I got spanked by an community president for over aggressive marketing. He left a message with an enticement to call. ie he wanted work done. When I returned the call and identified myself he asked me if I was running for office. I had no idea what he was talking about so I said “excuse me?” He then said "you must be running for some office because the neighborhood is littered with your yard signs. Long story short, he was cool about it but firm. Many of those gated communities are not marketing friendly. During the early days when I would spend down time putting out doorhangers I had the cops called on me a couple times. I’ve heard from guys in the south they sell services door-to-door. That would get someone fined very quickly up here.
well they are gated for a reason, i would stay out of there…
if you want to target the gated communities, then you better do a postcard mailing.
What is the DEHEC?
Department of Health and Environmental Control
thanx
The gates are open with no guard on weekdays around here. I’ve seen flyers on mailboxes or in the paper bin just below the mailbox in all of these communities from numerous businesses from window cleaning, painters, lawn service, power washing, to heating & cooling for several years now.
I’ve even talked to some of the homeowners and from what I gather some welcome flyers and some get upset. Very few get upset enough to call the # on the flyer and rake the contractor out.
I don’t usually rely on flyering. I think I put out about 500 flyers in 2008. This year with all of the talk of gloom & doom I’m doing everything I can to insure that my business thrives so I flyered these neighborhoods. One of my competitors puts his business cards (with magnetic backing) on the mailboxes of these same gated communities week after week after week at times. I heard via a homeowner that the association is tolerant of a reasonable amount of soliciting but was miffed at this excess amount (or frequency) of soliciting.
Right or wrong, this flyering is condoned and even welcomed by some to a certain extent. This being the case it is up to the individual to decide whether or not to flyer these gated communities. I’ll admit I don’t feel comfortable doing it but it gets the phone ringing so I have chosen to do it at times.
I prefer to send out hand adressed and stamped direct mail but it is about as time consuming and more costly than regular flyering.
After saying all of this I certainly agree with you that it is best to send direct mail. Hand addressed envelopes may be more effective but the smaller postcards are the most economical.
I think I’m going to find a good deal on postcards and try to design a really good one to send out instead of flyering next time. It does look more professional and there’s nothing wrong with it that can come back on you legally.
When I get a job in a gated community, I will usually do the work between 12 - 6, or even work it out to 2 days if I can justify it. That’s the time frame that many of the residents are coming and going and get to see your truck at the Jones’.
dude, are you listening???
i dont care if the guard is there or not. if there is a gate, a guard shack, whatever, stay out. or you will get busted sooner or later, Like marc king says just use your truck for advertizing if you are in the gated community doing work.
you will lose in the long run if you continue to break the law… is it really worth it???
all i am going to say is i told you so.
Incidentally, you may want to just check with city ordinance about fines and such nonsense. I may be wrong, but HOA’s can seek a “no-soliciting” ordinance for their neighborhood, and if you are reported you can be fined. However, as far as I understood it, this is just door to door soliciting, not distributing flyers in the newspaper slots of mailboxes, for example.
Please check with your local city ordinance…wouldn’t want to mislead you.
Yes SB! I listened to you but you evidently didn’t listen to me.
King, that’s great advice. I’ve never done door to door soliciting and don’t ever plan to do so, so I don’t have to worry about that. Even though flyering is condoned to a certain extent in the gated communities around here, in the future I plan to utilize postcards instead so I won’t put myself or my business in jeopardy.
Hopefully there will be no problems in the future stemming from the few times that I have chosen to flyer gated communities in the past.
Thanks for your input.
One thing you can take from this situation is that you have to be ready for confrontational situations like this that arise. Everthing from a complaining customer to a disgruntled employee. You have to pre program your responses. I would have replied to this guy " Oh really, do you know that what you are doing is telephone harassment and is punishible by law? Whos really in the wrong here now? I can request my mobile phone record and submit it to the police if you want to go that route. Lets see who starts stumbling over their words then.
I had an employee that tried to get me for “wrongful termination”. Missed about three days a week. He told me that he spoke to several attorneys and we would be seeing each other in court. I replied to him that I was going to take the next week or so off - document my lost wages and counter sue him for “mental anguish”. I almost had him in tears after that- serious. I am one of the easiest going guys (probably too lienient really) to work for. You just have to prep yourself for these type situations. Like with the azzhole employee- I had 3 minutes to make him see my side or I would have spent some bucks in court.
Steve
I wish I could’ve said that but he called my home phone. I guess you can get the home phone records too. I’m glad that you pointed this out though.
Better still, I think I’ll pay the extra $2.00 per month and have restricted calls blocked from my home phone. I just don’t care to be bothered with bent competitors. Like someone already said in this thread (CFP I think it was) I’d rather focus on my business instead of the compitition.
I agree with paul too. Too much negetivity wondering what your competition is doing all of the time. It will consume your every business decision if you let it. I like to think that Im somewhat of a cutting edge type business. Always changing for the good- always thinking of how to do things better for my clients. Like Lee Iococca once wrote in one of his books: “There is no such thing as staying the same. You must continue to get better or get out of the way”. So true in any business (of course thiswas written way before all of the troubles with the big 3).
Definitely do postcards.
I happen to agree with the whole “those people live in a gated community for a reason” thing. Regardless of what the other services have done in your area or what the homeowners in those communities in have grown to tolerate over the years, I would respect their desire to be quarantined from the rest of the world (I know I’m beating a dead horse here).
Maybe you would stand out from the rest of the services in your area who do that if you went the postcard route, so it sounds like you are on the right track by considering postcards. They are pricey, but well worth the cost.
Ken, that’s pretty much the way I’ve felt about it all along. I usually do the direct mail thing but got lazy and at the last minute decided to flyer these gated communities.
I didn’t feel comfortable doing this and have dealt with negativity from it so I’ll never flyer a gated community again. The phone has been ringing though so it was not all bad.
I’ve got the addresses for all of the residents in these communities in a data base so all I have to do is write out the addresses on envelopes and send them out.
Post card vs. letter is another issue to ponder. CFP may be right about the letter being more effective than a poscard.
Thanks for your input.
I have received plenty of angry phone calls after flyering a neighborhood (especially the baggy/rock way) but all they can do is be angry over the phone. Phone books, newspapers, etc. are all delivered in that fashion … it is not illegal. If you broke any rules you will receive a warning, but it won’t be an anonymous call.
Its probaly another company that called. I would agressively market that neighborhood, it must be a good one because another company is getting crazy over it. Anytime a competitior calls you and is angry about you solicting a neighboorhood or route accounts , go after the work even harder, it usally means there is money to made there.
please excuse the spelling errors
Only from competitors. Some communities require a door-to-door solicitation permit. One in my area has such permit requirements but I don’t think they are strictly followed nor enforced.
My suggestion is to take it with a grain of salt. Keep your local liscenses in up to date and maintain a business structure in case you do get a call from the authorities. But don’t sweat it.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been “in” these communities for several years now and have a good rapport with a fair amount of residents that I already work for in most of them. I am getting more and more referals from established customers in these gated communities. This flyering was an attempt to make sure I stay busy in what’s being talked about as a gloomy economy.
I feel that I would be alright if I continued to flyer these gated communities (sparingly) like all of the other contractors around here do but I really do prefer to send direct mail. I’ve always sent out letters but I may try the postcards since they are cheaper.
At any rate, I stay pretty busy and my post December slow season keeps getting busier and busier every year. I also have a fair amount of monthly commercial gigs that really helps out during the slow season.
I only put out 500 flyers last year so it’s not that big of a deal. If I see that work is slow when the season really kicks in then I’ll know that I need to step up my marketing. Then I’ll send out some postcards.