Lead Sources

marc

Just wondering how everyone gets their business.

We are a specialty co. and do Vinyl Siding, Replacement Windows and Sunrooms.

We do about $1,800,000 per year for the last couple of years. We used to do over $3,000,000 but it fell way off last year. We were forced to downsize but have found it to be a blessing. It's now just me and my partner and we sub all of the work out. We have been blessed with great subs that have been with us for many years.

We lowered our marketing budget down from 10 or 11 pecent to 6%. We were able to do this because only owners run leads now and we are closing at a much higher percentage than we used to when we had commision salesmen running leads.

We have gone back to the way we used to do it back in the late 90's early 2000's

Here is what's working for us...........

Local Newspapers: 10% of our sales came from newspaper ads.

Direct Mail (both shared and solo): 17% of sales

Past customers and referrals: 24% of sales

Internet leads: 20% of sales

Home Shows and Fairs: 29% of sales
(I don't think we will do many Fairs next year) just too much time and energy
I will put the money I spent on Fairs and add it to direct mail.

The best part about this year is that most of our work is within 20 miles. We used to travel over 100 miles. We have really made a great effort to only advertise locally. My direct mail only goes to 11 towns and 13 zip codes. We will do work outside this area but I won't do radius mailers around those jobs.

So that's what's working for us..........How about yourself?

__________________
Marc

Remodel Bud

Marc,

I used to manage many Window, siding and Patio Room offices around the states with a national company. The different markets varied on results. What worked in DC for direct mail didn't in Charlotte, What worked for the Newspaper in Atlanta, didn't in Richmond. Just be careful what info you decide to implement, is why I say this, from the advice you get. Plus if someone says print doesn't work, how do we know their ad placement, ad content & various other mistakes are what isn't working & not the newspaper itself...right?!

I noticed your referral rate is a little low, decent, but low & I just wonder how many programs you have in place to network that. I had a previous thread about Referrals ( http://www.contractortalk.com/f12/generate-sales-just-one-way-44725/ )
and I was used to seeing in multiple cities 40% referral business and In my own office it was 44% on avg. We also used to have neighborhood parties to get referrals in the right customers cul de sac, even once had a radio remote.

I really stayed out of direct mail in Richmond, because after 6-7 years our REACH magazine had 15 competitors in it. Other direct mail magazines were average, but the cost vs. sales was good, about 12%, but the closing percentage on that piece was 25% due to so many competitors & I had great sales people. As an office we closed over 50% most years on all products.

The best investment for me was the showroom. I ran open houses & had advertising campaigns for that. Mostly Radio TV & print with offers. Thats another thing, if you use print use offers and learn to incorporate them into your sales closing techniques. Urgency, call to action. I have learned after 15 years of buying media and putting together advertising campaigns for multiple cities, how to perfect it.

You mentioned where your sales came from- what sources, but what percentage of your advertising dollars went to these sources. If 40% of your budget is newspaper, yet only 10% of total sales came from it then it needs to be adjusted.

A good way to review the marketing budget is
COST vs. Sales % , leads generated, leads closed%, Cost per lead.

Referrals are the lowest cost per lead.

I could go on and on as I love this subject.