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View Full Version : Does Your Website Really Work For You? What Is Your Best Form Of Advertising?



Phyllis Meyer
04-05-2007, 10:48 AM
Hello Everyone,

To all who have a website...how is it going? Do you have an online store? How is that working out for you? Any comments/advice would be greatly appreciated! Also, what do you feel is your best form of advertising? We are doing an assessment of our first year and were wondering from you fine folks of what your thoughts are about certain forms of advertising and where you feel your dollars are spent more wisely in that area?

Sincerely,
Ron & Phyllis:)

Joe Pelonio
04-05-2007, 11:00 AM
Phyllis,

I have no online store, just a simple website with a few samples to see.
I rarely do stock items for sale, I'm still pretty much doing custom work that's been ordered.

Most of my new customers come from referral, but the rest from people doing google searches that bring up my website. I do no advertising any more.

Back in 1993 when I started in the sign business I had a 1/4 page yellow pages ad. After a few years without it paying for itself, I cut back until
last year when I had just the free listing. Now I'm at home I use a cell phone (unlisted).

Currently, while the sign side of the business is pretty busy for this time of year, I have more work at once than I can handle on the laser side. I've found that a few good customers produce a lot more income than lots of smaller ones. The job running now takes 1/2 hour to rastor and 20 minutes to vector so I can work on vinyl jobs in between material changes.

Most of these good customers came from the website, a few were sign
customers that I told about the laser and they had needs for it.

Leigh Costello
04-05-2007, 11:57 AM
We have a website - um, did have a website - but no real jobs from it. We do much better via referral and local clubs. We are currently 2 weeks out on new orders, but will rush for a fee.

We keep a few wood items on hand, and order the rest as needed, which accounts for the 2 week wait.

If the customer provides the material, we work it in between other jobs.
As stated, we charge a rush fee based on the size and design of the artwork if they don't want to wait their turn.

MOST of our customers respect our time line and the others fume a bit then come back and have to pay a bit more for the "fuming and blustering." ;) Of course, they are not aware of this charge.

One thing I have discovered is this, if the customer has his/her own business and they like our work, it is golden for us. We get them and they send folks our way for special requests.

We don't have any published advertisements, just business cards all over the place. I am currently working 3 afternoons a week at a local feedstore where I display some of our work. This has generated several jobs and it gets me out the glow of the laser and computer. :p

So that is our year in review. Good luck everyone!

Phyllis Meyer
04-05-2007, 12:09 PM
Thanks for sharing! We too feel that "word of mouth", and our businesses that already work with us send us the greatest business! The marketing aspect of this is so facinating to me and I realize that one part of the country is so different from the next...Thanks guys, and I hope others respond!

Sincerely,
Phyllis:)

Joe Pelonio
04-05-2007, 12:52 PM
Don't forget about wholesale work. I just finished a big job. My customer is a marketing company that sells only, and depends on people like me to make the items. His customer was a big sign company in Seattle that has no laser. Their customer was the local headquarters of a company that makes equipment for the pharmacy industry. The items I made (black Rowmark ADA logos) are being sent to California to put on the equipment when it's manufactured.

In all 3 companies made money on this project, 4 if the equipment sells. I have no idea how much the others along the way mark it up, but even at wholesale prices I made a good profit on it.

Mike Hood
04-05-2007, 2:22 PM
One of the things I've enjoyed in having a website and storefront up has been the ability for online customers to see their finished product (and of course pay for it) online before I ship.

Merchant accounts take a chunk out, but I pass that on to my customers in the cost, so it's relatively transparent.

Merchant account costs $40-$50 / month and website a bit over $200 with SSL and dedicated IP necessarily to meet MC/Visa security, but worth it overall.

Mitchell Andrus
04-05-2007, 2:30 PM
I have a web site/store. Don't know how this type of marketing will work for you, I make furnishings in a very narrow market, so my clients are very eager to find me.

www.missionfurnishings.com (http://www.missionfurnishings.com)

It's a lot of work to set up, but it's also the best way to make contact with, and sell to people across the country.

I'm in the process of setting up a new engine with more features, better security, better shopper interaction. www.bvsoftware.com (http://www.bvsoftware.com)

Current site cost, $2,200.00 set up and customized, new site cost, $3,800.00 set up not counting my time. I'll spend about 300 hours pre-launch on set up, graphics, photography, etc. Should launch the new site in June/July. Yes, for me it's worth it.

I also spend $1,500.00/mo in national magazine advertizing, and I have 8 wholesale shops who carry my products.

Rodne Gold
04-05-2007, 3:04 PM
An appropriate website works well if advertised elsewhere.
Yellow pages and website is our best marketing , then sending out sample packs to targetted ppl in a market the next best.
By far the best and easiest is to onsell or tap your exisiting customer database.

Mike Null
04-05-2007, 4:19 PM
My business is "non retail" catering to commercial, institutional and govt accounts. My web site is my only form of advertising. It wasn't of any use except as a catalog until I hired a pro to re-do it.

Since then it's been gangbusters. Still I have to do most of the prep work; copy, photos etc. then he makes it work.

William Desrochers
04-06-2007, 2:49 PM
My website is really used as a portfolio, to show what I've done and can do.
My best form of Advertising is 'word of mouth'!
Nothing works better than a satified customers telling everyone they know how great you are/ :D

Barbara Sample
04-06-2007, 3:03 PM
I just went to a business meeting today, and the subject was how to present yourself, and the way you speak to people.
The thing that stood out for me, was his quote "we have two ears, and one mouth" Listen to the customer carefully, and speak with knowledge and when necessary.
I have a non-professional website, that I am still working on, and my goal is to make it more professional looking and to have a shopping service added to it. I also need to have someone besides myself to take pictures of my work. I took all of the photos on my website, and they are not the best.

Word of mouth is also my best advertising. I tried different newspapers, and they did nothing for me. I did do some advertising on the radio and that helped for a while. It slowed down, so now I just do some promotional stuff once in a while.
I also do dog shows, when I possibly can. It is great advertising for me, and shows my work well. I have gotten good response from them.
Barb

Phyllis Meyer
04-07-2007, 12:23 PM
We truly appreciate hearing from all of you. The folks that have been at this for awhile give us newbies great insight into this laser world we have entered into. Anyone else care to tell where their advertising dollars pay off the most? Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,
Ron & Phyllis:)

Todd Luginbuhl
04-09-2007, 11:55 PM
Phyllis,
New guy here, looking to get a laser... but I think this is a question we can speak on with somesort of backing.

We have a website, a small store (which is really an afterthought), quote request page (BEST IDEA WE HAD), and we have a gallery (which is the focal point of our site.)

We are in custom anodizing (www.gruntbull.com) if we didnt have the site, I would say 50-70% of our business would be lost to competition. I use it as reference, as initial and final prep on an order, for communication to our customer base, as an anchor to say whom we are.

In this day and age, I BELIEVE Strongly if you run a business you better have a website that looks the part. This business I think is no different than any other.

The thing you may find a GREAT idea as we did, was the form, Make it brief (ours is almost too long or big) make it simple with click boxes, make a catch all (additional info box) for those that like to type! IT will help keep those that were interested in contact with you, they send a quote you have them... if they have the money to pay that is :)

Phyllis Meyer
04-10-2007, 9:15 AM
Hi Todd,

I'm so glad you responded, your site is fantastic and you are so right about the quote page. Because us laser engravers are personalizing everything we do, it is a great idea to have one. Your existing business will tie in so good with the laser (have you decided on what to get yet?) Good luck with that addition.

I appreciate all who have responded, and look forward to any other advice/comments on what advertising works best for you.

Have a great day!
Phyllis:)

Paul Torrigino
04-11-2007, 6:05 PM
Hi Phyllis,

We get all our business from our website. We work at home and the website is the only way we could do it! We've been doing this for five years now and we're getting repeat customers and referrals all the time. We get orders from all over the country. In the beginning, we advertised on Google search (then Overture). It was expensive, but it worked. Over time, many other sites have linked to us. We've had some articles written about us, and then I was on HGTV last year, so we got more publicity from that. I advertised in a tiki magazine from time to time, since that is our nitch. To tell you the truth, the best publicity we ever got was from some a website that wrote an article about us (for free). I think we got over a thousand hits the day the article came out. When I was on HGTV we only got about three hundred. But it's all good, because once people see your website, word gets around.

Right now we're not advertising at all and we still have a steady stream of orders coming in. Our site has some catalog items we make that can be ordered with a credit card right off our web site. Then our custom work requires us to give estimates and do design work... and we do all of it by email.

Oh... and here's our website: http://www.pariarts.com

We designed the website ourselves and we maintain it. We pay for the credit card processing, and hosting of course, and the domain name. But that all pays for itself. We're not getting rich off the business, that's for sure, but we are getting by with it. But hey.... we work at home and make our own schedule, so it all evens out I guess.

Phyllis Meyer
04-12-2007, 9:42 AM
Paul,

Your signs are fantastic they are truly unique! The site is amazing also. It gives us some wonderful ideas for ours with the quote page... I thank you for responding and appreciate your input. It is coming together slowly but we are looking forward to this new aspect of our business.

Have a great day!
Phyllis:)

Todd Luginbuhl
04-12-2007, 12:56 PM
Phyllis,
If I may suggest www.darrenwissler.com he was the other half of the puzzle with our site's design. Good low cost high quality work, and you will be amazed with the amount of effort he puts forth!
Truly worth every penny spent, heck he still gives me support on issues with our site when needed.

Carol Reed
04-12-2007, 1:07 PM
Website doesn't come up. Misspelling somewhere?

Todd Luginbuhl
04-12-2007, 1:16 PM
Updated... Pda phone not best for typing.

Carol Reed
04-12-2007, 3:18 PM
Thanks Tom. I've bookmarked it. I have an idea......

Bill Cunningham
04-12-2007, 9:16 PM
I do a lot of local work, I've been in business around my neighborhood for over 18 years.. Other than a couple of headings in the yellowpages, I do no local advertising at all, just word-of-mouth keeps me hopping. Over the past 5 years or so, the website has been producing more and more customers, to the point where I guess a full 80% or more of my customers are from 50 to 3000 miles away.. My business is in a 1200 sq ft. building beside my home, and after living here for almost 40 years, they are finally upgrading our street to the point where it will be the second major 'linking' road in our town.. This should expose my business to many more customers...'then' I will retire :p