Update On Advertising

silvertree

Great thread, nice of you to share

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Thundercow

Yes, thanks for this...I am thinking about a spring mailer for my Garage biz, but I have been disappointed so many times that I am hesitant...

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Lighting Retro

awesome stuff, thanks for sharing

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ocstairs

Great post. I am new to this site and just started contracting about a year ago but have been a carpenter for about 10 years now. Very helpful, I am looking for new ways to get business. I will try mailers.

BusyOne

I'm new to the site as well - thank you all for sharing great ideas and what has worked.

A few things came to mind as I was reading the posts

Whitepages.com - Great idea, however when I tested it out using my own street, my information was incorrect. It showed another woman with the same last name living with us. Unless my husband is hiding her , she doesn't exist. Also, somehow they married up my husband's first name with a very odd last name.

Postcards - quantum mail will do the printing and provide the addresses that you can cherry pick from. I use it to target certain subdivisions. It is inexpensive.

Doorhangers - not my idea, but I thought it was a good one. It's called clover leafing. Whenever you work for someone, put a door hanger on 4 houses. Two next door and two across the street. Our door hanger has a line where you can put the address & name of the customer you just did work for. The bottom portion has a perforated business card for them to detach. We have received calls 6 months later from a doorhanger, so I know people read them and hold on to them.

Question - I have heard that Postcards do better if you pick the bigger size. Does anyone have any experience trying two different sizes?

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gtmstang

I'm getting ready to test the postcard size theory. I've heard it does make a difference. When we start sending them out I'll keep count of calls from each size and post the results.

I like the idea of doorhangers on 4 houses your close to. We usually just put a sign in our clients yard and put doorhangers where we want to work. I'll start that tommorrow after I check for permits. Thanks.

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BusyOne

Looking forward to the 'size test' results. I'll resist the temptation . . .

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Ed the Roofer

Are you going to separate the resulting test results according to sex.

From what I hear, there are two very different responses from men or women, when it is stated that "Size Doesn't Matter".

Ed

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gtmstang

I set myself up great for that one. Dirty, dirty people.

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Home Services

Take it from an ex-direct mail guy - size doe's matter...

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karunnt

Why not hand then the door hangar in person and have a chat with them about your work and if you can do anything for them?

If you are there 4 days then talk to one homeowner each day.

I have actually witnessed this in action. You can generally forget a piece of direst mail in minutes but you remember a conversation for months or years later.

BattleRidge

I think talking to them face to face has the best rate of sales. As for the post cards, if you do 500 and fedex them at kinko to do the whole package, its 65 cents a pop if you do a oversized w sided brochure, its only 90 cents... I like the extra picture space to show the range of services I provide. I will be sending my stuff out a week after tax time. Righ tnow people are crunching.

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BusyOne

Basically we do service work. Sometimes we are at five different locations. Face to face is the ultimate - however, in our area there are a lot of gated/private communities that forbid door to door soliciting.

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Builditfaster

I've tried just about everything to advertise my home remodeling business, door hangars, mailings, and craigslist but I've found a great new alternative that has been generating quite a few calls and gotten me several jobs. My old pickup finally needed replacing and instead of buying a new pickup, I went and bought an off-rental box truck through U-Haul truck sales. I got a 94 14' box truck in great shape for around $3000 and it's worked out great!! I've got plenty of room for everything I haul around, my stuff stays dry when it's raining, and best of all I've got a mobile billboard advertising my business. I got my business graphics & logo put on the side of the box and I have it parked facing the street at my office so people can see it when they're driving by. I've probably gotten more calls from that than any other way of advertising my business (I always keep track where my leads are coming from). If you want to check out what they've got, their website is a great place to start uhaulcom/trucksales.

DBElectricMktg

I know it was mentioned in a different post, but the going success rate of mailers is generally 1-2%. So anything above that is considered a GOOD return.

As you mentioned before, hand-written is always recommended over technology-driven marketing campaigns since mailboxes are saturated with printed material. The problem is time vs return, so always take this into consideration. My personal experience with mailers was always higher the more the mailer was personalized. For example if I hand-wrote the addresses, the contained letter AND had a regular stamp my percentages went up dramatically. Today I prefer to balance the three, usually I'll print a generic letter using Word to automatically input the different names and addresses and mass print these. Then I'll sign the bottom and use a hand addressed envelope. To me its the best of both worlds.

That's just my 2 cents..

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onenia

So DB when you send your mail pieces the new way, what is your response rate?

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