Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Spot On cleaning on February 04, 2006, 08:14:21 pm
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Can anybody recommend an ideal time to start delivering leaflets? Is February okay or should i wait until March? Should i repeat a drop again a couple of weeks later like my accountant recommends (apparantly it gets them customers, another drop/letter after 3 weeks) or keep moving areas.
Do you think that you are less likely to get work out of your area because they prefer somebody local? What are the statistics in general for success rates, and do professionally made leaflets get you more work in general?
Generally any ideas are appreciated.
Dave
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hi
i started my leaflets straight after christmass this year and i have had the best january ever still delivering now and febuary is looking good already i do the same area every 6 to 8 weeks some will say do it every month.
cheers nick p
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Hi Dave,
Do it as soon as you can. Split your area into "rounds", and try to achieve a leaflet for every house once every 4 - 6 weeks.
I too started in January (on the 2nd) and have been constantly in work throughout.
Regards
Tony
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To nick and tony
So you recommend repeating the same house more than once then. How many should i do a week? Say i did 1000 a week, how many responses do you think i should get?
Dave
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ABOUT 2
Neil
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what about leaflet quality, no difference? Do you repeat deliver? What's the answer?
Dave
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i think every month is way OTT i used to do areas yearly i now reducing to 6 monthly, but surly your wasting leaflets at monthly, and annoying people, if some needs your services theyll keep your leaflet up to six months before getting around to calling you, monthly would annoy me,
if i got them monthly id ring you tell you were to put them!! >:(
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Craig
is 2 jobs per thousand leaflets the norm? any areas better than others?
It's disheartening :'(
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You have to consider the cost, of the ' notional ' 2 customers, against the benefits you can gain from them.
As you will find on any marketing course, it's what you do with your clients, after supplying your service, that maximises the return.
In other words, assuming you do a good job, ask for referals, if you find this a bit daunting, send out a follow up letter, thanking them for their recent custom and offering an incentive to encourage them to give the name of someone who they know would be interested in using your service.
Only do this when you know you did an excellent job !!!!!
r m
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hi
i try to get about 4000 a week hard when ur busy but every spare minute get those leaflets out there i do repeat every 6 weeks and yes im still getting calls after 6 months from some leaflets i no this as the offer on the leaflet i do sometimes but others just throw them away do it again and you may get the call say the husbands at home he thinks dont need them doing put a leaflet through the door 6 weeks later and the wife picks it up and calls you just keep puttting them through. IT WORKS
cheers nick p
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Craig
My town is Newport Gwent, but most of my work comes from Cardiff 12 miles away. I also just sent out 300 commercial letters to offices, golf clubs etc, and would like to go more commercial than domestic. January is a bit slow but we've had some work. Cost us £20000 on van and tuck mount in Aug 2005 to do this.
I have got a good feeling about it. I have designed another leaflet in full colour both sides which i am shortly having printed. Local company in Cardiff; 5000 A5 double sided shiny leaflets 130 gms £99 = £116 inc of vat. Just over 2p a leaflet
Dave
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just like to address these saying deliver monthly, i think its ridiculous,
i recently delivered 300 leaflets to a area and got 4 jobs, that was because i hadnt delivered it for a long time (9mths) do you think if i delivered it again in a month i get that response? no chance!
i rather deliver less frequent and get a good response.
if i delievered that area in 2 months i get nothing, poss the odd 1, i know ive tried.
i think delivering monthly you will get the work but it will just be a slower trickle,
less economical with leaflets.
regards, craig
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hi ive been doimg leaflets over 10 years and can say 100% and can say leaving an area for over 6 months before u do it again is wrong, keep them leaflets going out all the time u can do a street one week and get nothing do the same street again the next week and get 2 calls , its all hit n miss do u know it can take upto 4 leaflet drops to get a responce from a custy, its all about in thier face all the time , 99% of your leaflets will get binned fact
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Hi, How do you get your leaflets out if you have constant work from your leafelts? Are you doing this in the evening and are you gettting someone else to do it.
Cheers
Neil
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i only do 1000 week now ,i get them out with of them charity bags
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How many jobs off this if you don,t mind me asking? Suppose you never can tell because people keep them for later use so you might get 3 times more later. Do you also find that you have quiet times at certain times of the year due to some reason? i.e school holidays or somethings
Dave
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jan and feb are not good for leaflets, what u will find with leaflets as u put more out u start to get a knockon efect ie by the time u get to say 8 weeks u start getting calls from 2nd weeks, 4week, 6 week etc etc , so u start getting a bigger reponce rate for your 1000 a week , also the last week in the month is the best reponce as people are getting paid, rember leaflets are luck of the draw, u might put out load one moring then the posty drops load crap on top and the whole lot gets binned !! go round knock on doors arfter u hav had a drop and ask them if they had your leaflet 90% would say ant got clue 8% would say they thought they saw it but cant be sure u might can 2% if u are very lucky that might hav pinned them on a bord or put them in a draw, ave responce rate is prob 0.5% most people who phone of leaflets are impulse buyers what u hav put in their head, thoms,yellow pages etc are people who are planning to hav their carpets cleaned, i hav put out 5000 leaflets before and never had a call !!! people who say they hav had 5-10 calls of a leaflet drop of 1000 or more in jan or feb !! must be asked were they come to that figure
gary
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p.s stay clear of big council estates the reponce rate is far lower than say a new bovis estate
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Gary
I used to go out with my kids on a Sunday as i've got so many posting leaflets. The kids did not like it but hated the whip more so they went. It's a terrible thing but i even had to pay them in the end. The two things that worried me about this are as follows.
Was i antagonising them by delivering on a Sunday mornin and;
because the husband there and would he get it first and chuck it in the bin.
Sometimes they reset you because of what you make an hour compared to them. This is where the nice areas come into it. Nice earners means higher prices. If a man is earning £300 a week for 40 hours and you are getting £50 say for an hours work he is resentful. When i was employed my mrs used to say lets get the carpets cleaned and i would say no, prefering to borrow my dada vax for ths very reason.
Women are different. Most of my work comes from women. So what about Sundays. I am thining of giving it another go with professionally made leaflets?
Dave
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gary,
its not a comp but my old man been doing this 20 years we found doing more freqent that 5 mths not worth doing, the fact you dont belive 5 jobs from a thousound says something, my idea of a good respose is obviously different to yours,
regards, craig
ps, i only do 300, 5 days a week, (1000-1500a week.)
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hi craig ,if u get reg 5 jobs from 1000 fresh leaflets then u are doing something i dont no about lol every now then i get 5 sometime more but this is rare its well know that 0.5% is regarded as an ave for leaflets
p.s got some tips for me then ;D
gary
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Craig,
You are leading us to believe tht those of us who acheive in the region of 5 per thousand responses are not doing very well.
Ok so you can do better but you give no idea what your response rate is.
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i dont get that response every time of course, wish i did,
i my dairy i have over the past 2 weeks got booked in 8 jobs from a area of around 2-3k houses, gary try this, leave an area alone for 6 mths and see what the response is like then, just try it with a area of around 3k, i could be wrong but i know if ive not hit a area for 8 mths it will be good, that is if i know the area to be good.
food for thought, in 87 when the old man started his average response was 1 job per 75 leaflets !!!! hes never been in y/p.
the market is a bit satuarated these days i think.
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But doe's anyone post on a Sunday?
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ian, if ive come across as saying i get more thah 5 per 1000 thats wrong, i consider that very good as good as it gets,
gary said he didnt belive 5 per 1000 i was trying to address that, i put out a couple of 1000 and had nothing like every one else,
since x mas ive put out 3k ish and had 16 jobs from those, thats good i think and it doesnt get much better for me.
and as i been trying to say, im sure its because i not done the area since last summer,
regards, craig ;D
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not sundays as every one gardening and washing cars, i feel like a pest. :(
thats just me.
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craig how do u no that 6 months 6 other carpets hav done a drop? and maybe one a week before u ? just a thought, because i do so few now its very rare a hit a place more than couple times a year, but i will say this the last time i had a call of leaflets was 22 november !!and my leaflets are the same as ive allways done figure that out for me lol
i agree leaflets are nowere near as good as they were when i first started 12 years ago not by a long shot for first 7 years i never done a thomp, yellow pages and made a good living just of leaflets i wouldnt still be in this game now if it werent for thomp yellow pages and old custys , i think anyone starting now has a really tuff rd ahead of them, and i hav noticed just lately thiers a lot of new people asking advice on this forum , so in one way this forum id bad news for carpets cleaners as people are stumbling across it and thinking mmm might try this cleaning lark rember 5 years ago we had no forums and this internet stuff makes y think dont it !!
gary
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Gary
Do you ever try writing to your old customers in some form or another to offer them a deal or something?
In three years i had got somewhere in the region of 950 customers. This may not be a\lot to some people but hey ho. Problem is though, it's hard to go back with higher prices in my area because i was too cheap in the strt.
Dave
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absolutly gary, i ve thought that to, i only found this forum a few months back, your right really, we are giving away all our secrets that we ve had to learn the long hard way, and lots fancy a pop at this game, sometimes i had men custys who been asking alot of questions ;D and when i left i ve clicked ;D they been think that looks easy, lol we must of all had some of those, going back to how things have changed the old man cannot belive some of the prices people are charging on here that ive told him about 4.50 a sqm!!!!!! he says there only cleaning the bl***dy carpet!!!!
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lets face it gary we could not make it any easier for the competition. we may as well offer to deliver there leaflets for them help them along a bit, lol
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yes i agree with your old man £4.50 is so over the top half is more like it and that imo is good money,
ive had people book me in to clean just one carpet and u can tell big time just way the blokes ask u q hes got u round to c how its done ;D , also i get few other carpet cleaners wifes phoneing me asking lots silly q a punter wouldnt make makes me chuckle a bit ;D and its allways with held numbers
dave hav tryed letters couple times but found it to dear and responce rate low,i find if old custys wants a carpet cleaned they dont need telling they phone u when they are good n ready
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thatn is one thing really annoys me competiters phoneing for qoutes, i look at it this way, what does it achieve? i find it funny they must be slow on work, but a qoute from me and strangly there still slow on work, were does it get them? and why do they always ask about stainshield!!
how is knowing my prices going to get them work??????????
sad annoying gits!!!
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they are trying to find out how much work u hav because they are qiuet " how much notice do i need to giv u " ;D
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Trouble is though customer loyalty. You do a job for them, great. They loose your number then they get another leaflet from somebody else, possibly cheaper.
I also get calls asking questions about my system etc and prices. Had one once from a so called student doing research for her business studies course. Told her i was busy.
I think areas are a big problem. When i did prochem courses in 2002, the London boys were hitting £1000 - £1200 a week then.
Dave
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i had a call once cant remember what they said they were, started to ask me about what my turnover ect was! cheek, told them p off.
i find it amazing how many of these competitors calls you get it must be people thinking of starting too, its annoying because when i sense that, im maybe a bit abrut with them and ive been proved wrong a few times and they booked work in.
if im slow on work i cant see how knowing if the comp is is going to help me,
good job you never answered her questions di, a student, as if ! ;D
i think your right about customer loyalty, there is nt much, i ve done loads of jobs when custys said they had there capets cleaned before and the last guy did a great job, i think why they not got them back then?
course the fast trackers get over that with maintence plans.
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Dave unless the law in Wales is diferent to the rest of the country i would
sugest your being done as there is no VAT on leaflets
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John
I did,nt know this. Can you elaborate more on this please
Dave
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Hi Dave yes its true there is no VAT on leaflets but not everyone knows this.
I will give you an example the last lot of leaflets i had done where desighnd
by our free local paper, but they in turn passed the printing of it to annother company. When i got the final bill for the job they had put on VAT it was me that
told them they could not do that as they themselves were not being charged for it. I then got annother invoice excludeing VAT with an appology. I hope this
has been of some help to everyone re finking of doing leaflets.
Take Care John
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never new that. you get some gems on this forum ;)
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But doe's anyone post on a Sunday?
The other sunday I walked to village shop to clear the hangover!!! On the way posted flyers through doors that I passed and got a call an hour later. The woman who lives 25 seconds van ride away booked a 2 hour job in priced at £87.25 after flyer discount. What I say is, if you have an opportunity to do so POST EM :)