Advertising - The Book-keepers Forum (UK)

RuthA · Senior Member

Advertising

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi Ruth,

I've never heard good reports from people using Yell but that could just be a case that people are always more will ing to pass on bad news than good.

Try direct marketing to your target businesses and business cards in places that your target audience is likely to frequent such as the chip shop notice board or newsagent window.

What about the business cards service in most Sainsbury's?

also what about networking events? Rob gave a really good introduction to networking as one of his earliest posts so it shouldn't be too hard to track down.

I know that networking is daunting but it's still the best option for getting yourself known. As Rob says, the key is not trying to sell anything for starters. Just get yourself known in the local business community.

Good luck,

Shaun.

RuthA · Senior Member

Thanks Shaun...I didn't explain myself very clearly, though, I'm also doing most of the things you've suggested, thanks to the previous posts on here. I had a package arrive from the printers today, so the job for tonight is to plan how to distribute the couple of hundred flyers and cards I've got. I'm also waiting for my account manager from the local chamber of commerce to get in touch for a chat about the various networking opportunities locally as that's actually something I'm looking forward to doing.

Marky65 · Guru

Hi Ruth

Whilst I am not trying to tell you how or where to advertise because we all do it our own way, it might be worth thinking of advertising in Brighton/Hove/Portslade because Shoreham is not that far from these towns and you might be able to compete a bit on price by being out of Brighton but close enough to offer a competitively priced service. I can't remember whether The Argus would be worth advertising in or not as it has been about 8 years since I worked in Hove.

I haven't advertised in Yell and a lot of other businesses that I speak to have cut down on how they use this service as well.

I hope it goes well with the local Chamber, they usually work very hard for their members.

Regards

Mark

RuthA · Senior Member

You're absolutely right, Mark, it's making sure that potential customers in Brighton and around know about me that is what I need to achieve or else my market will be very limited. When I was working before I had several tax return customers in Shoreham, but my business customers were Brighton/Haywards Heath.

If I had an address in Brightonn it would be a lot easier as all the free listings would then have me in my target area, but since they list you by town I'm not showing on free listings for searches in Brighton or Worthing. Hence my dilemma with yell, although it sounds like it isn't going to be worth paying to advertise with them.

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Ruth,

if that's the only thing stopping you get in touch with a company such as Mail Boxes etc. which would give you an address in Brighton (or wherever there is branch of MBE) regardless as to where you are actually based.

Ever wondered how so many companies could be based in regent street / Mayfair / etc. They're not, they're just forwarding companies.

There may be cheaper alternatives than MBE but it's a starting point if that's the sort of service that you need.

Hope that this helps,

Shaun.

Wella · Expert

Just a brief response regarding Yell.com and Yellow pages.

I had a corporate insert this year in yellow pages in the ICB block, which although there are other ICB members listed (two I think), it is not too much competition and stands out from the rest. This came with a special offer of a Yell.com entry and a free dedicated single website page.

To date I have not had one single response from either medium and when I eventually managed to find the free website (supposed to be SEO friendly) it was full of errors, one being it described me as an accountant. I managed to get this and the other errors sorted but to be honest, I am almost embarrassed by the presentation of the free site.

Bottom line is, so far, I will not be renewing the advert.

Bill

stephen72 · Senior Member

Hi,
I thought that yellow pages was expensive and i didn't go ahead with it as some other people that i know had uses it a couple of years ago and didn't get any work from it .
I think it hard to find advertising that works as i have spent a fortune on buying leads lists for new businesses and mail shots and letters direct to local businesses with no success.I have also put cards up in lots of places and nothing seems to work.

Although it is hard i thik it is best to just keep tring to get your name out there as cheaply as possible and hopefully word of mouth will spread and clients will start to come.I think it also depends on the area of the country that you are in as most people in my area do not want to spend the money on a bookkeeper as they say why should i pay to have something done that they currently get done for free by a family member.
The thing that i have learnt is that just because you spend money on advertising it is not guaranteed to work despite what the sales people will tell you.

stephen

RuthA · Senior Member

Thanks everyone.

I've now got a meeting arranged with a local accountant next week. I've got some flyers in newsagents' windows and various other places and a networking event next month.

So I think I'm going to keep on doing more of the same and give it a couple of months before deciding if I need to do anything differently.

attilabenko · Guru

Hi Ruth,

Make sure you are listed on google maps, it is free and you can do it yourself. In fact all search engine optimisation you can do yourself. I am just doing mine so if you need help i might can give you advice how to (if i am doing the right thing). With every new website it does take a few weeks to come up properly in search engines but if you don,t come up and you don,t come up in the first page of results than there is not much point in having a website...

attilabenko · Guru

Is it worth it to pay £80 pa for membership to my local chamber of commerce?

RuthA · Senior Member

I decided to pay a similar amount because it includes some free tickets to networking events and their annual conference. I hope they will make it worthwhile.

I've got myself on google maps and done what I can regarding search engine optimisation but I'd love some tips as it is all new to me.

attilabenko · Guru

Hi Ruth,

You might want to check on google maps what categories you are listed under, I found you but it was not easy. The other thing is google webmaster tools i don,t know if you did that or not but it can be very useful and it shows you what google thinks your keywords are,too. And you might want to change the page titles on your site. There are two different titles for a page on a site, one is visible (home,about us,contact us,etc.) those are fine, and there are the not visible ones you only can see them on the top left corner of your screen (on this page it is advertising-the book-keepers forum-windows internet explorer) these you should change to something more relevant and meaningful to your content. google takes this in consideration when searching. I see you did your site with vistap. site builder and i am not sure what you can or cannot do with your site but you should try those above..
That,s it for now, hope this helps a little bit.

RuthA · Senior Member

Thank you!!