Advertising?

[Russell]

What do people find gets the best return for digger and driver hire?
Recommendations obviously is best and free but takes a long time to build up.
Yellow pages and by phone books, I haven't seen one in ages. I used to advertise in bt phone book and that was ok for the money.
Local news paper I found to be complete waste of money.
The local free add was good but I went bust.
Website?
I've seen a few adds on ebay, does it work?
Local stuff for sale website, I have a add in there and have had a couple enquiries and one job.
Flyers? Targeted or just everywhere?

 

[Komatsu]

What do people find gets the best return for digger and driver hire?
Recommendations obviously is best and free but takes a long time to build up.
Yellow pages and by phone books, I haven't seen one in ages. I used to advertise in bt phone book and that was ok for the money.
Local news paper I found to be complete waste of money.
The local free add was good but I went bust.
Website?
I've seen a few adds on ebay, does it work?
Local stuff for sale website, I have a add in there and have had a couple enquiries and one job.
Flyers? Targeted or just everywhere?

I found Twitter good, but instergram has been fantastic.....and free

 

[pettsy]

Facebook works for me, don’t pay to advertise mind.

 

[Russell]

I hadn't thought of that

 

[DaveDCB]

My sister has set a new business up in the last 18 months and finds social media to be the winner, she has a decent website to legitimise her (adds trust to people) uses Facebook and Instagram , the latter being the most productive for her.
I haven’t paid for advertising for well over 10 years, except for reserving website address, which I took offline about 8 years ago as I just don’t need anymore work, that might change in the coming months mind you!

 

[Regy53]

I would think social media in the local buy / sell groups etc would work a treat. Sponsored posts also work well to grow your page or push the advert to people you wish, it’s very clever

 

[sjs5060]

Somethin I've been pondering about just lately. Not advertised for 15 years really. Don't suppose any type of advertising would hurt.
My only concern is that the job's in a right mess now and I can't see the construction industry being right for a few years.
So I'd only be doing free stuff as I think if the big boys are quiet we'll end up with more & more lads chasing less & less work.

Maybe I'm just on a downer today? Maybe I'm right? Who knows? But can honestly say I've never had so little confidence in the job in my whole career as I have now.

I'm gonna try and be constructive/positive and say if your good at it the social media stuff that seems to have worked for a few folk.

 

[Antony Holmes]

some of the problems I find is being of an age when calculators were new tec when I left school all this face book and stuff is not second nature to me I am never shore whether to like it, post it, shear it or what, may be I should get a book or some thing.
the other thing I am very sceptical of any one who cold calls you with the line I can get you on the front page of google maybe just a bit old fashioned word of mouth I find is the best but word of mouth seems to be on a computer these days

 

[Jimoz]

Had a chat with a tiler about this last week.
He has a decent looking website and gets some tile stores to recommend him to lay when the customer buys the tiles.
He also has Facebook but doesn't bother with it much as its a different kind of market. Generally its people who want a cheaper job and want to try to ask how much with a 3 word message or something.

I'm thinking about trying to pivot towards property maintenance but perhaps more towards commercial/landlords rather than cleaning some old dears gutters! Wondering myself what best method of advertising is for this market. Think you can't really beat networking but i'm pretty antisocial sometimes!

 

[Russell]

I think for me it would be worth a look with the social media but what about the old bids? Do they use face book and Instagram? My customers have been 90% old bids and the younger people can often be hassle/ time wasters, apart from the one I married.

 

[Danny]

I speak to alot of my owner operator mates about this some think its a waste of time but if you say to someone im mickey mouse plant hire whats one of the first things they do after you leave? Stick you into google to see what comes up, if nothing comes up they move onto the next person.

I quite like Ollies website and have told friends about it, who think there hire is never going to end - One page, this is us, this is my number / email

Website has cost me about £1.5 / £2k over the last 5 years and has generated i would estimate over £100k worth of work update alot of it my self just because you get someone / build your own website even with seo help it could take months before you reap the rewards.

Facebook/twitter/instagram - Yeah had bits and pieces over the years some people think your being flash by showing your equipment / projects but its free. Share to local pages to gain some more reach same again someone might see it screen shot and then phone you months later.

Google business page - Shows you on google maps and local searches

Recently i won a job at a factory we do alot of work at and i knew we where going to be in the area for 1/2months, i sat down one evening on google and looked at all the local factorys within a 5 mile radius of the factory and sent out an email to all the factorys in the area saying:
Hi, we are groundworks contractor carrying work out @ Joe Bloggs Factory whilst we are in the area if you need any groundworks undertaken dont hestiate to get in touch.
Got a £18k job from it

 

[Danny]

I think for me it would be worth a look with the social media but what about the old bids? Do they use face book and Instagram? My customers have been 90% old bids and the younger people can often be hassle/ time wasters, apart from the one I married.

The old birds might not use social media but another family member might who will pass your info on...

 

[diggerjones]

What about them breakfast club thing.

 

[Antony Holmes]

What about them breakfast club thing.

what the hell is a breakfast club thing

 

[DaveDCB]

What about them breakfast club thing.

Like a round table thing, I went to afew with a good building contractor customer of mine, the crowd were all the wrong times, they all rented office space, didn’t own a thing between them and thought I sold pot plants

 

[Antony Holmes]

Like a round table thing, I went to afew with a good building contractor customer of mine, the crowd were all the wrong times, they all rented office space, didn’t own a thing between them and thought I sold pot plants

that don't sound like my kind of party

 

[diggerjones]

I speak to alot of my owner operator mates about this some think its a waste of time but if you say to someone im mickey mouse plant hire whats one of the first things they do after you leave? Stick you into google to see what comes up, if nothing comes up they move onto the next person.

I quite like Ollies website and have told friends about it, who think there hire is never going to end - One page, this is us, this is my number / email

Website has cost me about £1.5 / £2k over the last 5 years and has generated i would estimate over £100k worth of work update alot of it my self just because you get someone / build your own website even with seo help it could take months before you reap the rewards.

Facebook/twitter/instagram - Yeah had bits and pieces over the years some people think your being flash by showing your equipment / projects but its free. Share to local pages to gain some more reach same again someone might see it screen shot and then phone you months later.

Google business page - Shows you on google maps and local searches

Recently i won a job at a factory we do alot of work at and i knew we where going to be in the area for 1/2months, i sat down one evening on google and looked at all the local factorys within a 5 mile radius of the factory and sent out an email to all the factorys in the area saying:
Hi, we are groundworks contractor carrying work out @ Joe Bloggs Factory whilst we are in the area if you need any groundworks undertaken dont hestiate to get in touch.
Got a £18k job from it

I like the idea of emailing the surounding buisness

 

[Danny]

I like the idea of emailing the surounding buisness

Some people wouldnt, they would say pick the phone up and speak to people.

Problem is you phone Joe Bloggs Factory you get put through to a switch board and past from pillar to post and then they dont have the authority to make decisions so just say no thanks.

If you email they get to read it at there own leisure and then forward onto the MD / Manager.

It doesnt work for everyone, but has worked for me

 

[pettsy]

I’m in a different trade, but another thing that works for me is my sign written van. I’ve had loads of people say “oh I saw you in town” or “ you did some work at a neighbours”

 

[DaveDCB]

I’m in a different trade, but another thing that works for me is my sign written van. I’ve had loads of people say “oh I saw you in town” or “ you did some work at a neighbours”

Or someone you up because I apparently cut them up and swore at them out the window.. I only denied half their claims