advertising help

[LM Ceramics]

i recieved a phone call today from a company called customer street based in lancaster (anyone heard of them) like a typical salesman they kept pushing me into payment basically they wanted a £200 signing on fee to register with them and they would build me a website and advertise me with the following websites

they said they could gurantee at least 40 calls a month from the preston and blackburn area and if they met that target u pay them £30 a month for there comission im guessin. i v only just set up my tiling business and dont have a clue about how to advertise is this a rip off any suggestions welcome

[Sir Ramic]

They guarantee do they......Smells like Bull **** to me

[Dave]

Originally Posted by LM Ceramics

i recieved a phone call today from a company called customer street based in lancaster (anyone heard of them) like a typical salesman they kept pushing me into payment basically they wanted a £200 signing on fee to register with them and they would build me a website and advertise me with the following websites

they said they could gurantee at least 40 calls a month from the preston and blackburn area and if they met that target u pay them £30 a month for there comission im guessin. i v only just set up my tiling business and dont have a clue about how to advertise is this a rip off any suggestions welcome

Steer clear at all costs from these cold callers...you will get nothing in return.......

p.s. removed links to other sites as dont want peeps getting ripped off....

[Yorkie]

yes agree totally, absolute charlatans you may as well throw your money down the pan. Steer well clear mate.

[alberttrotter1]

LM Ceramics,
Im not a professional in marketing and advertising, but if you are just starting out, im sure many others would agree, that you need to keep the costs down, you want as much of your earnings as possible to go in your pocket.
Why dont you spend the time you spend talking and registering with these companies and go through this forum looking at different advertising techniques.
There has been some very useful tips posted that will at most cost you the fuel in your car and some of your time.
Thats what i plan to do, once im financally ready to pack up work.
There are so many FREE ways to advertise your service.
Good luck
Albert.

[LM Ceramics]

thanks for the advice lads im abit worried myself i just wanted a second opinion and when it came to money they were pressing me for money straight away

[Grace'sDad]

I used to live in Lancaster and I have a mate who works there.
It is a load of crap. Any jobs they come up with will not be exclusive anyway.

Many better ways to spend 200 quid in my opinion.

Beer and red meat for instance.....

[martinw]

the best advice i could possible give mate is try as much as you can with the free stuff and distribute your cards to various places, but make sure evry time you get a call you ask where they got your details from and measure how each campaign has gone, when the next year come you can decide where best to invest your time and money.

and be very wary of cold callers the more you advertise the more calls you will get and they are not daft, stand up to them and tell them where to go!!

[Fekin]

Customer Street have actually signed up an account on here..... well someone called customer street at any case.... never posted yet.... but if it is really them then I can understand why they have not bothered to

[mickmcc]

customer street rang me up 3 weeks ago offering me the same bull, said i would be the only one in the area ao i would get all of the work, found out they told another tiler in my area the same thing, total rip off merchants matey stay well away. also they get ur details from trusted tradesman and just repeat everything uve advertised about urself. was quite funny actually as they were clearly reading off what i wrote on there haha

[365drills]

EVERY business (including yours!) should have an marketing strategy. Its something you can work out at the start of the year.

Doesnt have to take too much time. Just a bit of paper and a plan of action on what methods suit the company best.
1) Word of mouth / Recomendations
2) Local ad in paper - media
3) Cards in window. Visits to tile shops.
4) Free online listings with local web portals.

A website is a good idea and a basic page should really only be costing about £50 to £100 for someone to set up.

But I find that once you have a strategy in place then you can actively search out the media you need rather than wait for cold calls.

Dont worry I have about 6 calls a week from magazines, publishers, websites and other people. They all promise a great ROI (Return on Investment) but do they deliver?

I think you should stick the money under your pillow. But at the same time dont avoid having a marketing plan and budget.

My mate John is a gardner and for £36 a week he can advertise his company in our local Mercury. So he agreed to a one year deal. Priced at £1872 he paid something like half price. £900 for a year in the local paper.

Only problem? He got too much work!

Now all he gets is telephone calls from people wanting their gardens mowed. But he cant physically get to them.

Most tiling courses cover a bit on how to promote as part of the course. I know Diamond Training cover these areas a fair bit.

Richard