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How Would You Market A Computer Repair Business Locally

by JustinG30
23 replies
I recently purchased a computer repair business and moved it to a new location. There are a lot of computer places by us, and I'm trying to,come up,with some creative ways to market it to set us apart from the competition.

I'm also wondering how we can show up in the google 7 pack for other cities under comuter repair like I see some of our competitors are. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
#business #computer #locally #market #repair
  • Profile picture of the author New Girl
    Craigslist would work in some areas. I know in Orange County, CA - I used to post Craigslist ads for a local computer repair shop and they got tons of business from it! Unfortunately though - it doesn't work in some smaller areas.
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  • Profile picture of the author JustinG30
    Ya our area it's horrible. There's a bunch of people who do work out of a home doing repairs for like $15 lol
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    • Profile picture of the author irinalovespaper
      Hi there,

      Did you thought about leaving some flyers or business cards in local toner shops? Some other ideas I can think of:

      - organize a free laptop dust cleaning event, you can create an event on Facebook and ask your friends to promote it - it can be a great way to meet clients;
      - find some 10-20 people businesses in your area and email them offering to do a free laptop dust cleaning visit and take advantage of the opportunity to discuss about what they need to fix and to show them why they should hire you;
      - talk with a few coffee-shop owners in your town to offer a free sticker and your business card to the people that are coming in those places to work.
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      • Profile picture of the author AmericanMuscleTA
        Originally Posted by irinalovespaper View Post

        Hi there,

        Did you thought about leaving some flyers or business cards in local toner shops? Some other ideas I can think of:

        - organize a free laptop dust cleaning event, you can create an event on Facebook and ask your friends to promote it - it can be a great way to meet clients;
        - find some 10-20 people businesses in your area and email them offering to do a free laptop dust cleaning visit and take advantage of the opportunity to discuss about what they need to fix and to show them why they should hire you;
        - talk with a few coffee-shop owners in your town to offer a free sticker and your business card to the people that are coming in those places to work.
        I love the free dust cleaning idea. If you advertise it, be sure to explain the benefits of a dust free computer.

        Are you looking to get more comsumers or businesses?

        If you're looking to rank on Google get Claude Whitacre's book Local Online Marketing.
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  • Profile picture of the author JTV
    I'd suggest creating (or updating) a website specifically for the local area, and put up short, catchy flyers with the website name and address in prominent letters. Then on the website you could create an opt-in form for SMS marketing, by offering to provide news about discounts, giveaways, lotteries, etc. People read every message they receive - they want to know what's in it. Very convertible, SMS marketing. It takes tweaking to get right, of course - your new clients and customers might respond to different incentives than people from your previous location. Just do some experiments and see what works. Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author JessUBotNinja
    If you have some busy coffee shops with lots of people working on their laptops I would see if you could put up fliers there. Maybe start a deal with the owner to offer them free service if they get you enough referral business. You may even be able to set up a monthly/quarterly computer clean up event.

    Are there any schools that you can team up with? Offer student and teacher discounts a couple weeks before midterms and finals and offer a pick up and drop off service at the school.

    Additionally, try advertising in the local library.
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    • Profile picture of the author MRomeo09
      I owned a pretty large computer repair business, we had offices in a dozen cities.

      Your money is in commercial repairs. That's where you make your money. The residential stuff is just for keeping you busy during odd times. What worked for me is the old fashioned way. Just get out there and meet people. Most computer people are sitting there waiting for people to call them. Get out there and meet every business owner in a five mile radius. Give them your card, introduce yourself, ask them if they need any help. If you cold call and introduce yourself to 20 business owners a day, every day for 6 weeks you'll be busier than you can handle.

      Yes I dominated Google, yes I killed it with PPC ads, yes I made money on craigslist, etc. Where I REALLY made money was with all of the contacts we made in the first six weeks from opening up our locations. You need around 200 businesses who have you as their "computer guy", that's usually enough to keep 2 techs busy most of the time. Roughly for every five business clients you talk with, 1 will do business with you in 90 days.

      If you can figure out how to do work in restaurants for POS systems, there is really, really good money in that. And the restaurants will pay whatever to make sure they stay up and running.

      Eventually you're going to want to find ways to start getting recurring income. Offering things like backup solutions, etc. There's a whole trend towards upselling to continuity programs in this marketplace. I can't remember who it is who offers these type courses, I'll have to think on it. Man, it's right in the back of my brain. I found a "guru" who sold stuff for computer repair businesses that looked really good.

      Ask for referrals. This business is a lot about who you know. A really good and loyal business client will refer you to 2-5 other business clients in 90 days.

      Keep up communication. I like email newsletters. Can you find interesting things that are important for small business owners that are computer related to send out? Newsletters are super important. I just bribed them to opt-in and then gave them really good information in my newsletters.

      None of your competitors are doing this, if you do it you'll have the best chance to succeed. Sorry it wasn't more "high tech". But this isn't theory, it's what got me from one shop in Atlanta to shops in Dallas, Houston, Orlando, Miami, D.C., Boston, etc.
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      • Profile picture of the author joshril
        Originally Posted by MRomeo09 View Post

        I owned a pretty large computer repair business, we had offices in a dozen cities.

        Your money is in commercial repairs. That's where you make your money. The residential stuff is just for keeping you busy during odd times. What worked for me is the old fashioned way. Just get out there and meet people. Most computer people are sitting there waiting for people to call them. Get out there and meet every business owner in a five mile radius. Give them your card, introduce yourself, ask them if they need any help. If you cold call and introduce yourself to 20 business owners a day, every day for 6 weeks you'll be busier than you can handle.

        Yes I dominated Google, yes I killed it with PPC ads, yes I made money on craigslist, etc. Where I REALLY made money was with all of the contacts we made in the first six weeks from opening up our locations. You need around 200 businesses who have you as their "computer guy", that's usually enough to keep 2 techs busy most of the time. Roughly for every five business clients you talk with, 1 will do business with you in 90 days.

        If you can figure out how to do work in restaurants for POS systems, there is really, really good money in that. And the restaurants will pay whatever to make sure they stay up and running.

        Eventually you're going to want to find ways to start getting recurring income. Offering things like backup solutions, etc. There's a whole trend towards upselling to continuity programs in this marketplace. I can't remember who it is who offers these type courses, I'll have to think on it. Man, it's right in the back of my brain. I found a "guru" who sold stuff for computer repair businesses that looked really good.

        Ask for referrals. This business is a lot about who you know. A really good and loyal business client will refer you to 2-5 other business clients in 90 days.

        Keep up communication. I like email newsletters. Can you find interesting things that are important for small business owners that are computer related to send out? Newsletters are super important. I just bribed them to opt-in and then gave them really good information in my newsletters.

        None of your competitors are doing this, if you do it you'll have the best chance to succeed. Sorry it wasn't more "high tech". But this isn't theory, it's what got me from one shop in Atlanta to shops in Dallas, Houston, Orlando, Miami, D.C., Boston, etc.

        This works.

        I have a friend that started his computer repair business this way and killed it... Sold his business a few years later for a TON of money.

        Doing what others are not willing to do is a big key to success.

        I will also say, I used to have an office when I was in the insurance business several years ago, and a computer repair guy came into my office with his card and chatted me up... Of all of the sales people to walk through my office door, he was the ONLY computer repair guy I saw...

        When we needed some networking work done, who do you think I called?

        Great post MRomeo... this tactic can also be applied to a lot of other businesses as well, for what it's worth...
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  • Profile picture of the author James Izek
    I think for best results you should use Craigslist for your computer repair business
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  • Profile picture of the author JustinG30
    Wow thanks for the ideas! The dust cleaning and the business one were awesome. We did some mailers to businesses but hitting the streets seems like such a better option. We have about 10 business customers now and its amazing how much more money you can make with them. Thanks for the input and advice!
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  • Profile picture of the author mydream247
    Join your local chamber of commerce, offer a free presentation to members on how to prevent downtime in the workplace, and you will have a ton of businesses attending, while giving presentation give out good information not sales pitch, just good information no one else is sharing, and you will get customers, because None of your competetors are doing this, like said previously most are waiting for there phone to ring, or easy walkins. Walkins don't spend big money, businesses that depend on there computers will buy maintance contracts.

    Good luck with your business, i hope you do so well you need to hire more techs...
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  • Profile picture of the author daweller
    - Hand out free t-shirts with your name and logo on it to big-busted women.
    - Wait for them to walk around town
    - ......
    - profit.
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    • Profile picture of the author MRomeo09
      Robin Robins- Managed Services Sales | Computer And IT Marketing | Technology Marketing

      That's who I was talking about. If you're serious about a computer repair business you probably should invest in something like this.
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      We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up ... discovering we have the strength to stare it down. - Eleanor Roosevelt

      Your opinion of yourself becomes your reality. If you have all these doubts, then no one will believe in you and everything will go wrong. If you think the opposite, the opposite will happen. It’s that simple.-Curtis Jackson- 50 Cent
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      Originally Posted by daweller View Post

      - Hand out free t-shirts with your name and logo on it to big-busted women.
      - Wait for them to walk around town
      - ......
      - profit.

      Dude?!?!?! you printed the logo on the back of the shirt... why does it matter who wears it?
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      Success is an ACT not an idea
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  • Profile picture of the author sbishop
    So I stopped reading after a few post...so if this is redundant I'm sorry.

    My best friend and I took over a failing computer repair shop. with in 2 yrs of the previous owner giving us the company we grossed $100k that year. this was in a smaller town and the only thing we did on the internet was build a crappy website.

    the things we did that worked
    -networking
    one of the biggest boost to our business was joining BNI a networking and referral group. It helped me flesh out who we were and what we did.

    -we started offering business service contracts.
    I hated the idea of hoping someone's computer would break so we could pay the rent. So, I developed service contract where we regularly scanned, cleaned, and maintained the companies computers. At first we would go to the clients office and go from computer to computer starting scans and made loops around the office until we finished everything, then I found a remote service that would run the scans at night and we did not need to go onsite unless they had a breakdown. We also found a online back up company that we could white label a back up service.

    We also offered free PC tune ups and always found viruses that we offered to remove for a fee.

    After a few years we reviewed our business and found that by moving from our $1,500 a month store front to a $600 a month office would save us money even if we lost all of our walk-in repairs. The majority of our business became the business contracts. We also built custom PCs for our clients.

    I hope this helps
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    • Profile picture of the author mvt82969
      Originally Posted by sbishop View Post

      So I stopped reading after a few post...so if this is redundant I'm sorry.

      My best friend and I took over a failing computer repair shop. with in 2 yrs of the previous owner giving us the company we grossed $100k that year. this was in a smaller town and the only thing we did on the internet was build a crappy website.

      the things we did that worked
      -networking
      one of the biggest boost to our business was joining BNI a networking and referral group. It helped me flesh out who we were and what we did.

      -we started offering business service contracts.
      I hated the idea of hoping someone's computer would break so we could pay the rent. So, I developed service contract where we regularly scanned, cleaned, and maintained the companies computers. At first we would go to the clients office and go from computer to computer starting scans and made loops around the office until we finished everything, then I found a remote service that would run the scans at night and we did not need to go onsite unless they had a breakdown. We also found a online back up company that we could white label a back up service.

      We also offered free PC tune ups and always found viruses that we offered to remove for a fee.

      After a few years we reviewed our business and found that by moving from our $1,500 a month store front to a $600 a month office would save us money even if we lost all of our walk-in repairs. The majority of our business became the business contracts. We also built custom PCs for our clients.

      I hope this helps
      Hey can you tell me the name of the remote service for the scans and also the name of the back up service? Thanks for the help
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      • Profile picture of the author slagwag
        Originally Posted by mvt82969 View Post

        Hey can you tell me the name of the remote service for the scans and also the name of the back up service? Thanks for the help
        I would suggest looking at GFI MaxFocus. I've used more advanced modules for businesses I managed in the IT world including Kaseya which are more fleshed out and customizeable. However, I found that MaxFocus (it was called MaxEssentials or something like that when I used it last year) was EASY to use and really cheap to sell.

        We are talking a few bucks a month per computer added to it. It provides full monitoring of desktops, patch management, antivirus, backup, disaster recovery (to restore the backups saved to a "cloud" environment back down to another machine).

        Due to the price associated it can be beneficial to sell to home users, but more likely be a very lucrative product to up-sell to small businesses. Manage all their desktops to pro-actively eliminate any issues before they occur for whatever you want to charge ($50 per desktop per month would not be out of this world to offer if you pitch it correctly).

        Also, look into becoming a Microsoft Partner to sell something like Office 365 and as someone said before - get in good with your local chamber of commerce. Offer them these services for free and if you are able to offer something like Office 365 to a local business nearby it can get you some upfront revenue and monthly reoccurring commissions from Microsoft.

        I mainly focus on these items because they are things you can offer without any investment on your part. Easy low-risk. But make sure you have a policy/agreement that will reflect what happens in the event of data loss. Make sure you do not get sued.
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  • Profile picture of the author Skystar
    .
    Some great ideas. Here's one: Pay Per Call - pay a leads guy $10 for each
    call over 60 sec. This will give you enough time to qualify the caller.
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  • Profile picture of the author internetmarketer1
    Marketing a computer repair company may be tougher than other businesses because it's in a relatively hidden niche, but there are ways to do this.

    You could try working with other businesses in any place that offers repair work as well. Any kind of iPhone or smartphone repair place may not offer computer repair, but I'm sure their clients may have the same problem with their computers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Amsterdam81
    Originally Posted by JustinG30 View Post

    I recently purchased a computer repair business and moved it to a new location. There are a lot of computer places by us, and I'm trying to,come up,with some creative ways to market it to set us apart from the competition.

    I'm also wondering how we can show up in the google 7 pack for other cities under comuter repair like I see some of our competitors are. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks

    Hi,


    I have amassed a considerable high enough monthly income. What I could suggest you? Do not use SEO, just post on websites like this nationwideadvertising.com, or other similar.


    Networking, build small community, meetups, casual beer drinkings/ eat out, simple lobbying in the hope ur 1st customer introduces you to his colleagues, etc,


    thats the idea.. if you are nice to ur customers, they will come to you ALWAYS...
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      Do not use SEO? but drink beer, eat out, goto meetups, and network. I get what you are saying.. hang out where your possible prospects maybe. But, SEO is the same thing. being present where your possible prospects maybe looking online. The only difference with the 2? with SEO you are hanging around 24hr a day 7 days a week 52 weeks a year. eating out? well you are there for what 2 hours?


      Originally Posted by Amsterdam81 View Post

      Hi,

      I have amassed a considerable high enough monthly income. What I could suggest you? Do not use SEO, just post on websites like this nationwideadvertising.com, or other similar.

      Networking, build small community, meetups, casual beer drinkings/ eat out, simple lobbying in the hope ur 1st customer introduces you to his colleagues, etc,

      thats the idea.. if you are nice to ur customers, they will come to you ALWAYS...
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      Success is an ACT not an idea
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      • Profile picture of the author kasner
        First, you MUST understand what marketing is supposed to do. Its purpose is actually three fold...

        Its first job is to capture the attention of your target market.

        Second, it must give them the hope that reading or listening to your marketing will give them enough information to help them make the best decision possible when buying whatever you sell. In other words, train and teach them how to recognize the true value of your product or service... and conclude that you... and you alone... offer the best value versus your competition.

        Marketing’s third job is to lower the risk of taking the next step in the buying process... and if necessary... continue to educate the prospect regarding the value you offer.

        Marketing that accomplishes these three objectives will result in your prospects and customers coming to one single conclusion... that they would have to be an absolute fool to do business with anyone else but you, regardless of price.
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