Best and worst advertising for a saw shop

[fordf150]

Use this as a general discussion but I'm looking for some advice to use in my shop.

For the last 6 years I've run on word of mouth advertising and I'm very happy with the results. On a good year I might spend $1500 on advertising. $400-600 of that goes to my local youth baseball team sponsorship, another $100-300 goes to the local volunteer fire departments and finally $450 or so for online.... Forum sponsoring.


I've had great success with so little advertising and last year was my best ever but I'm looking to take advantage of the new found name recognition of Makita and step up my game a little on sales.

I'm sure I'm not the only one debating where the money is best spent. Every advertising medium claims to be the best and get the best results.

So what has been your experience? Any one medium that has worked where others failed? Is it necessary to spend a ton on repeat ads so that potential customers think of your shop first?

 

[TreeLife]

I'll speak up...

My father is a life long builder, he stick builds start to finish. He has always used Makita tools and has sworn to their quality, push the product towards people who know the tool brand and iterate the saws are manufactured by a premium German brand.

The Internet is the way of the present and future, keep doing what you are doing!

 

[RIDE-RED 350r]

I am not a business owner, so take this comment strictly as coming from a potential customer.

I think that having a bigger footprint online is important to any business that wishes to continue to expand and grow. Yes there are still die hard old schoolers out there who refuse to buy online and nothing against providing the brick and mortar service to them. However, I think more and more people are going the "self serve" route for parts at least and certainly some for whole saw purchases. I mean, look at all of us here on this forum. I have bought from you and but for this forum I would never have heard of your business. Many people nowadays have a pretty good grasp of what they want and/or need and for whatever reason be it a bad experience at a local shop or the desire to just get what they need by their own means, they turn to online purchasing.

I would look into expanding your Google hits for parts and equipment you sell. It sounds like you have a pretty solid local customer base already.

 

[Chris Zautner]

I have the opportunity to order parts for saws at my local dealer but having the convenience of ordering parts online is very nice which is why I like it the most. I say if you were to spend money on advertising, I would spent it on internet advertising.

 

[exSW]

I'd definitely build up the local advertising. As things go more on line there are fewer and fewer brick and mortar businesses. Yes there are fewer customers seeking brick and mortar but there a far fewer establishments to service them. The contractors,farmer,landscapers still need walk in service.

 

[fordf150]

Bigger, better online presence is already in the works, has been for over a year and if ARI ever answers my last couple questions and the terms are acceptable a new website with partsmart will be launched although with a somewhat limited capability.

I'm looking for ways to beef up the local customer base, I still have people from 2 blocks away that are just now finding me.

Brick and mortar stores for right now satisfaction, repairs/advice are still needed and lots of people are looking for them and need them so what's the best way to connect with those people? Is it just a healthy online presence be it a website, Facebook, Google AdWords or something else to draw them in and make them come to me/you over the competition

 

[exSW]

Make sure you turn up near the top in a location specific search. There are ways to make sure this happens. An internet savvy tech should be able to make this happen.

 

[CTYank]

IME, for potential local customers, word-of-mouth from previous customers is a significant channel for referrals. Of course, that works both ways. Stories I've heard from acquaintances about certain dealers swayed me from ever darkening their door. One auto dealer I know of even gave kickbacks of savings bonds for referring new customers. You might ask "Who referred you?".

Internet presence could be interesting for local business, but I can't even speculate about a good channel, to let them know that you exist and what you can do for them. Are you collecting any testimonials from customers, that you can publish? Might not want to just cherry-pick, and let some of the nay-sayers air their gripes.

 

[Dub11]

Maybe a demo day? And not sure if this is possible but on saw specs maybe have the ready to run weight ? Those numbers make me happy. And what about lawn garden shows? Meet some people shake some hands kinda stuff.

 

[Dub11]

Oh and the really good actually knows what there talking about saw shop by me doesn't even have a web page. All Facebook and they'll post costumers purchases and then in turn the customers will post up video's of them using the products. And between them and HLS there adds will pop up on my local news app. Not sure how that works but it is kind of creepy cool.

 

[drf256]

Nearly all but the more elderly type google everything. I'd see where you are at with google searches for the top 5 categories of product you sell.

My personal business is word of mouth. We get free advertising by this on Facebook. I'm not even on Facebook to read the reviews, and I don't wanna be.

 

[Stump Shot]

I still look in the yellow pages for local services needed.

 

[Crzybowhntr]

Billboards work well in my area but of course the internet is king.

 

[Chainsaw Addict]

Nate, Send $$ to me. I always tell others in posts about great experience. Or directly to Ed's kids college fund.

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

 

[GCJenks204]

Nate,

All these are great suggestions but you first have to start with how much you are willing to spend and then figure out the best way to spend those funds. When you just start down the path of what is best etc you can soon find yourself spending way more than you expected. At our corporate meeting in Feb I almost chit myself when I found out how much certain advertising cost us. We budget about 2.5% of annual sales, about .5% is strictly on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google and other online. You really need to have someone that is dedicated to making those work and that person shouldn't be you.

Start local, is there a radio station in town that hosts a 'Talk to the Experts" call in show or something? What about putting your logo on the trucks / trailers of some local landscapers? "Home & Garden" shows can be great venue for getting your name out, take a huge amount of work but can be worth in the long run.

Do you have "Demo" or "rental units" of any of your product? One think I have noticed about Dolmar / Makita saws is that everyone that uses one is impressed but those that haven't used them may not even want to try them. Same goes with mowers and other implements, sometimes you need to experience it to know you want to own it.

For your online I would at least have a conversation with @exCanuck . I don't understand how it's done but I get ads for HLS on my mobile when browsing or playing ad supported games.

One thing I know that has been positive for us is testimonials written on Google about your business. I for one have been very pleased with my transactions with you and will head over there and write one for you later.

 

[exCanuck]

I still look in the yellow pages for local services needed.

what is "yellow pages?"

 

[danimal]

Dont use "WE FIX SAWS N CHIT"
As an ad slogan. Too cheech & chong sounding..
Unless yer in east LA.. then it might work..

 

[exCanuck]

I'm looking for ways to beef up the local customer base, I still have people from 2 blocks away that are just now finding me... so what's the best way to connect with those people? Is it just a healthy online presence be it a website, Facebook, Google AdWords or something else to draw them in and make them come to me/you over the competition

1. You can limit Facebook and Google Adwords to your locale.

2. To help folks with "How to market a small engine repair shop", I've written quite a bit. Here are just 3 examples. You're already doing some of these ideas, some others may help:

https://hlsupply.wordpress.com/2017...rvice-or-lawn-service-or-landscaping-service/

http://blog.hlsproparts.com/2015/12/increase-sales-by-generating-word-of.html

http://blog.hlsproparts.com/2015/10/how-to-add-revenue-to-outdoor-power.html

 

[Dub11]

what is "yellow pages?"

You remember that book a random guy would throw on your steps once a year that has really thin pages and the ink rubbed off on your fingers.

 

[exCanuck]

Dont use "WE FIX SAWS N CHIT"
As an ad slogan. Too cheech & chong sounding..
Unless yer in east LA.. then it might work..

You meant "feex"