When you guys give a “call to action,” how far out do you give the customer to call? I just got my door hangers and have a “call by xyz date to receive” a specific amount off of their total bill. What is considered too far out and too soon?
I’d say 1-2 weeks, interested to see what others say.
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I’m new here and just spending time researching and learning with plans on creating a new division for my landscape construction company… but I do have a lot of experience with marketing there and with using door hangers.
IMHO I wouldn’t limit myself with a call to action time frame. I understand your desire to create urgency and that’s not a bad thing, but I’d say that a ton of factors other than time will play into their motivation and you don’t have enough data to know what those are. Neighborhood density, time of year, weather, etc. are all going to play a roll and it’s hard to know the math on how those are affecting your campaign.
If you want to limit your offer, why not make it a “new customer” type of campaign? Create a sense of urgency with a moderately termed out time frame and offer a killer price to a new customer that you can then directly market to for as long as they are around.
If you were married to the call to action time limit then I’d maybe run some trial runs to see how long it’s taking the phone to ring, then extrapolate out from there.
Another thing I thought about as I was typing… is that a couple of things tend to happen with “coupons” or “deals”… One would be that the coupon or deal expires, the potential customer realizes they’re too late, and then doesn’t act, OR they call you but ask for you to honor the coupon or deal even though it’s expired… at which point you almost have no option other than to say yes (you’ll put yourself in an adversarial position if you say no… especially with the type of customer that would do this to you). Either way you slice it, you’re likely to have eliminated SOME opportunity and you’re likely to end up getting that same “call to action” price.
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So, in other words, skip out on the “call to action” and perhaps give, as you stated, a “first time customer” deal. I certainly understand the issue of “expired” coupons and whatnot. Altogether, I feel that your information has been enlightening and insightful.
Like I said… I TOTALLY get the “call to action”… but for my money a lot about this business is building an actual customer “base” from which to continue to sell to… I would do everything humanly possible to build that base while also trying to generate more immediate revenue (which I get the need).
I just think you’ll get results just as good… Hell I get people calling a year after we’ve left a brochure or door hanger and I’ve got no recollection of even hitting their neighborhood.
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And to be clear… you definitely want to create a sense of urgency and “need”… just think more broadly and creatively about how you’re actually accomplishing that.
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I have been involved with marketing for many small business and selling advertising for a multi-billion dollar industrial tool supply company. We had many meetings about strategy and creating urgency. I have to agree with @oneepstein on limiting your target without a market study and for the cost of coupons that expire unless you fill in the date on each one.
@oneepstein, what do you think if the coupon had a short term special, a mid term special and then the standard “regular low price service” with tiered expiration dates to create urgency on the first 2 tiers. Could even offer something free on one of them instead of just money off. Maybe something quick enough to do like a front path free up to ___ square feet or whatever you feel you could do quickly. Multiple expiration dates widens your targets.
If you’re advertising a specific price, I’d personally put the expiration date to be at the end of the season. Costs could change over the off-season and typically nothing ever comes down in price anymore. Just my .02
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I don’t know if there’s one right answer, and various offers within one advertisement could work. I’d probably shy away from “free” anything (unless it was of course offered in conjunction with other services), and I’d stick to flat percentage off type coupons instead… this way you defeat the problem ppwIL stated.
There are also other ways to create “urgency”… maybe the holidays are coming up, maybe it’s barbecuing season, maybe it’s gonna be a full moon and they sure as Hell don’t want werewolves showing up to their dirty driveway. I’m sure if you’ve been doing it for a little while you can think of a 100 reasons people choose to hire your services… exploit those reasons.
You also have to remember that their biggest motivator is probably not going to be price… it’s going to be the fact that their stuff is dirty and they’re tired of it being dirty. Your flyer reminds them of this and could be all the motivating factor they need. Your job at that point is to make it as easy as humanly possible to hire you.
The reason I like the “new customer” angle is because of the long term potential with someone you’ve done a good job for. You’ll be able to continue to mine them in the future and likely see referrals out of them, especially if you’ve got a half way decent e-mail marketing campaign.
In my humble opinion of course.
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So here’s what I’m going to try…I ordered a bundle of door hangers that have a “1st time customer discount”. As I am new to this specific area, every individual will qualify for this discount. I have a “menu” of services and plan on providing a specific percentage off based on how many services they choose. After factoring in ALL of my costs, even with the percentages, I would still be in the black. I also tested it with several friends (who will tell me the cold, hard truth) and they felt that from what they read on the hanger, they would consider getting work done if it were another company.
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Sounds like a good plan. The nice thing about flyers is that with websites like Vistaprint (and others I’m sure) you no longer have to make such a huge investment in thousands of them… you can order as few as 50-100 of them and get a good gauge of how they’re going to work.
Not getting results you want? Just tweak and try a different approach with your next batch. Flyers work.
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I always advise against putting a certain ‘price’ on any marketing materials unless you’re certain there are no variables in the product.
What I mean is, if you’re Dominos Pizza it’s ok to run a deal for $5.99 because Dominos franchisees already know the costs involved in making that pizza. They can offer a medium 2-topping for $5.99 because the cost of the dough and the toppings and the labor has already been solidified.
Your industry is different. Let’s say you decide to offer a $119 driveway cleaning. What if you get a call from a lady who has a 500’ long driveway? Or what if it’s only 50’ long but caked with the most immovable, disgusting shit you’ve ever encountered? See where I’m going with this?
And disclaimers don’t work. Most people aren’t going to pay attention to the (maximum 250 square feet) disclaimer in 4 point font at the bottom when the $119 price is 3" high across the top. And for the few who do consider the disclaimer, half will assume theirs is larger, so they won’t call. The other half will consider going to measure their driveway, then lose interest because they can’t find the tape measure and they won’t call.
You’re way better off going with a % off type deal. Because that won’t stop an interested client from calling, and once you’re in front of them, if you can read the situation, you can modify your quote to include the discount and keep your margins where you want them to be.
Just my $.02
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Makes perfect sense and I appreciate your input
How are you using the doorhangers? Five arounds? Or shotgunning neighborhoods with them?
For 5-arounds a CTA date is crucial. 4 days usually is all I give on five arounds. I want to be seen in that neighborhood as many times as possible. It takes multiple touches in order for marketing to be effective.
Shotgunning neighborhoods with doorhangers a waste of time and money.
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Using five arounds. I read your multiple posts about door hangers and hence my initial question about the CTA and timeline. I agree that shotgunning the neighborhoods would be a waste of time considering there isn’t a “rapport” or “trust level”. I think that everyone who has posted has significantly valid points about what to do and what not to do or have on the hanger.
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If it’s helpful, I’ve tested longer CTAs. People forget about it because life happens. But 3-4 days seems optimal here. 4 days if over a weekend. Urgency is huge.
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In fact… Now I’m curious to try a door hanger that every one of them just says Expires in 48 hours.
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If you do, I’d love to hear the results (whatever they may be). Four days seems to be relatively decent…I know myself, if it’s something that I know needs to be and someone gave me a timeline of such, it would be in my mind.
I just wanted to mention that if anyone chooses to go door to door to think of the following things:
- wear a highly branded shirt
- wear a highly visible name tag
- park the company marked vehicle in front of the house you’re knocking at
- always leave a door hanger or card
- always ring the doorbell, specially if it has a camera
I mention these points because i joined the Ring neighborhood network, basically neighbors with these camara doorbells post videos of people ringing or knocking the door, among other activities, but this one made me think of the PWRA.
Essentially their beef/fear with solicitors is not knowing who they are or what they want.
Usually if they post the video anyway is to let neighbors know who’s selling in the neighborhood.
Good luck
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I miss the 80’s
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