JonDon newsletters

[Doug D]

Just signed up for JD's newsletter program. Anyone else have it and if so, how do you like it?? Are you getting a 4-1 return on it??

 

[frankiechocolate]

doug,

love your chris farley pop up. His van down by the river bit was totally awesome.

I also enjoyed "almost hero's" where the eagle carries him into the pacific.


Please let me know how Jon don's newsletters work for you


I try everything once but need a systematic approach to follow up.

thanks again.


frankie chocolate

visit my blog,'the carpet cleaner's crocodile."

 

[hogjowl]

I suspect newsletters are one of the newest bulletin board myths. Since I have never sent them, I am willing to be proven wrong. It's just a gut feeling I have.

 

[Brian R]

News letters are ok...I did the Jondon years ago.
It's a customer retention gig...maybe some referrals.

The best thing for customer retention (aside from just doing a good job) are thank yous and reminders... remember to ask for referrals.


Service Monster is great for that.

 

[Doug D]

am signed up for servicemonster as well. hope to get into the fill my schedule part of it more than anything else.

 

[hogjowl]

I had my interview with the Fill My Schedule dude yesterday.

He reminded me of talking to Shawn York.

 

[Kevin. McCreary]

Jon dons newsletter program has worked wonders for me for the last five years.
Just stick with it.

 

[Brian R]

Hopefully Service Monster will get the other parts of the fill my schedule part going.

 

[Doug D]

JonDon has been saying that for the last couple of years about MEM!!!

 

[hogjowl]

I gave up on Jon-Don. That's why I am with SM now.

 

[Doug D]

same here Marty. Did however sign up for the newsletter program though as SM didn't have what I wanted.

 

[dgargan]

I have used Jon Dons and Howard Partridge's newsletters. Both look great. I still send them but I'm not sure about how well they do. Every month I put coupons on there for $25 and $50 off services. 70% of our business is from past clients and in the past year I have had less than 4 people use the coupon. When they call part of our csr script is to ask if they are a previous customer and if the have any coupons. 4 previous customers said yes they had the coupon. This is from a data base of 2500 mailings. We also do a phone servey every month of about 50 customers to see if they recieved the NL. We may get 1-2 that say yes and several that say I think so but I'm not sure and most say no. i even thought my mailing company may have been shorting me on the amount then sent out so I put a cross section of friends and family on the list to see if they are really going out. They are but customers do not read them or remember seeing them.

I got crazy on one NL because I was so frustrated and put free cleaning of a sofa , chair and loveseat with any carpet cleaning order this month. On the outside I put in large letters and in red "look inside for free cleaning special" We booked 82 jobs that month from previous customers and not one presented the coupon. I don't get it????

David

 

[frankiechocolate]

Re: JonDon newsletters for Degargan

Dave,


2500 pieces of mail and only 4 responses?

then you give the world away and no takers?

yeah I know people are innudated with mail but if it';s really that bad do I even want to think about sending out monthly newsletters?


I wonder what ken snow thinks about this?


best,
your pal,

frankie chocolate

visit my blog, "the carpet cleaning detective."

 

[Steve Toburen]

I still send them but I'm not sure about how well they do. David

David, Frankie, et al:
I wasn't really too sure how to answer this very common concern (especially Dave's about the lack of response on coupons included in the newsletter) until I sat in Friday on Dave Howard and Big Billy's "Marketing is a Story" presentation. Dave Howard made the following points about newsletters in general:

1. Your main goal with newsletters is "Top Of Mind Awareness". The customer may not even open the N/L but they WILL see your logo and the message you have printed on the outside of the fold. So even if they do not pore over the copy inside the NL OR clip the coupon you have still accomplished your goal of TOMA when it come's time to have their carpets cleaned.

2. This TOMA phenomenon is the same reason most experts recommend a monthly mailing for any newsletter.

3. While e-mails are useful (and certainly cheaper) than Newsletters Dave made the point that many times spam filters will catch them and your customer will never see your name, etc. However, with a N/L you will at least put your name and logo in their hands if nothing more than to throw it away!

4. The secret in marketing is to test, test, test. We can conjecture all day long. OR the scientific way would be to make two different but demographically identical groups of customers large enough to be statistically accurate, say 1,000 in each group and mail one group newsletters for say six months. Both groups get all your other marketing the same and then track the results for a year. Now that would cut to the chase!

Steve Toburen
Director of Training and once in awhile an occasional commenter on marketing topics when Big Billy is shirking off riding his bike or piddling around at Starbucks instead of staying glued to his computer screen 24-7!
Jon-Don's Strategies for Success
http://www.StrategiesForSuccess.com

PS Sorry Dave, to not get back to you sooner on this very same question you sent in to my "Bleeding hearts Club" on the SFS site. Frankly, I just was sort of floundering till I listened to Dave Howard. (The man lives, eats and breathes marketing.) Dave made a good point to all the carpet cleaners present. Dave held up one of our Jon-Don marketing flyers and asked, "How many of you receive this?" Almost all the hands went up. Then he asked, "How many of you just glance at it and then toss it in the trash?" Quite a few hands timidly went up. Then he said, "Great! Did you know we send this to you every month and even if you don't open it we've still paid for the mailing?" So at the very least Dave Howard is "eating his own cooking"! (For a pretty good orientation on newsletters in general go to http://www.jondon.com/newsletters/default.htm )

 

[Brian R]

I think that emailing is the way to go as long as you can stay out of the spam boxes..like Steve was talking about. I used to do it religiously when I was first getting started. I grabbed every email I could of friends, family and customers.

I learned from Johdon about 7 years ago I think, that the best idea was to make sure NOT to just talk about carpet cleaning...who the hell wants to hear about that every month??

You need to put in useful info about things your demographic cares about. Such as

1. Recipes
2. School info
3. Pet info
4. Renting for dummies
5. Etc.Etc.Etc.

You get the idea.

I used constant contact (Service Monster recommends C C to) and I didn't hit many spam boxes because I could track who opened the email and what they did with it.

I am starting Constant Contact up next week. Some of your emails are in my address book so you will be getting it on Tuesday at about 9am PST.


This particular one WILL be about carpet cleaning or more to the point...my company. But the ones to follow...on a monthly basis will be about whatever I can come up with that is important to my customers.

Hopefully

 

[Steve Toburen]

I think that emailing is the way to go as long as you can stay out of the spam boxes..like Steve was talking about.

You need to put in useful info about things your demographic cares about...

I agree, Brian. Speaking of which our SFS site has a new weekly "QuickTip" service where we e-mail carpet cleaners one little targeted nugget every Tuesday morning along with a links to forms, reports and other resources we've uploaded to the main site over the last week. IF you want to receive it just send me an e-mail to:

stoburen@StrategiesForSuccess.com

and put the word "QuickTips" in the subject line.

Island Boy
http://www.StrategiesForSuccess.com

PS If ya wanna "see before you buy" (don't freak out, there is no charge) just go to her for sample QuickTips from previous weeks:

http://www.strategiesforsuccess.com/sec ... /quicktips

It is a free service, you can opt-out any time you want and you will never, ever be spammed from the SFS web site.

 

[Brian R]

I recieve your email already...is this a different one?

I look forward to getting them.

 

[Chris A]

I like quarterly newsletters with a post card thrown in here and there (usually January and Febuary)

 

[hogjowl]

I get Chuck Violand's Monday morning mailings every week and can't remember ever seeing one.

 

[Wayne Miller]

Newsletters worked very well for us. I was surprised a lot of customers actually enjoyed getting them. Like some of the others mentioned, a lot of folks called because of the newsletter but didn't use any of the coupons. It's money well spent.

 

[Bjorn]

a simple post card sent out a few times a year should work for any one

all this mail every month or what ever almost feels like your stalking your customers

commercial accounts are the EZ just drop by once in awhile and say hey and give the girl at the front desk some candy

anyway what does yeadon really know about marketing except what don jon tells him or what steve whispers in his ear

when was the last time he even owned a carpet cleaning business? Did he ever own one?

not to worry the industry gurus will always bring up something from the past and call it new

carpet cleaners will bite for awhile and on to the next fad.

The big thing now is how to recession proof your business like you really can?

 

[Mikey P]

Brevick gives away girlie calendars to recession proof is Nordix biz.

 

[Bjorn]

FOOKING WORKS DUDE!!!!!

 

[Terry]

I've been using the jon don newsletter since Oct 2004. As other posters above have already mentioned that it puts you in front of them consistantly. I get a ton of compliments on it, do read the newsletter yourself as content may be brought up like one Dr who called to tell me that the finding of blood circulation was in 1728 but the doctor was born in 1678 (approx) Jon don had the finding taking place in 1678.

That was the 1st time in 5 years an error was brought to my attention.

It takes about a 1/2 hour a month to remove address's and add new one's.


I wouldn't mind adding a postcard to the system about 3/4 times a year if MEM ever arrives.


Terry

 

[Doug D]

I wouldn't mind adding a postcard to the system about 3/4 times a year if MEM ever arrives.


Terry

If it ever arrives!! Good one!! Think Big Billy is wondering that himself!! :mrgreen: Sorry Bill!! :wink: