Advertising in the construction/landscape industry
Discussion
Afternoon all!
I’m a fencing contractor based in Cambridgeshire, and due to not only the time of year, but a long term contract not working out, work is fairly slow at the moment. My business is in its infancy still, established 2years, but prior to the long term contract, we seemed to have a good reputation and were always busy 4/6 weeks in advance, with very little in the way of formal advertising and marketing. I like to think we look like a professional outfit, uniformed fitters, signwritten, tidy vehicles.
As of late, the biggest draw of work has essentially come from Facebook marketplace, offering a couple of different little deals like x10 panels supplied and fitted for £xamount. Which seemed to generate some interest. I have a Facebook business pages which also offers the same deals, and has the targeted advertising, but I don’t think that it’s very noticeable, the statistics say that my business page reaches 3000 people a week, but that only means it has appeared on their news feed, so in my eyes they have merely scrolled past it. I’ve breifly looked at Checkatrade, but a couple of people I know say it’s a massive farce, and didn’t really do any good, that’s not to say I haven’t heard positive reviews, but the negatives outweigh them, there doesn’t seem to be any middle ground.
A train of thought I have is going a bit more old school it’s the advertising, Such as the local paper (evening telegraph), and after a conversation with the advertising company, they say that it sells 60/70k of papers per week. Which in my mind I suppose is a fairly captive audience.
The sticking point is cost. To appear within the front 5 pages of the paper, a half page full colour advert, designed etc by their designer displaying my details and deals etc, would be around £1200 for the month, although this also includes an online presence, however that works. A full page ad is £1900.
Now I’m fully aware that there is no substitute for word of mouth and recommendation, but I just want to give it a bit of a helping hand. If I was to go ahead, I’d likely do so in February, the start of storm season. This also could be an opportunity to start getting more into the agricultural and commercial sector, if I was to bias the advertising more towards that.
So my question is, has anyone in my kind of trade done this, and with what results, what forms of advertising do you do? Is there any other advice you could give a handsome young gentleman as myself?
Thank you in advance folks!
I’m a fencing contractor based in Cambridgeshire, and due to not only the time of year, but a long term contract not working out, work is fairly slow at the moment. My business is in its infancy still, established 2years, but prior to the long term contract, we seemed to have a good reputation and were always busy 4/6 weeks in advance, with very little in the way of formal advertising and marketing. I like to think we look like a professional outfit, uniformed fitters, signwritten, tidy vehicles.
As of late, the biggest draw of work has essentially come from Facebook marketplace, offering a couple of different little deals like x10 panels supplied and fitted for £xamount. Which seemed to generate some interest. I have a Facebook business pages which also offers the same deals, and has the targeted advertising, but I don’t think that it’s very noticeable, the statistics say that my business page reaches 3000 people a week, but that only means it has appeared on their news feed, so in my eyes they have merely scrolled past it. I’ve breifly looked at Checkatrade, but a couple of people I know say it’s a massive farce, and didn’t really do any good, that’s not to say I haven’t heard positive reviews, but the negatives outweigh them, there doesn’t seem to be any middle ground.
A train of thought I have is going a bit more old school it’s the advertising, Such as the local paper (evening telegraph), and after a conversation with the advertising company, they say that it sells 60/70k of papers per week. Which in my mind I suppose is a fairly captive audience.
The sticking point is cost. To appear within the front 5 pages of the paper, a half page full colour advert, designed etc by their designer displaying my details and deals etc, would be around £1200 for the month, although this also includes an online presence, however that works. A full page ad is £1900.
Now I’m fully aware that there is no substitute for word of mouth and recommendation, but I just want to give it a bit of a helping hand. If I was to go ahead, I’d likely do so in February, the start of storm season. This also could be an opportunity to start getting more into the agricultural and commercial sector, if I was to bias the advertising more towards that.
So my question is, has anyone in my kind of trade done this, and with what results, what forms of advertising do you do? Is there any other advice you could give a handsome young gentleman as myself?
Thank you in advance folks!
£2k for a month's display advertising isn't too bad. The problem is that it will only run for a month and will thus only be of relevance to those that need a fence during the month that it runs. Some people might cut the ad out but not many.
It may be worth you mixing social media advertising with display and spread over a longer period of time. So run display and social for one week then social only for two weeks, the both again for a week and so on.
Content is important and I wouldn't rely on the paper's designers. Get a god graphic designer on board and ensure that the display ads look similar to the social media ones.
HTH
It may be worth you mixing social media advertising with display and spread over a longer period of time. So run display and social for one week then social only for two weeks, the both again for a week and so on.
Content is important and I wouldn't rely on the paper's designers. Get a god graphic designer on board and ensure that the display ads look similar to the social media ones.
HTH
MattCharlton91 said:
The sticking point is cost. To appear within the front 5 pages of the paper, a half page full colour advert, designed etc by their designer displaying my details and deals etc, would be around £1200 for the month, although this also includes an online presence, however that works. A full page ad is £1900.
If you go newspaper...Get the cost down.
Try to get the month so you've got two weeks on, two off and two on again (or similar). Makes your 'month' longer.
Is a 1/4 as good as a 1/2 page? Probably, but cheaper.
Create a good ad. Most are utterly s
te. Don't be led by the paper's designers, they'll do what they know/what's easiest for them.Ignore their pish about online presence. Nobody's interested in local newspaper websites, even less so the advertising on them.
Facebook I find the quality of lead is s
te compared to Adwords. The people who have time to fk about on FB don't have the money to pay properly (for windows in our case).The big danger is doing what you're doing now. Things are slow so someone phones offering you a 'deal' and you jump because you're quiet. This is stuff that should be ongoing even when you're busy, to better manage the ups and downs in business and cashflow. Think about what you want to achieve first and work back from there.
Press is having a pretty tough time of it these days and many have resorted to giving readership figures as opposed to circulation (a formula that newspapers have come up with to make the figures sound more respectable) That said some multi nationals still use it but by no means as much as they used to, the minute it stops giving returns the nationals will pull their ads. Since the demise of Yellow Pages allied trades have struggled to find a substitute, we get dozens a calls a week from allied trades asking to advertise with us but our medium will not deliver the return on investment for that line of business.
As mentioned above, leaflets are a highly cost effective and more importantly, highly targetable form of generating business for trades like your good self. New build properties tend to have a limited 'fence life' that is dependant on the quality of the home builder. My humble suggestion is target all the new build estates between 10-15 years old (you will know far better than me how long people keep the original fence for) and do a leaflet drop with a specific message about replacing fencing. Deliver these yourself if you have a quiet day, this will ensure they are delivered and not mixed up with other mass leaflet drops the local press or Royal Mail conduct. Not wishing to state the obvious but every job you get, the day before you start, deliver a leaflet to about 50 houses in the immediate area. If you do it the day before you start the job they are more likely to remember you when they see your van over the next couple of days.
Just a few suggestions and wish you the very best of luck in taking the business to the next level.
As mentioned above, leaflets are a highly cost effective and more importantly, highly targetable form of generating business for trades like your good self. New build properties tend to have a limited 'fence life' that is dependant on the quality of the home builder. My humble suggestion is target all the new build estates between 10-15 years old (you will know far better than me how long people keep the original fence for) and do a leaflet drop with a specific message about replacing fencing. Deliver these yourself if you have a quiet day, this will ensure they are delivered and not mixed up with other mass leaflet drops the local press or Royal Mail conduct. Not wishing to state the obvious but every job you get, the day before you start, deliver a leaflet to about 50 houses in the immediate area. If you do it the day before you start the job they are more likely to remember you when they see your van over the next couple of days.
Just a few suggestions and wish you the very best of luck in taking the business to the next level.
The industry is in a fairly inactive state at the moment.
A small presence on the web can do no harm, but I think that in this instance you are far better trying to get face-to-face with the head QS of construction companies active in your area. Pick the cherries which are easiest to reach - you do not really want to be driving cross-country to do contracts in Bristol.
When you get a meeting, be honest about your capabilities, ask for the opportunity to price any contracts that they have on the go, take a leaflet stating your capabilities and reference other contracts that you have completed nearby. Provide contact references, if possible.
Contracting is highly competitive so if you can do a good job at the “right price” then QSs will be keen to talk with you - they have to win new work as well.
Use services like these for your area https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/planning-le... or Barbour Index etc
Good luck.
A small presence on the web can do no harm, but I think that in this instance you are far better trying to get face-to-face with the head QS of construction companies active in your area. Pick the cherries which are easiest to reach - you do not really want to be driving cross-country to do contracts in Bristol.
When you get a meeting, be honest about your capabilities, ask for the opportunity to price any contracts that they have on the go, take a leaflet stating your capabilities and reference other contracts that you have completed nearby. Provide contact references, if possible.
Contracting is highly competitive so if you can do a good job at the “right price” then QSs will be keen to talk with you - they have to win new work as well.
Use services like these for your area https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/planning-le... or Barbour Index etc
Good luck.
technodup said:
f you go newspaper...
Get the cost down.
Try to get the month so you've got two weeks on, two off and two on again (or similar). Makes your 'month' longer.
Is a 1/4 as good as a 1/2 page? Probably, but cheaper.
Create a good ad. Most are utterly ste. Don't be led by the paper's designers, they'll do what they know/what's easiest for them.
Ignore their pish about online presence. Nobody's interested in local newspaper websites, even less so the advertising on them.
Facebook I find the quality of lead is ste compared to Adwords. The people who have time to fk about on FB don't have the money to pay properly (for windows in our case).
The big danger is doing what you're doing now. Things are slow so someone phones offering you a 'deal' and you jump because you're quiet. This is stuff that should be ongoing even when you're busy, to better manage the ups and downs in business and cashflow. Think about what you want to achieve first and work back from there.
Sound advice in simple term, exactly what I was after! Thank you mate Get the cost down.
Try to get the month so you've got two weeks on, two off and two on again (or similar). Makes your 'month' longer.
Is a 1/4 as good as a 1/2 page? Probably, but cheaper.
Create a good ad. Most are utterly s
te. Don't be led by the paper's designers, they'll do what they know/what's easiest for them.Ignore their pish about online presence. Nobody's interested in local newspaper websites, even less so the advertising on them.
Facebook I find the quality of lead is s
te compared to Adwords. The people who have time to fk about on FB don't have the money to pay properly (for windows in our case).The big danger is doing what you're doing now. Things are slow so someone phones offering you a 'deal' and you jump because you're quiet. This is stuff that should be ongoing even when you're busy, to better manage the ups and downs in business and cashflow. Think about what you want to achieve first and work back from there.
MattCharlton91 said:
Sound advice in simple term, exactly what I was after! Thank you mate
I just reread your original post. If you're trying to advertise to agricultural and commercial, i.e. businesses then I'd stay away from newspapers. That's much more about direct sales, phoning them up/email/networking etc.And I get why you'd want to take commercial AND domestic (fear of missing out), but is it the best way? It's easier and cheaper to focus on one, do it well and look at the other again when more established. Again, write down what you want first, then work back.
I've got a list of things we used to do (everything anyone asked for!) but refuse now. At first knocking back work felt wrong, but now I probably knock back more than I should. The hassle isn't worth the money. Keep it simple, focused and quality. Domestic or commercial for me, not both.
akirk said:
Alternatively for under £2k how about printing leaflets then target specific areas, find houses where there is sufficient wealth to pay you but a need for fencing and let them know ‘we are in your area in xx month’ 10% discount
Then get out on foot...
This is how we found our fencer, it was a leaflet with a card and a quote!!! Obviously our knackered fence was a give away but they got the side fence as well.Then get out on foot...
DSLiverpool said:
akirk said:
Alternatively for under £2k how about printing leaflets then target specific areas, find houses where there is sufficient wealth to pay you but a need for fencing and let them know ‘we are in your area in xx month’ 10% discount
Then get out on foot...
This is how we found our fencer, it was a leaflet with a card and a quote!!! Obviously our knackered fence was a give away but they got the side fence as well.Then get out on foot...
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