Hey guys
I want to see what mediums of advertising is actually working for you?
What is really paying off?
Val-pak, direct mail, internet?
Where is all your marketing budget going these days?
I’m getting great response from my website and yellow page ads. I’ll be doing some direct mail as well this year for the first time.
So the website is paying off Tony , glad to hear that 
Buy one, get one free admission coupon to the Cheetah Club!
Referrals.
I took a real super hard look at our # this year… and I slashed everything… Phone books… GONE News paper promos … GONE Clipper Gone!
Its all Gone… Its all getting dumped into Direct mail and SEO… also im keeping a little bit of pay per click.
Repeat and referral.
PS
Direct marketing pieces sent to the 5 neighbors of my best existing customers. Three neighbors across the street and one on either side. It’s called 5 around.
We do this too. Except we do it in person after the original service is completed. Then we hit them again in a few weeks witht the direct mailer.
Repeats, referrals and web site are pulling in all the work so far. I won’t be sending out the fliers til spring has has made a permanent home here. The cold weather has returned the last few days.
But still my numbers are way up from last year.
Yes face to face with the prospect is always best! Sometimes you get to close a deal on the spot.
PS
Don’t forget to stay in touch with old customers. Sometimes they actually forget who we were. I know it’s hard to believe, because we do such great work!!! :eek:
But they actually do forget our company name and have to call someone new the next time they need window cleaning.
Chris
The clipper does not work for you anymore?
Yellow pages are dead!!
It is all about the internet.
I also have hired a seo manager and a pay per click manager.
Yep that’s pretty much it… The return we got last year on Direct mail and internet was almost 5 times higher than the stuff we are dropping.
Did you ever think about learning the seo pay per click stuff your self?
Chris
I have thought about it and i did it for a while but i also have a little bit different company. So i feel it is more complicated.
our new website is climatepro.com
did you teach yourself chris?
Thats a nice website!.. Yeah for the most part i taught myself… Im really still learning. I figure as we go into the future its an important skill to know… that’s why I keep reading and trying.
I’ve never done yellow pages, I’ve heard its pretty much dead, but this year I’m trying listing in the yellow book internet directory, they tried to talk me into putting it in the print book also, but I wasn’t interested in that. Has any one tried internet yellow pages?
We’ve had pretty good success with our yp ad – it costs us about $180/month for an ad that’s slightly bigger than a credit card. During our busier seasons, we get at least a few jobs a week from it.
I’ve also had good success with Craigslist – I’ve only rec’d a few calls from it, but we’ve landed them all and they’ve all been large ($1000+) jobs. One of them has led to possibly our largest contract to date (well into the 6 figures if we land it) – so you never know.
I’m strongly considering Valpak – I just met with the rep today and we can mail out 40K fliers for under $1000. If I do the direct mailing postcards, it will cost me over $1000 for less than 2000 postcards.
Has anyone hear done Valpak? - and if so, how were the results?
Definitely an important skill to know. It won’t be long until yellow page books are obsolete and web advertising will take over. If you don’t take the time to learn you’ll pay someone like Doug down the road. My wife and I throw those books away as soon as we get them (after looking at our ad of course)
For this year I am putting the most energy into web presence and building a real solid referral program. The majority of our growth has been referrals and I figure it’s worth putting more effort into.
Referral business is important because I think people are afraid to take a risk and call a service they don’t know, or trust. When a customer gives a friend a referral there is at least some degree of safety. You start out with a reputation that the new customer can trust. I always try to encourage referrals.
Yes. It is inexpensive, but I will probably go back to a free listing next year. The most value it has provided is helping me rank higher in google maps (maybe yahoo also). However, I would not recommend superpages … they are crooks. Used them for a while at $50/month and zero clicks. If they are popular in your area perhaps it’s a deal, but zero clicks makes it difficult to keep paying them money (though they also provide info to yahoo, google, and msn).
We have 2 ads in the YP’s- 1 in windows and 1 in gutter clng. Both are doing really well. Chris does have a point about direct mail. As for newspaper ads, Im not really sold on the idea of running an ad in a newspaper. How many people do you know that buy a paper to get info on a service business? Readers basicallly stumble on your ad as they are sifting through all of the information.
