[Robin Ray]

If you could only use one form of marketing what would it be?

I will start off with Local add magazines. They seem to work well for me. Having said that they do work alot better when I use them in conjunction with other methods.

[Simon Gerrard]

Robin,
If you ask the same question in The Carpet Cleaners Lounge, I'll give you a comprehensive answer. 

Simon

[dan paton]

There's nothing like a good old fashioned advert is there 

[Simon Gerrard]

Actually, it is not an advert. It is a free on-going support service for people who have bought my manual, Robin being one of them.
Here's the advert though😃
http://www.restormate.co.uk/epages/15094.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/15094/Products/0058

[Steve Chapman]

Internet marketing should be where you're investing your time & money...

If you like it or not thats where nearly everyone is spending their time so why wouldnt you join them .......

[derek west]

I actually only do one form of advertising.

[Mike Halliday]

I use wild dogs with a hand written note tied to their tails........ Brings in tons of work!!

Hope  you find this answer as informative & helpful as the other replies

[Mike Halliday]

If you could only use one form of marketing what would it be?

I will start off with Local add magazines. They seem to work well for me. Having said that they do work alot better when I use them in conjunction with other methods.

Robin how do these prices compare to what you pay? Although this is a parish magazine with only 5k distribution

[Robin Ray]

That's Cheap Mike.  Mine range from twice that to around the same.

I actually only do one form of advertising.

Whats your single form of marketing Derek?

[Simon Gerrard]

Now that I have answered the original question personally, I'll  propose a more generalised version.

Here's a marketing method that you can't buy, but costs nothing, it's self perpetuating and requires no input from you.
Repeats and Recommendations.
It is easy to see the job as the be all and end all, but actually it is only part of it. What a lot of people don't realise is that WE, our business as an entity and ourselves the service provider, are in our own right a marketing machine. If we provide people with a first class service (first class being a journey and never a destination) that starts with the first contact and ends when saying goodbye at the end of the job, then your customer's will be more than happy to share their experience with you on Facebook, tell their family and friends and offer your name up whenever the subject of carpet cleaning comes up at work - in other words, they become a marketing wing of your business and all without you having to do  anything or spend a single dime.
So if you want this wonderful form of free marketing in your business, work really hard on every aspect of your service and your diary will become more and more populated by repeats and recommendations and your advertising budget will keep going down and profits will go up.


Simon

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Derek don't you do database?

Shaun

[derek west]

That's Cheap Mike.  Mine range from twice that to around the same.

I actually only do one form of advertising.

Whats your single form of marketing Derek?

You'll have to buy the book Robin,  £119. Cheap compared to others. 

only joking, all internet mate.
tried magazines but they are a bit hit and miss, cant get my head round leaflets all though they do work, i got a job from someone elses  .

[COLIN BRIGHT]

do cleaning really, really, really cheap and you wont need to advertise, all the peasants that you could wish for will be beating a path to your door

[Hilton]

Simon
Really enjoyed reading that, I hope people take notice.

[Kev Loomes]

Agree, well said Simon.

[Simon Gerrard]

Thanks, chaps.
It's only common sense really, why spend fortunes on advertising when you don't need to.

Simon

[Sam Glasgow]

Internet marketing all the way. Just get somebody who knows what they're doing, and don't just rely on paid ads.

[maxcampbell]

Parish mags.

Still bringing in a third of our new work, and conversion rate probably 80% +, because they carry that trust factor.

[Ian Harper]

have you guys know about the BuzzFeed way of doing things?

its a concept that at its heart is about distributed  information away from a main site that uses viral trends to get it read.

Dan Kennedy calls this entering the conversation that's already going on. so when anything goes viral be it a news story, video, meme if you jump on the band wagon you get some of the viral juice. as I said it does not have to be placed on a central site.

this system works as buzzfeed is very successfully

http://webtrends.about.com/od/pr6/tp/Viral-Websites-Trends.htm   check out bottom of the page "related articles"

so how does this work? at its simplest traffic, but its much more that that buzzfeed makes money. just got to work that part out as its distributed thats the cleaver part

 edit: just found this one trending on reddit http://imgur.com/Ftp4QEl

[Mike Halliday]

Ian  as I see it...... the problem With tagging onto other trending stories is you are hoping people who need a carpet cleaner stumble across your site while reading other articles,   Why not aim for people who are actually looking for a carpet cleaner.

I could  tag onto a story about Justin Beaver having a sex change  but  the readership of  that story will only have a very small market for our services.