How would you promote a Home computer repair business?

Be sure to tie in Social Media marketing, Youtube videos, Twitter account, Facebook fan page, LinkedIn.

Have the client start an SMS list and send reminders for prospects "to scan and clean" the computer regularly.

QR codes to client made "How To" videos, and a .mobi fast contact website. mailed out to prospects on postcards.

You might also start, (or find someone who has already started), a lunch table place-mat advertizing home business (or coffee cup sleeves, or beer coasters, or payphone note pads) and place adverts for the client.

Some interesting tips. However I'm not sure you can apply most of them to the "computer repair" niche. Most people looking to repair their computers are not interested in receiving information what so ever. This market looks like the locksmith market a lot. This is mostly an emergency market.

Someone who has a serious computer problem won't be able to go online and look for it ( since his Pc doesn't work ) so I'm thinking that the emphasis should be put on the mobile version of a website.

I have some sort of "emergency call" card in my mailbox very often. Basically they have a bunch of numbers on it. Fire department, police, plumber, locksmith ,etc I have never seen a computer related number on it. I might be able to contact the company that does the distribution and get one for computer repair for a certain fee. A better idea would be to create and distribute them myself. I might be able to make some extra money by asking a few local plumbers and locksmiths for a fee.

Obviously I'm not going to neglect this. In my OP I mentioneed that I was going to do SEO on their website and create a mobile site.


I just had an idea that seems pretty decent. I gotta test it to see how viable it is. I'm going to hit some local businesses that deal with a lot of people everyday ( dry cleaning , bakery ,etc) and offer them a free website if they accept to put our flyers on their counters and I'm even going to ask for a billboard add. I can probabaly get them to signup for hosting and maintenance for 50$/month . This will make me money on both sides

Like SpeedyBanana said, I’d focus on geotargeted keywords for the city where the business is located and any cities close by. I know a lot of households like mine where there isn’t just one computer in the house. I often hop on the other computer if I need to troubleshoot an issue on my hubby’s computer.

For SEO on their site, ask them about some of the common repairs they deal with and then think about how non-techie users would search for those same issues. Adding a few pages on their site listing common issues & repairs, not giving the whole answer away of course, may be a good idea too.

This is what I did for a friend of mine a few years ago....

I designed a postcard for her, based on the services she wanted to offer. She had a small list (under200 customers from a place she worked before that closed) so she mailed those first, and then put these cards everywhere, stores, bulletin boards, etc.

She then went to smaller companies in the area and gave them a sheet I designed (more detailed with a sales letter) and made them an offer.

The offer was to come and do a "Speed-up Service", remove viruses on X number of machines at no charge. It was a "Get To Know You" Special. She'd ask the company how many machines they had, and if it was say, 8, she'd do 2 of them - no charge.
Usually when they saw how much faster the machines booted and ran, they'd agree to pay to have the rest done. Then she usually turned those companies into longer term maintenance deals. Plus this was combined with the single jobs she did for home pc users.

In about 60 or 70 days, she built this little home based enterprise into $2,800 a month in fees and sales, consistently. Since she had lost her job, it was much needed at the time.
here's a sample of the only postcard I could find...


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Bruce

Don't forget about the offline side of things to. Just a few ideas

1. Start a refer a friend program where the customer who refers gets a free tune up on their pc or something.

2. Get your business cards in every place imaginable cross promote with other businesses. Say there is an electronics shop in town partner with them send business each others way.

3. Host a free seminar on just using the computer I was from a small town and I helped host a free computer seminar for the PC shop it was a hit elderly/baby boomer generation doesn't even know how to pull up their email let alone know what it is.

Food for thought.

The tips is a great idea, also maybe a seminar or webinar for the local community. See if a local organization will let you offer at their building -maybe a church or a school. Announce it on all the social media platforms. Offer a drawing for a free computer tune-up.

I like the webinar/seminar idea because people can meet you in person. A great place to do it would be at a college close to you. The students at the school alone would be a rich source of potential customers.

Make sure you market yourself to the locals. Put up signs, posters, ads in the paper, etc. You can also use social networking sites like twitter, facebook, etc. All will help out in many ways.

I would set them up a youtube page. Have them offer some tips and tricks that are simple and takes less than 5 minutes to do. This way they dont offer stuff that will cause them to lose business. One thing I would do as well is have them video a computer build demonstration. This will show that they know what they are doing and really boost potential clients confidence in them. I am an IT guy and this has helped me get business time and time again especially after doing a PC build then firing it up so they can see it is running and working and it has worked all the time. Make sure to have them say their company name at least 3 times in each video just to get that in the back of the viewers mind

Be professional. You will sometime be unable to save their data or their broken motherboard, but you can explain why while keeping it simple. And there are few software problems you cannot solve at all, so do not admit failure unless necessary (repairs that would cost more than the computer's value for example). You will gain a reputation as an expert, not to mention people will come to view you as honest, which can be invaluable if you have a serious problems one day.

Facebook Fanpage can help you more.

I would find a simple service to offer computer owners BEFORE the computer is ever broken...use this to build your list of clients and stay in touch with them. This way when the computer breaks, they call you because you're the "computer guy". Something people want like data security, child controls, computer set up, etc...you can also make an affiliate commission on a lot of security software products if they purchase through your link...

Get mousemats printed up with the services and contact number on them and send them to local businesses.

Every office I worked in most people turn into Golem at the site of a new mouse mat as its not something usually bought by stationary manager.

This way you are in prime location next to the computers if anything goes wrong.

Sometimes it's easier to try to get clients offline than it is online... the clients you're after actually live offline and some of them may spend more time offline than online, again few of them may search online for the kind of service you're talking about even if they spend a ton of time online, some even live and/or work near you or someone you know, so while you might want to offer him SEO services etc, you might also consider offering him some good old consulting services to include ideas for marketing himself offline...

Whether you use local SEO or articles or postcards or whatever else, you still need a BIG golden hook with juicy bait to draw in the best prospects so here's my suggestion...

Get your client to get a hold of all of his current contacts and past happy clients, send them emails or text messages offering the following...

1. FREE full anti-virus installation on at least one PC
2. FREE full PC check up (like a free medical examination)
3. FREE RAM upgrade (explain what this really does for prospects)
4. FREE whatever else doesn't cost too much to offer as a loss leader
5. FREE CDs chuck full of great software for businesses, or any other niches or general users etc

The point of something like is to introduce your client to the people they will eventually work with. As some warriors have mentioned this is a largely emergency market so they won't call you just because you say to call now... they will only call when they desperately need to and if you are the one who is top of mind and one way to get your client top of mind is to get them to MEET the client, perform a great job for free, and get a relationship of sorts started.

Your client should also do follow up calls with advice on how to improve this or that or avoid the latest viruses or phishing scams or email hacking or whatever else, they can also call with tips for upgrading from one Windows version to another and so on and so forth, the idea is to build a rapport to be a computer expert they know and trust to touch their PC without causing more problems and to do so at a reasonable/affordable price etc... Your client should get more calls than normal when he/she offers freebies that most computer repair people will charge money for.

Best of luck,

Kunle

You can also offer consultation on fiverr before actually getting job for repair, mobile marketing is good, posting local ads on craigs also would be good as lots of people are using it, networking through facebook to market business can also work...

Classifieds are your friend! Craigslist, local newspapers, etc. can generate you a lot of traffic and clients

Old thread but still alive.

I'd say for a lot of this thread you can see the bias here for online marketing. Which for this kind of business will not me the most effective for the following reasons.

1. If their computer is down they may not be able to get online.
2. What will the person be searching for if they do check online?

For a guy bootstrapping a computer repair service here is what I would say.
1. For online marketing focus 100% on google places. As this will likely be his best if not only online source.
2. Get a memoriable business number. Like towing companies this may help people to remember you as the computer guy they heard about. Car Dead... Call Fred(he's been advertising like that since I was a kid. We know to call fred)
3. Yard signs. Order them and get them out in places where people will see them. Network with businesses and homes to put them out.
4. Magnetic signs on cars(his and friends). Basically you want people to see it over and over again.
5. Promote the business with signs near places people buy or get computers fixed. If you got a business near best buy that will let you put up a sign or banner do it. Maybe exchange free IT help for so many years in exchange for the signage.

Once the business picks up do the following
1. Get a retail location that gets good drive by traffic.
2. Yellow Pages ad
3. Radio Ads
4. TV Ads

The key to getting a business like this to work is to build a brand that people know. You ave to get them to remember you when their computer is working because when it breaks unless they know you or their friend does they will just take it to best buy and get hosed by the geeks.

Hmm... So I'm assuming your opting for online marketing then. If so, you can do SEO on your website. For that you can try a bit of article marketing, linkedin, and even facebook marketing while your at it.

This is an awsome post. I just want to say big thanks to everyone!!!!!

To everyone who suggested Google Places along with a well optimized website is the way to go. I also have a computer repair business and I get leads through Google places and my website. I can't forget videos and business citations. At one time I was ranking my video, website and Google Places all on the first page, but you know how it goes Google changed the Map lay out so now only my website is ranking on page one. My video dropped to page two and will soon be back to page one since I'm concentrating on getting it there.

Google local business listings pages, as you can create as many pages as you like. (use wisley) Use keywords such as "local compuer repair shop Atlanta" as you page title. Google has their own channels on how to deck it out.

I agree with ehsan that most folks with computer issues will not be able to get onlline to look for help thru google places etc. So the best way to reach them is thru offline marketing. Flyers, ads in newpapers, mags and other offline methods would be best. However, the use of twitter, socia media paltofrms etc is good to build new contacts and "friends" which is important for long-term business. If yuo make your presence stand out, they would surely remember you as the computer handyman whenevr a PC disaster stirtkes .This wrks for local area.

Very interesting ideas and great suggestions. May I jump in with a question to all the QR code ideas:
Did you guys do any experience on these? I have honestly seen never seen anybody scanning these. I almost come to believe they are more just there for signaling "we are innovative", but is there actually some tests/success for them in an advertising environment?

i think social media is a good source 4 it ....

Home computer repair business is generally considered in the local
market so I think better to advertise it in local market rather than
online one. You can keep add in the news paper and craiglist post is
a good idea to provide your service too. Yelp is another way to
market in particular area or city.

Give a presentation to homeowner associations and give them a group discount and priority service. Condo assoc/apt complex boards etc...

Offer some free tune-up if they bring computer to you, or if you want to make house calls. then you put your sticker on their computer for future reference. who they gonna call?

Why not go EDDM?
For .16 an address
with a great offer
it would pay for itself.

I tried promoting one Product in Cb and the campaign I started then is sending traffic till now but never made a sale. It is comment traffic. It works for me in other niches not here though.

This is a bit of a different offline tactic, but it does work..

Go to the business oriented computer/network shops that ONLY deal with businesses. They get tons of calls for home service because their client's employees know them, and people walk in off the street. They either just tell them NO, or they refer them to someone.

Ask them to refer those home repairs to you. Leave a stack of business cards with them.

Refer business clients back to them, if you are only doing home repairs. (Builds good will)

I worked in one of those "business only" shops for 20 years, and watched a half-dozen home repair people build clientele by referrals from us.

Try to use PPV advertisements and target those who are looking for safety programs/softwares/services.. those are your clients!

You can use social media
something like facebook fan pages.

You could have a referral program... an example would be you offering a unique referral code that people give there friends, family or whoever and the referrer could receive some type of credit/s and the one referred could get a small discount.

You could use classified ad sites like craigslist
I recommend testing classified ads and see how they work for you then try a paid ad on craigslist and you will receive tones of traffic in which ever direction you choose, whether its a site or phone number, etc... note: you definitely have to test the ads response rate first before just dishing money and make sure the campaign converts profitably, but once you know that then the sky's the limit

Also if you choose to advertise online and create a converting ad, you can take it offline using newspaper classifieds.

Addition ideas:
-Drop cards
-Post cards
-Traditional business cards
-Great service so word of mouth becomes inevitable
-Fiverr.com has some really cool services like having someone make video testimonials or hand out flyers, etc... for a $5 dollar fee... you can get really creative here for minimal risk

Bill distribution of Computer repair in local areas with batter contacts of shops already runing the business to refer the people who are looking for home repair service.