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Hi Folks, I’m just starting out and I am looking for some marketing advice.

 I’m focusing on fencing and decking for now but I will offer more hard landscaping services like laying turf, patios and astro-turf  as my business grows.

My background is in IT, but I did fencing n decking with my father, he worked for a landscaping company for a few summers. So I helped him do work for friends and family. I plan to work on my own this year, and employ staff next year.

I have built lots of websites and done SEO and SEM, but I have never used traditional marketing.  My website is only 50% done, buts it’s probably good enough to use for AdWords and get a small amount of business.  

As it’s almost June, I am wondering if it is worth doing a flyer drop, or putting ads in the local papers. Yell.com wants £90 per month for an ad in the north side of Glasgow. Thomson Local doesn’t get much press up here, so I’m going to give them a miss.

So my question is to you guys and gals that are established:

1. Is it worthwhile having a mix of old and new marketing?
2. Do you really get a good return on the investment from local papers and flyer drops?
3. If you do which do you find works best, flyers, local press?
4. Are the bidding websites such as rate-people any good? (It costs £15 pm + you have to buy the bids) I used sites like this for website design, clients always undervalued the cost of the job.
5. What bidding sites would you recommend?
6. When you are established do you get most of your work from referrals, or is this a myth.

I know what I’m asking here is quite a touchy subject; we are after all competitors, and you may not want to give away too much. So if you would rather not reply to this post , and contact me directly the please do so. Any private advice you give me will be kept confident.

Thanks in advance

Fran.