Advertising Strategies When You Have ZERO Money!

I was talking with an ESI client not long ago.  He was a really small, new company.  He was only doing a few hundred thousand dollars in revenue.  He desperately wanted to advertise to grow his business, but he simply didn’t have the cash flow.  He felt like he couldn’t sink 15% of his projected sales into marketing, like you need to when growing a business.

I told this young man, that’s okay.  Just because you don’t have a big ad budget doesn’t mean you can’t advertise.  In fact, quite the opposite.  There are plenty of ways you can advertise without having hardly anything in the bank.  Let me explain…

What’s something that virtually every person has and everyone looks at it every single day?  Not sure what direction I’m taking this?  Well, let me answer for you: Every single person has a refrigerator.  In that kitchen, they probably have a memo pad.  They may even have a calendar hanging up with important reminders posted on them…

See where I’m going with this?

Advertising for new customers is important.  However, knowledgeable contractors will tell you that the customers who call them the most are their repeat customers.  What does that mean?  It means every time you go to a customer’s home, you should have a package of items to give them with YOUR company, name, logo, number, and web address on it.  Even better, put on each piece: “Show this for $25 OFF your next service”.  It doesn’t take much money to get a bunch of refrigerator magnets produced or sticky notes, small calendars, or memo pads printed.  How about a coffee cup?  Little items like that, which people use all the time, are great to give away.  I promise you—people will hold onto those little, cheap, inexpensive items.

Not only will people use these little items, they’ll serve as constant reminders of you!  So, they’ll never even think to contact another electrician, because yours will be the first company that pops in their minds!

Don’t have enough money to spend tens of thousands on a radio campaign?  This is a great start to grow your company.  Market to your CURRENT customers!