advertising ideas for a brand new distributor ?

My first step in becoming a new operator was to join BNI. When you realize the potential of referral marketing and can work it effectively you will get a higher return on investment from that than anything else. Last year my 300 dollar investment brought in over 13000, and it is growing exponentially as those referrals are passing the word on to others. Next, do not get too wrapped up in the YP’s. They are a great tool, but not the only tool for generating business. Find what high end customers read and put your money there. For example, I am considering putting money into the Alaska Home magazine. It is a full color, high gloss magazine that comes out quarterly. Fairly expensive, but when you consider the job size (400-1000) it will be well worth it. I would rather do in 2 fairly clean jobs what it it takes me to do in 7 nasty apartments. At least for now. When I get bigger, I may be more inclined to send a guy out to do some of the grunt work. Not me though, I have been continually raising my price in order to get out of it and more into the land of milk and honey. Remember that your prices will be compared to other cleaners. If they are fairly low, and the next blow Joe is competing for the same nasty apartments, you will be pegged as a nasty apartment cleaner. On the flip side if your prices are higher, and honestly most people would expect it since we offer DRY IN 1 HOUR, your will attract a different customer. Took me a while to learn it, but hey, learn from my mistakes. So to summarize, join BNI, look for the publications that high end customers are interested in, and remember your price will attract customers accordingly.

Frank,

Welcome aboard. I am a fairly new operator and have gone through many of the trials and tribulations of finding advertising avenues that work for us. It is key to understand that things work differently in different areas. My experience in South Texas is that newspapers do not work and are expensive. Yellow pages (small books work best for us) account for 10% of business and is geared toward older clients. Younger and influential clients go to the internet. I joined and advertise on Angie’s List ($119 a month), a great web based, referral oriented organization, that allows clients to rate your work and Citysearch, which drives clients to our web site. I pay them based on number of hits (about $200 a month). I also signed on with an organization called BConnected, which has a “Howdy Neighbor” program that hires local women to visit new home owners and introduce services and businesses in the area. I pay monthly on number of visits and am very happy with results after two months. I have also attended BNI (Business Networking International) meetings, but have yet to join. I have done radio with good success. Good luck.

Networking is great. Be careful with the YP. It has not worked well in this area.