Let's Talk About Ineffective Marketing

IHA Mark

IHA Mark

New member
Ok folks, lets here some stories about marketing strategies that you have tried that have NOT worked well for you.



Why did it not work for you? Was it specific to your market, poor execution on your part, or just a bad strategy?



What did you substitute it for, and why did it work better than the previous strategy, if it did?



Why did you feel that strategy would be effective in the first place? Was it a shot in the dark, or a calculated strategy that did not pay off?





I'll start: Last year I spent several weeks hanging door hangers on my days off or days when I only had a half day or so scheduled. I truly believe the reason it did not work was twofold:



1. I did not target the right neighborhoods.



2. Instead of canvassing the same neighborhood over and over again over a matter of weeks, I just went on and tried to cover the most amount of area possible. Marketing 101 fail on my part.



Share your experiences! It helps everyone in the community when we share our successes AND failures.



:clap:
 
Thats interesting, That was one of the marketing plans i wanted to try out this spring was to have my guys canvas neighborhoods with flyers.



In your opinion what do you think you could have done to make it work/ be effective? What are the types of neighborhoods you should have hit vs the ones you did...



Thanks
 
Shane.belzers said:
Thats interesting, That was one of the marketing plans i wanted to try out this spring was to have my guys canvas neighborhoods with flyers.



In your opinion what do you think you could have done to make it work/ be effective? What are the types of neighborhoods you should have hit vs the ones you did...



Thanks
Click to expand...



Firstly, I should have made at least 3 passes of each neighborhood I hung door hangers on. Most people will not pay attention to your add unless they see it multiple times.



Secondly, I have great looking, professional door hangers, but at the time have an amateur, template based website. I was getting lots of hits on the days following my door hangers but no calls or online appointments. I gave them a great opportunity to find my website, but the medium of the website was subpar. If you are going to randomly advertise your business, you have to be appealing to people who have probably never heard of you before, and were not even searching for your business to begin with.



Thirdly, instead of picking neighborhoods where I could hang lots of flyers in one setting, I should have focused more on neighborhoods where I could hang less fliers but with more appealing homes. It is always better to appeal to markets more likely to hire you.



Hopefully that pushes you in the right direction! I am going to definitely be door hangers again. It is just so inexpensive. I will just have a much better strategy, and will calculate my efforts much better.
 
Mark, this is one of the best threads in this sub-forum that I've seen since being a member. Great way to make good use of other's choices.



Personally, the worst decision I have made was having a cheap website. Getting a proper website has opened a lot of doors for me.



Another bad choice was advertising on 6speedonline.com. Automotive enthusiast forums are not necessarily the best place to spend advertising money. I've since noticed a lot of detailers "come and go" on a lot of forums I frequent. Looks like a lot need to experience the same thing before learning that.
 
#1 - advertising on the big screens at a local high end gym, $1500 investment for a year, zero return.



#2 - sending postcards to random residences in wealthy neigborhoods through the mail, couple hundred $ investment, zero return.



#3 - putting an ad in conventional newspapers, $500 investment, just broke even.



They say people that are not actively looking for your service generally need to see your ad something like 6 times before they even think about acting on it. If I knew that before I did these things, would have never done them. You need to spend your money where your potential clients are already looking, or get really specialized like running ads in publications pointed to a select community that would most likely be interested in your service or where people may already have something close to your service in mind. Random advertising just does not work in our field in general. IMO, if you are going to spend $, you need to do some serious homework and have good aim for it to be effective.
 
Great input! Seriously folks, this is some good stuff. I'm starting to see a bigger picture that generalized advertising is not cost effective for most detailers, especially considering our markets are so small.



How about MASS advertising? Like Radio, TV, Billboards? I'm considering doing a several month radio advertising campaign on a local popular AM station. I'm also considering a billboard in a local city on a VERY well traveled highway.



I would love to hear more of you chime in, I think this could really help everyone who is looking to get the most of their advertising dollar.
 
arent billboard extremely high priced based on the principle that a lot of people will see the same ad? Problem there is not everyone on the road cares about their car enough to spend money on it, so in a sense, car forums are a more concentrated marketing revenue stream...lower monthly as well. some forums are $75/month, some are $350 per month...pick and choose!



I have done the forum stuff, couple forums = waste of time/money.

another forum, people want cheapie details, I dont provide those

one forum I broke even on one year, didnt do it the next year, and did it again last year and had zero return from it...not doing it again



I did the door to door, waste of time...however, it you are just sitting at home anyway, might as well since you do gain something from it...exercise and less couch surfing!



yellow pages - complete waste of money





I will be adding a referral bonus (store credit type) this year once the shop opens up...easy way for people to get their car done for free...tell people about us! Should be a good / relatively easy way to market! cost will be my time/supplies is all, little money out of pocket.
 
One overlooked area a lot of detailers do not capitalize on. Networking, networking is often times free, business cards are cheap, and costing you only your time. You can also make a better connection with a possible client and exchange contact information for following up. If you spend x amount on an ad in the paper, or door hangers, factor in walking for hours hanging them on strangers doors in hopes you break even, compared to a stack of business cards you know are getting in the hands potential paying customers. At one networking event you can get your card, your advertisment in numerous hands while making a personal impression and putting a face behind your business.

Also better target marketing, reach the clientele and build a relationship with the customer. They may or may not use your service right away, but they will recommend you if the subject comes up in their circles knowing you are professional, trustworthy, and offer a quality service.

You have to remember you are in business and a large part of being in business is relationship building, proper follow ups, and letting people know about your business. Attend one networking event and you will find out quickly how many people have never heard of you, but they do now.

Networking events can be found in local news papers or puplications, city or county websites. Anything that is free is worth attending, at every event try to meet at least five people you didn't know before. In a short time everyone will know about your business.
 
Newspaper ads = waste of cash.



I got some nice glossy, card stock flyers made up and went door to door at businesses around my shop. In most cases you hand them to the secretary and they likely get trashed, but some of them made their way to other people and slowly I'm getting results. Cost was $80 for 200 flyers and I've got maybe 5 jobs from them over the past 6 months. I also left some with local repair and collision shops.



Your website and targeted online marketing is the best place to put marketing money IMO.
 
Facebook $50 invested, 0 return, only ran ad for two weeks before Valentines day, got lots of page hits, but no buys. I haven't ruled out FB all together though-I plan to revisit.



Business Courier (high end news paper). Wait for it....wait...$3600 invested, $600 return. I had more current customers noticing the ad than new customers.



Forum advertising i feel I've made good return on, those are for my other company though.



Google adwords have been the best



Recently, a friend and I went to a local country club tournament. We set up a tent and brought a little putting green to let people earn up to $30 in gift certificates ($10/hole). Probably 100 people there, only 20 or so came up to us. Marginal investment as I've had a long-standing relationship with the club for a while now.
 
tssdetailing said:
Facebook $50 invested, 0 return, only ran ad for two weeks before Valentines day, got lots of page hits, but no buys. I haven't ruled out FB all together though-I plan to revisit.



Business Courier (high end news paper). Wait for it....wait...$3600 invested, $600 return. I had more current customers noticing the ad than new customers.



Forum advertising i feel I've made good return on, those are for my other company though.



Google adwords have been the best



Recently, a friend and I went to a local country club tournament. We set up a tent and brought a little putting green to let people earn up to $30 in gift certificates ($10/hole). Probably 100 people there, only 20 or so came up to us. Marginal investment as I've had a long-standing relationship with the club for a while now.
Click to expand...



Google adwords seems to be the best, most consistent advertising medium for detailers given that they have their website set up correctly.



I am on the fences about Facebook advertising. I truly think it has potential, and they are going to be rolling out some new systems soon where you can be much more specific to who sees your ad. Social really is a wave of the future right now, and I'm going to at least invest some money to see if I can make it work.
 
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