What form of advertising has worked best for you and given you the best return?

As a local business, I feel that it is important to offer our community the opportunity to sit behind a harp and experience playing. Our Free Try the Harp Class brings new people into the store each month. The participants will share the experience with other and perhaps continue on to take harp lessons. For national and international sales, we advertise in harp specific magazines. It's important to be consistent with advertising so that your business will be on the top of the potential customer's mind when considering where to shop for their harp needs.

Over the last several years, we've used a variety of marketing approaches to reach out to the community to let folks know what we're able to do for them. This includes website/internet promotions, email, print media, and educational seminars. The best advertising comes from our existing patients letting their friends and family members here about us. Making sure each patient that walks through our doors is treated the way I would want to be treated has created more new patient traffic than any other advertising channel.

What will work best comes from understanding where those who will give you their money live. In my case they are all within ten miles. I developed a catchy phrase and put it on many t-shirts and made certain they were worn in busy venues. The CTA was easy to remember and the measured response rate was shocking, quite frankly UNBELIEVABLE which is why I won't post it here. 
Now, if your business has the benefit of longevity, then cultivating your past clients and relationships will prove most cost effective. Consider a loyalty program for your existing customer base.

Print ad and Sphere of Influence referral.

I've worked with a cleaning service here in the Philly area and we've had a lot of success using search marketing to attract new clients for them.  We get 20 to 25 new calls each and every month from their campaign.  If you have questions you can email me at [email address] and I can share how we help.

...giving the best ROI." Success in advertising for a small business depends on one thing, "What are you willing to do?" It is this variable that results in programs working for some and failing for others. 

The second question is "What do you  have the most of, time or money?" This question may determine if you invest time to cultivate existing relationships, deploy 'rewards' plans and supercharge that WOW marketing. Or you can invest in SEO, adwords, gaming the social media environment and adopt the 'be everywhere' mindset of many advertisers. Clearly you see Alignable and LinkedIn as opportunities to game the SM environment.

My recommendation for low cost marketing is to focus on rewarding your existing customers for their WOW results. (WOW - Word Of Mouth) That is why customers don't leave Wells Fargo, not because they like WF, but WF has so many goodies to offer. That's why getting the card punched for purchasing 10 subs is viewed worthwhile by some. Ten referral who hire you equals one free cleaning for your loyal customer. "What's not to like?"

Believe it or not, Facebook has the most powerful direct marketing tools the advertising world has ever known. To be able to drill down to specific demographics, with any myriad of specific interests, and a plethora of other definable parameters - there's nothing else like it. And the return for the dollar is a game-changer!

If you or your business would like to be trained in how to make successful, impactful, super high ROI Facebook ads (for traffic/referrals, specific sales, one-time events, the possibilities are endless), PLEASE CONTACT US!!!

Creating events where we can dialogue and build that supported community. At the events, we find that there is more commonality than differences. Also, attending networking events through meetups. Most importantly is stepping out of comfort to talk to people about my passion and excitement about my business. It becomes infectious!

Community involvement! Next to word of mouth and referrals, joining philanthropic groups, local business networking, and showing up at events that matter in your community makes both your company and what you stand for visible. When people know you care, they know you will care about them, too. These can be free, low cost, and highly beneficial :) On a personal AND professional level! 

-Dianne Kaplan 

In the past 5 years, I have met over 1500 new residents to the area! I have put business information directly in their hands. These residents definitely refer other newcomers to me. My Relocating Baldwin County guide that I publish is distributed all over the county and results in many calls by new residents and older residents too! I am active on social media about my service and events. I suggest an advertising strategy that is diversified; print, social media/internet, radio/tv, and word of mouth.