Answer if you believe in advertising and use it. And what do you use. Or if you do not believe in advertising? Why do you not like it? And what do you do to get new customers?
      Answer1:we should do promotion by advertising.
      Answer2:depends on the business. i often advertised specials like 10% off deals or if i was giving something away to draw in potential business.the words free or % off works wonders. i would skip a month to see if word of mouth spread and believe it or not that was my greatest free advertisement was a satisfied cust. they would tell two freinds and so on. i went from 100,000 to 230,000 to 430,000 with this plan try it for yourself.
      Answer3:~~We have used advertising in the past. My husband is a swimming pool contractor, so our best results have been in the quarterly magazines we have which you can place a picture of your work, and offer a special price. Honestly though, advertising is so expensive, and for our business in this economy, pointless. We have done best with word of mouth and networking with other contractors in the business, i.e., landscapers, architects, etc. It takes a long time for word of mouth to start working, he has been in business for over 20 years. So normally, someone comes through with a referral.~~
      Answer4:I agree a lot with debijs answer. My brother and I run a tree service that we took over from our father. He ran the business for 30 years and worked very hard to develop a professional reputation which had been contrary to public views of our industry. We have tried some small-scale advertisements such as door hangers and things of that nature. It has panned out for us that using any advertising has done us minimal good considering the cost. We have even considered pulling our yellow page ad. I would say that it entirely depends on your type of business and on the type of clients that you want/need. We rely on our reputation and our extremely high standard of work to bring in new clients. We also rely on repeat business. We would much rather have 10 clients and do 10 dollars/year for them than to have 100 clients and do 1 dollar/year. This method has also reduced the amount of clients that call us and deny our work based on our prices being higher than other companies. We are the most expensive business in our area by a decent margin, however we provide the best value. You really do get what you pay for! The calls that we get from referred customers know what to expect from us as they have talked with satisfied customers in the past. This method does put a lot of pressure on us to perform to our high standards without fail, but I do not see that as a bad thing. So, I guess long answer just to say,"Nope, advertising has not panned out to be worth the expense in my experience!" Hope that helps...Phil