Advertise and Market a Business

L.Jenkins

Just posting here to find out what are the best resources to Advertise and Market a new Start Up. I take it, Newspaper and printed flyers would be a place to start. I'm also going to pick up a few business cards to distribute where possible. Any other ideas to provide business awareness?

Peterdalkey

You could be right and why not include local, national or global TV and cinema advertising too? Without specifying your target market, geographic reach etc... It is anyone's guess as to what might work with unspecified resources. If you paint the picture with reasonable specifics as to the actual business, you will get some great helpful and useful advice on here.

L.Jenkins

The business provides Managed IT Services to small and medium sized companies the Republic and Northern Ireland. Additional services would include Cloud Computing and hosting. Hopefully I've clarified the aim of the business.

anbrutog

I got slated for it before but ( in my opinion ) the best way to get customers is to build a list by using adwords and other forms of online advertising and market to them over time ( or even use offline advertising to do the same thing, direct mail can work well )

The key though is to get them onto your list and not to ask for the sale straight away.

It requires patience and a little thing called work ( which puts 99% of people off ) but if you persist, the rewards are great.

L.Jenkins

I'm at the early stages now, but I'm slowly building things from the ground up. I have a facebook page on the go and trying to get a name out there. I'm going to get some advertising materials and business cards sorted fairly soon and was considering on line marketing. I might find online marketing a little trickier but well worth considering. Thanks for the suggestions.

Hanley

anbrutog wrote: »

I got slated for it before but ( in my opinion ) the best way to get customers is to build a list by using adwords and other forms of online advertising and market to them over time ( or even use offline advertising to do the same thing, direct mail can work well )

The key though is to get them onto your list and not to ask for the sale straight away.

It requires patience and a little thing called work ( which puts 99% of people off ) but if you persist, the rewards are great.

Why did you get slated for that? I'm seeing great success doing the exact same

Peterdalkey

Itzy wrote: »

The business provides Managed IT Services to small and medium sized companies the Republic and Northern Ireland. Additional services would include Cloud Computing and hosting. Hopefully I've clarified the aim of the business.

As a start-up,I assume you have a business plan and a vital element of such a plan is to identify your target market and establish sufficient demand for your services. SMEs are not a market per se, the term is used to categorise them by size not activity. The range of activities is vast and you would be more likely to succeed if you were to target specific industries/sectors and market/promote to those businesses. Most such services businesses are set up on the basis of existing contacts and connections and then leveraging them to get more business and contacts.

You need to be able to differentiate your business offering from all the other players in your sector by having some sort of USP. It may be a particular expertise in areas specific to that industry or perhaps simply an offer to manage a network for X Euro per computer per month. Marketing/advertising is a very easy way to spend a lot of money for little return UNLESS it is well crafted and focussed in such a way to be very appealing to your target audience. Establishing credibility and a regarded reputation in B2B services is vital to gain these types of service contracts, becoming know within an industry is huge help in opening new doors. Your existing customer/client list can be a great benefit to establish this trust.

I would suggest that you pick some specific sectors and identify the companies involved, and then target them directly with your offering. You may need to modify or tweak your USP as you go along but by monitoring your hit rate you can establish the most effective messages and methodologies. You should always put yourself in the place of the recipient of your message and be able to establish “what’s in it for them!”. A really good website with social media backup is vital for anybody in the IT sector. Together with Google adwords and well targeted Direct Mail you will have a decent platform to sell these kinds of services.

anbrutog

Hanley wrote: »

Why did you get slated for that? I'm seeing great success doing the exact same

Because there's a ridiculous amount of idiots running businesses out there Hanley, that's why...