Architectural Firm Business Plan
Advertising your Architectural Firm Business on a budget means you need an Architectural Firm Business Plan. Your plan means you can identify key selling points and ensure you can advertise your business as cheaply and efficiently as possible.
Here are just some ideas on how you can advertise your Architectural Firm Business on a budget.
Advertise for free by word of mouth
Word of mouth is the best way to advertise for free.
A friend tells you that he had just had his roof redone by a company that was very good, and not too expensive. If you were looking for someone to redo your roof would you go with this company, or would you look in the directories to find a different one?
Of course not!
You would go with the company your friend suggested.
That’s the power of word of mouth advertising. It is the most influential and cheapest advertising method you will ever find.
There are two ways to promote your business by word of mouth
- get others to talk about you and
- talk about yourself.
Let us start with getting others to talk about you. The best way to do this is to surpass your customers’ expectations. You can do this in simple ways. For instance, a flower shop may include a single rose with an order of a large bouquet; if this is not advertised but just a surprising extra it is sure to get talked about. You will have a few customers order bouquets wondering if they will get an extra. When they do they will be delighted and will pass on the word that the little flower shop gives more for your money.
A similar way to get talked about is to tell lively stories. You know the kind that people can’t help but repeating. If you don’t have any, listen to others. When you hear them tell a funny story that you think might amuse your customers jot down a couple notes that will jog your memory later on. Keep these in good taste and always positive so that your image will remain that way. When people repeat these stories they will be asked where they heard them and then your Architectural Firm Business will be mentioned and many conversations will turn to talking about what you do.
Another way to get people talking about you is to provide extra information. This can be information about the history of your business. If you are a small town success costumers often feel like contributors to your success when they know your story.
And if it is a story worth repeating it will be.
Other information you can provide are ways to save customers money or get them noticed. People will share this information with associates and your Architectural Firm Business will be mentioned, if this happens often enough people will begin to think that you have a fantastic company.
Many companies hand out advertising material, like pens, rulers, magnets. If you would like to hand something out, give away something that is unusual and that will get talked about. Give away an antenna ball, a license plate cover or something else that is sure to get noticed and talked about.
Now for some ways you can enter your Architectural Firm Business into conversations.
When meeting someone new you will probably ask something like, “so what do you do?” The person will tell you and then ask you the same question. The key here is to ask them first. That way there is more time to talk about your business, because they are not sitting there waiting to tell you what you do. Make your job sound as interesting and useful as possible, and they will remember it.
Another way to enter your xyz business into conversations is to look for ties. Listen to the conversation and subtly insert comments like, “yes, just the other day I got a call like that from one of my customers”, or “I went through a similar experience just when I was starting my own business”. Keep your comments positive, no gossiping here. Gossips will get a bad reputation quickly. You may get talked about, but you may also get labeled as the business to avoid.
Keep your comments positive and compliment your customers. When they leave they will remember the good feeling they got from you and will refer friends and family to you.
Using this method of advertising will get you more customers and cut down on your advertising expenses.
You need to ensure people talk about your Architectural Firm Business by clearly setting out how you will do that in your Architectural Firm Business Plan.
Architectural Firm Business advertising information
Business advertising avenues offer free marketing and many options that can give you bonus exposure for your advertising dollar.
Millions of new businesses start up each week and the key to their success, and yours, is the same:
- effective advertising and
- low cost marketing techniques.
Many Architectural Firm Business owners believe that they do not have a budget for advertising.
Then there are the other business owners that believe they cannot afford NOT to advertise. The answer to them both is that advertising is essential.
"Advertising doesn't have to be expensive to be effective."
There are many advertising avenues that offer free marketing and even more options that can give you more exposure for your advertising dollar than you may think.
Read through the following ideas and see how they could work in your Architectural Firm Business and make sure you include them in your Architectural Firm Business Plan.
Press Release
A well written press release is a excellent way to make the public aware of your product or company. You can submit a press release to local and national newspapers, radio, television, magazines and trade publications both online and off. Make your press release attention grabbing, truthful and newsworthy to get an editors attention. For best results focus your article on a targeted audience instead of a wide readership.
Sponsor contests
Another way to receive free advertising is to offer to sponsor a contest for a community event or large publication. By furnishing the winning prize your advertising can come in a variety of methods. If the contest in on-line you will be offered a free banner link or rotation on the contest entry page and are often given a 6-8 line advertisement to be included in a subscriber newsletter. Normally this advertising package can cost from $30 - several hundred dollars depending on the size of the web site.
When sponsoring an online contest always ask how many unique visitors they receive to their site in a month or how many participants visited the contest page during their last contest. You could be asked to send the prize to the main web site prior to the contest or forward the prize directly to the winner. Be aware that you will be responsible for shipping costs no-matter which country the winner resides in.
Twice a year public television stations will also have a broadcast in which prizes can be donated in exchange for advertising or the merchandise could be auctioned. Generally you will be asked to provide a sentence or two to be read on-air while your product is being shown by the camera. Some public stations will also allow you to choose the demographical area you wish your merchandise to be used. I recommend that only large companies utilize public television donations as a way to generate advertising or if you need a tax write-off for the merchandise. Most small corporations or home-based business will not be able to contribute merchandise within their minimum prize value without hurting their inventory base.
Mailing Lists
The internet has hundreds of thousands of mailing list that you can subscribe to and sell your product or service. Even if the list group does not allow you to sell your product, it is common practice to have a 6-8 line "signature line" that is automatically put at the bottom of all outgoing messages, e-mail responses and forwarding e-mails.
Using a search engine you can read a description of what types of lists are available to choose the ones that would be made up of your target audience or potential customers.
Bulletin Boards
Don't forget to make up flyers to post at local grocery store and community bulletin boards. Also known as BBS's the internet Bulletin Boards are also a free advertising avenue worldwide.
Online Auctions
Although online auctions can take a lot of time to run successfully, they can also be very profitable. The large auction sites generally charge you a fee to not only sell your item but also to list it. Some fees are percentage based while other sites are a flat fee per listing. Smaller auction sites are usually free and although they do not receive as many browsers, you can have same amount of successful sales without fees!
Chat Rooms
On-Line chat rooms are a location where people can communicate in real time. Chat rooms are available for just about every topic and are divided into rooms by category.
Networking
Taking the time to meet other business owners at internet malls, homepages, websites, community events and industry craft-fairs are another good way to advertise your business. Fellow business owners are generally eager to share their success as well as their failures and can pass you information regarding potential clients that they themselves could not help in their area of expertise.
Business Cards
Having business cards available is essential in networking whether you are working with fellow business owners or potential clients. I am listed business cards as a free advertisement because there are several companies that will print over 250 business cards and address labels absolutely free for your use.
Why?
They want advertising space that will be saved and read too. The backside of the labels will have company information printed on it and the flipside of the business card will as well. Just another idea you could use in getting your advertising out there in front of people too!
Advertising Exchange
Where direct mailing campaigns can be costly it is very inexpensive to join a group of fellow business associates who will mail out your advertisement with their product orders. You in turn offer to do the same so it is a win-win situation for all involved only costing you the paper the advertisement is printed on!
Writing Articles
We live in a 24/7 age and there is a real shortage of good articles for publications both online and offline as well. By writing an article about a topic that your target audience would be interested in you could get your “advertisement” into publications and onto sites you could be getting your advertising for free; whilst your competitors are paying.
The key is to write an article that is interesting enough that the readership will continue reading to the bottom of the article where your author by-line and company information is located. You should avoid listing your credentials as a writer but use the space to advertise your product or service. Include a web site or e-mail address where applicable.
This ad space will only work if you get the readers immediate attention. Offering a coupon or discount can be both eye catching and might be the incentive they need to act upon. Most articles used online will be archived and you need to be willing to honor the coupon if product orders surface months later from an archived article being read.
Although it is a personal choice, make sure you will be maintaining your copyright unless the publication is willing to offer you payment for your work.
Remnant Space Advertising
When your advertising budget will allow you to look into paid advertising you should rarely have to pay full price. Almost every media has left over space that the industry refers to as "remnant space". Advertising is a perishable commodity and it is not uncommon to be able to purchase bonus television or radio airtime if you ask for it as a package deal. Newspapers offer the most remnant space but could be more difficult to work with unless you have established yourself as a regular advertiser. You will generally not be able to choose the time or location in which your remnant space advertising is ran.
These simple ideas could change your Architectural Firm Business; make sure you have them in your Architectural Firm Business Plan.