Promotion 2010 ? how are you promoting your Mastering studio

[Kris Bang Boom]

Anybody have any good tips stories advice on good promotion efforts to get work at your mastering studio,
that have actually worked.
i had great run not looking for gigs for the first 2 years but now it seems I might need to try some other things ?
smaller market here as well.
thanks
Kris

[MASSIVE Master]

I can tell you what didn't really help --

Google AdWords -- (more or less led to a bunch of [SELF-CENSORED]heads copying my site and trying to pass it off as their own).

Print ads -- Even properly 'targeted' they really didn't help much.

Nothing beats word-of-mouth.

[gregor z]

Originally Posted by MASSIVE Master

Nothing beats word-of-mouth.

thumbsup

[Darwin James]

As the industry moves forward, great customer service is going to be the (increasing) difference between those who eat, and those who find new careers.

[Mastering7]

Originally Posted by Kris Bang Boom

Anybody have any good tips stories advice on good promotion efforts to get work at your mastering studio,
that have actually worked.
i had great run not looking for gigs for the first 2 years but now it seems I might need to try some other things ?
smaller market here as well.
thanks
Kris

The best thing here: clients satisfied with your work recommending you.

[Waltz Mastering]

Originally Posted by Darwin James

As the industry moves forward, great customer service is going to be the (increasing) difference between those who eat, and those who find new careers.

+1.

[aleatoric]

Ways I have gotten gigs:

-Word of mouth/referral
-Meeting someone at a show/bar/party
-Handing out a business card
-Found through a Google Search
-Found through an audio forum (here!)
-Found through myspace/facebook page
-Found through a Craigslist Ad

The main thing (at least for me) has been meeting people and word of mouth. Get out there and talk to bands/musicians/other engineers, hand out cards, be a cool guy, etc. After people start hearing how good your work is and how professional you are the word of mouth thing starts happening.

[Odeon-Mastering]

Originally Posted by aleatoric

Get out there and talk to bands/musicians/other engineers, hand out cards, be a cool guy, etc.

+1

The only "promotion" I do is when I work as a live engineer.
When the sound is good and the clients are happy, I make a point of introducing myself as a mastering engineer, rather than a system technician or a FOH (or monitor) engineer.
Got a few gigs and a few recomendations this way.
By the way, this works the other way round, too. There are a few clients for live mixing that I work for at the moment and I was booked/hired after I mastered their projects.

Other than that...
I got banned (for saying that the speed of sound is constant...lol...I know pathetic) in a forum, here in Greece, and that worked wonders on extending my client base (go figure). It was not an intented thing though and I wouldn't recommend it.

[Joe_caithness]

word of mouth.

useful contribution to forums with a nicely informative signature helps.

spam has never got me any good work.

[Thomas W. Bethe]

We have tried the following...

Direct Mail to local recording studios (costly and no replies or referrals)

Ads in Scene Magazine (they put us on the back page between the Pe*is Extenders and the Free Talk to Girls Hot line and we got no calls from the ad.

Ad in an expensive local general interest arts magazine (no calls)

Local Cable advertising (some calls but no clients - mostly from people wanting to know if we had a recording studio for rent or if we could transfer Aunt Sally's 78s to CDs - which we did)

Radio Advertising (costly and no calls from the ad)

Posting signs around town (some calls but mostly to check on rates)

Our Web Page (lots of interest generated and some work from the web presence)

Word of Mouth (The best advertising and the cheapest)

We always ask our new clients where they heard of us and most times it is from a satisfied client.

Today there are so many mastering studios and wannabee mastering engineers you can get lost in the cacophony that surrounds all the claims and counter claims made by them.

Treating clients in a professional manner, getting their stuff done on time and on budget and helping them solve problems (even if it is not mastering specific) seems to bring people back and have them tell their friends.

MTCW and YMMV