Find something that works for you
At a recent workshop in Bristol I was asked the following question.
“I’ve done loads of adverts on the radio and in the local, and even national, papers but none of it seems to work for me and I don’t understand why. How can I get more customers?”
My simple answer was that for most of us advertising does not work.
Start testing and measuring the results of your different activities and soon you can see what works best for you, but it probably isn’t advertising. What often works is the cheap and cheerful stuff.
The Directors’ Centre Selling Survey confirms that the order of effectiveness (according to 247 small/growing businesses) is face-to-face selling, referrals and recommendations, networking and then the other activity (exhibitions, events, PR, publicity, advertising, email campaigns etc…).
But be careful with this survey because this simply tells us the preferred option of these 247 businesses.
Just because your competitors do advertising doesn’t mean that it works. Find something that works for you.
