[jasonl]

I am curious as to how many leads this directly generates , not including referrals and repeats resulting from the initial enquiry.

I am wanting to find a sensible cost to aquire a customer per £earned, I think it is more than most of us think

Probably in my case around 40 pence in the pound.

[Mike Halliday]

Jason I'm spending approx £140 a week to find new customers, its bringing in a disappointing results at the moment around £550.  I was hitting 800 a while back...not quite sure why its dropped over the last few months

[John Higgins]

Jason I'm spending approx £140 a week to find new customers, its bringing in a disappointing results at the moment around £550.  I was hitting 800 a while back...not quite sure why its dropped over the last few months

Why be disappointed mike new customers mean a growing client base. which stands you in good stead for reapeat orders.  Heavy and contiued advertising in a recession will in the long term pay dividens.

We are lucky milke we already have established businesses and can live off our repeat business.

80% of my profit from new clients goes back into re advertising and I live of my repeat business.

So making a smaller profit on your advertising spend can be frustrating , but the new clients you have attained from this will be increasing your profits in the future.

[Paul Evans]

Whilst very new in the business, My spend is £365 a month for a return of 1100-1200 a month of work , I am no where near established and find things difficult ay times.
One thing i have learnt quite quickly is carpet cleaning isnt carpet cleaning in the early days, You need to do massive marketing, so basically marketing is your job,

carpet cleaning is secondery . Think im spending money in the wrong areas at the moment.

I WILL GET THERE THOU

Paul

[M.Acorn]

Varies really,I find I am really up and down all the time,one week flat out,the next nothing,had a really testing job on Thursday,converted chapel,used as an industrial recruitment company,not been cleaned in over 2 years,priced over phone,got there and was astounded they ran a business like that,floor was so uneven,was very had going.

[John Kelly]

No body ever went out of business because they could'lt clean a carpet.

[Ian Rochester]

Just looked at our figures for the last 12 months and according to the figures, 3.5% of our turnover was spent on advertising of one sort or another, just a couple of years ago we used to spend over 7% on advertising.

It's not a case that we have stopped advertising,, the level of advertising has remained pretty constant however turnover has increased significantly so it's obviously working.

[M.Acorn]

Yeah sorry rambling a bit.
Ok Yell.com £86 a month,website about £10 a month.
Free listing sites = free

Trying the small local village mags at mo,not 1 call so far.
Other than that the letting agencies I am in with pass on my number to all their tenants,quite a few bookings from word of mouth.
Still not got around to getting the van signed up,that is my next marketing spend

[Colin Day]

I'm finding what works and what doesn't after 3 years which means that I am saving a whole lot of money compared to what I was spending in the first/second year. I'm almost disappointed when I ask the customer where they found out about our services and they say "You were highly recommended!"... I start to wonder if I should continue spending money with the local rag, but at £18 a week, it more than pays for itself....

[Helen]

I'm finding what works and what doesn't after 3 years which means that I am saving a whole lot of money compared to what I was spending in the first/second year. I'm almost disappointed when I ask the customer where they found out about our services and they say "You were highly recommended!"... I start to wonder if I should continue spending money with the local rag, but at £18 a week, it more than pays for itself....

At £18 per week, I'd stay with them........ £200.00 plus for our local one per week, which would be a small advert in the trade listings

[Colin Day]

I'm finding what works and what doesn't after 3 years which means that I am saving a whole lot of money compared to what I was spending in the first/second year. I'm almost disappointed when I ask the customer where they found out about our services and they say "You were highly recommended!"... I start to wonder if I should continue spending money with the local rag, but at £18 a week, it more than pays for itself....

At £18 per week, I'd stay with them........ £200.00 plus for our local one per week, which would be a small advert in the trade listings

Oh I will

[JandS]

£36 per week for 40x30 ad in 6 local papers (not free)
£12 ish a month for website.
£20 per year for a local parish mag which generates
8 or 9 jobs a year so that's ok.
Work now seems to be 50/50 ads versus google.
Last year it was about 65/35 to the ads.
5000 postcards £140 ish per year.


John

[Steve Rothwell]

10,000 postcards per month      120
delivery of postcards                  300
website                                          7

[Mike Halliday]

all these figures are meaningless (apart from ian who gives it as  a % of his turnover, )

I think some people see the money they spend ( or more to the point money they don't spend) as a sign of success or kudos..... as if they are saying "I'm so successful  I only need to  spend £20 a week on advertising"


which is great if you are spending £20 and working 6 days a week with a 2 man team 5hrs a day..... then congratulations you are successful, but if you are spending less than £100 and just keeping going then its not so great.

I think if you work 6 full days a week but the money you earn on one of those day is spent entirely on marketing to create that 6 days of work then you are onto a winning formula.

also if you spend an hour licking stamps and sticking them on reminder cards they that has cost you £50 on top pf the postal & postcard cost, 2 hours leafleting has cost you £100.

your time has a cost

[jasonl]

The reason for my question is because I am trying to establish a true cost per customer to aquire .


I think this cost is far more complex to establish than  ad spend  divided by the number of customers . THere is the time spent on organizing the ads , time spent quoting and selling.

[Colin Day]

It depends on what you mean successful Mike, as We all have different needs and aims. I'm happy topping my medical pension up and working at the pace I am, for health reasons more than anything (Dodgy knee, 'old shrapnel wound' as Basil Fawlty would say... ). The busier the better, obviously. The wife's the career woman which she is happy about, now I'm a civvy... I'm basically a stay at home dad with a part time business I suppose. That's why I don't go around throwing money at bad advertising anymore? I was spending more than I was earning in the first year on advertising alone, which is probably par for the course!



"also if you spend an hour licking stamps and sticking them on reminder cards they that has cost you £50 on top pf the postal & postcard cost, 2 hours leafleting has cost you £100."

Stamps have been self-adhesive for years

[Helen]

Last financial year we spent 5% of gross turnover on marketing and advertsing.
This does not include "time" for typing quotes, newsletters etc etc the actual time spent devising them and mailing them out. I think that being a hubbie and wife team, we just get on with it so to speak, if we had staff allocated to do this sort of work of course it would be easier to put a value ££ or % against it. An average per month totally new customer figure would be around the 15 to 20 mark

[Mike Halliday]

Colin you bring up an excellent point, what people want to achieve from their marketing you are topping up a pension, other are starting up I'm trying to grow.

So we all match our spending to what we want to achieve.

[Andrew Briscoe]

year end apr 09  3.2% of turnover
year end apr 20  2.5% of turnover

not had last years back from accountant till next week,
but imagine it will be under 2%

Mine a bit different to most as it covers my whole cleaning business,
but majority goes on carpet cleaning advertising, yet contract cleaning turnsover
considerably more.

Andrew

[Colin Day]

Colin you bring up an excellent point, what people want to achieve from their marketing you are topping up a pension, other are starting up I'm trying to grow.

So we all match our spending to what we want to achieve.

In a nutshell, yes.

Obviously when the kids are grown up I'll need to up the anti, as I'll have the time to fit in more work. I did have child minders at one stage, but they were often unreliable which in turn, meant I was becoming unreliable.