[Martin McCarthy]

Business has been pretty slow of late and so I am reviewing my advertising and other marketing and looking around for proven methods to boost the number of calls I receive.  I came across the "Hitman Advertising Package" which professes to provide lots of samples, techniques and tips on how to do this.  It is written by an American John Braun, who started a carpet cleaning company to test out his advertising ideas he says he made a huge success of it.

Has anybody bought/tried this package?  if so did it work?  Or is it just a load of rehashed Joe Polish type stuff?  It seems expensive at $412 (£270) but could pay for itself very easily, very quickly if it is any good.  It can be seen at http://www.hitmanadvertising.com/secrets/.
 

[Paul W Jones]

Martin I think you've just got to keep trying different things.  The more advertising you do the more work you should get.  All of these people have 'secrets' and I'm sure some of them work but they charge you handsomely to reveal them!

[JandS]

To be honest mate I think you get more ideas on here
for free.
Think these marketing packages are mainly a load of
b*llocks.
They all tell you the same thing and are filled out with
padding.
At the end of the day it's mainly common sense.

John

[james roffey]

Check out the local library they have loads of stuff on marketing thats what i did plus common sense as already mentioned no "secret" marketing exists unless your selling marketing : lots of money to be made telling people how to sell.

[Ian Gourlay]

He is a Howard Partridge Apprentice

I used to read his stuff but got warned about a trojan

[Mr Dvae]

Confucious say to turtle: 'Put your head back in your shell, maybe some food will find you'

Unfortunately a turtle only makes progress when it sticks it's neck out!

[JandS]

Fortunate we're not turtles then.
We seem to have a rather larger brain capacity
than animals so that analogy is pointless.

John

[garry22]

Martin,

What sort/type of marketing are you doing at the moment?

Garry

[Martin McCarthy]

Pretty much what I have been doing for about 5 years, advertising in local magazines, some leafleting, website and Google adwords, letters to previous customers.  All have been pretty succesful up to now but I've noticed a marked dropping off of new customer calls recently, hence my need to get out of my comfort zone regarding and do something about it.  I have in the past  tried YP and Yell.com with limited return compared to the cost of advertising and various networking groups (no success).

Cheers
Martin

[Tre Allen]

John & Howard Partridge are both great people, I have worked with both of them for a good while now and a speaker at their events from time to time.

I can't recall any complaints.

[derek west]

if your in business for one reason only, to get as much money out of every customer you can, selling them add ons they probably don't need and be in and out as quick as possible  then this is for you.

advert

have you got a ruthless streak?
do you like golf?
can you clean your grannies windows and then say to her "that'll be a tenner gran" and still sleep at night?.

then this is for you, just send a big fat cheque to us and we'll show you how to do things that you could probably work out yourself if you had half a brain.

 

[garry22]

Martin,

It would be silly for me to comment on the Hitman Package because I have not used it and I do not know what is inside it.

Let's look at the problem another way.

What aspects of your marketing ARE working well at the moment?

1/ Apply the 80 / 20 rule and blitz the stuff that is still going well.

2/ Don't worry about new customers ... focus on your existing ones (unlike me!).

I had a sobering experience recently. Someone phoned up and said "are you the one who used to come out with his Dad?" When I said yes he said "great, I've tried about ten different firms looking for you two".

That's a real failure on my part tp keep in touch.

Garry

[robert meldrum]

A comment I came across somewhere years ago mentioned.................If business is slow just double what advertising you normally do.

[Ricky M]

if your in business for one reason only, to get as much money out of every customer you can, selling them add ons they probably don't need and be in and out as quick as possible  then this is for you.

advert

have you got a ruthless streak?
do you like golf?
can you clean your grannies windows and then say to her "that'll be a tenner gran" and still sleep at night?.

then this is for you, just send a big fat cheque to us and we'll show you how to do things that you could probably work out yourself if you had half a brain.

 

In a nut shell, bang on !!