advertising

[MBailey911@AOL.COM]

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Mickey Kessler <mickeykes2@uf.znet.com> wrote:
>
> Has anybody used the PennySaver?  Did it bring you in any business?...


I've tried advertising in a local coupon book that is delivered with a 
monthly local newspaper.  I believe I've heard that it may take as many as 7 
times before people respond to ads - and frequently have had people say that 
they've been seeing the ad for some time, and finally got around to calling, 
so I'm sure it's quite true.  My benchmark for evaluating whether or not an 
ad was worthwhile is to spend no more than $20 to acquire a new customer - 
but allowing for a few repetitions of an ad before deciding whether or not it 
worked, and averaging out the $20 thing over a multiple month period.

Now, as for the quality of the pianos, and the likelihood that they haven't 
been tuned for 5+ years, that's another story.  While some of the coupon 
customers have turned into great repeat business, many are just looking for a 
one-time deal.  When I started the ad, I was really trying to build my 
business, and although many of these new customers didn't turn into repeat 
business, it was better than not having any business at all, and good 
training ground for learning to deal with some of those battlefield pianos.  

I've also worked hard at developing other sources of new business, including 
a relationship with a dealer, and an arrangement to take over customers of 
another technician who moved out of town, and yet another to take on some 
excess customers of a tuner who is trying to slow things down a bit.  These 
sources have been much more rewarding and worthwhile.

I'm happy to say that things have really picked up, and the actual 
advertising that I do is pretty minimal these days.  Even at this time of the 
year when things have typically slowed down, I'm still managing to stay fully 
booked out 2-3 weeks, which would have been unheard of for me just a few 
years back.  

If asked about whether or not I would do the coupon advertising again, I'd 
say definately, especially when first getting started.  It's easy to get 
discouraged and think that you're never going to get there.  And somehow, you 
have to manage to pay the mortgage.  I think the real key is to try lots of 
different things to try to build the business, and little by little, learn 
which ones are paying off and worth it.

Best of luck,
Mary Bailey

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