Marketing a new businessThe problem with marketing a new business is that perhaps the very best option is not available to you yet. When I started as a musician it was pretty hard going, but over the years, the 'Three 'R's' started to bring in good, solid and 'keen' enquires. As soon as a decent ‘track record’ was established, we had calls about Repeat bookings, Referrals from other musicians who were already booked and Recommendations from both venues and clients. All these enquires were free, and the call no longer started with ‘How much?’ but ‘Are you available?’ It’s a ‘Catch 22’ position – you need to get work first in order to have the chance to earn more. The first thing to do is catch potential client’s attention. Later on we can look at how to optimise each and every opportunity, but first things first…
Your circumstances will be different, but here are the methods I tried, and the results achieved. Yellow PagesPerhaps the obvious first choice, and obviously one way of reaching probably every household in your area. It was also my least favourite however (but not the least successful).It would have been easier had I been a plumber, with only one section to target. As a performer however, did I go under ‘Weddings – Music & Entertainment’, ‘Weddings – Civil Ceremonies’, ‘Entertainers’, ‘Entertainment Agencies’, ‘Musicians – Bands – Music’ or ‘Music – Entertainers’! Unlike some forms of advertising, it was not possible to ‘test’ the responses to find out which was the best for me. There was also quite a long delay between placing the first ads and getting a response. It was pretty expensive - from Dec 02 to May 05 I paid out over £9167.67. Their accounts system and department were pretty rotten to deal with to! It also made me a target for any salesperson who wanted to treat it as a source of potential customers - and my 0800 number was a bit of a magnet for those wanting to call at my expense and offer “exiting new opportunities” regarding life assurance, photocopies and medical cover. Although it did produce work, many of the calls started off with “how much are you?” We never set out to be the cheapest, and it can be hard competing against part-time ‘hobby’ musicians just on price. Callers tended to be in a hurry as well – I had to be at home all the time, or run the risk of loosing a booking. I used to check not only ‘answer phone’ message, but also ring back anyone who had not left a message – often to be told ‘sorry mate, we’ve booked someone already now’. MagazinesAgain, not a good one for me, probably because my ‘niche’ market was so specialised. Very expensive in terms of results, and they took a lot of time to plan and lay out designs.Mail shotsAbsolutely terrible results when I tried direct mailings to newly engaged couples, possibly again because of the ‘niche’ aspect, or else they were fed up with being bombarded with similar mailings.Cold callingHave always hated the idea of this – although I did contact the local wedding venues, to see if we could be included on their ‘suppliers’ lists. This would have been a lot better had I spent more time developing my ‘people’ skills first, but we did end up with some very good working relationships.Web siteNow this was much more like it! I just love the way that potential clients are looking for me, rather than the other way round. So long as I can offer them lots of tips, information and advice when they find my site, it is possible to quickly demonstrate that we do know what we are doing. Having a few hundred comments from happy customers does help as well, and it is possible to easily explain just why we may not be the cheapest option available.And it saves me so much time. With only a ‘phone number as a contact, callers expected someone available all the time, and usually had a lot of questions to ask. Now, I could run a ‘day job’ as well, they were happy to wait for a reply and many of the answers they wanted were already available on the web site. But it got even better…. Google Ad wordsBrilliant! At last I had a form of advertising that could be turned on and off instantly, like a tap. I could ‘tweak’ and test individual ads until the best wording was found. And because I was trading in such a narrow ‘niche’ the ‘cost per click’ wasn’t too bad.It got even better when I was able to forward on enquiries for events outside our area to friends who were nearer, and who paid me a commission on any ‘gigs’ they were given, a real ‘win-win-win’ for the client, them and me.
EBooksAnother spin-off from the web site. I wrote two eBooks (see downloads ). The aim was to answer common questions, solve a problem (see the ‘Charity’ book) and provide something hopefully of worth that brides could circulate between themselves, with built in links back to my site. The jury is still out on this one, but I do know that the skills and software picked up to makes these are about to become very handy – look out for an eBook on web sites!Marketing in more detail...To find out more about how I've used marketing to build up my own four companies, click on the book below...
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