[pianotech] advertising

[Les Koltvedt]

I've advertised in my church bulletin, with a congregation of more than 3500, 
for the last 3 months of the year.  I can say that I've done that twice, it's my 
first and last time, not one hit.  I'm in the same boat as Marshall, not a 
RPT...yet and trying to build a clientele.

Les

Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:59:13 -0500 (EST)
From: tnrwim at aol.com
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] advertising
Message-ID: <8CD8AD91675E7ED-7A4-19AA at web-mmc-m07.sysops.aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


Marshall

In  general, advertising is a crap shoot. Sometimes it works, sometimes it  
doesn't. Back in St. Louis I used to advertise on the commercial  classical 
music station. The ad manager told me that one of my  competitors ran the same 
ad three different times of the year. The first  time he got a lot of business 
from it, the second time he didn't get  anything, as if no one was listening to 
the radio. The third time it was  so so. I've discovered the same thing. I even 
ran a radio spot on the  top rated station in St. Louis, and even during a 
Cardinal's baseball game, and it was a total waste of money. 


The  best place, now, is the Internet, as you're doing. But you don't have  to 
pay for it. As you found out the google places are working, Craig's  list has 
been successful for me. And I get quite a few calls from the  PTG web site. 
Obviously you aren't able to do that, yet, but perhaps it  will give you the 
incentive. 


What doesn't work are "specialty"  ads, like the bus, placemats, programs, etc. 
The only ones who make  money are the people who sell you the ads.

Just hang in there,  Marshall, It takes time to build up a tuning business. Your 
good work  and honest business ethics are the best way to promote yourself.  
Unfortunately, you entered the field during one of the worst economic  slumps 
this nation has seen since the depression. But the economy is  slowly turning 
around, and soon your business will too. 


Wim


      
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