Being skilled and reliable is one thing. You still need customers to make a success of your woodworking business. As a one-person woodworking business you need simple and effective methods to be discovered. For whatever reasons, if you believe that advertising a small business is difficult and expensive, it’s not true. At least not any more. There are a handful of strategies you can start with immediately and at no expense at all.
Free Doesn’t Mean Easy
No expense does not mean no effort. Many people tend to assume one follows another. These methods of promoting your woodworking business might cost you next to nothing, but you will have to spend time and effort putting these strategies in place. You might even have to learn and come to grasp with new promotional methods.
I have several friends who are one person entrepreneurs with small local businesses that are doing well. I can tell you that, initially and for a lot of years to come, the strongest and the primary method of business promotion was through word of mouth. Never underestimate this medium because it sounds too simplistic.
The first soldiers for your cause are going to be your friends and family. Spread the word with them. They might even be your first customers. People are usually glad when they do not have to look far and wide for a woodworker. They are also happy to give the job to someone they know and trust.
Doing jobs for others creates reference which is another powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal.
Using phone messages and email makes it easy to get in touch with a lot of people with ease from the comfort of your chair. However keep these very important things in mind. Only email people that you have the permission to. Therefore, once again the people you can email are your friends, family and contacts. Once they have your email the can always forward it to other people of their acquaintance.
Writing an email is a delicate and wonderful task. Above everything else resist the urge to send a stock email to everyone. This kind of a generic email is mostly ignored by people even the ones that know you.
Instead take the time to personalise each one and address each recipient individually. The better you know the person the more you should personalise it. Remember, this is a completely free pattern of advertising. It can be very effective if you are ready to put in a little personal effort.
People read emails they feel are being addressed to them personally. They want to know what you have to say.
While you cannot email people you do not have the permission to you can certainly reach a lot more unknown people by posting flyers in key places. Where all you are going to post them is up to you. It can be anywhere from a wood store to a coffee shop. Flyers are an inexpensive way of getting your message out. Your business can get the attention of the right people with the right mindset.
Facebook and Pinterest. You can create a buzz about your business using the popular social media tools. Do you use Facebook? Even if you do not the odds are that the majority of people you know do.
The same is true for Pinterest. Pinterest is the largest source of traffic to websites than all other social media websites combine. You can generate popularity on both these platforms by posting great pictures of your woodworking draft.
One of the reasons why these tools are so popular is that your posts can go viral and you will have the potential of reaching a lot of people. Facebook has changed things recently and will probably require you to pay for promotion if you want to reach more people.
Once again, the key to success on social media websites such as Facebook and Pinterest is great photographs. It became a trend at sometime back for people to include the online URL of their Facebook page on the business visiting cards just as they would include a website. This was simply because of the huge popularity of this social media platform and a number of people who are comfortable using it.
Blogs and website. These days it is inexpensive and easy to create a blog and a website. You can book a domain name and start a website for as less as five dollars a month. Do this only if you can do it well.
There are two main advantages of having a website. A lot of people look online for services and products. By doing some local cost effective advertising on search engines your business can get discovered really fast.
A website should have all the pertinent contact information.
The second advantage is that a website is like an ad and a customer service for your woodworking business. And it runs 24 hours or days of the year. However, do not have a poorly made or outdated website. That just creates the wrong impression.
Decide whether you want an interactive website which you intend to keep updating with fresh content like articles and photographs or a static one that contains key information about your business, is fairly static and one that you do not have to update frequently to make it look fresh and relevant.
Create a blog if you enjoy writing about what you do.
You can accurately depict your services, body of work, personal skills and any other information that you would like your potential customers to have on a website.
Hire a web designer to set things up for you if you cannot learn to do it yourself. With websites like Fiver, you can get someone to start a WordPress blog for you for just $5.
Use these simple, cost-effective and yet very effective methods of marketing, promoting and advertising your woodworking business and you will be very happy with the results.
Advertising for a single person woodworking business should be carried out on an ‘on and off’ basis. When you feel you need more woodworking work, start the advertising again.
This is the worst advice I’ve ever seen… no business has ever gained a lick of mindshare through word of mouth, digital (in a non-digital profession) or direct/email. The old adage, “a happy customer tells one person; a dissatisfied customer tells ten” should explain everything you need to know about why WOM is not going to grow your business. Have a marketing plan in place when you go to your lender. If not, start putting $200-$500/month away and advertise with your local radio stations. If you’re rural, forget digital entirely as most don’t have sufficient enough access to be absently browsing Facebook. Know how many prospects you need (what’s your closing ratio), and how many customers you’ll need to turn at least a 20% return on investment with any advertising and if you can’t reasonably conclude you’ll get that, don’t do it. But any advertising at all is an exercise in long-term momentum. Advertising only when you need the extra business is assured to be a waste of money. Consistency in message and frequency is key and jumping in and out of the fight for share of mind is the equivalent of lighting money on fire.