<\/a>You may be the best damn plumber in the trade, you can make the best kitchen cabinets the world has even known and you might be the best mason since Solomon\u2019s temple, but you started your own business to make money. And that means you have to go above and beyond whatever it is the next guy is doing to succeed, and that means stealing his customers or clients if you have to.<\/p>\n

Creating an ad plan based on your competition<\/strong><\/p>\n

When sitting down to create an advertising plan (and by default, how much you want to spend), it makes sense to analyze what your competition is doing to win in the marketplace. The reason you want to know what your competition is doing is to decide how much THEY are spending. This allows you to zero in on what your spending level needs to be to be competitive.<\/p>\n

Outsmart versus outspend<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you’re just starting out with your home-improvement company then you’re obviously not going to have the ad budget to compete with the market leader in your space. This is where marketing to buyers comes into play. You do this in two ways:<\/p>\n

1. Go where the buyers are – in other words, you could have the Eagles cheerleaders out front of your place and it’s going to draw attention, but it’s not going to bring you customers. Targeting the right keywords on Google, using direct-mail effectively and having the biggest, boldest ad in the YP (depending on industry) will target buyers.<\/p>\n

2. Aim your message at buyers – make your offer compelling for those who have already done the research and are ready to buy your product or service. Dollars off always trumps percentages in ad copy, and you can never go wrong with free anything.<\/p>\n

Bonus – Don’t piss away your limited ad budget on media that’s not going to get you results. Don’t know what works best in your category or don’t believe the guy that says he never advertised? Then call me, I’ll be happy to tell you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may be the best damn plumber in the trade, you can make the best kitchen cabinets the world has even known and you might be the best mason since Solomon\u2019s temple, but you started your own business to make money. And that means you have to go above and beyond whatever it is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[24,30,6,4,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-1248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-contractor-marketing","7":"tag-ad-copy","8":"tag-advertising","9":"tag-business-planning","10":"tag-marketing-advertising","11":"tag-marketing-and-advertising","12":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n