Postcard & Website Marketing......

[JDeShon]

Need some advice.

Basicly, I've been in the carpet cleaing business for the last 3 years. I am currently doing about 15 residential jobs a month from doormail (local version of valpak) except for a two month slow period in the winter. I also have some appartments that I do, but is hard to make much from them. I do well on referals. Seems like people really like my work. It's growing but very slowly.
April 1st we have decided to put out 10,000 postcards a month to specific targeted people. We have a company designing a website for us. Our plans are to market this through the doormail and postcards.
My question is...
Will this work?
What kind of percent response should I expect?
Is a mailing every month, too much?
If this won't work, what will?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Right now, for me, its a lot of money. Have first baby on the way.

 

[Mikey P]

With a well formulated card expect half a percent to respond.


If the card his the mailboxes the day the depression is declared over, you may get 1%

 

[alazo1]

Is your website the one in your profile?.

Spend some money on seo. "carpet cleaning columbia" was searched for 590 times last month in google. I would think you can land 7-10 jobs a month out of that if your site places on top. Better investment then cards and a hell of a lot cheaper.

Albert

 

[Brian R]

Gotta have a website...has to be pro looking...you have to get it in front of people. Remember to list it on everything you print.
Get in with something like Reachlocal or Service Magic to get people to your site.

Direct mail is good but you have to make sure you are targeting people who will use you.

100 homes that are home owners with pets and kids with over 2000 sqft is better than
1000 rentals with single dudes with fish

 

[Wayne Miller]

There are no magic bullets and no guarantees. It's a commitment to and an investment in your business. If you keep with it, track your results and keep tweaking it to see what works I don't see how you can lose long-term. You should see better returns with each mailing. Mail what you can afford to mail, but be consistent. You'll have better luck if you build your own mailing list, targeting the demographics you want rather than shotgunning it.

 

[Royal Man]

Cold shotgun mailing to new clients can be a rather risky proposition.

It is better if you go direct mail to target warm clients that already show interest in your company or atleast make sure your list highly targeted.

A sure thing for slow growth is to mail to your existing client base and to work your referral system.

There may be an even better way that you could obtain new clients.

 

[JDeShon]

Thank you guys for the great advice.
Website help was great. It would be real nice to see 6-7 or more jobs come in just off the site alone.
As far as the postcard card stuff, it created great reassurance knowing that we already are doing some of the key things to have a potentially good return on postcards.

Once agian, thanks,

Justin

 

[Bioman]

You need to buy a targeted mailing list and mail postcards & letters once to twice a month. The more the same people see you the faster you'll grow your business. Also get alot more referrals. Because you'll become the go to guy for that targeted mailing list. Then take the capital you've earn from that mailing list and purchase another mailing list and repeat the same process. But keep mailing to the first list also until you've converted atleast half of them to clients. The biggest mistake business owners make is to start a marketing campaigne and don't follow through with it. DON'T be one of the those guys