Where to advertise?

[ginettag27]

We've got a small, 2 man draughting business. Work we undertake are preparing drawings for Planning Submission, Building Control and Structural calculations where applicable. Where would people recommend or where would you look for draughstmen if you needed an extension done for instance? Up until now we've worked on personal recommendation only, but as we're speeding up things, work is slowly starting to dry up!

There are the local papers (Countywide - which we're considering), countywide and of course local magazines and similar.. Or would people look in the Yellow Pages or Yell.com?

thanks!

[JustinP1]

The Internet......?

[V8 EOL - Rich]

Why not try cold calling architects, building service contractors and other types?

A day spent doing that will probably result in more leads than 1/2 an inch in the yellow pages.

[PhilLL]

Online home improvement sites and forums? How about partnering with local builders?

[Truckosaurus]

Now then EPS, the usual "What Would Truck Do?" caveats apply...

I would have thought most people looking at extensions etc would get one of the magazine like "Build It" or "Self Build", so that would be a good place for ads.

Otherwise it's trying to get a website that appears on google.

[The Londoner]

If you can face dealing with them, get in with all the local estate agents as well.

[Gordon Brown]

Reputable builders (if there is such a thing): you take their cards, they take yours?

Parish mags (dirt cheap for a regular insertion)

Leaflet newish estates?

[ginettag27]

Gordo and others thanks for all the replies, if tere are any others I'd be interested as well.

I had thought about our Parish Newsletters and the local Builders etc.. In fact we've heard back from one
tonight!

It was more to get a feel for where would someone look for an Architect - knowing 1 or 2 I'd never go looking!
Of course some people don't know any, so where do they look!!????



Of course advertisements are only as good as the work they bring in.. We could advertise in a couple of cheap places and get
no work or pay top dollar and get quite a few new pieces.. Who knows?? I'm tempted to start putting out more feelers to
local builders and possibly estate agents, with some local advertising in the Local Paper (Countywide) and Parish Newsletters.

[StevieBee]

I’ll assume you are targeting a relatively local market.

That being the case, small-scale parish/local newsletters/magazines are the ones to go for. They tend to get read with more enthusiasm by more people than local newspapers. Ads are cheaper too.

Remember that not everybody wants an extension at the same time so any advertising you do has to be long term and consistent. Lots of smaller ads over a longer time will yield better results than a short-term burst.

Never rely on one form of advertising though. Use the parish magazines but include a limited run in the local press / estate agents as well.

Local radio can work but is a bit pricy (although not as much as you might think). Try sponsoring the weather or travel news rather than run ads.

Good luck

[paultither]

I've set up The Architect's Portal which is still being developed.

Its really useful and contains all the links to things you might need to help you with your business.

www.architectsportal.blogspot.com

I'm looking to put a trade directory on there within the next few weeks and a list of practices. You are welcome to add yourself onto it when its properly up and running.

[ginettag27]

More good ideas, especially Stevies Think we'll form a "campaign" and move on from there.

[LDNrevs]

ginettag27 said:

We've got a small, 2 man draughting business. Work we undertake are preparing drawings for Planning Submission, Building Control and Structural calculations where applicable. Where would people recommend or where would you look for draughstmen if you needed an extension done for instance? Up until now we've worked on personal recommendation only, but as we're speeding up things, work is slowly starting to dry up!

There are the local papers (Countywide - which we're considering), countywide and of course local magazines and similar.. Or would people look in the Yellow Pages or Yell.com?

thanks!

Use Google Adwords.. trust me it works.. in any field as your ad will only show on relevant sites and you can even choose the sites to appear on from Google's massive client list. Not hard to setup and will allow you to custom budget for the whole campaign.

www.google.com/adwords