We have been in buissness for 8 years and my father passed away. Ihave been put in charge of the business and want to expand. We do high end interior home remodeling. We have never advertised since we always get our buisness from word of mouth.

I want to expand my clients and im looking for inexpensive ideas to target new potential clients. I am stumped since I sell a service not a product i have no idea where to invest my advertising dollars. I have a domain name but never got around to making a web page. Should I target a high end community and pass flyers offering my services and maybe adding coupons?
Like a coupon giving out a rebate on x amount of dollars spent?

Please any ideas are helpful

Thank you

This is a high end service, so flyers just ain't gonna cut it. Definitely put up a website, and include a portfolio page that shows your remodeling jobs. Before/after photos are very effective. One of my fellow marketing friends does all the marketing for a company like yours and here's what they do:
- Send a quarterly print newsletter to all past clients and prospects
- Advertise in targeted local publications
- website
- press releases to local newspapers with a good story hook

One thing they are not doing, and should, is send thank you gifts to referring individuals.

None of this works fast, but it's very effective over time. You must plant lots of seeds today so you have something to harvest next season. Scattershot marketing just isn't going to work - you need a comprehensive, integrated marketing plan and be willing to dedicate time and money to it. Think of it as an investment, not an expense.

In addition to the suggestions Eileen gave, I'd like to suggest a targeted mailing to new home owners. You can specifically target high end homes and/or high income households in your area. Most people who purchase an expensive new home usually have some type of interior remodel in mind. I'd suggest a fairly robust mailing with a lot of picture samples of remodels you've done in the past. The newsletter is also an excellent idea.

Brevetoxin's post gives me another idea, too. If you're driving around your city and you see areas that are transitioning from shabby to chic, target mailings to those communities. Where I live, the real estate market is going crazy around waterfront properties. Many of the houses on the properties are at least 50 years old and were intended as summer homes, and are really showing their age. People are now buying those properties for the great location, and totally rehabbing the house. That's the kind of thing I'm thinking of.

Thank you guys for the ideas. I thought that mailing flyers was not the best way to target new potential customers. I like the direct mailing idea you guys had with before and after pictures. Thanks again

The first step you really need to do ASAP is to get your marketing materials together and in order and in shape to the target markets you have set up.

This may mean several things I would like to point out:
1) logo design and brand image. I can not stress how important it is to have a logo and brand mark that is strong and updated and not OuTdated. It needs to be top quality and set you apart from your competition.

2) Website: A website is your service and business open 24 hours a day seven days a week. It can be a gateway for suspects and prospects to find out more about you on their own time as well as give you feedback as well as even possible work using a form page you have set up. Your marketing materials should show and highlight your website. If you do the website, make sure to include samples or before and after shots of the work you have done.

3) Broshure or information packet: These can be done in folders that has information sheets that can be printed on your stationary. This give a very professional look, keeps costs down but also allows you to customize each kit to whomever your trying to target. It works great.

Sample info sheets can include:
- Bio or history of your company
- Quotes from satified customers
- Samples of before and after shots of homes and work you have done
- Client listings of satisfied clients you have done work for
- Letters of reference from good name businesses that carry a lot of weight in your community
- Listings of the features and BENEFITS that make your company different from the rest. What sets you apart from the others
- Business card in the folder
- Business card magnet they can keep on their fridge

These are all great things that can be in your info packets and since each are on your stationary, they can be updated easily as info changes and will not cause you to have to run a totally new 4 color print job piece.

Once these materials are finished, then you must determine your companies USP. This stands for your Unique Selling Propisition. This is a sentence or two that really defines in a nutshell what your company is, what you provide and why your different then the others. It is this USP that your materials will always fall back on and rely upon going further.

You also should get yourself a Contact Management Software. I use ACT and it works great for keeping all clients, suspects and prospects all in a database. This is your KEY tool in keeping all client transactions in one centeral location as well as keep all your leads figured out.

Every transaction, sale or conversatiuon to any client or lead is placed into this database. What is great about it is the ability to do e-mail merging. This makes it simple to send out personalized e-mails to all your leads in a push of the button.

I could go on, but I will leave it at this for now. It is more then enough information to keep you busy for a while. If you or anyone else has particular questions or want more details, PLEASE post here or PM me and I will be happy to help you out.

see my post under same topic in business plan

Only one quick question. Should not the USP be decided on before you do any of the marketing materials? After all the USP should be the main topic of all of your marketing materials.

Also, although I am a printer I think it is a great Idea to put your info which changes on your own ltthd instead of on your full color sell sheet. Like you say if anything changes you will not have to rerun the sell sheet.

You are absolutely right. Your USP needs to be figured out long before you begin any marketing materials. It is this USP that the materials need to reflect back on.

Yeah, my sell sheets (or info sheets) are always run up on my stationary. It meakes it so much easier to customize this way and save money. Anytime I need a change, i can just change the one sheet without having to run off the entire kit again.

I also use it because as an entertainer, many times my sheets get taken out of the kit and passed around at organizational meetings. If this happens, I still always have my contact info. right there for anyone to see it.

Sorry to hear about your dad mate
Well done with your post in this forum, you will be just fine, i've been doing marketing for about 25 years now and there are some great replies above.
Price and quality match everything, get a good website up ASAP and start marketing online, if you are looking for a SEO http://www.honestseo.com will give you some guide lines for picking a solid one.
I my personal experience, the fastest and cheapest way to boost business development is website + pay per click advertising
You could use Google and overture, but dont pay more than $0.30 per visitor. Rather then use services that I advertise on my website.
My company (based in the UK) http://directtraffic.org does pay per click advertising with results that do not appear in the sponsored links of google or overture, but in the web results. this sort of service will help you save per visitor and direct loads more traffic to your website.
Since we are based in the uk, it might be best to use someone from the USA, since they will be able to understand your target market better.
If yould like, I could look for some one that does the same thing over there.

All the best mate, keep all your costs down and only use targeted marketing until you have money to waste.