Cheap Tips On Surviving An Economic Slowdown

Ed the Roofer

I receive an e-mail newsletter with great tips from this site and even though it is aimed towards the HVAC field, all, and I mean all of the suggestions are pertinent.

On the Service Roundtable and Comanche Marketing Links located in this copy/paste, their are at least 100 great resources available for FREE, just by browsing the site. One of the immediately useful ones, is the business letters library, which contains about 597 different business letters.

Happy Reading!

Ed



This is Comanche Marketing. It’s an email newsletter with marketing
and business tips for small business in general and in-home service
businesses specifically. If you like it, refer a friend. If you don’t,
visit www.ComancheMarketing.com and unsubscribe. If you don’t want
it, I don’t want to send it to you.

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THE SECRET TO SURVIVING A SLOWDOWN - AFFINITY MARKETING PART 1

This is part two of “The Secret to Surviving a Slowdown.” In part
one, I stressed the importance of attitude. I can’t stress it
enough. Remember, when the economy is going like gangbusters, some companies
are sucking wind. Conversely, some companies are booming when the
economy is not. Good economy or bad economy, you want to be one of the
winners.

It’s important to have faith that a slowdown will be short lived. As
a rule, slowdowns are short lived, lasting around eight months. The
most notable exception was the Great Depression, which economists now
consider to be a series of economic recoveries aborted by government
meddling. Economists are smarter today and less likely to follow the
misguided notions of the past, even though governments are still prone to
meddle with things (hey, it’s what governments do; they meddle).
Still, absent colossal blundering, chances are good that any slowdown will
be short.

While bad economic times do not last, many companies react like the
economy will be in the tank forever. They cut way back in a slowdown,
making it an opportune time for the aggressive company. The aggressive
manager knows it’s easier to grab market share in a recession, so he
takes share from the competition and rides the curve to new heights when
things turn.

You may not be enough of a riverboat gambler to bet hard during a
slowdown. Even if you were inclined, you might not have the resources
squirreled away to weather much of a slowdown. Yet, there are still things
you can do besides retrench. You can still grow aggressively by
executing smart marketing strategies that are low cost, but effective. One
of the best is “affinity marketing.”

Affinity marketing is marketing to groups of people with a common or
shared interest. The marketer (i.e., you) supports the common interest
when people in the group buy the marketer’s goods and services.
Affinity marketing works best with non-profit organizations.

Here are the first five of ten ways to practice affinity marketing:


1. Homeowners Associations

Offer to pay a homeowners association (HOA) $10 for every service call
you perform within their neighborhood. Pay $10 for every service
agreement purchased.

In return, the homeowners association distributes information about
your company to the neighborhood and invites you to speak at the next HOA
meeting.

Some HOAs are professionally managed. Some are volunteer
organizations. All HOAs are looking for money, especially free money. The
professional manager can present the program as proof of his worth. The
volunteer, who is usually a harried homeowner, is simply grateful for a
beneficial program that’s easy on him.

When I was the president of an HOA, a home security company approached
us. They offered the HOA a bounty if homeowners converted from the
current security company to theirs. Since a significant share of the
neighborhood was under a security contract, I didn’t anticipate many
conversions. To my surprise, around 10% of the homes switched to the new
company when we announced the program. That meant, nearly everyone who
was able to switch, did.

Why did people switch? Because people were more loyal to the HOA than
their security company. Because all things being equal, they might as
well give their business to a company that helped their HOA.

How do you find the HOAs? In many towns they are registered with the
city. Visit the municipal website to see if you can find a listing with
the presidents of the HOAs and contact information.

If they HOAs are not listed, start with Google. Most HOAs have some
kind of web presence. Search for the neighborhood’s name and your
town. Or, try one of the national directories of homeowners associations.
You can find these from a web search.


2. Schools & PTAs

When my kids went to Garden Ridge Elementary School, they brought home
coupons for a pizza delivery place every day. The coupons didn’t
save me any money. When the coupons were redeemed with the pizza delivery
company on a specific night, the pizza company made a two dollar
donation to the school’s PTA.

The same pizza company regularly mailed me coupons offering far more
than a two dollar discount, which meant the donation was less than their
standard discount. Moreover, I didn’t really like this particular
pizza company’s food. Yet, we ordered pizza on the designated night.

The money didn’t even go direct to the school where it might be used
something academic. Instead, it went to the PTA where it would be used
on teacher appreciation gifts.

Even worse, the PTA volunteers copied the coupons at the school, took
them to the classrooms, where the teachers told the kids to stuff them
in the folders the kids showed their parents every night. As a
taxpayer, I paid for the pizza company’s marketing of an offer that I
didn’t even benefit from. And I still bought!

I bet you have too! People are plain stupid when it comes to their
kids, especially when the kids are young. As a marketer, this is
irresistible.

Contact an elementary school/PTA. Explain that you have an idea for a
fundraiser that doesn’t require any parents or kids to sell anything
(people get awfully tired of fundraisers where you have to sell stuff).
Create cards, flyers, or magnets for the kids to take home. If the
parents present the flyer to your company for a service call, the
school/PTA gets $10. If the parent buys a service agreement, the school/PTA
gets $10.

Don’t stop with elementary schools. Approach the high school band
director. The bands are always looking for money for band trips. Talk
with the teacher in charge of theater arts. Talk with the heads of
every club and athletic team.


3. Sports Shade Tent/Instant Bench

Talk with your local soccer and football associations about providing
free pop-up shade tents or instant benches to sports teams. Offer to
provide the tent or bench if three or more parents purchase service
agreements (or some other product) from your company.

Before you deliver the tent, have your logo, phone number, and website
permanently imprinted or sewn onto the tent. Near the logo, add,
“Call YOUR NUMBER to find out how your team can get a free tent.”

You can order imprinted tents for as little as $184 from Promotion
Peddler at…

http://www.promopeddler.com/cat/Tents/

Personally, I would recommend the better quality tent that costs $217.

Instant benches lack a visible edge you can imprint so you need to find
someone who can sew a canvas or nylon flap to the seat that flips down
when the bench is set up.

If you want to add to the incentive, give each parent a pop-up travel
chair with your logo, unique selling proposition, and contact
information imprinted on the back. I’ve found imprinted chairs from an
advertising specialty company on sale for $15 per piece with a minimum order
of 24 (regular price is less than $18).

The beauty of the tents and benches is the coach is pushing parents to
buy from you and will then be marketing for you afterwards.


4. Team Sponsorships

You are probably approached about team sponsorships from time to time.
Team sponsorships can be expensive. As a result, many small business
owners only sponsor teams their kids play on or that their employees
coach.

When people approach Peaden Air Conditioning in Panama City about
sponsorships, Robert Wilkos has them submit the names of at least three team
families who do business with Peaden. These are checked against the
company’s customer database.

Word quickly got around that the way to get support from Peaden was to
give them business. Robert Wilkos managed to create peer pressure to
support Peaden.


5. Churches

There’s a misconception that churches will not support a business’
affinity marketing efforts. That may be true for a given church from
time to time, but certainly not all of them. Churches are like other
not-for-profit organizations. They always need money.

I’ve heard ministers make a pitch, just before benediction and
dismissal, for everyone to go to a particular ice cream parlor because the
ice cream parlor was donating a percentage of the day’s take to the
church. I’ve seen inserts in the church bulletin promoting lunch at a
certain restaurant because the restaurant was donating 15% of the meal
to the church youth when you turned in the insert at the time of
payment.

The best church affinity marketing program was created by the late Tom
McCart. Tom was working with an air conditioning contractor who was
trying to build his service agreement program. Tom came up with the idea
of approaching a large church, offering to take care of the church’s
heating and air conditioning equipment at cost, and offering a
“Sanctuary Agreement” through the church.

The Sanctuary Agreement was the contractor’s standard service
agreement, renamed for the church. For every Sanctuary Agreement sold, the
air conditioning company would donate $10 to the church’s building fund
in the name of the individual who invested in the agreement.

The company provided the church with the Sanctuary Agreements, but
otherwise made no sales efforts. It was up to the leadership to present
them to the congregation. It was up to the members of the church to
complete the customer information, write a check, and mail it to the
contractor.

The pastor of the church saw the Sanctuary Agreement as a win-win (and
it is). He stood before the congregation and told everyone they needed
to get their air conditioners serviced before the summer so they might
as well get a Sanctuary Agreement and help the church out.

The number of agreements purchased through the program has grown with
the telling. Whatever the number, it was significant (hundreds, if not
more than a thousand). The air conditioning company had to add to its
service staff just to be able to take care of everyone.

Churches will support affinity marketing. However, it may not be best
to start with your own church. That’s similar to being a prophet in
your own town.

© 2008 Matt Michel

Next… Another five affinity marketing ideas

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Putting Affinity Marketing Into Practice

A lot of small business owners like the idea of affinity marketing.
They stumble on the execution. They don’t have tested collateral to
support an HOA or PTA program. Plumbing and air conditioning contractors
do have an easy solution. The Service Roundtable provides a whole
series of affinity marketing solutions…

HOAs
- HOA Affinity Program Solicitation Letter
- HOA Affinity Program Direct Mail Postcard
- HOA Affinity Program Flyers

PTAs
- PTA Program Introduction Letter
- PTA Fundraising Flyers

Churches
- Sanctuary Agreement

If you’ve thought about the Service Roundtable but never joined, now
is the time. Try it for a month. If you don’t like it, quit.

Take a tour… http://www.serviceroundtable.com/tour/01.asp

Join… https://www.serviceroundtable.com/signup/Default.asp

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Speaking of Sponsorships

My youngest daughter, Madison, competed in the Miss Junior Teen Texas
Pageant for the first time last summer. She finished sixth runner-up
out of 100 state finalists.

She’s made the state finals cut for 2008 and is now in the process of
fund raising (the pageant requires contestants to raise their own
money for the competition). Plus, she needs to raise money for a pageant
coach.

I know there’s a lot of negative stereotypes about pageants, starting
with Miss South Carolina in the Junior Miss pageant (personally, her
meltdown isn’t much different than a nervous defensive back muffing a
punt). Our experience was very positive. The girls who compete in
pageants tend to be overachievers and leaders in their schools. There was
none of the stereotypical backstabbing. The girls were very
supportive of each other.

Competing isn’t easy. There are a series of interviews, talent
competitions, as well as the stage. The process helped my daughter with her
poise and self-confidence.

If you are interesting in sponsoring her, email me at
matt.michel@serviceroundtable.com. According to the pageant rules, she
has to meet with local sponsors (parents accompany her, of course) and
at least talk by phone with others. It’s all part of the learning
process.

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Refer a Friend

If you enjoy Comanche, refer a friend. Send them to
www.ComancheMarketing.com

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Sponsored By The Service Roundtable

Comanche Marketing is sponsored by the Service Roundtable. If you’re
in the plumbing or air conditioning industries or you serve
contractors in those industries, you ought to check it out at
www.ServiceRoundtable.com.

Norrrrrrrrrrrrm

Great tips.
Thanks Ed/edward/eddie/edwin/eduardo

__________________
Norman Sharp
http://www.sharpimprovements.com

Ed the Roofer

They also really do have a great site with alot of free and practical information on it. I think it is the www.ComancheMarketing.com site and click on the Free Stuff link on the left hand side.

Ed

Grumpyplumber

Excellent advice, funny how we seem to get caught up in finding more elaborate, new and improved tactics when the obvious is right under our nose.

hetman78

Great tips, I wish they would upgrade to more trades then HVAC & Plumbing

ultimatetouch

I am not offering advice. I have a lot to learn thats for sure. Im planning to up my marketing and advertising and keep it cosistent. Gather your nuts and once youve gathered them keep on gathering them.

__________________
Ultimatetouch
Illinois Remodeling Company, Kitchen Remodeling Chicago, Room Additions Illinois

Grumpy

Ed how do you have time to reasd all these newsletters? Usually newsletters and magazines sit in my inbox or on my desk for a few weeks and then I delete them or throw them away unread.

Ed the Roofer

I don't read most of them at all. If the title cathes my interest, I will open it up.

If I do not have time for it now and I think it is worthwhile, I send it to a folder to be read later.

On a slow day, somtime in the future, I just may go back in the lists and open up things I did not open before.

Right now, I have 702 e-mails that I have not even opened yet and will go through several pages/months to either put them in their proper folder or delete them.

I probably actually read through only about 3-5 out of 10.

Ed

dougdstecklein

I find that my free contractor magazines, specific to my trade, have useful information in them. They may not be the most exciting reading material, but once in a while have a great idea that I utilize with my company.

Anchor Fence

Great post. Thanks for sharing.

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Michigan Vinyl Fence Company | Glass Shower Doors in Michigan | Custom Home Remodeling in Michigan
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