Island Locks - Locksmith Courses - Lock Picking - Lock Opening - Locksmith Tools

Just been looking at 118118.com to see how much it costs to advertise (if anyone can give me an idea please let me know) when I went on to their testimonials on page 2 one was from the rogue trader himself now apparently he was a busy boy, although now he might be trying to keep himself safe from fellow rogues.

Seriously ive been ripped off with advertising and dont see why others should follow suit I intend doing a small bit of research on this to see what works and what doesnt, I would be grateful if everybody outthere could give me some information what they have found works and what hasnt which I will collate and make available to all on the forum.

Please PM me with your information which I will keep confidential if required.

Jay I hope this is ok with yourself

Regards

Derek

Hi Derek, we pay for the sponsored listings on Yell.com this guarantees that you are one of the top three returns on any search for your categorie in the requested area. This has always worked well for us, but actually advertising in Yellow pages itself we used to struggle to even get enough jobs to pay for the ad let alone make a profit.

 I dont think that you can beat getting yourself known by all of the local estate/letting agents in your area as this will generate a lot of repeat business.

Another way that generates a lot of work for us is obviously to make sure you provide a fast friendly efficient service and leave the happy customer with a few business cards to give to friends, by doing this once i gained a regular client who spends at least 10-15k a year with us. So you just never know. Hope that helps and good luck.

thanks for that keith, is this just for the locks part of your business or both?

Derek

We run a complete property maintenance company so we are lucky to pull in work for a big range of services that we offer, but i have found that if i do a bit of decorating for a company we then pick up any future lock related work they may have. This also has worked the other way round. i was wondering if any of the others on here diversify from lock related work as it can get a few extra quid in the door which is handy when your just starting up.

I had Thomsons on the phone today as I put a free add on their website...................

Trying to sell me space so for anybody who wants to know. They quoted me £250 + VAT  (£293.73) (50% discount for new customers)  for 6 months, monthly interest free. Followed by 2x 3 months at £70 (£140)

 For this I`d go on the thompsons web and because its connected to Google they say i would go straight to the top for searches. !!!!! (but what about all the others who pay!! wouldn`t tell me what happens to them)

 Trouble is where I live i`m on the border of Worcs, Warwickshire and Gloucstershire so I would only be under Worcs, so if you decide to advertise be careful if you live on or close to borders. I`ve found another monthly mag that covers more of the area where i live so might try that.

Thomsons also phoned me today Mick, same story. The chap was very polite though, even when i told him my advertising budget for the year has been exhausted. That one always works.

I even had a call from the Police rabbiting on about some help the young, drunks, drugs, blah blah pay us loads of money, magazine , generate loads of work tosh.

The rude git hung up mid sentence when i said try next year.

A word of warning for anyone putting ads in Yellow Pages, Thomsons etc. you will then get no end of calls from other publications trying to sell you advertising space as well (they sit in a call centre with the directory in front of them), Personally i do what Robert does and say we have already spent our advertising budget for the year they cant argue with that. Some call centres also use the directories to get numbers to call to try and sell anything from mobile phone contracts to overseas investments, gets a bit annoying after the third or fourth call of the day!

WARNING: Theses twats will tell you anything to SELL, SELL.......SELL!!

They are full of bull and all they want is your money and will make it sound as though your phone will never stop. You will get calls once your advertising, free listings etc start to kick in but I would recommend politely telling them you are not interested, os as Keith says you have done your budget. 

A simple rule that I use is that anyone who calls you trying to sell advertising is something you haven't thought about yourself, so do you need it? You are the boss, so if you want to you will call them. Be warned also that there are loads of scams out there so never pay anything up front on a whim and promise?

I almost know most of the numbers by heart now so just ignore them.

We also get lots of calls from companies saying that they are phoning on behalf of the police, fire brigade or local council to try and give themself an air of authority. its all rubbish of course.

Also beware of the ones who call you trying to get you to purchase booklets that they will print your advert all over that are to be distributed to local schools warning about child abuse. These idiots will call you and say that they spoke to you about 3 or 4 months ago and that you placed an order and your booklets now need to be paid for. I told them if i had ordered them they must know my name then? there answer was Mr Kaymax!!

@Kieth: Had them ones as well.

If you get a call and after want to check them out, a good site to visit is http://whocallsme.com and just enter their phone number.

Thats a top tip Jay, I will be making use of that one.