[all clean and pristine]

Where do you find is the most effective form of advertising. I have website.tried local paper,have just paid £500 for yel.com and google adwords.also in a glossy magazine,Any advice appreciated as I need more work.

[gordonswindows]

Recomendations (word of mouth) really is the best way. Website is good but even better when backed up by twitter FB etc.

Try doing marketing yourself and not spend money on Yell, radio etc. In five years of doing Yell we only really got one call worthwhile....oh and let them contact you at least five times before buying as the price drops and drops.

Fliers always work but takes some time.....better to choose your customers and target them directly

Couple of good looking people one male one female handing out fliers in shopping centre/high st/ housing scheme works well...and offer a Free prize draw or something similar, even with a free TV as a prize you are much cheaper than the glossy mags/Yell

[all clean and pristine]

Thankyoufor your response Gordon I too have not had any real response from yell to be honest mate. Dont think I will be paying for that again, will be doing a leaflet drop soon too hope that brings some work in

[clarkson]

 
Hi
I have tried most things, yell .com works ish but is pricey but you may get enough work to justify it.

Leaflets work but you need 1000's out before they bite.

Mags work but I am realising not the posh glossy ones that cost 2-300. For small add.

Look for the little local rags 8th of a page is around 30 but do it for several months.

Also hearing good things about sm like Facebook,twitter,linked in. But mines a work in progress so jury's out at the minute.

And canvass canvass canvass little and often.

Cheers

John

[all clean and pristine]

Thankyou for your reply John,I agree with all your comments,I fell into the Glossy ad trap £300 and not a single call from it,I have signed up for Yell.com so I have to wait and see on that one.I am going to do a leaflet drop very soon and hope that stimulates a little growth .

[Katy Radcliffe]

Well, I launched in my new home/city on the first of the year. All I've got is leaflets and a web site. I think it was my insurance, or maybe it was my ltd company incorporation, that came with a voucher for £75 worth of Google Adwords. Got my first job off of that today. There are only two or three outfits that use adwords in my area, all of them franchises. It seems to me that paying per click makes more sense than paying for a newspaper ad.

I'm distributing the leaflets myself. I figure if I'm not cleaning, then I'd better be out leafleting. I've put out maybe 1500 of them and gotten three phone calls. (Actually, one was from striking up a conversation with the man in his driveway. Who knows if he'd have called from just the leaflet?) Two of those calls resulted in jobs. The third played phone tag and never got back to me after I left two messages.

When I encounter people in their gardens/driveways, I say "Here's a leaflet for my cleaning service. If you or anybody you know needs some help, call me! We're the best!" And I give a big smile. I'm a very friendly gal. That's paid off once so far.

My leaflets are very good: I got them designed by a fellow on Elance and I worded them very well and I had them printed up on high-quality paper. I also use a thin bit of wood (6mm) about the size of the leaflets, themselves, to push them through the letterboxes. Just bend it over the end and poke it through. Saves my knuckles and makes it all very fast. People HATE when leaflets aren't fully pushed through. It lets in drafts and announces that nobody is at home.

Next, I will put magnetic signs on my car doors. Must be sure to keep my car very clean at all times!

I've considered some of the local magazines - those little ones that specialize in adverts for small local businesses. I'm not sure they're really worth it, though. I think it may help with general name recognition.

Another thing I do is pay for a virtual local number that forwards to my mobile. I really do think it looks much more professional to have a local landline number.

[Rob_Mac]

Katy

I don't contribute on the forum as much as I used to but I do like to read the posts and if I have something to add I will.

Well done you! - You haven't waited for the work to come to you, you have gone out and made it happen.

keep it up and you will have a successful business. Remember why you started and never offer a compromise on the end product.

Keep at it girl

Rob

[Blast Away]

Excellent Katy, I like the piece of wood idea. Good one!

[all clean and pristine]

Well Done Katy and thankyou for such an informed answer.We are in the process of getting leaflets done too, I have or am trying adwords, and just employed the services of a SEO company to try and "push" my presence on Google,because I believe thats important in this day and age,people dont bother so much now with directorys etc.(in my opinion).

We too have had a couple of calls that appear promising,then it goes nowhere,I suppose it could also be a local competitor sounding us out.

I will just keep trying and fingers crossed  things will pick up soon, I am looking for a van at the moment and once sign written I intend parking it up for a hour or two at local supermarkets,DIY stores etc.

Good Luck with your new Venture

[chris scott]

 Just be very careful with SEO .It seems to me to be a bit of a black art. Nobody seems to Know what exactly google is looking for. The more i come to understand it the more i think most SEO companies are taking the p***.
I gareentee what i do ...you pay me after you see the results of my work .Explain that  which ever Seo company you go with....see if they will match it....  Just my thoughts
All clean your content on the website seems good.
Your keywords
<meta name="keywords" content="cleaners in yate, cleaners in bristol, cleaner in yate, cleaner in bristol, office cleaners in yate, office cleaners in bristol, cleaning in yate, cleaning in bristol, commercial cleaning yate, commercial cleaning bristol, domestic cleaning yate, domestic cleaning bristol, domestic cleaners yate, domestic cleaners bristol, cleaning services yate, cleaning services bristol, cleaning companies yate, cleaning services bristol" />
are relevent.
I would spend your money with free online directory submissions (there are 1000,s of them) ,article submission etc to drive traffic to your site.

[BDCS]

I just have the web and the local village rag which keeps me going full time and another bloke 2 days a week - maybe 3. We have recently done check a trader which looks good after only a few weeks but its early days. I did a few leaflets at the start and that got me started on a few jobs around the village.
SEO  can't be that hard given the amount of curry scoffers ringing up promising the world for the website. You only need the view the source on the competitors to get an idea of the words behind the page - then alter that to suit what you want and need to target. Forget the company name as WWW.domestic cleaners barter town.co.uk seems to work better unless the person searching only knows your company name. I've never had a proper website by the way.

[chris scott]

"curry scoffers"  Pc ?

[all clean and pristine]

Thanks for replys, all comments have been very useful.desperate to find work at the moment so all helps

[BDCS]

I'm very sorry if I offend but I genuinly thought that was correct pc 

[Katy Radcliffe]

Katy

I don't contribute on the forum as much as I used to but I do like to read the posts and if I have something to add I will.

Well done you! - You haven't waited for the work to come to you, you have gone out and made it happen.

keep it up and you will have a successful business. Remember why you started and never offer a compromise on the end product.

Keep at it girl

Rob

Thank you, Rob. You're very kind. I am feeling optimistic. Got two new customers since I wrote my earlier post - another from the website and two from leaflets. And another phone tagger. I guess that's five total: three from leaflet and two from the website. Not too bad for the first week.

I enjoy the leafleting, itself. I like walking and I love seeing what people do with their homes and gardens.

[Katy Radcliffe]

Excellent Katy, I like the piece of wood idea. Good one!

Thank you!

I am embarrassed to say that it's actually an offcut of wood from a more elaborate thing I made. I put two pieces of the thin wood together held apart by thin dowels at the sides. Made a sort of skinny box open at both ends. I can push it into the letterbox past the bristles and hinges, then shove the leaflet through that. Those suckers will fly halfway across the front room. LOL

But, I discovered that the offcut is faster and easier.

It wasn't all a waste, though. When it's rainy, the wood gets wet and the leaflets will cling to it. Then the box thingy comes in handy as the inside doesn't get damp and leaflets won't stick to it.