Use the best words ever that never need to be read... Everyone says pictures speak a thousand words. Use pictures, especially before and afters

 

I have a few nice before and afters of foundation repairs. (Some from places right on the same street)

So are you saying like in your face advertising. Something like. CB Masonry on top in bold.

Then two columns, one before and one after. Two or three jobs and then contact info at the bottom?

Should I even bother with cramming services offered into it?

 

Just my 2 cents...

What are you looking to accomplish with the flier? Meaning, what kind of
work are you most interested in doing? Then, try and attack that market.

I get a lot of fliers, but none from contractors. If I did get one form a mason, I know I'd call. Always looking for a skilled mason.

Also, as for the pens, figure out what you want to spend for each pen. I think most nice pens are about $1.50 each, with logo, etc. on side. Or, post-it's that look bricks, block or stone.

 

USe vista print for the printing or gotprint.

Use a before and under it say something like "Tired of your foundation leaking?" Show after pic next to before and say "We are your foundation experts" something along those lines. Make sure to let them know those pics are from their nieghbors houses.


Create a problem and solve it for them. leaking foundation, foundation crumbling, basement is wet etc....

If you have a website make the address in bold along with contact information.

List your services on your website. The idea with the doorhanger is to get them interested in your company and then they call or visit your website.

Maybe include an offer of some sort.

How about a magnet they can use on their fridge and everytime thy open it, they think of you and their foundation.

 

I ordered rack cards from vistaprint, I already have an account with them for my shirts and cards so it was a little easier, plus the cards are cheaper. I just have to punch my own hole in the top, no big deal.

Not wanting to break the bank in January I just ordered basic white Bic Pens with my info on it to remind them every time they go for a pen in the desk. They were cheap enough I got 260 of them for $55.

I am trying to corner the repair market in the area. There are lots of guys who won't touch residential repair because the jobs are too small. But I like them because it is just me. I have fixed a few screw ups already, done by Handymen attempting a re-point or stucco patch. I was looking at neat little things like key lights and bottle openers, and may begin ordering a few dozen of them at a time to give to customers after completing a job.

I went with RobertCDF's suggestion and on the front put two of the nastiest looking before pictures I had with the afters right next to it, then on the back put a larger picture of a stamped patio I did with services offered in bullets.

I'm gonna try out 500 of them and if they can generate even one decent sized job they will have paid for themselves, although two would be better. Or 500, that wouldn't be so bad.

 

Everyone passes out flyers and pens and magnets. How about something more memorable.


Get a full-color label printed with 'We do more than simply caulk your leaks. Give us a call for your complete basement waterproofing solution.'

Or 'We do more than apply caulk to repair your foundation problem. Give us a call today' Apply these on caulking tubes (@ $1.50 each) along with your contact and distribute. Maybe you don't get to as many houses to distribute, but it easy to toss a flyer in the recycle bin but some like a tube of caulk (or other larger object) I bet won't easily be tossed away.

 

Cool idea! Thinking outside the box for sure:thumbsup:

 

This door hanger i put out around jobs that im doing on the block. Can get 2,000 for $132 dollars. It was a starter going to change next one thow.

 

Hey Skillman,

That hanger won't cut it, you wasted $132 plus your time and energy.

Your company name is listed twice, people could care less what your name is.

So, you're Licensed and Bonded, so what? Is your competition not?

Why not say you're the Biggest, the Best, the Oldest, more Honest than the next contractor, etc... See my point?

Follow something along this line.

Tired of looking at that Kitchen ever day ladies? Wish you could get those new cabinets you've been dreaming about?

Is that old moldy bathroom getting you down?

We have "special incentives" for homeowners who live in your area.

Call our pre-recorded 24/7 number and tell us where to mail your "Dream Package." We will include our "Special Incentive" package and what's Hot today in remodeling.

We have "energy" rebates and other financing incentives that are due to expire in less than 60 days. Lock in your options today!

(123)456-7899


That took me 2 minutes to compose. Be honest with yourself and decide which hanger will stimulate more calls.

Be creative, stimulate emotions, give deadlines, offer special anything, etc...

Real World

 

Another thing you may want to look into is EDDM postcard mailing, at a delivery cost of 14.2 cents ea sometimes it's cheaper than walking around hanging door hangers. The cards must be larger size (FLAT) gotprint has a 8"x6.5" that is compliant or you can go bigger like 8.5 x 11 or 9 x 12.

 

Just make sure you don't try to save a few bucks like me and not get the printer to put them in bundles. It's well worth the $100 to have them sorted!

 

ya but he's a brick layer , it should be an engraved brick, hard to carry under your arm. I'd have tried online to make some but the logo I had was lost and at the printers, so I had them do it. Sometimes simple stuff takes way longer than the effort you really feel like giving.

 

I also found I feel a little goofy going right up to the door and hanging it on, but I can justify it in the new home area that don't have mailboxes. For a mailbox, a simple flier will do where you can put loads of info that people might need to size up their own need. In the end word of mouth is the only valuable advertising so I only put them out where I am working hoping that they had seen me on the productive and thus justifying the extra cost of a glossy card, fliers are way cheaper. Mine has a tear off business card at the bottom.

 

The key to advertising is not wasting money where you don't need to, if your not using gotprint.com you are paying too much for inferior printing. They are THE BEST value in printing out there. I get complimented constantly on the quality of my advertising and people are constantly shocked at how little I pay.

 

I've never been a fan of door hangers, as they are intrusive in nature.

When looking to do something like that, I think postcards present a better opportunity. Since you are targeting an area you have done work in and you have pictures and hopefully happy customers, why not utilize that.
Why not a post card, with those local before and afters, if you get the HO permission, note the address and maybe a nice comment from them to include on it. You've then built in a referral and reference, and now each time I drive by that home, thinking of the work I need done I see that house and hopefully you come to mind. It presents a kind of reinforcement no piece of paper will give. Postcards are also good, because due to their size, they can be kept for the future.

As far as cheap pens.. Wait till a better pen comes on sale and then get that. Get the look of the pen to tie in to whatever marketing material you send out to tie in, or just something fun and useful to capture a positive sentiment related to you. Nothing worse than a cheap, leaky pen that doesn't write well and just gets tossed.

I love the out of the box caulk idea. Only suggestion is if you do something like that, make it representative of what you do, not what you don't do. If you don't for instance use caulk, then don't send caulk.

Just my two cents, take it for what it's worth :thumbsup:

 

Try different formats

One of my main marketing channels is door hangers, I just can't get enough out consistently and they work best when I do it. Can't find someone to consistently do them, and do them right.

I get 1,000 plastic bags roughly 9 x 12 with holes already in them for the doorknob. Cost about 5.5 cents each. Then can either run single-sided pages on my printer, or use extra newspaper inserts from when I run them.

Print it yourself, about 3 cents to 6 cents, depending on how much color, if you decide to do double sided, how efficient your printer is, etc.

Newspaper inserts, in quantity, as low as 1.5 cents each, double-sided color, 5.5" x 8-1/2".

DIY, printed line across top of whatever you're focusing on, such as "Chimney Repairs," then a photo (keep it realatively modest size to save ink), then 1 or 2 lines of whatever you want to get across, then contact information at the bottom

Alternatively, you can do a VERY SIMPLE one in black and white. No photos, just bare bones. Has a different sort of appeal.

You can do a different one for each thing you want to focus on and change it by neighborhood. Need to plan on doing a BUNCH, and repeating the same neighborhoods REGULARLY. This is NOT a one-shot deal to expect great responses. Good luck.

 

One of my main marketing channels is door hangers, I just can't get enough out consistently and they work best when I do it. Can't find someone to consistently do them, and do them right.

I get 1,000 plastic bags roughly 9 x 12 with holes already in them for the doorknob. Cost about 5.5 cents each. Then can either run single-sided pages on my printer, or use extra newspaper inserts from when I run them.

Print it yourself, about 3 cents to 6 cents, depending on how much color, if you decide to do double sided, how efficient your printer is, etc.

Newspaper inserts, in quantity, as low as 1.5 cents each, double-sided color, 5.5" x 8-1/2".

DIY, printed line across top of whatever you're focusing on, such as "Chimney Repairs," then a photo (keep it realatively modest size to save ink), then 1 or 2 lines of whatever you want to get across, then contact information at the bottom

Alternatively, you can do a VERY SIMPLE one in black and white. No photos, just bare bones. Has a different sort of appeal.

You can do a different one for each thing you want to focus on and change it by neighborhood. Need to plan on doing a BUNCH, and repeating the same neighborhoods REGULARLY. This is NOT a one-shot deal to expect great responses. Good luck.

4.25"x11" door hangers color both sides .06 Ea... And no time spent in front of the printer cutting the paper in half and stuffing bags, plus the paper is WAY better and the prints are WAY better than at home (I own 2 lasers and 2 inkjets, and none of them come CLOSE to the quality of gotprint)

 

sitdwnandhngon,

You're right about having a small window of time. It may even be less than 5 seconds in most cases. I think you have to ask yourself, what is the ultimate goal of this door hanger?

Many people would say the ultimate goal is to get someone to call your business requesting your services.

However, I think that is "jumping the gun" a little bit.

The ultimate goal of your door hanger, is to get people to read it. That's it. The ultimate goal of the content on your door hanger (text/photos/etc), is to get people to call your business requesting your services. Distinguish between the two and watch your response shoot through the roof.

Ask yourself what you would never toss without reading? The answer: A handwritten note. Yes, I know, pretty old-school. Why not combine handwritten text, with professional imagery and typography? This allows you to maintain that small business, one-on-one feel, with the professionalism of "the big guys."

Leave the top quarter of the door hanger blank, and write something super catchy in red permanent marker...

"$14,000"- The average cost of this problem going untreated.

Just write something that feels personalized, and something that you could never toss without reading. I think you catch my drift.

Too often we think of door hangers and various marketing pieces for their aesthetic qualities only, when we should really be thinking about the emotions they make people feel, which in turn cause them to act!

Hope I've given you a little something to chew on.

Good luck!

 

Your company name is listed twice, people could care less what your name is.

So, you're Licensed and Bonded, so what? Is your competition not?

Why not say you're the Biggest, the Best, the Oldest, more Honest than the next contractor, etc... See my point?

Follow something along this line.

Tired of looking at that Kitchen ever day ladies? Wish you could get those new cabinets you've been dreaming about?

Is that old moldy bathroom getting you down?

We have "special incentives" for homeowners who live in your area.

Call our pre-recorded 24/7 number and tell us where to mail your "Dream Package." We will include our "Special Incentive" package and what's Hot today in remodeling.

We have "energy" rebates and other financing incentives that are due to expire in less than 60 days. Lock in your options today!

(123)456-7899


That took me 2 minutes to compose. Be honest with yourself and decide which hanger will stimulate more calls.

Be creative, stimulate emotions, give deadlines, offer special anything, etc...

Real World[/QUOTE]

(The bottom of doorhanger is a tear off business card. I made 175,000 profit on $132 dollar marketing with those doorhangers. I think i did well. Going to change next ones to add pics and more persoanl input.)

 

The bottom of doorhanger is a tear off business card. I made 175,000 profit on $132 dollar marketing with those doorhangers. I think i did well. Going to change next ones to add pics and more persoanl input.

Personally I would say you got lucky, I have had some LIMITED success with text only brochures (8 years ago when I started) brought maybe $20K total, however ones with pics... a LOT more.

Maybe you would have landed $500K worth with better layout and pictures...

 

People all react different. There is a competitor here who uses cheaply printed B&W door hangers, rather crude, not much information, and I'm told he does pretty well.

If you are getting started on a shoestring, I'd experiment before I committed to a big print run. I've sold several $30K+ jobs from my newpaper insert sheets, which are NOT on slick paper, but maybe I'd sell some more if I used a different paper. I'm willing to try it.

Biggest problem I have is if I want a specific message for a specific time or neighborhood, printing or newspaper takes a long lead time and has to be in quantity.

 

I can say for FACT the two most important items on your Hanger are a "Great Offer" and a "Deadline."

You can have a crappy offer on a great paper and no one will call.

A great offer on crappy paper and get many calls.

Real World

 

Not entirely sure I agree. For example, we do a number of things. Want one room of carpet? Ok. Want to gut the house and start over? Ok. So, if I run a GREAT OFFER on xyz carpet, but you want an ABC kitchen, I've missed you.

And we've had people bring in a flyer from months before. They weren't ready then, but are 10 months later.

Mainly, I want people to think of US when they are in the market for something we do. That's not to say we haven't run offers with a limited deadline. And will in the future. But I've never seen any correlation of response with such an offer. But that's why I suggest you can print some on your printer at home and try out any number of flyers till you find somehting that works for you.

 

Personally i would rather only advertise to the woman anyways.

 

Our industry tends to say the woman makes the decision 110% of the time and we should only talk or target women. I disagree. A significant minority of my jobs are man-only, initiated by the man, or have both spouses in on it early.

Our odds of closing AND doing a nicer, more expensive job, go up significantly when the husband is involved. They care about quality and getting exactly what they want - women always want to cut corners and cheap out on something, plus always use the old excuse "I have to talk to my husband," which means THE wife doesn't want to spend the money.

 

Might just be different markets. But I can tell you for a fact that around here, with our client demographic, the husband initiating it or being involved increases the odds of closing and usually at increased sizes. Moral of the story, try out different approaches and do whatever works for you.

 

Lots of posts on this topic. Mind if I ask you guys on the possibility of doing door hangers with a mind puzzle / riddle, and mentioning the source of the puzzle? Some of us just want to be recognized, so that when the need arises, they will at least know about us.

 

Sitdwnandhngon you have to find the company those will provide you all the stuff because you have huge list for start ups and especially for door hangers printing, i used 5 x 8 Door Hangers, even you have option to write your name, email and other stuff at door hanger if you can get prints from best online printing services company. here is the pic of door hanger which i am using for my office entrance.

 

The most effective door hanger that I'd ever seen was printed on yellow paper with the word "NOTICE" printed across the top.

I didn't know if I was in trouble or if there was a major utility issue going on but it sparked a sense of panic in my mind! I must have read that flyer at least 5 times over to assure myself that everything was OK.

Now I admit that I didn't like being alarmed but I surely read everything on that door hanger. :laughing:

 

You advertise to the largest market if the market is 50-50 then gender neutral is fine, however if it's 70-30 advertise to the 70.

 

Door Hangers

Door hangers are a great idea and even better if you are working at a home and you hand them out to the neighboring homes, saying something like "We just helped your neighbor with their masonry needs and wanted you to know how satisfied that they are. If we can help you with cracks, leaks or other issues we want to satisfy you as well."
If this is the fact you could always put the address of the location that you serviced. Risk reversal is also key, like "100% Satisfaction Guarantee" You will get more business if people in need feel that there is no risk. The number of people that you may have to engage in that guarantee will be small compared to those that you do not. And lets face it, most of the time it is just addressing the issue to get someone satisfied and not paying them back.
Also you have about 3 seconds to get attention. Although pictures are great, space and cost may not work to your advantage. Also there are many other cost effective ways to market your business but all have to be in place continuously as they are a game of timing and numbers. Having other cost effective marketing methods that can help your company grow exponentially. Let me know if I can be of assistance. Thanks Greg

 

I got them in two days ago, they came out really good. The pictures are nice and crisp and they used glossy paper.

I am going to save a bundle for the neighbors of clients and if we ever get some decent weather I am going to go take a walk up a few areas of done work in before and try to target some homes in need, just to see what happens.

Lots of tax return money will be floating around soon, hopefully I can scoop some of it up.