There are so many great ways to get potential customers to know about you. This article will elaborate on a few of our favorites. A great advantage of marketing is to have a choice of who your customers will be. Have you ever worked for a very particular customer and when the project was all over, you wished you had chosen your customers better? How about that unique job that you took on, hoping that everything would work out, and after completion, thinking why did I do that? These are all things that good marketing can help.

One of our best sources of new prospects is our web site. We joined the worldwide web early and have been adding to our site constantly. If you haven't started your own site yet, you should give it some thought. People love to look at pictures, and your completed deck projects will help sell your next customers. One of the best things about your own web site is that you can keep expanding each year and it gets better and better.

Another very simple marketing idea, but one of the best values for the money is yard signs. Putting up a sign where you are working lets all the neighbours in on what's going on at ?The Joneses?. We have sold hundreds of jobs from this idea and it doesn't cost very much. If you take care of your signs, they can last for years. Get at least one sign per crew and on high traffic areas see what a few signs strategically placed will do.

Supporting local children's sport teams is another great lead generator. It is great when you can give back something to your community and also get some quality leads. We sponsor kid's soccer, baseball, basketball and hockey teams. Every year a few jobs will come from past or present parents of our teams.

The last but perhaps most important marketing idea that I will mention in this article is our past customers. If you take care of your customers, they will take care of you. Harvesting repeat business and referrals takes time, but when you did what you said you would, on time, left the site neat and tidy, and gave the deck project a few little extras, you will be amazed how fast your business grows.