What was your best form of advertising in 2016? What to expect for 2017?

There are hundreds of ways of advertising a business. What has seemed best so far this year for me has been Google Adwords (pretty expensive), Facebook Ads, ranking in Google, and seemingly most importantly word of mouth. I offer both my workers and customers cash incentives to refer me customers for jobs that we close and it seems to be a solid method.

1) What method of advertising worked best for you in 2016?

2) What do you foresee as being important for advertising in 2017?

Thanks,
Victor
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Concrete Contractors Stockton

 

All methods are good

I think that only the complex can achieve good results. SEO, SMM, Brand marketing and you must provide really high-quality services.

Ninja Essays

 

SEO and SMM is my answer. I guess it's kinda cool way to promote your business.
Some students need essay writing help and my job is to help them!

 

"SPAM" seems to be working for the ASIAN population..??
Dam neer every site I go to has "counterfeit money, bank notes & passports" for sale.. Lol

 

Mine is providing great service at a honest price. Then word of mouth does the rest, can't keep caught up

 

Now that it's 2018 what do you all use/think? Our business currently relies heavily on reputation and word-of-mouth. However, we are working very hard on our social media campaign and building our website up. Our reputation is predominately related to oilfield work, but we'd like to expand our "portfolio" into building and DOT projects.

 

Nothing will ever beat word of mouth due to the credibility factor. Google AdWords and SEO are expensive but can see good results. Paid Facebook Ads is going to most likely be the best blend of cost and effectiveness. In addition to being a parts guy, I have a business on the side in doing social media ad management so feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

 

We use the 5 senses for advertising ... Sight , sound , feel , smell & taste .

Drop the name on the front fenders of the company car .

Throw the transit & measuring wheel in the trunk & mash the peddle to go scope out a job .

 

GOOD ONE TD..
One of my biggest gripes is>> not being able to read a companys name on the SIDE of the truck..
Put the FRIGGIN LOGO & NAME ON THE TAIL GATE.!!!
You spend the BETTER PART of the day, sitting in TRAFFIC.. Put it on the BACK of the truck.!!!
WHY hasn't anybody thought of THIS???

 

Great point pumpguy !

 

I ran into an OLD coworker the other day.. he was drivin a brand spankin new F-450.. aluminum cab BUT a STEEL service body..
The magnets wouldn't stick on the "sides" of the truck, so he threw them in the service body tool drawer..lol
NOW THATS thinkin.... & they wonder WHY I left.?? Lol

 

That's right SEO marketing is good though you have to have some budget.

 

This is a monster

 

Not sure about SEO. But I totally agree on what you said about "some students need essay writing help". How do you really help?

 

Digital advertising is always better than traditional methods in my mind for a few reasons:
1. you can do most of it for free/cheap
2. you can measure the results
3. the benefits dont shut off as soon as your ad ends

I'm not talking about spending money on display ads, sponsored emails, or adwords. Adwords is highly effective but costs a lot of money and if you don't have a good website to drive leads to then it's not a good use of money.

• Start with building a website with a lead gen form - Wordpress and Wix are pretty good for this. Post your online rates. People want to do as much as they can before talking to a sales person. If you can build in e-commerce, even better.
• Write a weekly blog - it wont pay off for a while but Google ranks you based off of backlinks to your site and relevant keywords found on your site. Creating quality content that people actually read will help with both.
• Capture emails through your blog and led gen form and add them to an email newsletter. Mailchimp is free up to 2,000 contacts and you can easily automate a weekly newsletter that looks professional
• Distribute your content through social media and build a following, tagging the OEMs, contractors, rental companies that you are writing about or taking pictures of
• Send your content to industry magazines - they are always looking for new stories and have to create so much content that they usually welcome quest contribution. This gains you backlinks back to your site that help your SEO rankings
• Set up Google My Business and Google Merchant Center - they are both free ways to list on Google local search results and you will show up in the "near me" searches

In total, I spend $99/mo for SEMRush to monitor SEO performance, $20/mo for gmass which allows you to send mail merge emails through Gmail, $0 for mailchimp, I gather 100 emails a month off of LinkedIn for free using Seamless.ai, and track performance of my site for free through Google Analytics.

I came from advertising tech and co-founded www.gearflow.com to help equipment sellers and renters sell more online without having to build out their own website and marketing strategy. Check us out and let me know what you think.

 

Thanks Gearflow. My issue with online marketing is the fact that this industry are mainly young to middle aged blue collar men in smaller cities and town. Most deals are sealed in workers cafe during breakfast or local pubs over a couple of pint. I don't want you to flush your cash on online marketing like Facebook or Instagram ads. I'm not sure if it works.

 

Totally agree CashGhost, the human element and relationships in this industry will never be replaced. I also agree that spending a lot of money on Facebook and Instagram ads is a waste. My recommendation is that there is a LOT that can be done for free online that most people in our industry don't take advantage of. Deals may be done in local pubs but everyone is still googling what they need as the first step 9/10 times. Showing up in those results doesnt have to cost money.

 

Hi Gearflow. That's true. I would like to share a personal experience to give a better picture. In the last years I was working for my academic writing services website. We spent like £3,500 on both Facebook and Instagram. In summary it was a flush in toilet. We got absolutely nothing in return. Facebook and Instagram put our money in their deep pocket and walked away. Until I physically went to university dorms and campuses and tried leafleting and referral discount to students bringing customer. Only by face to face situation we managed to build trust and win customers.
Also bear in mind, our audience this industry, heavy equipment, is not very social media oriented.

 

I do absolutely no advertising.. its all word of mouth & helping folks on sites like these..
I get.. "I saw your answer on X-site & think maybe u can help me."??
OR>> "Do u still rebuild pumps?? I saw your posts on X-site"..
& I'm as busy as I wanna be.. & sometimes MORE..
I did a small job for someone local that found me thru here{I think}.. He said I should make a small web page.. just something small to let folks know I'm around..
There isn't another fuel shop for 200 miles from me..
Its "a thought" but I have my reservations..

 

Exactly, this is the way. Word of mouth, friend referral, trust and network of people you know. The rest is waste of cash. I get emails everyday from many SEO company from India offering me 1st page position on Google ranking. But when was the last time you closed a deal with customer from Google?