A Little Marketing Help For A Virgin Framer!

[Adrian]

Hi All,

First of all I'd like to say a big 'thank you' to Kev@frames for pointing me in the direction of this website which I've been intermittently browsing (lurking?) around ever since! (I contacted Kev looking for advice having read his excellent Morso article on ebay).

I'm currently formulating plans for setting up a framing business from home, and whilst reading the books, browsing the web etc. is useful, what I really like about this site is that it's contributors are so obviously working hands-on in this business day in day out, and the advice seems to be based on real honest experience.

I used to work full-time as an artist, am currently a commercial insurance broker (long story) but have reached the point again where I have to get back into something I can relate to! I'm lucky in that I'm still in touch with a guy who used to do a lot of framing for me and in whose gallery shop I used to help out occasionally - he retired a few years back, sold his business, then bought all the equipment again brand new for a 'retirement hobby'. However, it's all currently unused and he's offered me a year's rental of the lot for a very reasonable monthly outlay, which will obviously be a great help insofar as set-up costs are concerned. He's also offered training (for nowt) and I do plan to take a proper two-day course as well with a GCF Adv.

What I would really like to know (and apologies if it's been asked before somewhere) is what people did in terms of marketing when they took that first 'big step', especially if, like me, you were leaving a fairly well paid job to do it. I'm under no illusions about getting rich from this (just want to be happy in my work!) but I do need to make a living and support a family (wife earns as well so there is some cushion).

I've read up on the different ways and means of marketing, and getting yourself known, but I'd appreciate some comments along the lines of 'this is what worked for me' as far as getting those all-important first orders is concerned (can't rely on family as I'm offering to do it free for them at first to get practice!).

I live in a smallish rural village (2,500 - 3,000) but within easy reach (5-6 miles) of three market towns and a much larger town where I currently work. I'm converting a large double garage for use, so will obviously need people to come to me.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

I also plan to attend Spring Fair, so with a bit of luck may bump into one or two of you.

[Keith Hewitt]

Adrian,

Can I be the first to welcome you to TFF
Its a great place for info and I'm sure you will get an overload of advice, not just from UK, but also Eire, the USA (the man with the big eyed dog) and maybe even OZ

I am not qualified to advise you, but I would suggest you get a web site asap - it's the future!
And if you want to look at Framers With Good Websites to copy some ideas, then go to my web site and click on page 2.

Good luck
PS Like your avatar!

[Jonny2morsos]

I think pretty much everybody needs a website these days as they act as a kind of billboard.

First of all, I think, set up a basic website with; who, what, where, when etc. but make sure it gets picked up by the search engines.

A website can be up and running for £19.99 with nothing further to pay for a year with mrsite.co.uk and you can update it whenever you like. The important bit is the "metatags". These are the words and phrases that search engines match to enquiries so you would want to include "picture framing" "your town" "local towns" "mounts" "frames" etc.

Then "Google" yourself to check you come up as the first entry.

Just about everybody has access to the internet now and doing a search is easier than picking up yellow pages.

John.

[DEEPJOY]

Hi Adrian

It sounds like we are peas in a pod. - Both coming from reasonably paid professional jobs, but with the desire to do something creative for ourselves. (I bet most of the old timers on this forum think we need therapy).
I am in the throws of converting my garage to be the main base for the venture. I have a 60 inch Keencut mount cutter, Morse and 1M Minigraf underpinner as the 3 main items of equipment. I have a shopping wish-list for other items it's just money and the right deal to come along before I move on it. The garage is far from complete as I am trying to work it around my job and the family commitments.
I have so far created a business name (inPicture) and purchased the .co.uk domain name to go with it in readiness for both web and email. I have designed a logo and ordered business cards to suit.
I have a couple of days training under my belt with plans to do a great deal more before I let myself loose on those unsuspecting folks.
In terms of what ultimately I want to do - Framing first and foremost. Picture / art sales and eventually picture and art rental business to business.
My marketing ideas are to "gob off' as much as possible thrusting business cards in everyones face. Flyer drops in an immediate few mile radius of where I live. (I have a postman friend, it is amazing what you can get achieved by paying for his bear). Business cards or flyers splattered everywhere that has a notice board - Post Offices, Supermarkets, Doctors, Hospitals etc...
Once you are up and running with the confidence to conquer the world, then you could look at local advertising and website. Keith's page 2 websites will give you loads of ideas. At this point, you should become a victim of your own success and be back on the forum crying for help - this should lead you to buy your pre-cut mounts from the likes of all these good folk on the forum and than after a few good years of trading, retire to more sunny climate pretending to be film and art critic.
You better get moving, Audlem is not far from me in Newcastle Staffs, I will be spreading my net.

Regards
Deepjoy

[Bill Henry]

Advertising, for me, is one of the most difficult things in this business to wrap my head around.

Everyone has a different experience, but, for us, newspaper ads, newsletters, direct mail, and coupon advertising have been like throwing money down a drain.

Telephone directory advertising is still, I think, a necessary evil. We used to run 1/8 page display ads in three books in our Yellow Pages area to the tune of $860/ month. We are down sizing the ads to 1/12 of a page, so that we will be paying $500-and-something when we’ve finished. Although Yellow Pages are a PITA, I am very reluctant to abandon the ads altogether or to downsize to a single line listing. I think one still needs a presence.

Our web site is beginning to draw more customers, but middle age and older people still rely on the phone book in my opinion.

In our area, cable television is king. Our 30 second spots on cable have given us more bang for our buck than any other form of advertising, bar none! BUT, television ads are expensive to produce and run us $1,600 a month (we run them only twice a year and hit the audience with 90 spots/ week over 10 channels). For us, it has increased sales from 24 to 27% in the months following this TV blitz.

John Turner (Roboframer) is a big fan of radio. We haven’t tried it since our local stations are pitiful and only reach friends and relatives of the station owners, but may be worth looking into. Check with him.

I would be very reluctant to plop flyers under windshield wipers. It irritates me to no end when I come out of a store to find a sheet of paper blocking my view. Most people, I suspect, just toss them on the ground which will then get the town or parking lot owner irritated at you. Likewise, stuffing flyers in mailboxes or under doors would be extraordinarily time consuming and also may irritate people.

You might wish to write your own press release and convince local papers to publish your “article”. It should be free.

The key to advertising, I am told, is repetition. Whatever you decide, keep hammering away at it.

[daisy]

Hi there, definately agree with website plan. Mr site very good, if you contact the governament run Buisness Gateway and attend any of their free buisness setup courses you get Mr site for free as well as gaining a lot of support and advice. When it comes to advertising I think you should find out what art, needlework and craft classes are in your area and pay them a little visit to introduce yourself. Worked really well for me and then word of mouth spreads. Think also of visiting your local schools (think of all those hundreds of class photo's that need to be framed!!!) offer a donation for putting your flier in with photo's. I always offer a voucher to every fund raising raffle etc going as even if its for £10 you have your name etc announced to rooms full of people and it will definately get that one customer through your door ( which always leads to others). Don't forget to advertise in your local rugby / football club with a picture of a framed shirt. Good luck

[framemaker]

When I started I did a leaflet drop in the village I was based in and got a good response. I didn't get my website for a few years but wish I had done it straight away as it has brought me lots of work and paid for itself many times over. I also got in touch with a local art group, did a little talk on framing and presenting artwork and got steady, repeat work from that. I went to galleries (that didn't do their own framing) and have found these to be my best sources of work. Local parish magazines can be very inexpensive to advertise in, as can the 'postal advertisers' which target your immediate area. Over the years I have found press releases in the local paper to be an excellent source of new customers.

Best of luck with your venture

[Moglet]

Hi Adrian,

I found it useful to create awareness of my new business among other local business owners, and some even offered to place flyers for the business on their counters. I got more customers from this route last year than I did through Yellow Pages advertising.

Look around your locality for public notice boards, and see who is advertising what (needs to be done over a reasonable time period to find out which advertisers regularly replace their ads after board "clearouts": that will give you an idea of the types of business that the board advertising is working for.

Are there any large companies relatively near to you? Adverts on their canteen noticeboards might be a good idea. Local schools/daycare centres may also be a good place to market your services (and free to boot!).

(I'm here wishing I could make the time to practise what I preach. )

As Bill advises above, the key is "repetition." For example, if you advertise constantly in a local paper or parish mag, people may "get used" to seeing the ad and tune it out. Until they actually need a framer...

In order to determine which method of advertising is most successful over time, it is vital to find out exactly how each and every new customer found you: easy to do - no street-pouncing required! Just politely ask each new customer, letting them know that you're trying to find the best way to let people know about your services. Also, asking customers where they look to find services can provide ideas for methods that work in your area.

Customer tracking of this ilk can be done in a simple spreadsheet (order ref, sales value, new/repeat/referral customer, and where new customers found you (e.g. New-Local Rag, New-Yellow Pages, New-Post Office Notice). If you have Excel, it takes literally minutes to set up a pivot table which will then tot up the order value for each "sales category." Such information will help you to determine the return on your advertising spend, to stop wasting money on ineffective methods, and to ultimately focus your advertising bucks on what works for your business in your area. Over time, this data will also provide you with invaluable information about the ratio of new to repeat business you are getting: a key performance indicator for the development of your business.

Bon chance with the new venture!

[Jonny2morsos]

[quote="Moglet"]

If you have Excel, it takes literally minutes to set up a pivot table which will then tot up the order value for each "sales category."
[quote]

The Open Office Suite also includes an Excel compatible spreadsheet and its a free download.

Also Bill Gates has enough money already without adding to coffers although in fairness he is probably the most generous philanthropist around at the present.

John.

[kev@frames]

Hi Adrian.

getting business:

yea you want to think about a website, its probably better (and freer) than a yellow pages ad. people use google instead of the phone book. so list in all the free local business directories you can find online too, people do actually use some of them such as freeindex, kelkoo etc.
Do ebay articles Dont charge ebay prices use ebay free listing local ads, gumtree free listing local ads etc. they are free, what have you got to lose.

Signwrite your vehicle. You wouldn't believe how that helps get new customers. Vinyl letters are pretty cheap.

Charge plenty, do a good job, and word of mouth spreads very quickly.

spend time early on when you are quiet making nice sample pieces/demo models. You wont get the time when you are busy later.

Book your holiday now, you wont get your next one for ten years.

Be friendly with other local framers, they may have work they can pass on, they will invariably have lots of scrap waste and offcut materials that you might be welcome to.


Visit the framers grumble and the online articles in picture framing magazine (google), maybe even subscribe to it if you can stand the high price of the dollars subscription.

You are certainly on one of the best free resources for framing help, tips advice and (when needed) support. The other one is the Grumble

welcome to the forum!

kev

[birdman]

What we did was frame a wall full of annual school photos for a local primary school. We framed them in primary colours and fitted them to the wall for the school. We did this free and for gratis and was probably the best investment we made at the start.

Firstly we impressed the school staff, the Board of Governors, the parents and of course the children. We got free publicity in the local papers and ended up with lots of referrals and people coming who had seen the press release. I think it probably cost us about £200 at cost. It costs us more to place an advert in the paper.

This approach may not be for you but coming up with something like it is a great introduction for a new business.

[Adrian]

Hi All and many thanks for all the kind and very helpful advice. Some really useful tips there - I knew I was in the right place!

One thing that has surprised me is the universal recommendation to set up a website. I'd been considering this as a later-on semi-luxury part of my marketing, but it seems a quick re-think is in order!

I've already had a kind offer of a free 600 leaflet drop around the village from our friendly local milkman and there are plenty of local art and photography groups to present myself at, as well as the usual sports clubs etc. There also seems to be quite a thriving needlework community round here - a local shop (converted mill along the canal) sells lots of that sort of stuff - I'd better get practising!

Another thing I think may be in my favour is that the last six years as an insurance broker has given me well-established personal contacts amongst literally dozens of local companies, large and small, who will soon be receiving a sales call of a different sort!

Something that has also both pleased and encouraged me is that not one of the above contributions has made comments along the lines of 'WHAT! are you mad? we're in the middle of a recession!', which I've naturally had from the likes of concerned parents! I'm expecting it to be tough at first, but I do think it can be done. Also, as I'd rather sweep the streets than continue as an insurance broker, I think I'm doing the right thing!

Anyway, back to chiselling years-old caked oil stains off my garage floor and choking the local neighbourhood with damp-proof paint fumes! The workshop conversion carries on apace!

Adrian