What is the most effective way of advertising for a small contractor business?

Hello! Having worked exactly in this market for a local builder, the "word of mouth" is a great way to advertise, but it has to be heard. Have your local radio station record testimonial ads from satisfied customers. Then you are sure your word of mouth is being heard. Go on one or two prime drive time spots on a 6 month or longer contract, just one or two ads a week can make a difference if the same people are hearing it over and over. Alternatively, a heavy schedule in one week, same total budget, can be effective, but you would more likely get a solid reputation by being on for a longer term.

Secondly, after finishing a job, send a survey to your clients, asking them to rate your work in several different areas....quality of materials, skill of workers, being done on time and on budget, etc. Put in that letter that if there is ANYTHING they have a question about or want a followup visit about, to let you know. Then take care of it. This builds your reputation in a immeasurable way, and also gets them talking to their friends about how great your work was and how nice you are. Enclose referral cards that they can give their friends that offer free initial consultations, a $50.00 friends and family discount, or a free gift with every bid. Then give them something like a measuring tape, imprinted notepad with grid paper for sketching designs, etc. Your existing happy customers are your best source of new business, and also, keep in mind that you could get additional business out of that existing customer base in the future, so send them a mailing a couple times a year. Use little imprinted promotional products to keep your name in front of them, like house shaped magnetic clips for the fridge, rulers, notepads, etc.

Photos of your work, before, during and after are crucial to show potential clients what you are capable of. Start a portfolio and record every job with photos and the customers comment card.

Classified advertising also works if you will do small jobs, and you can fill your schedule with "Rent A Husband" one day jobs where you do everything from fixing light fixtures to building a fence, small remodeling jobs, repairs, etc. Have a minimum charge so you make money at it, and only advertise this when you have down time from the bigger jobs.

Have a simple brochure done up that shows some of your work, tells about your specialties, has some testimonials, and gives your credentials. This is much more effective than just a business card. If all you can afford is a business card, do a two sided one, where you can do a listing on the back of your specialties.
Full color cards are now very reasonable.

If there is a home show in your area, put yourself in it, showcasing your portfolio, some examples of your work, and a neat custom built booth. Most of these are a 10 by 10 size, and you can reuse the booth over and over.

All of this can be done for less than a small yellow pages ad, and will be much more effective. Just go for a listing in the yellow pages, nothing more.

If you need more ideas, I am a small business consultant who specializes in marketing for home improvement companies and builders. Just send me a note! Best wishes for great success!

Word of mouth and make a sign to place in front of houses/business that you are presently working on. The local newspaper is also an option.

Even though you recently published your domain name on major major search engines/directories, you may want to consider some simple algorithms which, when observed and committed in designing of a website and placing various critical metatags can surely achieve a high search engine presence and placement.

Design: Should you create an extensive Flash-based website, make sure to fill-in the property entries such as the Title, Description and Keywords. Failing to do so, leaves no hard HTML or ALT resource that can be readily indexed by search robots.

A non-Flash-based website which relies on hard text, is far easier to be indexed by search robots.

Avoid use of frames since any number of search robots are unable to properly classify textual material.

Placement of Metatags:

A ranking or search order does take place with Google and Yahoo and it begins with the Title metag which should consist of no more than 65 characters separated by commas. The Title should describe in generic terms, the goods and services, followed by a location from which the resource is located, i.e., city, state. The placement of a domain name which is not generic within the Title is not appropriate, unless your domain name is a major recognizable brand name.

The second metatag is the Description which is usually 25-30 words to form a complete sentence which best describes the goods and services.

And the very last category - Keywords are also somewhat limited to 15-16 words which can be plural and compound in nature. Again, avoid multiple entries which could be mistaken as "spamdexed entries" which is defined as the loading, and submission of repetitive words into a particular metatag category. "Spamdexing" when discovered on a webpage and reported to Google's spamreport.com can result in the elimination of your website from their search directory.

Here's an example of a very highly-placed website on Yahoo.com: Begin with the search query "pizza downtown los angeles." It will bring up some 1.4 million+ websites as results. Check out where "Pizza Next Door" is ranked. It's in the Top Five! Again, Pizza Next Door's high web presence was achieved by proper web design and placement of relevant metatags according to Yahoo's publication guidelines.

Good luck!

If you look at some of the contractors on www.merchantcircle.com or some of the discussions in the merchant forums at http://www.merchantcircle.com/forum, you will see alot of contractors using it.

Alot of contractors use it and then link to other people in related businesses like real estate, landscaping, etc.

In addition, ServiceMagic.com which is owned by IAC is very focused on contractors and you only pay per lead you recieve.

The absolute best way is word of mouth through good quality work.

word of mouth is the most effective and believable form of advertisement--weather it be good or bad--it will be heard and heeded

Create a profile on MyMokeywrench.com, and ask your current customers to post a rating. That gives you a promotional tool, and ends current obligations to your current customers. Strike while the iron is hot. Customers are willing to give back shortly after satisfied work. Capture that, quickly, and make it easy for them! That is their word, and you use your mouth.

Depends on what you get contracted out for

If your clients are mostly businesses then I would say word-of-mouth is the best bet, but some ads in the local paper wouldn't hurt either

Print inexpensive flyers that decribe what services you offer, and hire a couple of kids to put them in residential mailboxes.

I've had a couple of them in my mailbox that stayed on the fridge magnet and then, when I was ready to do some reno work, I had the number right there.

It depends on what services you are contracting out.

Update your question to list which services you provide and I can give you some direction.

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