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It’s difficult to grow a business if no one knows you’re in business, so spreading the word is crucial to your success. Many contractors forget that advertising is so important and simply assume that word will travel on its own. Unfortunately, it usually does travel exceptionally fast if it’s something negative. Otherwise, people are pleased with the results and it might just slip off their radar until someone specifically asks who remodeled their kitchen or built the awesome deck in the backyard. Considering this, you need to make sure that you take proactive measures to promote yourself in a positive and reliable way. In today’s society, there are endless means of reaching a customer, but some are a bit more suited to one need or another. So we will discuss a tried-and-true method that is a viable option for almost every kind of contractor or service provider.
Many things are handled in the digital world nowadays, and if you have a cell phone and a computer, you undoubtedly get email ads and text notifications from stores. While this is great for a products such as clothing or food, you probably aren’t going to send out a text telling customers that they can show that message to receive a free tub-caulking. The first consideration in any advertising situation is the audience; how best to reach the specific people you are targeting. Obviously in your line of work, you are targeting home owners, and perhaps property management companies, who are able to pay for the work (hopefully). This means it will probably be a slightly older customer you are trying to reach so an actual piece of mail is a great way to reach that demographic. Less likely to rely solely on digital media, an older customer base still reliably checks their mail and reads their newspaper, and gives them greater credibility than other forms of advertising, so a direct-mail piece is a great option to reach these folks. (And by older, we aren’t referring to 98-years-old, but 30ish and above. Old enough to own a home and be responsible about paying the bills and general upkeep).
Chances are you’ve gotten many direct-mail pieces over your lifetime promoting various services and causes. Any responsible person will check their mail and at least flip through the pieces to make sure they aren’t missing a check or, more often, a bill. This is your opportunity to grab their attention. Bright colors and bold text are essential to stand out in a sea of papers so consider a neon shade (safety yellow, anyone?) or a solid red or other striking color. Make the first words they see catch their eyes with suggestive questions or statements like “Did you know that little roof leak could land you in the hospital?” or play up the time of year with “That tax refund would look great as a new and improved patio, kitchen, etc etc…” Coupons and offers are always a great way to give customers incentive to use your services. Consider offering a discount on a specific service, a package deal for “Spring Cleaning”, or promoting that you always provide free estimates.
This probably seems a bit intimidating to someone who has never done a formal advertisement, but another perk to using a direct-mail option is that you’ll have help from whomever you select for the service. Most newspapers offer a direct-mail option which is a great way to be a bright-and-early reminder of their need for a reliable contractor. Using this option, and depending on the local paper in your area, you can generally select the day of the week you’d like to be included in the paper as well as a specific area or zip code for delivery. Generally you will pay more to be in a weekend edition, particularly the Sunday paper, than a weekday press, but there are pros and cons to each. Work with the advertising consultant at the paper to determine what options are available to you and would best suit your needs. Many places will offer bulk discounts for inserting a higher number of mailers and/or having a larger number printed up. Even if you only plan to distribute a few thousand, it might be worthwhile to have more printed initially to achieve a lower “per-item” cost, and then you could run them a few additional times in the paper at a later date, or keep them to personally hand out at bids or with potential clients. There are many private services that also offer direct-mail, which would generally be delivered in the actual mail. A quick internet search will help you identify many of these or if you already get direct mail pieces, look at the fine print for information about the publisher and how to contact them. Keep in mind that most places will have a minimum requirement, either in dollars spent or in total number of pieces printed or distributed, so don’t think that you can only send out 50 at a time.
As a good advertising consultant will tell you, frequency and repetition are essential for print-advertising success. While this probably seems like a sales tactic, it truly is better to budget your money to send a smaller number of ads, several times than thousands of ads, one time. It’s just like studying for a test, the more often you see something, the more of a presence it builds in your brain. Plus, even if your piece gets thrown away or overlooked the first time, the more chances you present to be seen, the greater your odds of, well, being seen. You also create a kind of rapport with people when you’re persistent. How many of us have declined a product or service the first time but when the same salesman keeps asking, you eventually feel more inclined to listen because they obviously have something to say that they feel is worth working at to get you to listen. People start to think “This is the third time I’ve gotten this. I wonder what it is.”
Many people forget how essential advertising is to their success and cut it first when the budget gets lean. It is somewhat of a catch-22 situation when funds are limited but you can’t increase those funds without people wanting your services, and they can’t want your services if they don’t know they are available so plan wisely to accommodate for advertising and promotion.
My name is Jeff and I created this blog in 2007 to help and inspire contractors and home service providers. It’s come a long way since then.