Need help. Out of ideas.

Alright so recently I've been put in charge of marketing a family business. We do Stone Masonry, Roofing, Deck Building, Fireplaces and patios. I'm trying to find the best ways to market the business. I don't have really any money to put into it right now. I'm going to go out and do flyers today. Call about getting an ad in the newspaper. Putting up flyers seems like it may end up being more trouble than it's worth because of no solicitation rules and possible littering charges. I have ads on craigslist. Any ideas on what else I can do to market the business offline?

Is there a reason you are looking for offline ideas and not online?

Many offline keywords aren't very hard to rank and can be done for free. Check the competition of some possible keywords and see for yourself if they are ones you could rank for with ease.

would be interesting why you want to go for offline marketing. Because mostly online marketing is cheaper. Have you thought about Facebook marketing? Check out your target group, if there enough peeps out there in your region

Your suppose to be doing online marketing for a offline business .

Would make your life easier. But your methods are also good in spreading your company around your town.

The only thing you have missed out is door to door canvassing. Can't think of anything else offline that is worth trying.

Hello, I too own a small business like yours and what worked for me was doing a groupon, living social, lifebooker promotion. Yes, you will lose some money (consider it advertising). However, I was able to nab a few good clients who ended up getting bigger work done which more then made up for the loss on the other clients. I know some merchants have mixed feeling about these coupons, but I liked that I was able to get my name out there and collect emails, phone numbers so I could market to them in the future. I hope this helps.

How is your brand awareness in your community?

Your niche is something that is more offline marketing, because lets be honest-- your company is one of those 'hit or miss' markets. You can have periods where you are getting loads and loads of business, or you can have periods where you think you'll have to shut the business down... am I correct?

Your niche focuses on word-of-mouth advertising... as in if a family you just finished a deck for goes and tells everyone who visits their new deck, they will mention "Oh yeah, ______ company did it for me, they were great..!" Boom! There is another potential client if they want to upgrade their deck or roofing.

Here are some potential ideas for you that essentially focuses on offline marketing (the first tip being online)-

First, more online, how is your website? Do you have reviews from clients featured on there? Secondly, do you have any pictures of the work that your company has done? Sometimes customers want to see what work you've done in the past to assure your company is capable for the work they desire. Ask past clients for pictures/reviews on your work that you've done with them. Secondly, how are your reviews on Yellowpages, or other searched-for reviews? Are they good? Bad? Hire a reputation manager to make sure you are good-looking to potential customers trying to find a deck creating company (or roofing)

You said you don't have much advertising expenses.... Hmmm.. Perhaps you can't print out ads that you fold and put in an envelope, then go by your neighbors of the business and look for roofs that look like they need work on... IDK about legality of that, but hey, just slip it in his/her mailbox with a business card and information on roofing..

All these ideas are very general, but you can use these ideas to build off even more. Good luck and PM me if you have any questions!

C

eniviD said:

Alright so recently I've been put in charge of marketing a family business. We do Stone Masonry, Roofing, Deck Building, Fireplaces and patios. I'm trying to find the best ways to market the business. I don't have really any money to put into it right now. I'm going to go out and do flyers today. Call about getting an ad in the newspaper. Putting up flyers seems like it may end up being more trouble than it's worth because of no solicitation rules and possible littering charges. I have ads on craigslist. Any ideas on what else I can do to market the business offline?

Click to expand...

For the purposes of this forum, most of us use the term "Offline Marketing" for the practice of doing online SEO for a local brick and mortar business to drive customers to an offline location..

You and a few others here think "offline marketing" means how to market your business without using online resources, or what I refer to as In Real Life.

If you are asking how to market your business in real life, it is essentially traditional marketing, using classified and display advertising, word of mouth, media advertising on TV, radio, and in magazines.

Needless to say, free advertising is just about limited to the free classified sites like Craigslist.

The last list I have is:
(I cannot vouch for all of these and I do not know which ones will be local to you, its just a list posted here on the forum I kept a copy of it)

Adeex - Free classifieds in United States www.adeex.com/
Webclassifieds - Internet Advertising to Sell Online www.webclassifieds.us/
Craigslist - Free Ad Posting www.craigslist.org/
Locanto - Free Classifieds www.locanto.com/
Krreddy - Post Free Classified Ads www.krreddy.com/
Vivastreet - Free Ad Posting www.vivastreet.com/
Adsglobe - Free Classified Ads www.adsglobe.com/
Olx - Largest Marketplace www.olx.com/
Quikr - Post Free Classifieds Ads www.quikr.com/
Clickindia - Free Ad posting www.clickindia.com/
Pennysaverusa - Online Classifieds www.pennysaverusa.com/
Classifiedads - Free Classified Ads www.classifiedads.com/
Ebayclassifieds - Free Local Classified Ads www.ebayclassifieds.com/
Gumtree - #1 Classifieds site in the UK www.gumtree.com/
Adpost - Free Classifieds www.adpost.com/
Freeadlists - Free America Ads www.freeadlists.com/
Backpage - Free classifieds www.backpage.com/
Tcnext - post Free Ad www.tcnext.com/
Tuffclassified - Free Classified ads www.tuffclassified.com/
Sulekha - Post Free Ads www.sulekha.com/

If you are asking how to do SEO for a local businesses website, that is generally a matter of on page optimization, proper citations, reviews, and some strategic backlinking.

Local SEO is different than standard SEO, don't confuse the two.

Dude, do you even SEO?

Play around with the AdWords keyword tool, find out what phrase is used to find your business in your area / region most often, and aim to get #1 on that phrase by gaining backlinks and changing your title.

Do the local SEO - citations (local directories and things mentioning your business by name/address/phone number), reviews (i.e., Yelp).

Put some ads up on Bing search. The clicks are cheap and targeted.

Decide whether you want to use social media - it may be worth it, or it may be too much trouble.

Get tracking on your site and play with it until you're getting the desired action (calls, request for quotes, etc).

Your offline marketing plan sounds good and is very important. Hitting the pavement is an excellent idea.

My brother is in the business. I do all his marketing. Hit me up. I'll help you out. Skype is the same as my handle.

Get some high quality back links to the companies web site. Rank the site, make the money, etc etc.

- A

i posted my classified in http://tamilanads.com

got lot of responsed for my ads.

No signup, so it's easy to give a try

thanks for share, its helpful