Free Advertising on line

[Poplady1]

I have seen some of you looking for ways to promote your business.  I came across Merchant Circle about 12 months ago.  I love it.  You can connect free on line with other businesses in your community.  It really has worked for me so I think many of you can make it work too.  It was bringing me a lot of contacts so I paid extra to expand my area but you certainly don't need to do that unless you feel that it might help you.  I do not receive any fees or endorsements by giving you this site.  If there is something that they send me, I would not accept it.

http://www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/

Here is a brief statement from them.

We are a small, growing company located on a real Main Street in Silicon Valley. We are dedicated to connecting Neighbors and Local Businesses online to help build real relationships between local business owners and their customers. To date, nearly 900,000 local businesses have joined MerchantCircle to get their business more exposure on the internet, simply and inexpensively. Click here to see testimonials from satisfied members.

Blue Moose

[mxer518]

I use this site as well, it works great and its FREE! Its the modern day version of the yellow pages without the insane fees and a sales rep calling you 3 times a day every day trying to get you to upgrade your current listing.

[Poplady1]

Did you just use the free service or did you purchase any of the expanded areas?  If so did you feel it was worth it.

[mxer518]

Just the free service, I have considered using the expanded services but would need a little more convincing that they would pay for themselves through more business.

[Poplady1]

I signed up for the next level but honestly I am not sure what impact it has given us.  But you know some advertising and connecting in your market never hurts and the cost is certainly affordable.

Blue

[mxer518]

What level did you sign up for and is there anything about it that you feel might be worth it to give it a try? What types of advertising did you do when you were in the a business if you do not mind me asking.

[coinvestor]

Thanks for the tip Pop!

I just went and signed up. I have been playing around with it, but I'm not real sure how it can be used. It looks like a Facebook for businesses? Have either of you gotten new business though the site?

Thanks,

JD

[soco]

I signed up for the free portion as well, but you only get one town listing for free.  If you want your business to pop up in searches of near-by towns you have to pay a monthly fee.

[reinhagw]

They sure have a lot of listings for the Las Vegas area, took a half hour to get thru it.  Not too sure how a vending service ads would fare here.  They would have to be pretty dynamic.  I did find a vending and locating company here.  I'll have to cruise by there tomorrow.

jr

[Poplady1]

I have been out of the actual vending business for 4 years now.  Things have changed.  My yellow page ad brought me so much business.  Each month when that bill came I swore we were not going to renew but each year I signed up.  But looking back I think when I finally signed up for that ad our company went to the next level.  Maybe I took it all more seriously but something changed for the better.

I also sponsored little league teams (both girls and boys).  It was pretty cheap and it got our name out there.  Of course almost all of our bigger business came from a Golf Tournament we put on each year.  You might think I put out a bunch of money for these things, but it always came back 10 fold.  The Golf Tournament brought in so much money we had to give away a bunch to charity.

Our local weather channel also had a advertising line that scrolled along constantly.  Monthly cost $30.  Again, it got our name out there.  Then I got a call from the yellow page folks wondering if I would make a commercial to endorse their yellow page advertising program.  That was a great deal.  I did the commercial, it ran for two summers, everybody knew my name just like cheers and business just came to me.  Also they gave us free advertising for two years with twice the size of my monthly ad.  If I knew how to upload a radio commercial I would so you all could have a good laugh.  When I first heard it I thought, Oh Lord what have I done. 

Once we had a little bit of a "standing" in the community I started hitting the social circle.  I would read the business listings and if there was a luncheon (especially anything to do with Mfg) I would try to figure out how I could be involved in that luncheon.  Maybe set up a free bar for a half hour before the meeting.  Also I advertised in just about any Fine Arts calendar I could find or theater program.  One of my lines.  On the back of my business card I had the line, "Let me buy you a free case of your favorite soft drink", I will drop it off when we meet to discuss your vending program.  Call 555 555 5555

And finally I collected all of our nearly out of date items and donated them to lots of charity functions.  Nothing went to waste in our shop. 

mxer518 you are going to be just fine.  I can tell you are willing to do what it takes to build a solid business.  Five years from now your business may not look much like the business you have going on right now.  You might drop a few of your current routes, may be develop areas that feel a little more profitable for you.  The only caution I might mention would be watching your lending or financing of equipment.  Try to keep that to a minimum.  Always try to look at your current equipment, decide if each piece is earning what you want and if everything is doing as expected, then buy equipment if you get a good location.  If you have some pieces that are not bringing in what they should be strong and move them.  I bet it won't be long before I read that you have just purchased 50 bottle machines from an off asset sale by one of the bottlers.  You will hire a part time vending tech and fix them up by throwing on a new sign, touching up the paint, putting on new buttons, upgrading the mech/validator. 

Blue Moose

[Poplady1]

When I first signed up I looked for the largest towns in the area.  I thought you got 3 free cities.  Maybe I'm wrong. But I would do business searches until I dug up every business I could find in the area, I would invite them to be a business partner.  The chain would go on and on.  I have found some pretty good business.  What really has helped is the internet will bring up my Merch listing when someone does a search in the area.  They don't need to be a member.  So it helps give you some visiability on the Net.

[soco]

Guess they've changed things Poplady... you sign up and your mailing address is your "service" area.  If you want to add "service areas", it's $5/month now, etc.  No problem if your vending address is in a large metro area, but mine is in a village and my route is mostly in the larger towns next door, so I'll be deciding over time whether to pay out for more service areas... just like the yellow pages in a way.  Guess they got momentum going, and now are tightening up on the freebies.

[mxer518]

I am in the same exact situation, my business address is in a small town near the city but only have about 10% of my locations there. I did not know that you can add a service area for a small fee because it would defiantly be worth the money, I will have to look into that.