Which is most effective?

Although budget may be limited, another factor to think about is your available time.

For a tight budget, personally I'd suggest online marketing, which can vary from free to unlimited, but downside can be time for any results, plus the amount of time you have to invest. But there are also plenty of traditional options, some free to low cost, so maybe work out a dual stratedgy.

Maybe for your industry, a simple mail shot/flyers of your local area would be more beneficial? I know we get a regular postcard size mail shot from a local garden services chap.

Theres always of course your local shops/newsagents and putting a card in the window. Low cost but can be effective.

Mark 1 pounding the streets and door banging. Need a thick skin, but can start you off with a few clients. Maybe following up a mail shot could be more effective?

Online approach would be SEO, link building, free and low cost directories, or for instant results, an adwords campaign, if your comfortable learning and playing with keywords.

Hope thats a starter for 10

Thanks for the input sjr4x4,

I am already implementing some of your suggestions, e.g. I am registered with about 40 on-line directories, which subsequently led me to this very forum.

I have also tried flyers (albeit in a limited way) but do not seem to have had any response at all from this 'campaign'.

Having spoken to another SME (a shopkeeper), who said that he had not found flyers of any benefit (i.e. no increase in footfall as a result), I was rather hoping that the folks on here would come forward with their own experiences of what [I]actually[I] works and/or what they have found is more/most cost-effective with regard to advertising, publicising and promoting.

Regards.

For our company the internet is the key. But not all companies work the same. For us we are only just venturing into marketing and so far local papers and flyers seem a complete flop. apart from word of mouth Google has actually brought in most of our enquiries.

Word of mouth seems the most valuable form of advertising.

Forums are a good place to get your name out there, however Forums can take up quite a bit of time though.

Have you thought about working with age concerns they always need gardeners for people no longer to tend their own. It's paid work, and there is plenty of it. Not quite down the Ecological route though.

Try advertising on websites linked in some way to renewable energy, or investing in a show garden to put in your online and paper brochures?

It seems educating is key to gaining work for you. And the more educational literature your website holds the better you'll be ranked in google searches without having to pay for it!!

Hope this helps.

Well for us personally, we've tried flyers, newspapers, magazines, liveried taxis, radio campaigns but none of this has ever competed in ROI with online advertising.

For instant marketing, has to be Google adwords. Long term, then holy grail is organic keywords, so SEO, link building etc.

Thanks for raising this question, it's an ongoing struggle isn't it. All the replies are very helpfull .
Beverley

Per pound spent, the biggest ROI for me has to be developing and maintaining an online presence, closely followed by offline networking in its various forms (for example, I got startup help from the Prince's Trust, and now if the people who helped me have another client who could benefit from VA support, they pass along my business card).

However, I have to admit that as soon as we put a cash value on my time that I have spent posting on forums, developing my website, creating profiles, etc, then it diminishes rapidly. Certainly for the first few months I was spending more hours-per-week on online activity than I spent doing paid work for clients.

That said, the online activity is not a one-way conduit. If I spend an hour posting on this forum I'm not *just* raising my own profile, I'm also getting the benefit of everyone else's experience and that's invaluable.

Thanks to everyone for your replies.

Some very interesting points emerging. For example, I agree that word-of-mouth (and personal recommendation) is perhaps THE most effective form of 'advertising'.

I also agree with the points raised about the time versus monetary cost aspect. I have also spent MANY hours first building, and then promoting my website (only a few more posts and then I can add a link here as well). Although this aspect has been a very steep learning curve, I am sure it is well worth the time spent, as I am beginning to see an increase - gradual though it is - in hits to my website.

Incidentally, if you don't already have it, Google's "Google Analytics" is well worth having in my opinion. Because for example, it not only indicates how many visitors your website receives, it also reports how they got there - e.g. via search engines, referals or direct, and how many pages of your site they viewed, etc. And it's free. (I don't work for Google by the way).

And getting the experience of others in similar situations IS invaluable and, I think, well worth the time invested. So please keep posting your ideas and experiences.

Regards.

I agree with what's been said. Word of mouth or referrals are brilliant for business but dont always keep you in constant work as they can be rare.

maybe enquire with Approved Index (or someone similar) how much they would charge to provide you with qualified leads within your area. We use these guys and have had some success with the leads they send us.

B2B networking allows you to get in front of other business owners very cost effectively. There are lots around and some are better than others, but there is no doubting their effectiveness, and as many have no membership fees, for