Effective Marketing For Low-Voltage Lighting Contractors

eeilighting

I am curious about marketing techniques that have been effective for other low-voltage lighting contractors. I have been using direct mail for the most part, and it has been okay, but I would like to add other methods or techniques to create more leads. If anyone would like to share what has or has not worked for them I would appreciate it.

BreyerConstruct

Try door hangers... they're similar to post cards for effect, just w/o the postage...

If it's landscape LV lighting, try setting up a local restaurant, then putting out your sign. A nice place to eat is open at night, and make sure there's a light on your sign....

HTH,
~Matt

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Custom Deck Builder Deck Designer Lancaster Deck Builder Berks Deck Cleaning
Breyer Construction & Landscape, LLC Facebook Page
www.BreyerConstruction.com

dougchips

Call around to deck builders and other trades people and offer your services. They can either use you as a sub or you can give them part of the total contract price. They can offer your services as an add on, make some money and you get the work.

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To get the best replacement windows, or sun rooms contact the replacement windows experts at FHI Vinyl Window Company.

POOLMANinCT

my brother installed and restored a 200 yr old fountain on the town green... actuall he moved it across town prior to retoration, they embedded a plaque w his company name, on the paved area next to it.. he has pulled a ton of work from chamber of commerce members since...

btw he didn't do it for free, he really "sent it home to them" as major pita job....

but if your town green is dark, make or have an associate propose its lighting... if you can pull it off, its your resonsibility to compose a press release, a great p release will turn into an interview... catch the drift?

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......Less with the jaw & More with the paw.....

NightScenes

95% of my business is by referral. Get your clients to refer you to their friends. Of course for this to work, you have to be very good and make all of your clients happy and service after the sale. I would much rather spend my $ to make my current clients happy than spend it trying to get new clients. When you make your current clients happy, they will not only let you do more work for them, they will also get you more clients. I believe that spending money here is better than any other advertising. You still have to do some, but this should be at the top of the list.

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Paul R Gosselin, CLVLT 0632
NightScenes Corporation www.night-scenes.com
President, AOLP
www.facebook.com/NightScenes

Tomwilllight

The best money I've spent was on my web site. I'm on the edge of going national now (I'm not sure I want to) and it's because people find my site and like what they see. The problem is that you must have some photos of your work and they need to be good photos. You don't have to be a pro photographer, but you do need to learn a little about photography. And digital photobraphy make it much easier.

The worst money I spent was for magazine ads. All that did was generate calls from other magazines - wanting to sell me ads in their publications.

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Tom Williams
Williams Landscape Lighting Design, CLVLT #0424
www.wlld.us

Unique

To go along with what one person said, door hangers work well but in my opinion you need to hang them in conjunction with a demo!! Meaning set up a demo on a property in a neighborhood, then go around to all the existing neighbors and with consent of the homeowner whos house you are demoing advertise for the neighbors to check out that adress to see what you are capable of doing. You could also offer on the door hanger to set up a demo at there home. This will get you great exposure and is guaranteed to make your closing ratio go up!!

For a person looking to increase lighting sales there is really no better way then to set up Demos to gain exposure and then install great quality products and install them with the highest quality workmanship. Word of mouth will grow your buisness better than any catalog or brochure ever could!!

SOUTHERN LITES

What kind of success, and or failure have any of you had with direct mail postcards?

Billy-Integrity

Sent out small mailing of 1400 cards. for 3 calls and 1 job. Job paid for the cards 3 times over. The key from what I understand is to repeat them every 3 to 4 weeks. I hand created my entire list and am working to double or triple its size by hand selecting the homes i wish to market to. Door hangers yeild one call from an elderly lady accusing us of digging up her flowers while we were there.

In conjunction with Joey. We do still doorhang an imediate radius when we complete a job. This has netted us a few smaller projects. Yard signs have produced 3 jobs providing they are lit. Unlit signs got us nothing but a trip back to pick up the sign.

I wouldnt offer free demos unless you enjoy working late. If you feel a client is serious offer an above ground installation if there is any doubt in your design.

Case in point. I had a client looking to spend 5k.... my proposal was 9800. They thought I was specifying way to many lights. I knew they were serious. I offered the above ground install (providing they are willing to give you a deposit)by doing the project unburied the first day and promised I would remove any lights they felt were un needed. They ended up ADDING 3 and we moved 2 more.

Went back the next night.. collected the balance. Every client has a different buying style. I have only one client to date who was willing to drop 7k plus without asking a ton of questions and thinking twice about it. The one that did was so thrilled with how her friends home came out she just said do it and write a check in full.

This goes to prove joeys point word of mouth rules. It builds an instant trust in your abilities.

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Billy
www.IntegrityOutdoorLighting.com
Simply Breathtaking....Night after Night

James Solecki

I will DITTO pretty much this entire post.

We are 90% referrals here with 100% commitment to total quality installations and keeping every single client satisfied in every way. If you spend your marketing money on keeping your clients happy, they will bring you your next clients.

Doing some charity installations is also a great technique for building market exposure. It gets your product in front of the public and generates positive free press for you.

Have a great day.

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James Solecki
INTEGRA Works, JSLDesign, LED Lights Direct
www.integralighting.com www.JSLDesign.ca
Member: IESNA, AOLP, LO, MBA

g.catanese

I get most of my work from referrals.

That said, I also get a lot of work through Yahoo local. I don't have a yellow pages listing anymore. I don't believe it's necessary (in my area) to establish legitimacy, and customers who can afford me don't look there first.

I used to run small ads in three local communtiy papers that served different affluent foothill communities. The loyal readers in those communities would sometimes call me months after the ads ran...

Direct mail worked a little, but with doorhangers you can add a personal note, and if you get out there and hang them yourself, you can be more selective about where you leave them...

One other I almost forgot... sponsoring teams and hanging a banner at the local Little League and AYSO soccer venues back when my kids were younger and I was doing some assistant coaching got my name out there and resulted in a few jobs too...

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Gregg Catanese
www.sprinklersplus.com
California Landscape Contractor
Lic. # 529866

Billy-Integrity

i gotta agree with Tom on the magazine Ad's We ran 2... they were expensive... looked great.... and a complete and total waste of money and had 3 magazines call us wanting to sell us pages in thier publications. Not one job of the magazines at all.

Tom I really enjoyed your site I looked there a while back. I am brainstorming to redo ours now but drawing blanks so if anyone has any feed back on it feel free to drop me a note or chime in with it. I have gotten alot of compliments on it but I feel the album and the text need considerable work.

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Billy
www.IntegrityOutdoorLighting.com
Simply Breathtaking....Night after Night

James Solecki

I am just now heading out to do a design/quote for a guy who's kid played on the soccor team that I sponsored this past couple of years. (The INTEGRAWorks team kicked ball man!)

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James Solecki
INTEGRA Works, JSLDesign, LED Lights Direct
www.integralighting.com www.JSLDesign.ca
Member: IESNA, AOLP, LO, MBA

Billy-Integrity

thats great james. Even if you didnt get the job it still must have felt wonderful to make it possible for all thoes kids to enjoy a sport. Kudos to you for that.

Wanna sponsor us as pro fishermen?? We could be team Integra-T

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Billy
www.IntegrityOutdoorLighting.com
Simply Breathtaking....Night after Night

SOUTHERN LITES

I have thought of developing a brochure for several home builders in my local area that shows the service we provide. Cutting them in on a 10% commission for any work they send our way. Does this sound reasonable?
Thanks,

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STEVE
ISLANDER LIGHTSCAPING INC
"LIGHTING for LIFE OUTDOORS"
FL. EY12000225