Hey, guys, I wanted to let you know about the second campaign that mailed to the same people. This time I received 0 phone calls. So the bottom line is 500$ for the print and 900$ for the total mailing 1400$ lost in the EDDM campaign with only one phone call. That phone call turned into a job that was worth 400$. So I lost 1000$ to try the EDDM. Absolutely waste of money. Huge disappointment.
Man that sucks, dude. Sorry to hear that.
I imagine you proly are disgusted and donāt want to risk going the EDDM route again, but many have said that it can take 5-6 mailings to actually see results. 2500 homes isnāt really that big of an area, and maybe that area wasnāt really as ideal as it seemed on paper, or the timing was bad, or that particular postcard wasnāt appealing to that neighborhood.
My first mailing i sent about the same amount as you to one major affluent area from which i got just one job as well! But i also sent an equal amount to a completely different area and saw results, so it can really be hit or miss like that.
Take heart, thoughā¦ Iāve gotten calls from last yearās advertising! So maybe youāll still get some more.
Perhaps you could go with door hangers instead. Door hangers save you tons of money, and then later EDDM can save you tons of time.
I really hope you have more success with your next attempt, whichever method you should choose to go with next. Good luck!
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What do you mean by results? I read about the 0,5 response rate or 1 % which on 2500 would be around 12-13 calls. What was your experience?
I sent out 10k (2x5k) postcards this year and hung 1200 door hangers. Have given 53 estimates since mid-April. A few calls were from the internet. 37 scheduled so far. So i suppose i hit about the 0.5% for responses and a close rate of 70%.
Last year, 1500 door hangers got me i believe 15 jobs, so about 1%. But of course door hangers can be delivered much more selectively.
One thing i learned from last year is to get those ads out early, before everyone already has their spring cleaning done. Last year i hung door hangers May through June. This year i sent wave 1 mid-april. Next year i will definitely start sooner, maybe end of March.
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I see so what do you do now for marketing. Right now it is summer a little bit slower?
Iām in the same boat, though I didnāt lose as much. As stated before, my first campaign also failed to turn a profit. I decided that paying for a second wave out of pocket (I was originally planning to reinvest revenue from the first campaign) would constitute āplaying on tiltā as gamblers say. That is, playing recklessly with my money in the desperate hope of turning a losing game around.
Take heart, all is not lost. Financial setbacks are tough, but rarely permanent. There are lots of ways to drum up work, and some of the best donāt cost you anything but time.
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Iām going to be repetitiveā¦
You are doing it wrong.
Do not Advertise to get a # of jobsā¦ Advertise to Brand.
Getting your phone to ring is a response to a recognizable brand, not a response to advertising.
Marketing studies prove that the average person needs to see your brand atleast 7 to 11 times before they respond.
Any new forms of advertising you do, you should look at the first 3 to 5 rounds as an investment. Not saying you will not get any calls during that period. But you need to let it sink in your market. When we first did facebook ads, we spent $250 a month for 7 months before we saw any noticeable calls. Now we spend $600 a month and get several calls a day from facebook.
Change your mentality on advertising and focus on branding.
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@Kanex Also, I do 3-4 rounds of EDDM each spring in fall to the 5 main subdivisions we primarily work in. Ive been doing EDDM for many yearsā¦ I normally dont see a ālargerā response from my EDDM until the 3rd round and beyond. I thinking timing is part of that cause our 3rd one also hits in the month of May (our biggest month). But we have similar results with all our advertising when we start each one up every year and starting in the fall. We donāt do hardly any work in February or Augustā¦ but we start our Spring and Fall advertising campaigns then, so our brand is in peoples minds.
Monday I had a customer that requested an in person bid. It was a first time customer, and I was sitting at this ladies kitchen table and she had laid out door hangers from the last 3 years, EDDM flyers that went back 2 years, and a marriage mail ad we did over 2 years agoā¦ she tells be she has been saving everything she gets from us so when she was ready to call she had everything she needed to know about us. I smiled and laughedā¦ this is not the first time this type of situation has happened.
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Ok, Iād be just a tad creeped out. Is it just me?
It was slowing down till i did another EDDM wave. If my last EDDM hadnāt been able to fund the next one, i would have just switched to door hangers to save money. Also, i would have canvassed storefronts, which is an area i really need to cultivate.
Maybe you can post your cardā¦perhaps the guys can give some input in case there are ways your ad could be more effective. (Not saying it was your adās fault, but just a thought.)
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the first year i had a guy knocking on doors, the same doors every week or 2. often when he finally got someone they would say āya we do want you to wash our windows, iāve been meaning to call i have your flyer on my fridgeā
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I havenāt done any advertising yet and I believe that I will go with yard signs. This is my first weekend with out any residential jobs this year. I donāt see many calls until the fall so this is a great time to spend the small cost for a few yard signs. All I need to do is place them in high traffic areas(until some one rips it out, like almost always). Keep that up for a few weeks and people will remember. I see College Pro signs here and there and it sticks. My customerās have said to me that College Pro was the only sign they have seen in their area and the only company they called before me.
I have been debating using either Door Hangers or Yard signs for months.
Your post put it into perspective for me. I canāt thank you enough brother.
I am not going to spend the time and money on Door Hangers(even though the excerice is good) when I can have thousands of eyes on my brand daily.
[quote=āKyle, post:28, topic:43663ā]
Do not Advertise to get a # of jobsā¦ Advertise to Brand.
[/quote] - I believe this is the smartest business advice I can take and that I will use. I am in no rush to get busy. I can use the remainder of summer and frankly, the year, to ābrandā the company.
Sure, come fall i can target some areas with door hangers and grab, probably, more calls in a shorter period. But I would be benefiting in the long run by having yard signs throughout whole cities.
Thousands of eyes would be seeing my brand. Eventually, when I can target these eyes with door hangers and EDDM, I should be receiving a significantly higher volume of calls due to the recognizability of my brand.
Another way I am going to brand/advertise - are stag n does. My good friend asked me to supply a gift. Bamā¦id be happy to supply something to a stag n doe weekly. Sure, I might spend money on a Glass MD string backpack, or a shirt. I may even give free exterior cleaning. At least, that is free labour minis some rubber, etcā¦ The point is - I can brand/advertise to sometimes 100ās of people at once, who will be up close and personal with my companies gifts to win! The amount of āoh Iād love to win a free cleaning!ā should stick with them and my company name.
Again, great post and advice man! I hope a lot of people use this.
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