I have been working primarily for one company, and work has slowed done. I am going to have to start advertising more. I would appreciate any ideas or suggestions that have worked for others, as in Google, Facebook, or anything else, etc. Thank you!!!
What type of marketing are you doing now?
This is written by one of the best Ken Fenner their are two more parts to it, so let me know if you want me to post the rest of it but this should help
Another article from my blog/forumā¦ written with my industry but it should apply to painters as well.
How To Systematically Dominate a Market: Part 1
I see so many companies that offer excellent service and superior workmanship floundering at lead generation. The biggest issue is not applying what they already know to their marketing agenda. Let me explain:
Most of us can tackle a job in our chosen field from A-Z with relative ease. We know what comes off the truck, where to begin and where to end. We can predict accurately the results of our efforts. When it comes to advertising there is so much rhetoric and empty promise that many of us get stuck spending money on low performance, single run campaigns that generate nothing. We end up frustrated and bad mouthing that particular form of advertising. Where are we going wrong? We are not following the same type of systematic approach.
The Rule of Repetition
Everyone has heard about this and, if you watch TV for a few hours every week, you have witnessed it in action. Yet, we will stubbornly deny this rule exists. Weāll run two postcard campaigns (or maybe just one) and when we get two calls from a thousand namesā¦ postcards go out the window. Everyone buys on trustā¦ no matter what the purchase. Repetition creates this trust.
But Repetition is EXPENSIVE !!
Not if you do it right. The key is what I call āsmall target dominationā.
What is Small Target Domination and Where Do I Begin?
Compile Your Target List
- The first thing I do is establish the geographic area I want to target. It may be one zip code, or it may be a few. Drive to that area. Is it rich with contractor activity? Is it a keep-up-with-the-Joneses neighborhood? Take notes on what you see. Write down street names. More on why you do that in a moment.
- Return home and begin to compile a mailing list. That does not mean you mail to the entire zip code. The zip codes are your starting point. You are looking to get the list narrowed between 500-1500 prospects depending on your budget. You can use a service like infousa.com to start narrowing your criteria. Criteria I useā¦
a) Ownership of the home for five years plus. These people have recovered from the inital purchase and are ready to start spending money on upgrades or curb appeal.
b) Household income at least twice that of the state average.
c) The value of the home itself. Odds are, if you have gone to the right neighborhoods in step-1 you will have a general idea of the home pricing there. I disclude houses over $2,000,000 as the homeowners are hard to reach. The majority of my customerās properties range from $350,000 to $1,000,000. It also goes without saying that you want to narrow only to homeowners and disclude renters.
d) Carrier routes: The reason I write down street names is so that I can determine the carier routes. I may only want to target half of a zip code. You can use the āzip plus fourā system as well. - Once you have your list of residences research the area. What newspaper do these people read? Iām talking about small geographic distribution/local papers. What do these people like to do for liesure? What is the dominant religion for the area? What schools do they send their children to? What restaurants and eateries do they frequent?
Now What?
Get Your Name Out There
My goal is to begin branding. That is a bad word to many experts with respect to small companies. Perhaps it is in the semantics of the definition. Letās call it 'trust building". As I stated in this thread, trust building is achieved via repetition. The more they see your name, the more credible you become. These are the steps I recommend.
-
Introduce yourself. Send out a letter of introduction. The key is to get people to open it. There are a couple of methods I use.
a) I send a standard letter envelope and include a magnet or drink coaster. (more on the drink coaster in another thread). When people feel something inside an envelope, they open it. Make sure the envelope is addressed to the homeonwer, not āoccupantā or āresidentā. I have spent money on custom envelopes with āSpecial Offer Insideā and it produced no greater return. Spend your money on whatās inside. The letter itself should be informative and have a friendly, personalized tone. Your goal with this intro is not neccessarily to sell your service. Its a āHi, how are you, weāre here if you need us letterā. You can include a seperate coupon (print it on glossy stock) call to action if you want but it drives up cost and again, I did not see added return when I did that. The return on this first mailer will be nil to .25 percent. (by the end of the campaign, you should expect 3-5% returns)
b) As an alternate, send out an introduction greeting card. This envelope size is the most opened. Iām not going to get into what you say on the card, bit it is a great method for direct mail. I utilize it now as the second mailing in my campaign. -
Now is the time to set up your support advertising. Remember when we compiled the lifestyle information about our target area? You use that now to determine where you will run ads.
a) Get listed in the contractor section of their local paper. If your budget is higher, place an ad in the paper somewhere.
b) Advertise in their church bulletin. This one is huge. There is a psychological advantage that occurs when people see your ads here.
c) Go to their local eateries. If there is a bulletin board, put a flyer up there. Talk to the owner. Many shops sell advertising on their takeout menus. I have gotten into leaving drink coasters with local upscale pubs. I had a call last month from a young girl that took one of my coasters home and called me. She didnāt need service but her mother just had construction done and her house was filthy from the dust. That job paid for my next 8000 coasters.
d) Golfing is big in my demographic. These people are perfect. Disposable income and they donāt DIY on the weekends when they can be out on the course. I have gotten to be friends with the guy that runs the clubhouse at a private course near my house. I leave flyers there and this spring I am co-sponsoring an outing. Youād laugh if I told you how inexpensive this exposure is.
5 Likes
Wow! Thatās good stuff! Iād like to see the other parts to this post!
Part 2
I left off discussing support advertising. This is the low cost advertising that will pay for itself quickly as well as lend credibility to your company via high exposure. Now for the one that pays off the bestā¦
Press Releases
Your local papers and TV stations have a hard time finding things to report about day in and day out. You may think nothing you do is newsworthy. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. Here is what you do.
Talk to the schools in the area you are targeting. Explain to them what you do and your willingness to donate a service to them. Fix their bleachers, pressure wash the snack bar, paint a chain link fence, whatever you choose. Some schools may want to check you out first to make sure you are legitimate. Call the papers and the TV stations and see if they would be willing to give you a blurb or short article. It wonāt take you more than one or two calls to get a yes.
When that thing is printed, make copies to carry with you for sales presentations. Put one on your website. If you get a TV broadcast, put that video on your website. The whole goal of his portion of your campaign is to say āI am your neighborhood guyā and continue with exposure and credibility.
In parts one and two of this series, we discussed how to begin setting yourself up for high returns on a targeted marketing campaign.
Once you have compiled your list and setup your support advertising and exposure, it is time to start making money.
2-4 weeks after your initial introduction letter and press release begin selling your service. I use oversized postcards that are colorful and have high quality photos on the front. I thoroughly recommend you have someone like Keith at KBK Graphics design this for you. We are targeting high end homeowners here. They donāt expect to see something you put together in Microsoft Word or some free graphic program unless you are sufficiently talented to make something look professional.
You should see a little return on this one. Make sure you have effective calls to action on your mailer. The return on this mailer is going to be dependant upon how much diligence you have put into your support advertising. The key at this stage is to capitalize on the jobs you do get.
ā¢ On every single job arrive in a logoād truck.
ā¢ If you can, get a yard sign out front (name, logo, general service, phone number)
PressurePros [logo]
Deck Cleaning and Staining
610-662-4036
ā¢ Put door hangars on 30 surrounding houses. āWe just did work at 19 Palmers Laneā.
People now have seen any combination of: a letter, a business card at local Qwiki Mart, an ad in their pizza menu, an ad in their church bulletin, a postcard, an ad in the classifieds, heard about what you did at their sonās school, and have seen your truck roaming the neighborhood. Now, on their front door, is a colorful, professionally designed hangar telling them their neighbors trust your company. Starting to get the idea that now maybe they will begin thinking about that nasty deck, drafty window, sunroom etc?
Every three weeks for three more mailings, target the same list. At that point, I find I have reached saturation to 1500 homes. About midway into the campaign, the jobs you get are getting begin funding your future marketing endeavors, so you expand into the next area and begin the same process.
More Crtical Points
- Have a website. People nowadays expect it. Put the URL on all your print and make sure your website is optimized for local search. Use PPC campaigns until you rank.
- Be in the Yellow pages. Choose a smaller distribution book. Your leads are hotter than the shotgun books that cover large areas. An in-column ad for under a hundred a month is plenty. My smaller ads outperformed the larger ones I experimented with. Even with all of your advertising out there, people may go do some yard work one Saturday morning and now notice they need your service. They probably didnāt save your print ads. They may go to the web or the yellow pages. Be listed there.
- Stay in contact with your customers. Repeat business is huge. About a third of my business now comes from repeat customers.
- In line with number threeā¦ ask for referrals. Offer rewards for those customers that refer you. Thank you letters are an excellent time to do this.
- Ask every customer how they found you. This will help you pinpoint your efforts like a laser.
How Much Will This Cost Me?
Donāt think of it in terms of intitial expense but rather in return on investment. Iāl be entering my fifth year of residential work and my marketing budget should be under 2% of my gross in '08. This methodology becomes a self generating machine. In '09 it is feasible for me not to have spend any money on advertising and still grow to over a half million per season just on the residential end. My biggest problems now are setting up more crews and insuring I donāt have to get into the field for anything, including estimates. Spend the time and the money now and things like droughts, injuries and slow markets will not cripple you.
Hope this series helps someone to become as successful as they dream of being.
2 Likes
Website, Google, word of mouth, subdivision magazine. Its picking up some, but a roller coaster as with everything else.
Thank you house washer. Great info!!!
Fenner is one of the smartest guys I have ever read. A lot of our marketing strategy comes from his words of wisdom.
Knowing your market is the most valuable knowledge you can have. What is its make up? What economically drives your market? Size? Education? etcā¦figuring this out is the key that will unlock the marketing puzzle.
Hey, Guy, the wifey is branding your company here in Tulsa. Thanks for the shirts. Time to make up some of mine so I can put her to work for me. 
Cool, our prices may be a little higher for Tulsa thoughā¦:).
Hope the class will help you guys out some. I had a great time!
Great infoā¦
