For those of you who don’t know, I own a few different businesses, both online and offline. One of those is Tri Megatech Technology Solutions, a company that offers technology support and solutions to home users, home offices, and small-mid sized businesses. We do things like coming to your house and removing viruses [...]
For those of you who don’t know, I own a few different businesses, both online and offline. One of those is Tri Megatech Technology Solutions, a company that offers technology support and solutions to home users, home offices, and small-mid sized businesses. We do things like coming to your house and removing viruses to setting up an intricate network for a company moving into a new office.
The majority of our business is very localized, meaning most of the money comes from people and businesses within a certain mile range of our location in Maryland. We do offer web design and development services, which can be done for anybody anywhere, but most of our money does not come from this. This means we have to do a lot of local advertising in order to get our name out there and generate enough business to cover our expenses and make a profit. We are a new business, so getting our name out there is very important at this stage because it’s also one that can generate much of its business through word-of-mouth…the most powerful type of advertising there is. In order to get new clients and customers through word-of-mouth, we have to get the work in the first place to leave a good impression.
This Sunday we’ll be running our first advertisement in the newspaper. We purchased a spot called a 2×3 (3.7″x3″) that will run through a few local papers here in Maryland this Sunday. The circulation for the paper is about 60,000, so we really hope to generate a decent amount of business out of this.
When it comes to advertising, it’s all about ROI (return on investment). I don’t care if I spend $1,000,000 on an advertisement, as long as I can make money (in a specified amount of time), I’m happy. This ad costed us about $200, so just getting a few simple jobs will make up for it. The jackpot would be to get some contracts with businesses out of it though. While lots of little jobs adds up, the direction we’re trying to move our company into is supporting small-large businesses as well as IT government contracting. Here’s the ad I created:
We’re offering 50% off of our prices because it’s important to us right now to generate a client list that will spread the word about our company. Word-of-mouth advertising is the most valuable type out there, and generates the most business…for free. We also wanted to target some businesses, so we’re offering free consultations. It was pretty hard to fit everything we wanted in one ad, and maybe it would have made more sense to actually get a few ads, make different creatives that target different services, then see how the results are for each. Just like online advertising, it’s most optimal when you tweak your ads every time in order to see what gets the best response (unfortunately in the offline world it’s much more expensive and time consuming to do this).
Hopefully I’ll be reporting back in the next week or two with some good news in regards to the newspaper ad. Stay tuned for a followup.
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Manufacturer and reseller of aftermarket car parts
IT solutions based out of Maryland. From homeusers to mid-sized businesses.
My name is David Pitlyuk and I’m an entrepreneur. I’m always on the lookout for the next big opportunity. This blog hits topics of interest for entrepreneurs, as well as my miscellaneous ramblings.
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©2008 David Pitlyuk
Brandon Hopkins
06/15/2007 11:21 amAd looks compelling Dave! I will assume that you’re going to get a lot of price calls. The focus is on the 50% off so that’s what people will want to know about. Do you charge by the hour? Or by the job?
David Pitlyuk
06/15/2007 11:30 amThanks Brandon! I’m also assuming there will be a lot of price calls as well…it will be interesting to see how many of them convert into sales.
We sort of do both. For home users generally though, we charge by the job..and offer big discounts for multiple jobs (for example removing spyware AND upgrading a video card). Mainly because we’re already at the location, etc.
Ryan Christensen
06/15/2007 12:39 pmKeep us updated… I’m really curious to hear how this pans out.
Back in the day (running my last company that was acquired by my current employer — we did almost exactly what TMT does) we tried radio advertising. The work we got directly from the ads didn’t immediately earn back what they cost, though the clients we did get formed a stable base of die-hard fans that spread our name whenever they could.
It also acted as a good conversation piece and reputation builder, as all of the sudden we could introduce ourselves by company name and hear “oh, I heard your ad on the radio!” I think it really changed the public perception of our business.
David Pitlyuk
06/15/2007 1:18 pmRyan: I’ll definitely keep you guys updated, I’m definitely just as curious to see how it pans out. Next week is going to be a worrisome week, especially if we don’t see the results we hoped for (and many times in advertising I don’t).
I’m interested in hearing more about your experience with radio advertising. What did it cost? How many ads did you run? Who produced the ads? How much did it cost to produce the ads? How long did you run ads for?
I can definitely see what you’re saying about not getting back what it costs immediately, but just as I’m saying about the importance of word-of-mouth and building than initial client/customer base, it expands. If you could the radio advertising over again, would you have?
That’s also pretty cool about people recognizing the ad from the radio, you must have had something pretty catchy? Do you still have the audio from it?
Ryan Christensen
06/15/2007 2:37 pmMy memory is pretty fuzzy on the exact timeline, but I think we did something like 3 plays a day (random rotation of a few ads) for a month. After meeting with a rep there we laid out our visions, ideas we wanted to get across, and so on. From there they developed (start to finish) our ads:
http://centrictech.com/pub/download/konp_ad_advantage.mp3 (didn’t air, actually)
http://centrictech.com/pub/download/konp_ad_babies.mp3
http://centrictech.com/pub/download/konp_ad_kim_komando.mp3
http://centrictech.com/pub/download/konp_ad_testimonial.mp3
http://centrictech.com/pub/download/konp_ad_wheel.mp3
We were a little thrown unsure about the “style” of the ads at first, but we also need(ed) to consider the target audience: a county of 70K people, our city having 30K of those — small town america basically, also a big retirement area.
As far as I recall there was never an additional cost to develop the ads (we started with two, with the other three being produced/used as the month went on.) They positioned it as a freebie, which just comes along with paying to have it on air. (Though it’s possible if we went with a smaller package that they wouldn’t have been included.)
The Kim Komando spot was rather successful, actually, as a good number of people locally listen to her weekend show that is broadcast in our area. Having a nationally syndicated host read your ad never hurts!
David Pitlyuk
06/15/2007 3:08 pmThanks for posting all that information, it was actually really helpful. I’d have to say, based on all of the audio, the Kim Komando spot was definitely the one that would have been the most effective to me as a potential customer.
Ryan Christensen
06/15/2007 4:42 pmNot a problem! I’m always available if you’re got more questions about our experience, though.
As far as doing it again, it’s a tough call. The fact that we weren’t able to recoup the investment as soon as we hoped was frustrating, but we managed. If you happen to have the spare cash though, I don’t think it’s a bad investment… it really depends on the market and deal(s) you can get. We took advantage of a promotional/annual deal they had going, which cut from the normal price substantially.
We actually managed to get a free booth at our local home show out of it because of our relationship with the radio station (and our running ads) at a $500 value. (Granted, we had 24 hours notice to pull our booth together, which proved to be quite the challenge… but, can’t turn down an offer like that!)
Joe Beaudry
06/15/2007 5:28 pmThose mp3’s bring back memories. Those were exciting times, every day was a new day to take the company even further. Working towards something that was completely ours (including success or failure). I am looking forward to Glacier Media ramping up. This linear income from my day job gets me down sometimes. I like knowing that I am working towards something that will grow exponentially and the returns will hopefully grow exponentially too. Trading dollars for hours has never sounded like a good idea to me. I need to get back to business… my business.
I envy you right now.
Good luck with the news paper campaign, and keep us posted!
Brandon Hopkins
06/16/2007 4:02 pmRyan, thanks for the mp3’s. I d/led them and will listen later. I’m in a similar boat. I do web design, IT consulting, etc in my local area. Maybe that would be a good idea for a website…something for guys like us.
Scot Smith
06/17/2007 10:43 pmYou’re ahead of most of the small businesses I have consulted. It’s hard to instill a value of ROI versus bottom-line cost.
I sell yellow pages advertising, by the way. So I would of course recommend getting an advert in the yellow pages :).
David Pitlyuk
06/17/2007 10:53 pmScot, thanks, I’m a huge “ROI” guy if that exists lol.
One of my good friends sells advertising in Yellow Book locally here. We do have a couple of ads in the local Yellow Book through our friend (no discount!). It runs us about $200/month, and to be honest I expected more out of it. It does pay itself off, as we do get a few jobs a month out of it, but we were expecting much more. We’ll see how it progresses over time, the book only went out to people in March.
Scot Smith
06/18/2007 6:06 amDave,
I worked for Yellow Book for about 8 months. Depending on the market, it’s generally better to get an ad in the Bell books as they’re more widely used and usually have a denser delivery routine (more advertising for you).
It is more expensive, though. But again, it’s all about ROI. Computer repair is a big heading for the yellow pages.