Question about advertisment / please help

[joe]

Hi, I need so help with advertisment, Im a custom boatbuilder and do repairs as well-
1. Have little money.
2. want to reach people up and down the east coast(everywhere else too).

Now should I use mags, news papers, or what. Please help.
Thanks Joe

[Jeff]

If you need any help putting together a web site, getting a domain name, setting up a hosting account, etc. I would be glad to help. We have plenty of unused capacity on the server and I would be happy to give you a good deal.

The nice thing about a web site is that you can provide a link to it from all other advertisements, print ads and otherwise, to show much more material than you can fit in a small ad. Plus a web site is accessible from everywhere at all times so people can find it and look at it on their own time. And you can create it and add projects on your own time rather than the advertisement having to be fixed in stone at the time of a given publication.

Print ads are good too, but as a first step I would put together a web site (or have me put together a first site for you ) that you can provide a link to in all other advertisements.

--/end shamless plug

[Nomad]

The web is the way to start.

[joe]

Thanks guys for the help,
Jeff I will contact you Later For More Help(Internet). Thanks Joe

[lockhughes]

Hello Joe...

This is a subject near and dear to my heart... The last time I had anything to seriously promote, I was helming an online system for sailors with about 300 members aboard. Actually, we were a fleet of (BBS) systems afloat in Toronto and Vancouver and NYC and Washington, etc etc... near 3,000 sailors aboard across this little net. This was pre-internet pretty much.

Don't know where I got the term, but "guerilla marketing" is the way I try and think to promo this sort of thing - stuff that's hopefully cheap but effective. Here are some (maybe sneaky) things I did:

I was friendly with a local marine bookstore. They let me stuff 8x11 flyers in the magazines in their mag racks. (These were all sailing-related mags.) The mag publishers probably would not appreciate this <grin>, but I never got any complaints.

There are boat shows every year. The exhibition space ends up with a parking lot full of cars owner by sailors... So I stuffed flyers in windshield wipers.

There were one day seminars organized (by someone else) for sailors... I stood outside and handed flyers to the folks as they showed up for the seminar.

I got invited to speak about our little network at area Clubs. You might consider giving talks to area clubs about maintenance or construction techniques? Sailors are seriously "networked" via club newsletters, cruisers and racers visiting other clubs, etc,etc.
Club meets are often looking for "content".

Word of mouth "promo" is slow but very high quality (assuming folks have positive things to say about you!!!!)

Look for a web site that runs forums. Offer to "host"/etc one of the forums about maintenance or construction/whatever as the resident expert. This is obviously more labour intensive than just a web site, but again, I think being more active/involved/out there is the way to go. Most web sites are just "brochureware" - useful for contact/product info, but otherwise they just sorta lay there.

And use a "tag line" in your messages that provides a *brief* bit of info like company name/nature of biz and phone/fax/email/web addresses. Maybe three lines max? You must avoid giving anyone online the sense that they are being spammed.

Cheers

Lock
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QCYCTender/

ps... see (above)? one line tag <grin>

[Jeff]

All very good points and great advice Lock,

Some things sound so simple, but they often work very well. One-on-one can’t be beat for quality.

Most web sites are just "brochureware" - useful for contact/product info,… but otherwise they just sorta lay there

True. But then again, no one can be everywhere at the right time, so having a web site that people can find on your business card, or flyer, or in a newsletter, or on another web site is well worth the initial investment to set it up. After that, at the very least it will ‘sit there’ remarkably well and provide a brochure which anyone can access on their own time to see what you have to offer. You never know when someone is going to find your business card, or leave a flyer laying somewhere that someone else will pick up. If they’re interested, they’ll go to your web site for a better look and contact you if it looks like a good fit or if it sparks them, whereas from the flyer alone or the business card, they might not have been pushed over the edge to pick up a phone and commit – a web site is an easy introduction and a great follow up tool.

My best guess is that a reasonably well put together boat building or boat design site, if you simply put it up and get it listed at dmoz and google for free and do nothing else to promote it, will get you 10-40 visitors a day within a few months at today’s general Internet traffic level. So a minimum of 3500 people getting a glimpse of your work and as many as 15,000. When you consider the cost of a web site and hosting is less than the profit on even a single job, that alone makes it worth it. But of course as you say, for a real return, putting up a web site is half the project, and promoting it is the bigger half in terms of overall time spent. And all your suggestions are great ones (just don’t spam via email or otherwise so that it’s a blatent advertisement, as everyone hates that and it does more harm than good… as Lock says, many other more subtle ways such as offering advice with a simple link in your signature, etc. will give much much better results.)

[lockhughes]

Hi Jeff - and Joe - and all - and a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Successful 2003 to the good ship boatdesign.net and all who sail in her...

Joe said he wishes to "reach people up and down the east coast(everywhere else too). "

I wonder how far afield a custom builder/repair guy can reasonably be expected to obtain clients? I'm guessing, the nearer *geographically* the better? And it might also help if Joe has a specialty eg a certain designer that's popular for a certain demographic. Something that'd make folks (potential clients) look further afield?

My point is only that the web (and the surface of the planet) is fairly vast, and hits to a web site may come from far and near. I would tend to discount the hits from Kuala Lumpur, for example, unless Joe is a "Have Gun, Will Travel" sorta guy... Personally, if I were looking for a builder, I would be shopping "local" first. It'd be different if I were looking for other products maybe, but a builder? I'd be wanting to visit before and during any construction work!

If Joe was touting a cheap source of labour or materials (South African Rand? Canadian buck? whatever), that might also be a draw for long-distance clients, but he doesn't have that advantage it seems?

When I was involved in that little BBS network, the members logged aboard local systems that were networked together, ie a caller (yes, it was all dialup) could see other members aboard their local system from their own sailing club and community... I believe this gave things a local and a "club-like" feel - an advantage IMHO.

So, yeah, by all means, get the web site up, sure, but I think we agree, it won't be the be-all and the end-all... And even a web site would probably benefit from regular maintenance - updates and new content over time. And that's what I enjoy about online forums and mailing lists - for me, they are both searchable knowledge bases as well as "live" communities with a social component. Sorta like MEAT space, `cept we don't have to get dressed up <grin> and it's still OK to smoke if ya got `em...

All for now... I've got some mad Christmas runnin'around to do now. Thank Gawd Christmas only comes once a year <hehehe>

Lock

[joe]

Thanks guys, I do appreciate the advice. P.S. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and God Bless Everyone.