Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Advertising?

What advertising is everyone finding the most effective right now? I am mainly concerned with what everyone is doing for new customers in their area. Most of my customers come from referrals through the university I work for, or the local piano store, but I can remember a few years back a big chunk of my work came from the yellow pages. That however seems to be a thing of the past in my area.

Word of mouth has always been the biggest one of all. A good website works well too.

The trick is to get the word of mouth out there that you have a good website!

Tell piano owners their neighbors are starting to complain. Pets are suffering from indigestion. etc.

I also suggest listing yourself on Yelp and getting your customers to leave you feedback. It's a great (and free!) way to get some extra visibility.

I suggest a web site. Go to Vistaprint and you can have one for free or very, very cheap. Also, I have magnetic signs on my car, they generate quite a bit of business. Since I go all over town anyway it's like a moving billboard. People stop me in parking lots and even in the neighborhood where I'm tuning. They're cheap and effective. Of course be sure to have business cards to give out.

Be sure to go to Google Maps and claim your listing. It's free and if you have a website you can have a direct link to it from there.

Check out Piano Acoustics on the web and again if you have web site you can claim your listing, for $10 a year and it will link right to your website.

I think for the most part the Yellow Pages is a big waste of money.

Music stores that don't sell pianos are a good source for me. Introduce yourself, leave some business cards and try to refer customers to them. I get a LOT of business from a local music store that only sells digital pianos.

The internet has replaced the phone book in most homes. As others have already pointed out, a good website is important. If you can't get your website found in search results then its worth it to spend a little on Google ads.

I find that reminder cards are still a worthwhile investment. They don't just increase calls from repeat customers. I find that they increase referrals. The worst thing that can happen to anyone in this business is to have a satisfied customer forget who it was that did such a good job last time.

Great point Thomson. Make sure the customer knows your name and doesn't forget it!

I used Google AdWords and Bing, the two highest searched engines. I do maintain a Yellow Pages ad, because from a perception point of view from the customer, being in the yellow pages, though obsolete, lends legitimacy to your business. Set up a pay-per-click ad campaign with Google and Bing that draw customers to your site, where they can easily contact/book you.

I also maintain a toll-free 800 number for my out of town clients as a courtesy. Again, toll-free's are dinosaurs in today's world because most people use cell phones and minutes are minutes, but customers do use them and they again add credibility.

Well I tried something new last night, on facebook(at least in this area)there is something called FOR SALE CLAY COUNTY or whatever county you live. Its a group you join on facebook and its just individuals from different counties selling items. I posted my services on there last night and had 4 tunings to line up from it this morning. You might check and see if there are ones for your counties in your states if not you could start a new group. Just FYI, thought it might work for some others.

Advertise on PianoWorld, right here, right now. There is a link to click (upper right on my screen), and you're on your way.This is a highly visible site and bumps you way up on Google searches. It's easy to use, good value for money -- and you're here now, go ahead, use the site to help you! It certainly helped my business when I was searching for new customers -- thanks, Frank (Frank is the site owner and a very good guy).

I recently launched a Directory Website dedicated to piano services. I am a technician here in AZ.

It is free to list your business in your home city and listings are added on a first come, first served basis.

Anyway, it's free exposure if you are looking to get your name out on the web and try and bring in new clients in your area.

Here is the link: www.PianoTunersByState.com

Geotargeting is critical, though. Doesn't make sense to pay to advertise to someone who might live thousands of miles away from me.

Loren D - You are right. Geography targeting is critical. I have set it up so you can list specifically to the category (Piano Tuners) and geography (Your City) you service in PA. I offer free listings as well, not just paid.

I also optimize the landing page for each listing so that it has the opportunity to show and start ranking for online users in your specific area making it laser geo-targeted.

I hope that helps.

I can tell you what doesn't work....putting a sticker with your name on it inside every piano you tune. There are a couple local tuners who do this. Half the pianos I tune seem to have a certain tech's sticker inside. But since I just did the last tuning, apparently it didn't work. The only people who see those stickers, and signatures, are other techs.

I always thought that's what they were for, us..... Otherwise, we'd stick them on the lid. On the outside...

What really gets me is when I go to tune a beautiful concert piano and I look down at the plate and there are ink stamps on it with their name and date of previous techs. Thats vandalism if you ask me.

I agree. I've never been one to sign pianos. Although I kind of enjoy the running service record on some of the old school pianos. I do a good bit of work in Cincinnati Public Schools. There was a guy, Fred Grau, who must have had the CPS contract. He wrote down everything he did, with a date. CPS must have bought a couple truckloads of these blond Wurlitzer studio pianos. They are in every school I've been in.