Has anyone ever tried a marketing or advertising company?

[BotoxBoy]

Hey everyone...

Just wondering if anyone has ever employed a marketing or advertising company for their business?

Any success stories?

 

[Cosmeticsos.com]

I have tried all sorts to no avail.

They are all full of false promises. What are you trying to achieve? what types of clients are you trying to get? hair, teeth etc?

 

[BotoxBoy]

We're doing ok without it at the minute just wondered if anyone had done it and noticed a difference!

 

[Love Aesthetics]

Hi Adam, love your posts! And your website it looks fab! No I haven't used a marketing company, I've done it all myself but I have a friend who has and their business boomed, but it was expensive and I felt with initiative isn't always necessary. X

 

[StefanM]

The marketing world is littered with those who make false promises and have no real experience/knowledge of what to do.

A marketing company is only successful when you pay them £X and you take £Y in sales with Y being more than X. The further away Y is from X, the better they are.

Don't fall for any of the 'brand building' or 'awareness' bull**** ... you're not Coca Cola and quite frankly all you need is sales which equate to profit - you don't have cash flying around to polish your ego with 'cool and trendy' ads - just the stuff that works.

 

[sms-marketing]

Chances are that if you are here you have a business made from bricks and mortar. There are countless people that think internet and buzz words will be the ultimate maker for your business. The answer is in the foundation of your business.

1. Your Business
2. Your Products/Service
3 . Most Importantly - Your customer service.
Tip: For the next week have your employee's say Yes Sir, No Sir, Yes Ma'am, No Ma'am).After all they are your customers and they are king, you treat them as they are, I can assure you they'll be back, as people really love respect.

These are simple ingredients for your business, and no doubt you have heard that millions of times.

If your business is built around the local community, jump onto Vista Print and get some flyers made up and post them out to your local community.

We have come to a stage in business where e-mail is ok, but between retention and your junk e-mail box, you may have a few troubles considering that your customers are most probably receiving multiple e-mails daily from daily deal sites and all the other hype which is in direct competition with your business.

Business Owners are busy, right?
Of course, running a small business requires your dedication attention. But I would advise spend 4 hours with a friend down at a coffee shop each week, and plan your advertising or promotion for the month. It's much more cheaper than hiring a marketing company to do this for you.

Also keep your eyes open for new innovation that can help as value add to run alongside your business, like if you are a beauty salon you may add a simple to install booking agent to your website, this can save a few hours each week, instead of using old books and paper, as technology is there to help you and save your time.

Good Luck People! I hope that helps.

 

[BotoxBoy]

Chances are that if you are here you have a business made from bricks and mortar. There are countless people that think internet and buzz words will be the ultimate maker for your business. The answer is in the foundation of your business.

1. Your Business
2. Your Products/Service
3 . Most Importantly - Your customer service.
Tip: For the next week have your employee's say Yes Sir, No Sir, Yes Ma'am, No Ma'am).After all they are your customers and they are king, you treat them as they are, I can assure you they'll be back, as people really love respect.

These are simple ingredients for your business, and no doubt you have heard that millions of times.

If your business is built around the local community, jump onto Vista Print and get some flyers made up and post them out to your local community.

We have come to a stage in business where e-mail is ok, but between retention and your junk e-mail box, you may have a few troubles considering that your customers are most probably receiving multiple e-mails daily from daily deal sites and all the other hype which is in direct competition with your business.

Business Owners are busy, right?
Of course, running a small business requires your dedication attention. But I would advise spend 4 hours with a friend down at a coffee shop each week, and plan your advertising or promotion for the month. It's much more cheaper than hiring a marketing company to do this for you.

Also keep your eyes open for new innovation that can help as value add to run alongside your business, like if you are a beauty salon you may add a simple to install booking agent to your website, this can save a few hours each week, instead of using old books and paper, as technology is there to help you and save your time.

Good Luck People! I hope that helps.

Brilliant answer! Love it!

 

[fozzyo]

I've not and have always been of the view any marketing budget wouldn't get me enough of a response.

I'm trying to build my practice through loyalty and referral scheme, google places Adwords advert, and Facebook advertising to my FB page.

There is no free advertising all takes time and money.

Mat

 

[Verve Designs]

Couldn't agree more with the post above.

At our level of business (I'll assume you're a small business, apologies if you're not!) With a combination of market research, some online resources and some common sense- there's nothing you couldnt do yourself that a marketing company could do for you.

Spend your money on practical things (such as branding, advertising, design) rather than "advice" itself.

p.s. I used to work for a very well known advertising agency- so trust me on this one!
p.p.s Brand building is absolutely important, it might not have the same connotations that you think it has though. Branding means everything from your logo, to the way you treat customers and everything inbetween, and most of this is free.

 

[BotoxBoy]

Couldn't agree more with the post above.

At our level of business (I'll assume you're a small business, apologies if you're not!) With a combination of market research, some online resources and some common sense- there's nothing you couldnt do yourself that a marketing company could do for you.

Spend your money on practical things (such as branding, advertising, design) rather than "advice" itself.

p.s. I used to work for a very well known advertising agency- so trust me on this one!
p.p.s Brand building is absolutely important, it might not have the same connotations that you think it has though. Branding means everything from your logo, to the way you treat customers and everything inbetween, and most of this is free.

Thanks for your replies!

Yes we're a small (but very ambitious) business with two of us. Branding is really important to us actually, we want everything to be cohesive and have a strong identity hence our bold and different website!

I've also recently attended a marketing workshop (free) with Merz aesthetics and we were basically already doing everything they suggested apart from setting up micro sites to divert net traffic which we're going to look into ASAP!