try to identify if there is a paper-journal -magazine published that would be relevant to your business. If there is take small advertisments over a period of time as advertising is more effective when done on a repetitive basis rather than one big spread. You should be able to negotiate a special discount with the publisher for a number of ads. I think in this day and age a website advertisement would be pretty well imperative. On a recent survey (I think by B.T.) vehicle livery (sign writing on commercial or private transport) was the most effective form of advertising, even more so than T.V., radio, or press. Just some information you may find useful. Good luck with your business,what is it by the way?
A website is a must for a computer repairs company, and if your thinking of going into webdesign and dont have one.... make one quickly. I'll assume your looking for local business initally, in which case word of mouth is your best form of advertising. Drop 2 discount vouchers with each receipt. Offer something like a free spyware scan with every repair or something to get people to pass the spaare voucher to friends. Flyers are expensive even if you print them yourself, but in a local market they can work. Depending if you are targeting business or home market. Leaving flyers at local nurseries and community centers are a good idea, as lots of families have PC's a few years old and no idea how to get them fixed if things go wrong. As to entering webdesign field, be aware it is a saturated market and if you've built a few hobby sites for friends and think your a webdesigner dont. but if you have a sound knowledge of webdesign, web technology, database driven ecommerce sites and how to implement the various payment gateways out there and think your up for the web development route go for it. Grab your local business directory, call the businesses in your local area and ask if they have a website. NOT if they want one just if they have one. If they say yes take a note of its address and see if it needs refreshing. Some businesses have websites that havent been changed since about 2002. if they say no, well mark em down as prospective customer, mock up a 1 page prototype site and go and offer it to them. In person, small business owners prefer one on one sales pitch to flyers and marketing emails / faxes. good luck with your endevours.
if you are in the UK , quite a few villages or towns have monthly advertising posts (mags) that go out for instance we have the cotswold advertiser, also you could try the fliers as that is cheap, website is very effective as I think most people these days l;ook to the web first!! Sometimes you can sponsor a local (sunday league for instance) football team, by buying the kit and having your company name on the strip, or perhaps get in touch with local playgroups who may benefit from you donating some equipment and you can do a local newspaper story with a picture in it, so thats good advertising. Hope it goes well!
1. A website with a well thought out Google campain targeting you area. 2. When you do a Job you should always give a business card but i believe it is good practice to give the customer 3 or 4 cards & ask them to past them on to friends. 3. An add in the local paper may help but i find most people useing the papers want cheap work. 4. Don't waste your time with letter box drops they have a low sucess rate. 5.Give a business card to every one you meet 6.Try to find a way to get free publicty in the newspaper or on the radio. 7. Concider a loyalty program or a reward for word of mouth advertising from your regular customers. 8 Getting involved with a local sporting club can help , buy the kids uniforms with your name on them . Talk to the club as many strugle with money & this should help them too. 9.Billboards & signs don't work very well but have your work vechical signwritten with your Ph No & wedsite. Hope this helps.
Here are some free web marketing tips. Not all web marketing needs to cost money. Aside from website submissions, there are a number of things that web marketers can do that are free, though they may be rather time-consuming. Other marketing tactics are relatively inexpensive, and are often well worth the investment. Follow these basic steps to market your website and business. Free Web Marketing Tips http://www.small-business-software.net/free-web-marketing.htm
Make some business cards and when you meet some one give them on like you want them to have your phone number and then they also have your business card and if you know some one who has a MYSPACE they can put in on there.
I started a small land surveying business about 7 years ago. I have had two methods that worked best for me. 1) Direct mailings to prospective clients. You have to identify your market and then mail them a simple introductory letter indicating your services. I used this recently when the real estate business went south and I had to look for other sources of income. I noticed that there was an increase in the number of oil wells being drilled in my local area. We sent out letters to all the oil producers who had operated in our area within the last two years and we have already gotten three new clients from this. 2) Many areas have a publication called the "Thrifty Nickel" or something similar. You may have seen it at the grocery stores or other places. I have had much success with adds in these type of publications. They are much cheaper than newspaper adds and you may be surprised at the number of people who read them. I know I was. Last winter we received 5 large jobs as a direct result of an add we placed. We do have a website also, but I have not had the results from it that I have had from the above two methods. Oh, I almost forgot. I have the name of my company and phone number painted in larger letters on my vehicles. I only have 1 truck and 1 car, but people are always telling me that they see my vehicles everywhere!
Cold-calling works. Recently I got a phone call at work from web designers advertising their business. Beautifully designed brochure style flyers will work via mail or going in person to businesses/industries with your advertisement. I know that you are already have good people skills and know how to talk to others effectively. So you'll be able to catch their attention with your business designs. Hope that helps.
http://www.signazon.com/templatesearch.aspx I would check out Signazon.com. I went to them when I first started advertising my small business, and my business tripled. I bought full color magnetics, a banner, and some advertising yard signs. You could get these things at a lot of places, but Signazon has designers available on staff to guide you. That way, you can design whatever you like on their website, but, if you get stumped, a designer will help you (or they'll just design it for you FOR FREE). It was a service that, as a small business owner, I didn't think I could afford. But Signazon.com made it possible. Try them out!
Advertise your business on free classifieds, relevant forums and social networking websites. Monitor the response you get periodically to find out what works best. From http://ad5.info
Word of mouth is an excellent way. You tell your friends, who in turn tell those they know and voile! Also, everybody likes a discount or a "free sample" If you can, decide how many people you are able to give a free service to, or a discount. If they like the work, they will be back with others. Advertising in the classified column of your local newspaper is also a great avenue to use. The website and flyer's, as you've mentioned. Even making index cards with your company information on them and posting them in your local grocery stores on their bulletin boards. I wish you the very best with your up and coming business. Agape