[feldon]

Coming up to the end of my second year and reviewing what works best for me in terms of advertising and marketing.  Be interesting to find out what works for others and what does not.

[feldon]

For those of you who voted "other" please post by what means.

[Kev Loomes]

For us, its websites without doubt.

Just quickly checking the report function on our system and the next best marketing method is our existing custys.

I think this is the most overlooked area for gaining work by the way - for various reasons I'm sure (but shouldnt be - it's not on the list so maybe that tells you something?). The problem is existing custys need to be marketed to aswell (most of them, not all) just as you would for new.

Anyway, 3rd is client recommended and 4th is retailer recommended.

Dont do leaflets, or newspapers etc.

Cheers

Kev

[Steven Lawrence]

networking, repeat, website,

[Colin Day]

Repeat, repeat, repeat.... Sorry

But from the choices above, website, and leaflets....

[M.Acorn]

Trying to drum up some work here,delivered about 500 odd flyers over the last week,not 1 call yet,that is with 25% off voucher
Been going through data base,no joy yet,just called a church hall I did in 2007, who were over the moon with my job,she more or less slammed the phone down on me !!
Been in touch with letting agency I was doing around a grand a month for,up until 2 months ago,no reply.
Getting web enq but no jobs,and that is with me quoting less than normal.Getting worried now...

[Simon Gerrard]

I doubt there is any one of the choices that people would acknowledge as their prime source of business.
Marketing is like the spokes in a wheel, the hub being sales, the more spokes you have, leaflets, website, canvassing, yellow pages, yell.com, Thomson local, repeats, referrals etc the more sales you generate.

Simon

[feldon]

Thanks for everyone who has contributed so far, some get feedback and advice.

[jim mca]

Richard

I find every month its different as a mag can do great one month bad the next. newspapers great if you are really cheap. website normally number 1 but  quiet at the moment. leaflet hit and miss.

Jim 

[Jamie Lindsay]

you shouldn't panic about flyers if you get 5 per thousand say the calls will be months apart.... give the flyers time

[neil 47]

Trying to drum up some work here,delivered about 500 odd flyers over the last week,not 1 call yet,that is with 25% off voucher
Been going through data base,no joy yet,just called a church hall I did in 2007, who were over the moon with my job,she more or less slammed the phone down on me !!
Been in touch with letting agency I was doing around a grand a month for,up until 2 months ago,no reply.
Getting web enq but no jobs,and that is with me quoting less than normal.Getting worried now...

Thats because you have been to busy shagging 

[AshWhite]

Trying to drum up some work here,delivered about 500 odd flyers over the last week,not 1 call yet,that is with 25% off voucher
Been going through data base,no joy yet,just called a church hall I did in 2007, who were over the moon with my job,she more or less slammed the phone down on me !!
Been in touch with letting agency I was doing around a grand a month for,up until 2 months ago,no reply.
Getting web enq but no jobs,and that is with me quoting less than normal.Getting worried now...

Thats because you have been to busy shagging 

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thought this..

[M.Acorn]

Thats because you have been to busy shagging

Ha ha,making up for the 8 slow years with the wife I suppose 
Only busy with the new lady at the weekends.Did book a stain removal job at 8.50 last night !! I Only answered the phone because I am broke

[M W.]

repeat work/ recomend / local rag + yell pages + leaflets.  push push push.

leaflets are hit/miss. being very dissapointed with yellow pages for couple years now.
local papers we tend to sell ourselves too cheap.
fingers in different pies, if one service drops off/another picks up.

[Allan Simmons]

Hi Richard

Referrals, in terms of cost per enquiry/job is best, just need to be sure you know where they got your number from, not just that they are referred, this is so you can truly see how much work has come from each of your marketing efforts.  If you know it is a referral that's great, but unless you also know they got the number from the leaflet that has just dropped throught the door and reminded them your reports are not accurate.  This also relates to repeat clients, by asking where they got the number this time you can see that they got your number from your mailshot or email, so can measure how effective that campaign has been.

Without a doubt next is Database marketing to very targeted niches.  Constant contact with existing clients either through email, mailshots, postcards, telesales, the existing client goldmine.
One idea would be to set up filters to find clients in targeted areas on a run back to the workshop from various 'remote' areas you may work in.  Then when you are working in a remote area you can email or mailshot all the clients in that filter and say you';re working in the area on XYZ, and make an offer.  You'll usually get a call from someone on the list to save you travel costs OR as we use it, to allow us to book jobs close together and fit an extra job in the end of the day.  It is not unusual using this method to be working just 10 minutes drive from the last job.  This gets the 'per van average' up.  The great thing about using email is you can include links to specific landing pages on your website with offers on, and this also allows you to measure what is working and what people are looking at, making future marketing more effective too.  If you can integrate this with something like Mailchimp you can also see exactly who is opening your emails, and even which links they are clicking on.

Put the blanket marketing shot gun away, get the rifle out, and put some laser sights on it.

Internet / Web next most effective, in terms of cost per enquiry and cost per job. This is a mix of Google Ad's / SEO.  Website is integral to existing client emails too, as above.

Leaflets to Targeted areas next best.

Simon said something similar above, basically you need dozens of little things generating one job a month cheaply.

Al.

[Kev Loomes]

I agree, its all about niche marketing to existing clients tbh, which is pretty much standard stuff with a niche adaptable database system.

Targeting even by a particular service or postcode for instance is the norm for us - which we do regularly on our system for our clients (getting all the different 'correct' marketing feedback from them via different marketing methods & entering into the system is easy). This alone produces great returns.

Cheers

Kev

Mark

You booked a spot clean at 8.50pm I hope it was worth it lol!

[Allan Simmons]

Exactly Kev

If you've recorded that a client has a leather suite or a rug that you've never cleaned you can mail targeting those.

If you've recorded courtesy quotes on the system they have never had cleaned you can market to them with an offer.

Another one is house/bungalow/apartment, that means you can do "Ground floor clean and protect and we'll clean the upstairs free" type offers, makes sure you don't look like a muppet and send to bungalows or apartments.

We also use the clients preferred technician details in letters to them "If you'd like Wayne to freshen up your carpets again..."  You could even filter your list to those who have bought a particular product and offer that as an incentive to call again, and even make reference to what they had done and the service they had, say "Would you like your Lounge carpet cleaning and protecting again?  We'll also give you a free can of Spot Remover just like the one you bought last time."

We give away a stain warranty on clean and protect service if they have bought a spot remover, we mail to clients when that is about to expire and mention that it is about to expire, ..."to continue the warranty just have the carpet cleaned again before..."

If you can record what the client does for a living you can do mailings based on that, for example to teachers just before holiday breaks.

If you record where they work you can, for example, contact everyone who works at Corus just before their shut down week when everyone is off.  This also allows you to do a mailing to everyone at a particular company at once which gets them talking about it at work if you word the letter well, such as asking them who else they work with uses us, gets the office talking, and sometimes gets the company to ring and book again as people were talking about carpet cleaning.

Similar to above, everyone in the same road, saying "Did you know we work for 12 people in your road? Who do you know who uses us, if you book a job on the same day you can BOTH save..."  Again gets them talking to their neighbours about carpet cleaning.

The devil really is in the detail and how much you can automate them.

[wynne jones]

Great tactics if used subtly and in moderation, don't you think guys.

[Allan Simmons]

Great tactics if used subtly and in moderation, don't you think guys.

That's they beauty of it if it's done subtly with a softly softly, drip drip drip approach.

Another one we do is track repeat buying patterns.  So if they have had the lounge done in March 2008 and March 2010 we know we need to be mailing/contacting March 2012 as the system has flagged the repeat buying pattern is approx 24 months so is due now.

Al.