a Marketing question

[Doug Bernhardt]

Am trying to figger out a good way to "Target Market" to business's. I'd like to continue my higher-end wood signs and the like, but am scratching my head with how best to find a wider audience/client base. It will need to be non-local as I already have that market covered (sort of) and need between 8-10 new projects for any given year.

[Tony Segale]

Hey there, ol' timer...

I'm not an expert here, but I would start by askin myself a few questions...
Who would want my finished wood carved art?
How far away am I willing to ship, and deal with clients?
Would I be willing to work with another company as a wholesale / subcontractor?

A high quality brochure / postcard will work very well for your needs,
and finding the right audience....
builders/contractors?
architects?
interior designers / decorators?
other sign companies?
art galleries ( your works are works of art) ...

I don't have any real answers...just trying to help the wheels turn...

[Roderick Treece]

Doug,
One thing you can do is expand your web site.Do the research,add more key words and text to your main page and other pages.Keep in mind what words your clients are using to find what you want to sell them.
Photos are great once people have found your site but search engines look for key words .Also add a resource page so you can have relevent site there.Like all of us!

I would say 90% of my business now is web based.

I just did a google search for "Victorian Era carved and gilded wood sign".Your site comes up #1.
"carved and gilded woodsign" #1
"carved woodsign #7
"Custom wood sign" Gave up looking after the 5th page.
You have to think, What words or phrases would people use to find me?

I am also getting ready to add the video we made to the site.We'll see what happens with that.

Good luck and let me know if you need any info.

[Danny Baronian]

HI Doug,

That's a tough question.

What are you trying to market, who would your potential clients be? Who would you consider competitors? Potential clients would be the easiest to list, and competitors should be included in the event you could potentially outsource to them.

One thing that's been very effective for me is to make a limited run of 20 - 50 samples. Cut out a quantity of letters, a scroll or whatever you think up, mount on a simple backer and mail out. A nice sample is also something that won't get tossed. I've been in offices years later and still see those samples on the wall.

Design a post card featuring your current work and target current and potential customers, and send one off to those on your list once a month or two. One really nice photo on the front with a few progress photos on the back, and a description of the job. Above all, the simpler the better. Let your work speak for it self.

Ad agencies get this type of solicitation all the time, and 98% of it ends up in the circular file. Whatever you do has to be so good it remains a keeper rather than trash. With post cards you'll find more success when you can target your market well, and continue sending new cards on a regular basis over a long period of time.

If you're looking to generating 8-10 new jobs a year, this is how I would approach it.

I hope this helps.

Danny

[margaret norman]

Hello

I would definetly not forget about your web site, I run 2 sites, one of them is on the first page of google, we now get a good ammount of visitors to that site who like what we sell and how we sell it.

Our market is the English speaking world.

Take your website seriously it can help your craft based business enormously.

I can reccomend a good forum to start learning ., but I am not sure if I can give the html here.

PM me if you would like a link, I should say I am in no way connected to the forum other than being a member.

Richard

[Scooter Marriner]

Hi Doug,
in addition to the website updates mentioned above,
one of the easiest ways to increase your market is to create a niche that you "specialize" in. (Even if you don't really specialize, you're going to be telling your prospective customers that you do.)

for starters, you are now specializing in high end carved signs. That's too broad. Take a look at the best work you've done, and from that select the ones that are the most fun and the most profitable. (You don't want boring work, and you don't want money losers, right?). Can you group these into a new speciality? Schools, Banks, Restaurants, Vacation Homes, Ranches, Townships... the list goes on. Presumably, you can find one of those pegs to hang your hat on, or find one of your own.

You can even narrow down farther. For example:
Signs>
Carved Signs>
Restaurants>
Pizza Restaurants
Pizzarias in a 300 mile radius

And so your marketing becomes "Doug Makes Outstanding Signs for Pizza Restaurants in Texas"

Remember, most of your potential customers aren't searching for "carved signs" - they are just searching really great signs for their business. And if you are opening a top-end pizza place, you want the guy who does the best pizza signs.

Some other examples:
Signs for ranches --> horse ranches ---> quarter horse ranches --> Kentucky Quarter Horse Ranches

now you can buy a mailing list of every Quarter Horse trainer, stable and breeder in Kentucky, and mail them a postcard or brochure.

that's how you target a market, and nibble it down so its something you can really do ("yes, here are five signs for businesses just like yours that I've made in the past two years"). And nibble it down so its something you WANT to do. And nibble it down so its a group you can afford to target. (Start with a group that's 500 or so names, or you'll be overwhelmed with keeping track of it all)

In Addition:
increase referrals. I tell all my customers that I'll give them a 10 percent discount on their next project if they refer a customer to me. So far, I've given ten discounts! That means ten new customers, AND ten repeat jobs from existing customers. That doesn't include the customers who have referred people and haven't needed a new sign yet. The 10 percent is peanuts - new customers are worth a lot in repeat business over the years.

--

[Roderick Treece]

I really like the idea of giving customer the 10% offer.I'll try that.

It also helps to have a web site name that is what your trying to sell like www.customcarvedsigns.com

As for the printed material I know that you can expect less than a 5% return on your investment for it.Years ago I thought I had a great idea.Having so much experience working for amusement parks I join a group call IAOP.It's an international trade group for amusement parks.I purchased a member reference guide.Culled around 500 names from it .Paid to have a mailing label list prepared (12 sets 12 mailings).Designed post cards of relevant images and started to mail a new card each month for about a year.Following each mailing with a phone call I was able to find out which people were out of business and which ones were good prospects.The list went down to about 200 with in 6 months.
After 7 months we attended the IAOP convention in New Orleans.The fist day all we did was walk the show culling out more names that didn't fit with what I do (It's very hard to tell what people do from a printing in a book).The second day we started talking to people.One lady from Russia had remembered my card I had sent her.I just looked at my wife and smiled because she said sending them the card was a waste of time.We met lot's of great people and got a few great leads.
I sent out maybe another 6 cards,had maybe 10 interviews face to face the clients.Kept calling every month for about a year and in the end NOTHING!
One important note here is that Mike Jackson from Paintin Place Co.The sign and decorative paint company originally from Orange County Cal had a booth at that show and received NO business from it.Probably around a 10,000.00 investment.
I do have a great set of cards to give out to everyone so they weren't a total loss.

For the money a web site cannot be beat.

Roderick