Marketing idea - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

RobertCDF · 04-09-2007, 10:36 PM

Here someone test this for me so I dont have to spend my money on it and then let me know how it works out.

1. Find a place where you can have a 30 YD dumpster delivered and sit for a weekend for me this cost is only $280. And I have a place in mind.

2. Send out postcard/letters to maybe 50-100 houses that you have picked that you KNOW need your services in 1 neighborhood. (In my line of work thats easy just look for the deck about to fall off the house) your postcard/letter should say something along the lines of:
Got a garage full of junk you cant throw out on your normal trash service? XX company is sponsoring a dumpster on saturday and sunday at XX location to drop off your trash. Feel free to stop by and meet the owner of XX company. There will be free coffee and doughnuts on saturday morning. Please limit your trash to one truckload. This dumpster may fill up fast so act fast because once its full thats it!.

Just kind of came to me because everytime I do a job the homeowners always offer to pay the differance for the next bigger roll-off so they can get rid of junk. Everyone has junk they just cant get rid of and I think this would be a great way to get your name out.

Make sure you have lots of cards and flyers and your lettered CLEAN truck is right there and you are ready to talk to people all day.

Maybe you could even have them bring the postcard with to be allowed to dump stuff. You could have a little form on it about whatever your trade is such as:

Are you interested in having your deck rebuilt?
Would you like a free estimate for the replacement of your deck?
Etc, etc,

Blah blah blah... They fill it out and bring it to you and you make an apponitment.

Just an idea I was kicking around in my head today... Feel free to add ideas and comments.

bill r · 04-09-2007, 10:43 PM

excellent! That will work! Expensive, but what marketing is not? Point is to meet people. Get your guys there... You could spend way more than that on one mailer

woodmagman · 04-09-2007, 11:01 PM

Dumpster that size for me is about $450.00 plus permits. And I would be concerned that I would be marketing to the trifty home owners who like the idea of getting something for nothing...It would cost you less to send out the same flyer and tell the public to call you. Now you are dealing with the people that you want to talk to.......

Pearce Services · 04-10-2007, 03:55 AM

Maybe you could do this a little more "Green".....

Find a sponsor location as you stated, and find a charity for all proceeds, they show up with a truckload, put a very small price tag on anything worth selling, through the rest away in the dumpster. along with whatever doesnt sell.

A community yard sale, and a charity drive together. Invite the media, get some free advertising that way.

Offer to stop by prior to the sale to preview what they may have for sale, and while you are there, let them know personally, the reason you are doing this is to help a charity, but also to strengthen community ties, and ultimately find more customers.......and is there anything else you can do for them while you are there.

RobertCDF · 04-10-2007, 07:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by woodmagman

Dumpster that size for me is about $450.00 plus permits. And I would be concerned that I would be marketing to the trifty home owners who like the idea of getting something for nothing...It would cost you less to send out the same flyer and tell the public to call you. Now you are dealing with the people that you want to talk to.......

Thats why you do a VERY targeted mailing. Only people who need your service. (this really works well for anyone doing exterior work.) This also gets you face time and that is better than just a letter in the mail any day.

I have no doubt that I would get a number of people just looking for a free place to unload... But you saturate the letter with cards and flyers and hand more out at the event. If they dont call now... they have a little better chance of calling later because they met you, your not just another ad in the yellow pages.

Think about how much it costs to do some advertising and the payoffs. I know that in some certain advertising I have spent over $400 and only gotten 1 customer. I think that by doing this in the right neighborhood you could get a very good response rate.

The area I have in mind most houses are 15-20 years old with the original deck. Some are even to the point of dangerous. All the houses are 300,000-600,000 so there is money there... or at least options for financing projects. I have also been saturating this area with all kinds of advertising for 2 years now and do most of my work there.

RobertCDF · 04-10-2007, 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pearce Services

Maybe you could do this a little more "Green".....

Find a sponsor location as you stated, and find a charity for all proceeds, they show up with a truckload, put a very small price tag on anything worth selling, through the rest away in the dumpster. along with whatever doesnt sell.

A community yard sale, and a charity drive together. Invite the media, get some free advertising that way.

Offer to stop by prior to the sale to preview what they may have for sale, and while you are there, let them know personally, the reason you are doing this is to help a charity, but also to strengthen community ties, and ultimately find more customers.......and is there anything else you can do for them while you are there.

Now your just making it into a lot of work

But the green idea is good as well. This kind of setup can get you a lot farther because the media would be interested... Very good idea.

**Ed the Roofer** · 04-10-2007, 09:42 AM

I just think the entire concept is a great idea!

Either with or without any of the add on suggestions, it is still good PR.

I would trickle the mailings. Use a 3 step saturation mailing,

The Dumpster is coming, and why we are doing this.

The Dumpster is almost here. Time to organize your stuff.

The Dumpster will arrive next weekend. Be ready.

Great idea, and inexpensive comparitively too.

Ed

bill r · 04-10-2007, 09:49 AM

Yeah, plenty of lead time; people need to have time to take advantage. How's about "Backyard Beautification Day" or some such? "Garage Beautification Day"

**Ed the Roofer** · 04-10-2007, 12:04 PM

I remember some years ago when there was some Billboard ads running for months with the concept I mentioned.

The "Demon" is coming. Thats all it said. No tie in to Great America amusement park initially.

People were calling in to radio stations wondering what it was about.

It did get everyones attention.

Ed

EMCustom · 04-10-2007, 01:37 PM

Sounds like a great idea but I have a silly question- where are you going to have the dumpster placed? On the street in front of someone's home? You might want to run it by them to make sure they don't get p

ssed off that there is a dumpster in front of their house even if it is only for a few hours. Comments?

RobertCDF · 04-10-2007, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EMCustom

Sounds like a great idea but I have a silly question- where are you going to have the dumpster placed? On the street in front of someone's home? You might want to run it by them to make sure they don't get p

ssed off that there is a dumpster in front of their house even if it is only for a few hours. Comments?

The area I am thinking of using has a small park with a small parking lot. I will have to talk to the HOA that manages the park (its not a city park) But I am sure I can talk them into it somehow.

I was also thinking of using a friends house. Tell them they can toss as much as they want (I will have to see how much crap they have first I guess) in exchange for having it in front of thier home.

But my entire point of this thread was to get someone else to do it for me and tell me how it worked out

Then I dont have to spend my money till I know it works.

Susan Betz · 04-10-2007, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobertCDF

But my entire point of this thread was to get someone else to do it for me and tell me how it worked out

Then I dont have to spend my money till I know it works.

Only 1/4 of advertising works (if we're lucky) - and if we knew which 1/4 was working we could cut our advertising budget by 75%!

Dustball · 04-10-2007, 11:21 PM

You'd better list what can't be tossed or you'll be stuck with tires, electronics and appliances that you'll be paying to dispose of.

dougchips · 04-10-2007, 11:33 PM

Robert, I think it is a good idea! One job will pay for a few of them, so not much risk involved.

RobertCDF · 04-11-2007, 07:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dustball

You'd better list what can't be tossed or you'll be stuck with tires, electronics and appliances that you'll be paying to dispose of.

Good point. The few things we cant toss in a dumpster are tires and paint. So the other things are ok. Of course you could charge for the tires to pay the fee (I think its only $5 ea.)

But I thought about a way to make it differant maybe a little better and cover most of your costs too.

Make it a little larger and turn it into a charity event for something big. Like the red cross or something that everyone would want to support. You might be able to get the dumpster(s) donated. Charge a small amount to dump things and donate all the proceds to the charity. This gets your name all over the place (maybe even the newspaper and tv) it covers your costs and you look like your helping the comunity and the red cross. You and your crew still need to be there helping people unload and the such and of course handing out business cards.

Not perfect but I am just spitting out ideas here... You guys make them better as always.

I like the orignal idea better because I think it would be better for business. But this somone else might be able to run with and make it better.

ButlerDesigns · 04-11-2007, 10:46 AM

Why not them just take it to the dump? It's free if you pay your taxes. Only thing would be free donuts and coffee..Which some people would like. Just a thought

RobertCDF · 04-11-2007, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ButlerDesigns

Why not them just take it to the dump? It's free if you pay your taxes. Only thing would be free donuts and coffee..Which some people would like. Just a thought

Uhmm... It aint free here. It would be nice if it was. If your not a regular at the dump its about $50 for a full size truck bed level. Plus its about 30 miles from the target neighborhood.

ButlerDesigns · 04-11-2007, 06:30 PM

Oh in Virginia Dumps are all over in the Northern VA area and it's 100% free to dump if you have a county sticker on your truck. Now if you are a commercial truck they charge you 20 bucks to dump whatever.

ultimatetouch · 04-11-2007, 09:46 PM

How far are people willing to drag all there garbage?
The concept is great but dragging garbage across town for free donuts doesnt seem like it would work.

dougchips · 04-11-2007, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ultimatetouch

How far are people willing to drag all there garbage?
The concept is great but dragging garbage across town for free donuts doesnt seem like it would work.

Around here if it doesn't fit in a bag the landfill is 45 minutes away.