Company Advertising/Marketing

[guitarjamman]

Does your company do any sort of advertising or have a marketing department? How does new work roll your way?

Our office's work is all based upon word of mouth and while that is great and keeps a steady work flow, I have been looking for new ways to try and get our name out there. Any input is greatly appreciated!

 

[knight1fox3]

Our power engineering consulting firm just hired a person for marketing and business development. She is younger so is actively creating social network business profiles. Which will hopefully help to bring in new clients/work.

But otherwise, most of the time work is brought in by word of mouth and by larger repeat clients.

 

[goodal]

This has been a concern of mine as well. We don't do any advertising. All of our work comes in by word of mouth. I have tried going after State work, but have failed miserably so far. It seems you have to have had state work to get state work (or know somebody that knows somebody). Advertising would be pointless for a consulting firm. Its not like selling four wheelers. Noone is out there saying "Oh boy lets go hire an engineer". No, they do it because they have to and the ones that know this, know who they want to use. I've tried cold calling architects/contractors, but that hasn't brought in one job to my knowledge. I've spent a day or two and just gone and visited some of our existing clients to try and drum up work. This is rarely productive. Anything they give you, you were already going to get, and if they give it to you before its ready to work, you waste time on a preliminary floorplan that IS going to change or a job that may disappear.

I guess the State work is the best thing I can offer but don't get your hopes up.

 

[knight1fox3]

You don't have to necessarily advertise IMO, but being "visible" online I think certainly couldn't hurt the situation. LinkedIn is an excellent tool for this. A well-polished LinkedIn business page can go a long way in today's market.

 

[Road Guy]

[SIZE=medium]It depends on what you do:[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]I think Civil Site is all personal connections and also how cheap the developer can get you.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Transportation is experience + networking[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]I don’t have any experience outside of those other two… but good firms have good connections, are visible outside of work, professional society’s and all that other bullshit…[/SIZE]

 

[goodal]

BS is right and I hate that side of the business, but it is a necessary evil. We are not visible outside of work, in the sense that we don't attend ASHRAE meetings or go rep luncheons. I wouldn't mind doing that but we are 2.5 hrs outside of Memphis where it seems all that occurs for our clients/area. I agree its necessary and whenever I get the chance I attend meetings and see reps, but for the most part we are out of site and out of mind unfortunately. We have a LinkedIn page. I can't tell if its done any good or not. Good connections are a must. Problem is they are hard to find and must be nurtured. Usually, they just fall in your lap.

 

[Road Guy]

as much as its a pain I would do it (or at least give it a try)