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Marketing

7/16/18       
Howard

Website: http://woodcontours.net

What is the easiest way to advertise to designers? I was thinking of purchasing a mailing list and placing an ad in either an interior design magazine or Architectural Digest. In the past I have found that print advertising has cost me a lot of money and the results are not always consistent and sometimes don't cover the cost. How do I get a mailing list together?
Thanks for your help.

7/16/18       #2: Marketing ...
Joe

Website: http://joescustomcabinetry.com

People like to buy from people. Forget the print ad. If you'd like to pick up 3 designers talk to 300 of them ten times.

7/17/18       #3: Marketing ...
Charlie W Member

I always start with the people that are close to you. A local business networking group can be very good. Like mentioned before talking to people face to face is always the best. Look up designers in your local area and cold call them, see if you can set up an appointment. Im sure you know this but designers love kickbacks so put together an incentive plan that you can use to get your foot in the door. Purchasing a list from a lead generation company can be a good way to kill hours on the phone with very minimal results. If you do purchase a list make sure it is very local like one zip code. I have had success with apps and programs like sales force but I have never tried this in for B to B type sales.

7/20/18       #4: Marketing ...
cwwoodworking

In my experience, nothing even comes close to shaking hands and talking to people face to face.

7/23/18       #5: Marketing ...
Jerry

LinkedIn

You can either do direct networking, or you can run display ads targeted to specific occupations.

7/24/18       #6: Marketing ...
chris

Hands down cold calls to builders.
I've tried designers and architects as well but builders are by far the most responsive.
We did 300K last year from business I got through cold calling builders.
I look at builders in my area on houzz.com and google (look at their website and read reviews to see if they're reputable).
I call them and say this:
"Hi, we're a small high end custom cabinet shop and I wanted to introduce myself to you. Every 6 months or so I sit down and call local builders that look they might be a good fit for us. In short, we're trying to work with a few more builders and a few LESS designers (that usually gets a snicker).
We do high end work all over the ....area."
then let them talk and see where it leads.
I also express my wanting to work with COMPETENT builders as there are so many that aren't.
I just bid two $300K jobs each in the last 2 months through cold calls.

7/25/18       #7: Marketing ...
Larry

Face to face and establishing relationships has been far better for us than any advertising. Make a list of potential customers, builders, architects, designers (if you must.) Make a guestimate of the most likely fits and prioritize the list. Research what they do and target your presentation based on that. Forget the lines that everyone else uses (high end!) and sell what you are good at and the builder will appreciate (on time delivery, fast change order processing, casework that is marked with room #'s, attached information, etc.)


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