Welcome, 855 CAR-KEYS

[855CARKEYS]

Hi everybody! My name is Barry, I'm a locksmith in Denver, CO and would like to take an active party in this forum.
I hope to learn from you a lot on how to hold a small business with a lot of competition from the big sharks, and hopefully I can teach others when the time is right.

We specialized in car keys, high security laser cut keys, proximity fobs commercial & Residential hardware, door closer and alignment, prox card readers, keyless entry devices, safety deposit boxes opening (without drilling) and many more.

I found it very hard to hold a business with so many competitors quoting low rates over the phone then upsale in forn of the customer.

In the past few years we are working hard on educating the public to ask for an upfront pricing or request a free estimate but it is still so hard.

I believe most of you had the same problems and I wish to know how did you do it. How did you brand your business to be different and found your niche in the market.

Again, I'm here to learn and here to teach - and I wish I will have the opportunity to do them both.

Barry

[vangogh]

Welcome to the forum Barry. We're practically neighbors.

I'm not sure if trying to educate people is the right approach. It's certainly good to share knowledge and help people know more, but I think the better way to approach your business is to find where you offer more value to the competition and then show that value in your marketing. Naturally price could be one way to offer value, but it's not the only way. I see a couple of mentions of safety in your comments. Maybe that's a way to add value. Letting people know how you help protect the things in their lives. Another approach could be the convenience of the keyless entry. It's all about appealing to an emotional need or desire in your customer.

Branding is a pretty big subject. It really does begin with the story your business tells your customers. It's about sending a consistent message in everything you do and then trying to get that message to reach as many potential customers as possible.

We'll do what we can to share our stories and offer any thoughts we can to help. Looking forward to getting to know you better and thanks for joining the community.

[Spider]

Welcome aboard, Barry.

[KristineS]

Welcome to the forum Barry. I think educating your potential customers is always good, but you also have to be aware of the trends in your industry and work accordingly. What's the single biggest problem you can solve for your customers? Is it security, is it the cost of having a lock installed, is it knowing what kind of lock they need? Take some time to look at the questions your potential customers ask you and you may get some leads on what your potential niche could be.

[cbscreative]

Welcome, Barry. You've already received some good responses to what marketing really is when you strip off all the complicated explanations of it. As you delve into the forum, I hope you will take advantage of our marketing section...both traditional and Internet. There's a lot of good info already supplied when you start digging in, plus you can ask questions when you need to. Enjoy this resource dedicated to small biz.

[855CARKEYS]

Thank you for your kind words.
I need to do some thinking.. because I believe what you wrote is true but my problem is that these people are ripping off customers ($200 - $500) to unlock a car.. so their advertising budget is huge

At this point they are all over Google and it's hard to fight their budget (Paid ads & SEO) - SO I have a message, but how can I get it out? :\

[vangogh]

You don't have to have a huge budget, though less money to spend usually means more time would need to be spent. I can find you for different searches in Google right now. Do you have any kind of analytics set up so you can measure how much traffic the site is getting and what that traffic is doing on the site?

I'm sure there are ways to improve the site and its traffic and I'm sure there are ways to promote the business even without having to spend too much money.