The Art of Small Business Advertising

Saturday was mostly spent on the computer trying to bend Photoshop to my will. Luckily I have rudimentary knowledge of the photo editing program to get by. When all else fails I find YouTube tutorials to be of valuable help. My current challenge is to produce a set of three differently themed postcards for my first foray into the world of direct mail marketing. Initially I had looked into using the USPS Every Door Direct mass mailing program. This program would allow me to zero in on certain target neighborhoods based on Zip Codes and Postal Carrier Routs. Although this form of mail marketing is inexpensive and can reach a large audience, my target clientele consist of a rather small portion of the general public. Being on a shoe string marketing budget, I decided that this broad form of advertisement is better suited for future use, when the company has grown enough to undertake more encompassing advertising strategies. My industry keeps very detailed records of its users, to my relief and somewhat of a surprise, these records are easily obtainable if you know where to look. With these records, I am able to zero in on my target demographic with surgical precision. Hopefully, by marketing to individuals already engaged in my industry, I will leverage more bang for my meager buck. Armed with these records my gaze turned towards the USPS’s other business mail solutions. These solutions offer businesses to save money on bulk mailings, but require spending funds on setting up an account and applying for permits. The fee for the first year would have been $380, half every following year, not unreasonable if you will be dealing with large amounts of mail. I have to point out that I find the USPS website didn’t offer very clear guidance in regards to which of the options were better suited to me. It took several days for me to research what I think I needed only to later realize that wasn’t what I needed at all. One wonders why the United States Postal Service is going bankrupt! As fortune would have it, I had a not totally unrelated question that required me to speak directly to an employee at the USPS business bulk mail handling facility. It turned out that my needs didn’t call for a business permit after all, go figure. The solution was quite simple, by using postcards, I am going to spend far less on postage than I would on first class mail. Affixing a stamp purchased at retail to a postcard only incurs a 1 cent premium vs. having a business permit (I would have to send 38,000 postcards just to recoup the cost of permits). Keeping in mind that postcards have their set of design requirements be able to be sorted by the post office, I decided to design my own. Partially because I’d like to invest the money I could have spent hiring someone to design it for me on postage, and partially because I quite frankly enjoy the challenge. Here’s hoping that I have a good enough sense of aesthetics to pull off this advertising campaign. Wish me luck!

Quickbooks

I'm almost starting to feel like a legitimate company now that I can create professional looking invoices and sales receipts! I have wanted to use this program for awhile now, but I had felt slightly overwhelmed by it, as I don't have an accounting background. Luckily I gained some experience using it while helping out at Aero-Supplies & Express, after which I felt much more comfortable with the every day uses of Quickbooks Pro. However, to my frustration it took me quite some time to figure out how to email invoices out to my clients. As it turns out, this was a software glitch, not user error!
This should provide an invaluable program as I continue to build Hayes Aviation.

What good is a company website if no one finds it?

Soon after the agitating process of completing the Hayes Aviation website, I had one of those "now what?" moments. Do I just sit back and wait? How long can I afford to wait for people to notice me. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) was the obvious answer. By the use of SEO techniques a company can climb the ranks within the Google search engine. If you can land on a top page ranking, your website is seen by infinitely more potential customers. Less obvious however, is knowing where to turn for these services. There are plenty of companies out there that offer their SEO services at ridiculously high rates, certainly not rates I could afford as a small business owner. One company quoted me $2000 upfront, followed by $400/month. There had to be a better way, and there was. I spent months searching anything I could find on "SEO". I even considered having a try at attempting SEO techniques myself, but quickly realized that it would end similarly as when I attempted to create my own logo, and website. After abandoning DIY thoughts, I stumbled upon oDesk.com. oDesk, is a web company that connects users with consultants all over the world. After a few weeks (I usually need time to build up courage to try something new like this) I had emailed a few different SEO consultants to get a feel of what I was getting into. SEO is a slow long term process where results are not realized immediately, as such I faced a dilemma. Previously I had utilized a low end provider to create my website. The website creation process was wonderfully disappointing and in retrospect I learned that I should have spent more for a better experience. With this freshly in the back of my mind, I needed to decide on how to place my SEO investment. I could either invest in a more expensive consultant, hoping for a better service, for a more limited time run. Or, I could hire someone on the low cost side, and run a longer SEO campaign. Ultimately I settled on an wonderful woman in Bangladesh who would charge me $2.22/hr for 40hrs a week. I still don't know which option would have been more effective, but at $2.22/hr, the low end was a potential mistake I could afford. And I have to admit that I'm pleased with the results so far. With only a few months of working with my consultant I have managed to reach page one in Google's search engine for one of the search terms we are using to drive people to my website.