I Need Help Marketing an Online Computer Fixing/Cleaning Service

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g1c9

g1c9

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Jun 26, 2006
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hey,

I'm hoping you guys can help me out. A friend of mine owns this service: remoteit.us .. basically, he uses computer-to-computer connecting programs that are designed for remotePC/traveling to run virus scans and etc on people's computers which have viruses/spyware.

He cleans em up pretty good. It takes like 2-3 hours and they DON'T have to be at their computer.. they often run errands while he fixes em. They are always satisfied; it's a middle ground between buying software and learning how to use it and physically taking your computer somewhere to get it fixed.

Anyways, I need to help him (I have a stake in this too) market the service.. the service is location-less within reasonable time-zone restrictions.. so basically he can work ALL ACROSS the U.S. Payment is done online through paypal with 1 click, but he's phyiscally based in Maryland.

So, how should he get his initial batch of clients? How should he market this?

any 2c helps.

Thanks in advance,

Cameron
 


g1c9 said:
hey,

I'm hoping you guys can help me out. A friend of mine owns this service: remoteit.us .. basically, he uses computer-to-computer connecting programs that are designed for remotePC/traveling to run virus scans and etc on people's computers which have viruses/spyware.

He cleans em up pretty good. It takes like 2-3 hours and they DON'T have to be at their computer.. they often run errands while he fixes em. They are always satisfied; it's a middle ground between buying software and learning how to use it and physically taking your computer somewhere to get it fixed.

Anyways, I need to help him (I have a stake in this too) market the service.. the service is location-less within reasonable time-zone restrictions.. so basically he can work ALL ACROSS the U.S. Payment is done online through paypal with 1 click, but he's phyiscally based in Maryland.

So, how should he get his initial batch of clients? How should he market this?

any 2c helps.

Thanks in advance,

Cameron
Click to expand...

If you guys can repair spyware/adware remotely, why not compete for keywords? spyware,adware, pc repair, etc.. Perhaps try geo-targetting at first (Maryland) and slowly scale as you see fit. I'd also try small media buys on related forums, websites etc.. However you may want to spice up your lander and make it more of a sales page to help with the conversions.
 
Have him take $4000 or so to a network and start his affiliate offer there.

Offer a reasonable payout, put some cash down, and build the best LP you can.
 
Don't display fake trust images like Hacker Safe. Spend the money and get the real thing. Also, get an SSL cert in place, too. These people are looking for help. They want to trust you/your friend. Anything you can do to increase the trust level will help once they are on the page.

And actually for those services offline marketing with flyers works pretty well - especially in apartment buildings. Word of mouth spreads fast.
 
bigbyte said:
And actually for those services offline marketing with flyers works pretty well - especially in apartment buildings. Word of mouth spreads fast.
Click to expand...

Agree. Offline marketing should do well for the service you offer. Purchasing a listing in the yellow pages wouldn't be a bad idea either.
 
I actually looked into doing this a while back, offering it along with remote backup service; at the time there were few people doing it at the consumer level because of bandwidth limitations + they were not yet comfortable enough with the concept of having their machines accessed remotely.

Things are different today, but I still don't see a lot of people out there who can do it well; if your guy is good, you are sitting on something nice. Here are a couple thoughts:


This one is a no-brainer and it applies to pretty much anything in business. As you market the service, always have a plan to address the situation of a spike in volume. It's never a good feeling to have a 'good problem' and not know what to do.

If you haven't already, look into putting in a scheduling system and find a couple people you can trust to be on call in the event you can't handle the workload. This will not only give you peace of mind, but it spreads out your operation to help minimize bandwidth issues, should they arise.



Marketing:
In addition to the suggestions of others, try to get some exposure in the larger tech sites like Wired, theFeed(g4) by getting some of their writers to review your service. This might take a while, but definitely worth it.

For the offline campaign, get some business-card shaped CDs printed. Your contact info would be on the label and on the disc, you could have a bootable environment that walks the user through whatever you need them to do to access your service.

This way, you can use the traditional offline methods to distribute the discs; when someone's machine is wrecked and can't boot or get online, they will dig that disc out of their junk drawer and pop it in.
 
The flyers are a good advice. I would post them everywhere around town especially community centers, schools, universities, and coffee shops.
Offer some type of discount for first timers.
Do public speaking engagements.
Write articles for local newspapers about your business, and write articles for directory submission.
Start a blog
 
Craigslist services section. Geotarget, see what works a particular market. Find similar markets when you've got a profitable situation.

By market I mean "College Town" "Senior Haven" "Wealthy Suburb" "Working-class suburb"

What works in some markets will probably not work in others. Find out who your target consumer is and go after them.

For example, you might think that older folks would be great customers for this. They have money, they're not very internet-savvy...and the do hire people to do a lot of tasks that they can't do themselves.

Yeah, older folks hire more people to do things for them, but there is a serious trust issue that many of them have with computers in general. Many think "those hackers are going to hack into my home computer and get my bank account information" when it's more likely that someone's going to just steal one of their credit cards at church.

Once you have a profile of your ideal customer, hit up InfoUSA and buy some leads. You can buy very targeted leads from them. Sort by income, location, education level, etc.
 
Lots of blackmail potential in a site like that.
Click to expand...

HAHAHHAahha... but seriously,

we looked into adwords, would have to pay BANK for just a few clicks.. so we kinda threw the towel in there before even starting. most "virus" results are all fake anti-virus software that fuck you over in a million ways.

we did flyers and craigslist.

flyers didn't work at all, and these were NICE flyers.. idk why they didn't work.

craigslist worked, but I felt like a goddamn monkey posting there over and over... But now I'll look into oursourcing the posting. I'll go to buy/sell/trade for that but feel free to post here if you know someone/a company.

so far our demographic seems to be rich housewives. no joke. their husband tells them the fix their computer and they are all like OMG WUT DO I DO and so they go on craigslist and see our ads which are posted in the hamptons and rich parts of big cities...

scheduling system and yellow pages are good too...

keep the ideas coming.. this is gold, and I promise to report back here with results in a few weeks.
 
g1c9 said:
HAHAHHAahha... but seriously,

we looked into adwords, would have to pay BANK for just a few clicks.. so we kinda threw the towel in there before even starting. most "virus" results are all fake anti-virus software that fuck you over in a million ways.

we did flyers and craigslist.

flyers didn't work at all, and these were NICE flyers.. idk why they didn't work.

craigslist worked, but I felt like a goddamn monkey posting there over and over... But now I'll look into oursourcing the posting. I'll go to buy/sell/trade for that but feel free to post here if you know someone/a company.

so far our demographic seems to be rich housewives. no joke. their husband tells them the fix their computer and they are all like OMG WUT DO I DO and so they go on craigslist and see our ads which are posted in the hamptons and rich parts of big cities...

scheduling system and yellow pages are good too...

keep the ideas coming.. this is gold, and I promise to report back here with results in a few weeks.
Click to expand...

- What was avg cpc w/adwords?
- Try .25 clicks with Myspace. Make the ad as simple yet as informative as possible (Remote repair, fixed within 24 hours guaranteed, accepts all major cc's, etc.. ). I would stress remote repair but have it phrased differently.
- Facebook - A perfect place to target college girls. Get creative and make a catchy ad copy to keep ctr up and cpc down.
 
why college girls? i'd think they'd just find some guy to do it for them.. right? and them younger folk are more tech savvy anyways, and many college kids have macbooks.. which is even worse.
 
g1c9 said:
why college girls? i'd think they'd just find some guy to do it for them.. right? and them younger folk are more tech savvy anyways, and many college kids have macbooks.. which is even worse.
Click to expand...

Yep, was just going to say that. Almost every girl here has a macbook...and I'm sure 95% have one because of "Photo Booth". True story
 
relevenace of macbooks is that they don't get fucked up so much and so we really only deal with windows.

and I'm sure 95% have one because of "Photo Booth". True story
Click to expand...

i want to cry.
 
I think you gave up on adwords a bit to fast, most of the people I know who mess their computer up, go to google first. outsource your keyword research (erect has a really good service) and see if you can get people in.

the area is a bit saturated but if you try I think it may be your most profitable alteritive, until you have enought traffic to get some work of mouth going.

talk to some of the more popular tech bloggers and ask if they will support your product (it may cost you) but it may be a good way to get some traffic headed your way.
 
g1c9 said:
hey,

I'm hoping you guys can help me out. A friend of mine owns this service: remoteit.us .. basically, he uses computer-to-computer connecting programs that are designed for remotePC/traveling to run virus scans and etc on people's computers which have viruses/spyware.

He cleans em up pretty good. It takes like 2-3 hours and they DON'T have to be at their computer.. they often run errands while he fixes em. They are always satisfied; it's a middle ground between buying software and learning how to use it and physically taking your computer somewhere to get it fixed.

Anyways, I need to help him (I have a stake in this too) market the service.. the service is location-less within reasonable time-zone restrictions.. so basically he can work ALL ACROSS the U.S. Payment is done online through paypal with 1 click, but he's phyiscally based in Maryland.

So, how should he get his initial batch of clients? How should he market this?

any 2c helps.

Thanks in advance,

Cameron
Click to expand...

I think you guys have got an ace landing page and a site. I also think that you will have a real problem scaling your business when your marketing picks up. You should have a look at our affiliate program which I think would help you guys out...

Mayby I'm barking up the wrong tree, but I thought it's worth a mention :updown:
 
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