Home show?

[adamh]

I am doing a Home Show and have a booth big enough for my truck to fit in.

I have done very little advertising, word of mouth has done well for us. We have set very big money goals this year and need to get more biz.

What do you think I should do at the home show to attract more people?

My truck will draw attention but what types of things should I hand out or what should we do to make it worth our while?


If you have done these shows in the past what has worked, or what have you heard that works? Thanks for your help.

 

[Guest]

I've never done a "Home Show". Will you be indoors? Will you be able to startup and use your TM? If not, here's what I'd do.

1) have plenty of spotter bottles with your phone number on them
2) have plenty of brochures that show before and after pictures, your process, your USP, etc...
3) plenty of scraps of carpet, half cleaned, the other half filthy
4) plenty of rug samples with various spots (ketchup, koolaide, mustard, etc) do to a spot removal demo

If you can start and use your TM then I'd say do the above, but also clean filthy scraps of carpet with your TM.

 

[Bob Foster]

You know those free chairs sitting by the roadside. Grab one of them and clean half. Hang an oriental rug half clean half dirty.

 

[-JB-]

As lame as it sounds helium balloons for the kids, with your name/logo and phone/web work well, it gets the parents to stop whether they want to or not, kids being kids.
By the end of a day you can easily have 250+ small billboards floating around, in every booth, row, & building at the show, not to mention when they get home. It can get you noticed very nicely.
You could even attach a "free room" or at least a special offer card to each one, depending on how much work your into.

 

[adamh]

Before and after pics
half cleaned rugs



the Home Show is indoors so i can't clean for people but everything else is a great idea

The more kids you get to stop them more I will be able to talk to.
Balloons are a great idea!


I was thinking about spot removal guilds being handed out. Does anybody have a good one?

 

[Ron Werner]

I do local busn homeshow each year. I've varied my display each time. This is what I had this past time:

I did a live demo but that didn't attract many people. What I found really impressed them was when I took marker out of the carpet. I wrote the word MARKER and then kept erasing some of it while I talked. Most times I found just being there to talk to the ones that are interested worked best. Have some good info to hand to them. Not too much though. People will go home with a ton of info after a home show; need something that they will actually look at later. Most stuff I collect goes in a box till I look at it, if I do.

One year I had a ton of bef-aft and no one looked at them.

I did a free house cleaning draw but most of the people that entered were just after a free cleaning and weren't after "great" cleaning. But you can collect names and then do a mail out to find the serious ones.

I like the balloon idea, its probably the most cost effective way and other people will see them that haven't been to your booth.

With your truck in there it will attract attention.
Looking at my picture, I would say Keep it Simple. Mine looks too cluttered, too much stuff there. Gee, sounds like my house

If anything, have fun!

 

[The Preacher]

get a couple scantly clad whimens bump'n and grind'n to sum Snoop Dog. ya might not get much response, but the time will go by a little faster!!! LOL

The balloon idea is the best i've heard

 

[rhyde]

a nicely done 4 color spot guide/ brochure combo


i use gotprint.net

 

[Desk Jockey]

Check in see if they allow balloons.

We did them for years, then the next year they said NO balloons.

We then gave away imprinted plastic whistles and after 2-years, they said no more whistles.

After that we quit being annoying LOL and gave out popcorn and now we have moved on to blow pops, works the same to draw kids...and most adults!

Brochures, brag book, we blow up pictures and laminate them so they can be handled.

Check with Steve Toburen, he has a great article on the subject, I'm sure he would be glad to share it with you.

Good luck
Richard

 

[Guest]

Look up Con and see what he did. He posted lots of pictures on the red board of things that he did. He is one of the few that really impressed me..and I'm going to guess about 1/2 of the people on this board too.




Chad

 

[Dominick Cassano]

Have plenty of brochures available, and give away some spotter bottles. Have a raffle for a free sofa and love seat cleaning. to do this they'll need to fill out a card that you provide. You get their name, address, telephone and email on the card, and put it in a bowl. Pick one or two at the end of the show, and notify them of their winnings. Make the appt and maybe they'll book you to clean carpets while doing the free upholstery. Another thing you can do is put up a big sign asking everyone to bring in their vehicle mats for a free on premises cleaning in exchange for their information. I'd use a porty for this though. No need to fire up a "V" for car mats. Have before and afters pics of alot of your work posted on large poster boards on a few tripod eisels for view. Have a list of references, especially if the refs are businesses that potential custys would know and value their opinion.