Don’t have thousands to spend on marketing? Here’s how you can grow your business on the cheap!

• October 6, 2020
• admin

Hi Team! Once again we’re talking marketing. Especially marketing for tradies. In the past we have talked about the priciest forms of marketing and advertising. But, we have never spoken about how we built our business and with no costs other than our business cards and time. Impossible you say?! I assure you – it’s exactly how we did it! We’re not sure if you know exactly how we started and were able to grow to what we are today but let me tell you, we started without a cent to our names and built a successful trades company from that. We’re going to talk about the 2 key marketing methods we used to build our business for next to nothing.

Door knocking actually works!

Forget just simply doing a pamphlet drop. What do you do with the pamphlets and business cards you find in your mail box… It’s rare that you keep one, am I right?! So why do you think that someone would do any different with yours? So how do you get a customer to keep your business card or pamphlet? Rather than just dropping the pamphlet in to a mail box try knocking on the door. You’d be surprised at how easy it is to talk to someone at the door once you get up the courage to actually knock. People aren’t as mean or cold as you would think either. I must admit though it is pretty nerve racking just walking up to someone’s door and introducing yourself. Over the years that I have done this for our business and for many different purposes. One thing I can definitely tell you is that – every day is just as nerve racking as the last. The anxiety behind knocking on a strangers door doesn’t wear off on the 2nd, 3rd or even 50th day. It’s strange to think though that once the nerves of the first knock are out of the way, that you aren’t nervous any more. When realistically, every door you knock on is the same as the last, the person on the other side doesn’t know that you’ve knocked on 1, or 100 doors before theirs, so the chance of getting that nasty or cold reaction is always there! But what do I say? I hear you asking…. There is no right or wrong thing to say when cold calling or promoting your business by going door to door. It will take you some time to fine tune your “pitch.” As we were not only a new business but we were new to the area we lived it I started out by saying “Hi, my name is Danyel and my Partner and I are new to the area and have just started our own plumbing business. We are wandering around handing out cards/pamphlets and introducing ourselves. We’d love to help if you have any plumbing that needs doing around your home.” Or something along those lines anyway. The response I received was crazy! It was definitely unexpected. People loved the fact that we were going back to basics and putting our faces to our name. Social media may be a convenient way to market but it is not something that everyone uses. After my first day of knocking on doors in our local area, I was on a natural high! I can’t even begin to count how many people I spoke to and business cards I handed out. I do remember that we had 5 leads for jobs and quotes booked in with customers. All after just a couple of hours of walking around and chatting to people. One of those customers is still one of our most favourite and loyal customers to date. If you’re reading this Monika – We miss you and will come to visit you soon! Were leads the only thing to come out of door knocking? What was even more surprising was the level of trust and accountability it built with our potential customers. We quickly grew and employed 2 more plumbers to keep up with the work that was coming in. It wasn’t long before we expanded to an all trades company. Being in the right place at the right time also allowed us to establish ourselves as a trustworthy company in only a few short months. Business was booming! We even had our customers asking us for contacts in other trades as well! So once again, we did what the customers wanted and we brought on a solid base of quality local trades that could do anything and everything around a home. The growth went so on and so forth until here we are today, about to launch MyTradie! Customers who didn’t need works completed straight away were calling us months – even years after us meeting them. They had remembered us and kept our business card for all that time! We also had customers wanting to help and giving us other little tips and tricks with marketing, such as local community noticeboards. Establishing ourselves as a quality company led to a dramatic increase in Word of Mouth advertising. This leads us to our next cheap as chips marketing option!

Word of Mouth Advertising – the greatest advertising you can get!

This type of advertising is not the easiest type of marketing to get, but it is free and it is by far the most effective! Not only do potential customers love hearing of a quality tradie or business, but According to Nielsen 92% of consumers believe recommendations from family and friends over all other forms of marketing. WOMMA (Word Of Mouth Marketing Association) have this figure sitting at 62%. You can’t argue with those numbers. Building up a profile that people can and will trust comes from word of mouth marketing. While paid advertising may get you jobs quickly, the impersonal touch of using a computer or smartphone to connect with consumers will not allow you to build rapport as quickly and firmly as if you were face to face. We’ve previously touched on Word of Mouth Marketing and how it can be your greatest asset. We truly believe that! If you’d like to check out our other blogs you can find them here MyTradie is gearing up for its big launch! If you’re wanting to become a MyTradie Tradie and haven’t yet registered head over to Become a MyTradie Tradie to send us your details for an info pack. You can also find us on facebook at facebook.com/mytradie don’t forget to leave us a like!