Advertising

[Z! Reinhardt]

Hi Rob!

If my experiences of 10 years ago is anything to go by ...!

Ads that ran only a week brought in no calls.

Ads that ran for months at a time in the local papers brought in a
smattering of calls (just short of paying for the ads month by month), most
of whom were shoppers with much-neglected pianos looking for "the best
price" for service.

A friend of mine has an ad in the local yellow pages, and reports getting
all kinds of older pianos.  She happens to be very fond of old uprights, so
it works well for her.

Currently, my best sources of referral have been coming from the music
stores, and as the business builds, from happy customers.  Dealing with
piano teachers is a 2-way street -- if they like your work, they will refer
you to their students.  If you like their attitude, refer your customers to
them.  Many customers are already students of piano teachers I have not yet
met, so I get them talking about about their teachers.  I usually end the
conversation by saying that I would love to meet the teacher someday,
whether or not she is interested in having her piano(s) serviced at that
time.

Hope this helps ...
Z! Reinhardt RPT
Ann Arbor  MI
diskladame@provide.net

----------
> From: R. Goodale <rob.goodale@nau.edu>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Advertising
> Date: Monday, July 27, 1998 12:56 AM
> 
> Hello all...
> 
> I'm considering placing an ad in the newspaper to help boost business a
> little.  As a
> university tech I've spent most of the past year catching up on a
> mountain of a mess I
> inherited when I took the job.  Now that I've gotten things more or less
> in order I would like the outside work to pick up a bit.  I do get work
> via referrals and recommendations from the university but not as much as
> I would like.  I am in the process of making friends with the local
> music stores but I was thinking maybe a small ad in the paper may be
> something to look into.  Nothing fancy just a plain business card sized
> thing somewhere.  I haven't yet called the paper to check the price on
> this but I'm guessing a couple or three hundred dollars at least to run
> it for a week.
> 
> So, what have you folks discovered about doing this? Is it worth it?
> Does anyone actually read it and call? Or am I better off looking into
> other worth while methods?  I should also add that this is a rather
> small tourist-oriented community, population around 60K.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Rob Goodale, RPT
> Northern Arizona University