Time To Pull The Plug On Flyers And Door Hangers?

Frankawitz

Sean,
I have flyers I have in my truck all they say is that I'm in the area doing plaster repairs and painting then I fill in the address of the house that I'm working on, then I pass out enough to cover the block on both sides of the street. I get anywhere from 2 calls as many as 8 calls for estimates, also this way you not wasting flyers. This also helps cause the neighbors will come over and ask about the work your doing, I have found this works good and then once the neighbors see your working they will call. so when your doing a paint job just pass flyers out on that street. Good luck

sean26

Frankawitz: Good idea. I'll certainly give it a try. I assume you have a lawn sign as well?

lornmastro

Frankawitz....great idea...did you have those flyer professional designed or did you do it yourself??

Darwin

That's a GREAT IDEA!!! Frankawitz!
that's a pretty friggin great point. i'm gonna try that!

Should be a sticky...

that's what I call targeted advertising!

Anderson

I post my flyers at the train stations of the fancy towns around here always on a Friday. So the moment he/she walks in the door and the missus/mr says you remember you promised top paint the bedroom this weekend.
Well then they should have my flyer right in the car.
When I cover a station anywhere from 100 to 300 cars, I always get a job, and I make sure I get the first job just to cover my time putting out the flyers.
Also I didn't like your flyers they are to complicated you have about 2 seconds to grab attention and most people can't even figure out what your flyer says in that time.
I would be happy to email you mine if you like I got 2500 post card size printed 3 colrs for $250

Frankawitz

Sean,
Back in the 1980's I use to have lawn signs intil the Cities I was working in told me I had to have signs that where Black back ground with Gold lettering
So I just put them in the shed, I have my truck lettered with phone number, But I don't even pass the flyers out anymore, I know I should but I aint to motovated to do estimates, I get pissed at these people who want something done for peanuts

Anderson

Did anyone get spam from 3000DoorHangers.com@mail.vresp.com
after posting to this thread. I just thought it was weird how I got his the same day.

Frankawitz

I would make up my own fliers just to save money, there are so many ideas out there for fliers. I would keep it simple and to the point, if your doing a repaint of the living room down the street, ask your customer if they wouldn't mind if you passed out fliers to the nieghbors on their street and that you want to put their address on your fliers, so if neighbors come by at least the homeowner knows. But anytime I used them I got great return calls for estimates, I would cover like 50 to 60 houses. sometimes only 30 so that way you get a better idea how the fliers are working for you, you might need to add a service or maybe remove one, that will depend on the neighborhood your working.

MAC2PAINTING

you might try this, it works well for us. Some sub divisions have specific types of needs,one might have great walls, and vaulted ceilings, so we target these with a price already on the hanger for these projects, giving them all the information we can that will not change for their specific need. Others have decks, some have high soffit and fascia,...you get the idea.

bkline

Sean, I have used door hangers as a means to advertisement for years, and they generally land me about 10 - 30 residential exterior jobs per summer. The numbers may not be impressive, but it's something. The great thing about it is they are cheap, and give me some excercise. If you have an employee returning to Light Duty Work (L&I), it a perfect job for him. Most of my work is commercial, for which door hangers are not used at all. I keep door hangers in all of my company trucks. My crews hit all of the homes in the subdivision they are painting in, they also put a company sign in front of the home they are working on. Neighbors are curious, and will look at your work. I now have neighborhoods we paint up to eight homes per year, every year because of door hangers and our reputation for quality. To increase our chances for success, we pass them out early in the spring on a sunny day, both Friday and Saturday. People are out working in the yards and gardens. Its a great time to meet them, so look professional. Door hangers also allow you to take control by advertising on homes you want to paint. Think of demographics, and use an appropriate design. I use basic two color hangers for typical homes under $500,000, and glossy full color for the higher end homes. The reverse does not seem to work well for me. If you would like to see my door hangers, I will send them to you. Best of luck for 2010.

BPWY

Cold calling never worked for me either. (lawn care)

THINKPAINTING

High end my ass.............Ive heard that for 30 yrs We are a high end company. If your lucky enough to have work right now and your making money, then your a high end company.

Flyers and doorhangers-websites-postcards-job signs all work but that's because the person who calls needs your services... Sure his doorhangers could use some work but you can pass out 20,000 a week until someone needs painting they are not gonna call as for the cheapskates there's even more out there now during this depression.

We went to a job walk through today, every single high end sub there was talking about pricing jobs today like they were 20 yrs ago, WHY cause thats the way it is right now at least where we eat....

We do residential painting in some very very high end areas with high end customers...guess what there feeling the pinch and watching there money as well.

Fix your doorhangers, keep trying maybe different areas but sometimes thats the way the paint brush drags...

I've been a high end contractor since 1974 but I will take a middle end job right now.

__________________
www.paintingexperts.com
www.thinkpainting.net

BKFranks

My personal opinion is that the one on the left is hard to read. The one on the right is too plain.

__________________

bkline

The exterior painting season in the Seattle area starts sometime in April, and last through September on a good year. I noted that in order for my door hangers to work, I put them out in the spring when many are outside working in the yard. I usually get 1 or 2 calls per subdivision. Do I always get the job, no way. College Pro and Student Painters have already put out a lot of hangers by then, and many cheap painters cards are seen as well. The market is too full of painters out of work passing themselves out as experienced contractors. Many residents are falling for this, and paying less to paint. In one way or another, I think they get burned. We started one home while next door was a cheap contractor already at work. Two days later we finished with two coat of Resilience. The cheap contractor was still working away, and had a mess on his hands. The gutters were terrible looking, and the back side of the fascia was overlaped with trim paint. He had not even started the shake siding. It upsets me that paint and sundries prices have increased, cost of running a business has increased, but the cost of painting a home has gone down for 2009. Profits are less. Not only that, but everyone expects a discount. Many of the other hangers we found stated a discount, or $2500 for any home. No way. Being a licensed contractor paying good painters, my labor cost is about $1500 - $1750 on these most of our homes, cedar siding with shake siding in front, a lot of trim. Approx. $800 in paint for two coats (SuperPaint or Resilience). Can't do it with a good crew. I would have to go out and do it myself. When the economy was good, door hangers work good for getting into a new site, at least opened the door. My reputation for quality carried me through 2009. I have a friend who owns a large painting company, and he claims door hanger don't work for him. His work is better suited for appartments though.

Paintlineit

I noticed you don't have a web site listed on the flyer? Am I correct?
The first thing a customer will do is go to your web site search your company on the web for reviews, you can pass out as many flyers as you want and might get a couple leads but with out a site with photos of your work customer reviews and some info about your company you wont get as many leads as you would like. 70% of our leads comes from online marketing / web site. Hope this helps.

www.paintlinepaintingco.com

bkline

Nice work, and your are correct. Is there any chance I can get a picture of that theater room on your web site? I would love to have that room in my home.

Paintlineit

sure, here you go.

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bwalley

Looks terrible to me, I would throw it away without reading it.

thehis

I agree- one's too plain the other too abstract. You need to pay around $100 and have a decent designer lay one out for you. I think I may have one if I can find his info if you want it.

Doorhangers aren't the holy grail for us, but they do work.

Frankawitz

My Flyers are simple straight to the point, I just have to pass them out more