Advertising

[Clyde Hollinger]

Dear Rob,

Since I don't know your area I guess I would say first consider all the
options, then choose the one you like best.  What works in my area may
fail totally in yours.  What you need to do is get your name out there.

It appears that there is no way a clientele can be rapidly built,
although some things will definitely help.  It just takes some time. 
Other than the yellow pages, I no longer advertise, but I tried several
things when I went fulltime six years ago.  I devoted a sizable portion
of my budget to advertising month after month, year after year.

The best advice I can give is to get the "Business Resource Manual" from
PTG and "Piano Marketing Essentials" from National Piano Foundation
(4020 McEwen, Suite 105, Dallas, TX 75244, telephone 972-233-9107, ext.
204).  

What worked best for me was a coupon.  I had it printed on both sides
and mailed five or so to each of my current clients along with a cover
letter.  The coupon gave a substantial discount to the new client on the
first tuning, plus a referral discount to my current client who passed
it on.  Post me privately if you want to try this, but you have to have
at least some customer base for it to work.  That was several years ago,
and I still get one back now and then.  

The least successful?  Using one of those companies that sends a handful
of coupons from various businesses in one envelope.  Way too expensive,
and I never approached getting my money back.

As you probably know, good people skills (and professional skills, too,
of course) is vital.  Although I've never done a study on this, my guess
is that 80-90% of my new business comes from referrals.  Hope something
in this post is helpful.

Clyde Hollinger, RPT
Lititz, PA

R. Goodale wrote:
> 
> Hello all...
> 
> I'm considering placing an ad in the newspaper to help boost business a
> little.  As a
> university tech I've spent most of the past year catching up on a
> mountain of a mess I
> inherited when I took the job.  Now that I've gotten things more or less
> in order I would like the outside work to pick up a bit.  I do get work
> via referrals and recommendations from the university but not as much as
> I would like.  I am in the process of making friends with the local
> music stores but I was thinking maybe a small ad in the paper may be
> something to look into.  Nothing fancy just a plain business card sized
> thing somewhere.  I haven't yet called the paper to check the price on
> this but I'm guessing a couple or three hundred dollars at least to run
> it for a week.
> 
> So, what have you folks discovered about doing this? Is it worth it?
> Does anyone actually read it and call? Or am I better off looking into
> other worth while methods?  I should also add that this is a rather
> small tourist-oriented community, population around 60K.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Rob Goodale, RPT
> Northern Arizona University