Best method to market

[mburnett44]

Hi to all. I'd like to get insight or advice in the better/best methods to market in these slow economic times? I do have a website which I get virtually no response from. I attribute this problem primarily to my former webhost provider. I could never get my SEO keywords, etc.. to work. They didn't provide the support or expertise in helping me figure out what was wrong. To say the least , I just switched to another provider so we'll see how this goes.

My other concern is reaching and getting my name and face in front of the realtor community. I know the advice will probably be to steer clear but I feel from the onset it's probably the best way to get business? I've tried stopping by their offices, scheduling appointments and phone calls. The only success I have gotten is dropping my cards off with the receptionist. My new approach is mailing out 5-10 mailers a week. In the mailer I include a short introduction with ten business cards. Hopefully this will bring results? I haven't gone the e-mail route as of yet because of the 'spam-factor'.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[inspector57]

Try pay per click advertising specific to your area. I use google ad words and yahoo. This will get your website in the sponsored results section immediately until you get your organic search running properly. If you don't show up on the first page of search results, your website is invisible to most people looking for an inspector. Word of mouth, chamber of commerce, etc.

Paper phone book ads never worked for me, but I have heard some in different locals say differently.

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by mburnett44

. . . My new approach is mailing out 5-10 mailers a week. In the mailer I include a short introduction with ten business cards. Hopefully this will bring results? I haven't gone the e-mail route as of yet because of the 'spam-factor'.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

5-10 mailers a week is a ridiculously small number. Send out 500-1000 or so per week. Cut back the business cards to two per envelope. You might see one response per 1000 mailers.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[mburnett44]

Thanks very much for the input. I need to get more aggressive with both my website and mail effort. Regards...