Advertising guidelines for small business
How do I figure out how much to spend on advertising?
I can work on this business 10 hours per week, and my rate is approx 40 dollars per hour.
Is it a case where you aggressively advertise in the beginning and then cut back as business comes in.
Any help or stories would be helpful.
My website is http://www.wiredvillage.ca if you want to get an idea of what I do.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$2 Answers
1. Since you are a small business with an unrecognized brand, your prospects will need to see your message several times before they respond and visit your website.
2. The average purchaser visits a website multiple times before becoming a customer or lead. Each business is unique in this. Particularly with a business that has no brand awareness, you can expect your lead conversion rate (number of leads / number of visitors) to be in the single or low double-digits.
3. Once a person becomes a lead (ie. requests information, views a webinar, signs up for a newsletter), they need several contacts before they will have enough information and comfort to make a decision. This number varies widely by industry and is your unique purchase conversion cycle.
Each new customer will follow these steps and your conversion rate for each will depend on your brand awareness and likability, the unique value of your offering (ie. your value proposition), the effectiveness of your website in capturing leads (ie. your website conversion rate), and your ability to close the sale on a sales presentation.
Rather than having a set advertising budget, you need to determine your break-even metrics for each advertising opportunity.
For example, if you advertise on Google Adwords (which is a good place to start), make sure you track conversions through to leads using conversion tracking and Google Analytics goal tracking and calculate how many visits for each keyword group you need to make a lead and a sale. Then do the same for all your other advertising opportunities to find which have your highest Return on Investment.
An aggressive burst of advertising will not pay off for a small business as much as a continual drip campaign. You need a steady stream of leads that visit your site and inquire each week so you need to be advertising continually so people find you when they're searching.
Good luck.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
I tried every type of advertising. Mail packages, trade shows, direct mail, trade journals, etc. It was all wasted. The only advertising I ever did that was even marginally effective was Google Adwords. In the beginning it was very inexpensive. only a few cents per click. Now it costs me three to five dollars per click and I no longer use it. 90% of my customers are looking for "loan software" Google that expression and see what happens.
The only advertising that is likely to help you much is word of mouth. That begins with word of YOUR mouth. Print business cards and tell everyone you talk to what you do. If their eyes roll up in their head, shut up and go on to the next person.
Ask all your friends to recommend you every chance they get. As you get jobs, be sure that you give your customer something more than they expect. and be sure they know they got it. This will make them remember you and recommend you to their friends.
Your web site is nice but too technical. People who don't know anything about computers and less about software, and nothing about system development systems, and are looking for a small job will not understand what you do from your web site. People who do understand your web site are probably already working in an IT department.
When you talk to people that understand what you do, ask them what they would search for if they were looking for you. Keep a list of all the search terms and optimize for the most common. REMEMBER you want to know what prospective customers would search for, not what technical people would search for.
Best wishes and good luck.
Personal opinion
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Thank you very much. I think you are correct about the too technical part. My market in mind at least is companies that do not have IT Departments or the money to hire Linux Administrators.
My $99 dollar website special seems to be helping me meet new businesses, to get a prospective client I usually spend 30 dollars in advertising. My hope is that once they get to know me, for doing there website, that it will open the communication channels.
I am doing this for extra money in addition to my day job.
Lets see if I can make it less technical and just say
Backup your companies critical data
Connect your locations together
Save on your Phone costs
Customer Relationship Management
I think the crux of my problem is that I want to do Linux for small business, because it is free and open and can save them money, but if they are that small they will not know or care about Linux and perhaps will think its too risky.
