Marketing Activities

• Networking

This is a primary and constant activity in all businesses. Arguably, your network is one of the most valuable business resources you have at your disposal. It ranges from friends and neighbours who know what you do all the way through to people you have worked for and your suppliers.

It is also one of the cheapest and most effective at getting you work. When people want a plasterer and they don't know one, they will start by asking someone they know. Make sure the name they get is yours! Don't forget - you don't sell to your network - they provide the introduction, or they already want to buy.

When you first start out in your construction business, actively develop your Network. Don't forget - Networking is work! Go to meetings where you will meet people. Go to local events, get to know people and get known!

Local meetings and events can include

• Chambers of Trade/Commerce
• Federation of Small Businesses
• Organising Committees for Fetes; Open Gardens; Youth Activities
• Commercial Networking events, such as Networking4Business

Keep a note of who is in your network. Keep in touch with them. Call them occasionally, or chat with them if you see them. Resist the urge to sell! Do them small favours, for example - if you know a client is interested in classic cars, let them know if you see an event advertised locally that might interest them. The purpose is to be remembered when they want your service or someone asks them for a service you supply.

Will Kintish is known as the UK's "Networking Guru". He is the BEST networking trainer in the country. Have a look at his "99 Practical Tips - How to be a more confident and effective Networker" Better still - sign up for his Monthly Newsletter

• Advertising

There is an old adage - "I know half my advertising is bringing in business - the problem is, I don't know which half"

What nonsense! Anyone who says that doesn't deserve to succeed!

Some of your advertising activities will cost you money. They will all cost you time. Every person who comes to you can be asked how they came to know about you. They will all be very happy to share the information. It can get a bit complicated if you have a business which has a number of people in it, all taking calls from a variety of customers (although this is no excuse) but we're dealing with your business as a self-employed sole trader or small limited company with probably all the sales activity undertaken by one or at the most two people.

Three Rules:

Be rigorous about finding out where your customers came from

Experiment until you find the right formula

Kill off any adverts that aren't paying for themselves

Advertising costs can be kept to a minimum. For example, use limited entries in monthly publications to "prime the pump" and after three months, you can start to rely on referrals from satisfied customers. A couple of local examples to our area are:

On Your Doorstep - delivered monthly to households for free.

Your LocalLink - Similar publication for York (also has a weblink Directory)

These tend to be put in the kitchen drawer and got out when a tradesperson is needed (or when the next issue arrives!)

Think carefully before advertising in local daily newspapers. These will only win you business if someone wants to buy your service on the day your advertisement is placed. Never forget - today's newspaper is tomorrow's fish wrapper!

Sign up for free entries in business directory websites. Most of these will let you have an entry for free. See these examples:

Management Training Directory - UK directory of management training companies and training providers.

HotFrog - UK-wide business listings of a whole range of companies

FreeIndex - another business listings site

We use as many of these as possible - largely because the directories are searched by Google and other search engines, so it is a good way (even if you don't have a website) to have the chance of being found in an online search.

• The Internet

A little known fact - public access to the Internet was only released in 1995

Since that time, it has become the fastest growing information resource on the planet. Since 2000, the growth each year has outstripped that of the previous five years.

Historically, the UK has followed trends in the United States for internet use. The crucial question every business leader has to ask is How do I get a benefit from the Internet?

The answer to this is not "I need a website". With respect to most construction enterprises, especially those that are targeted at the domestic market, even the most whizzy website in the world will not win business if that is not the way people buy the service. At the moment (and this may change over the next couple of years - in which case we will tell you) people buy plasterers, tilers and painters & decorators because they find out about them and have confidence in them.

Just to explain why SuperSkills has a website - as a training business, people locate us and choose their provider by reading about our courses.

Don't forget - a website is not only for Christmas - you have to constantly work at the content to keep it paying its' way.

However - none of this means you don't use the internet to advertise. One of the ways people find services is to use Google, Yahoo, DogPile and other search engines to find them.

Action:

Get on your computer (or go to your local library and use one for free) and put your business details into as many local business directories as possible. Do a Google search for "Local Business Directories NameOfYourTown". You will get results like these which are from a search on "York"

If you are not confident on a computer, get someone to do it for you. Don't forget - new directories spring up all the time, so it's not a "one-off" activity. Also just fill out the compulsory parts of the listing that get a free entry. Avoid paying for "enhanced listing". It won't make any difference.