What special marketing do you do in the winter?

[Scott]

This goes esp. for those whose winter includes devilishly cold weather and snow measured by the several inches or feet.

Most of us in cold climates experience a dramatic drop off in residential work. No secret there.

Speaking purely of residential, our whole goal in my company is to merely break even and ride it out 'til spring. We pick up a few new residential customers in the winter but definitely not like the other seasons.

We concentrate our wintertime efforts on commercial and restoration, and give our best deal of the year for residential, but many guys don't and won't do commercial and restoration and some don't give discounts.

So my question to you all is: what special marketing, if any, do you do in the winter?

 

[Desk Jockey]

We've tried a lot of things, winter specials on carpet cleaning, area rugs and upholstery. We even had a pre holiday special for churches, none have worked well enough to recommend.

I listened to your interview with John Braun and we actually do opposite of what you do.

Good interview, very interesting story, especially

We get out there face to face in our marketing, it still works the best for us.

Reminds them we're still alive and kickin!

 

[Scott]

We've tried a lot of things, winter specials on carpet cleaning, area rugs and upholstery. We even had a pre holiday special for churches, none have worked well enough to recommend.

I listened to your interview with John Braun and we actually do opposite of what you do.

Good interview, very interesting story, especially

We get out there face to face in our marketing, it still works the best for us.

Reminds them we're still alive and kickin!

Thanks, Rich. Never claimed my way is the only way, but it works for us.

Unfortunately we didn't have a whole bunch of time on the call to go over some specifics about lead generation. Having said that - in lead generation we do meet face-to-face quite frequently with decision-makers, but not door-to-door. We meet them at Chamber events, social networking clubs and meetings, civic service events, etc. We want to be very very different from our competitors who are all out there hitting the streets door-to-door and not investing much or any time with social events as mentioned above.

Once we identify a potential maven we put them into the marketing funnel of specific actions to take, which is too lengthy to go into detail here. Suffice it to say they receive multiple correspondence from us until such point that they're recommending our services and/or using our services, or telling us to leave them the hell alone. lol

One thing we do in the winter for residential is the good 'ol Starving Carpet Cleaners' letter. I know this one has been beat to death here but it works. We keep it light, friendly, and a bit humorous. While it's definitely not the best roi card that we do, it always makes at least 3-1 and a couple of times 5 and 6 to 1. We'll take it.

A lot of guys in our industry cut back ALL of their marketing efforts in the winter. To me that's a big no no. We don't aggressively go after new residential leads in the winter, which means no coupon clippers, newspaper ads, etc., but keeping the flock tuned in to us via reminders and newsletters is always done no matter the season.

Is anyone doing more or special marketing in the winter months?

 

[KeithCo]

When it dips down to the bone chilling low 60's -

We make extra efforts to winterize the truckmounts
and just shut the whole thing down and wait for the warmer
weather of March.

Glad I could help.

Keith

 

[Jay D]

Its a very cold day here 38 degrees for the high. Burrrr....

 

[Desk Jockey]

When it dips down to the bone chilling low 60's -

We make extra efforts to winterize the truckmounts
and just shut the whole thing down and wait for the warmer
weather of March.

Glad I could help.

Keith

Ummm thanks Keith!

60's ~@$&%^^&&^)+!!!+++%!!! :x

 

[Scott]

Yesterday our inlet fresh water supply line to our shop froze. Fortunately it didn't break. It was 12 degrees or so yesterday.

This AM I woke up and it was -3 w/o the windchill and -25 or so with. Once this cold snap breaks we expect to get a bunch of broken pipe flood calls. We've planted the seeds already and now watering them.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Yep, we had 35-losses in a 10-day period last month.

It's just as cold this time, could it happen again?

I'd actually be happy with a fraction of that!

 

[XTREME1]

I don't do much extra. I do have a core of customers that still use a product I previously offered that if you had your carpets done and got the full treatment. Vac, deodorize, scotchgard that you got a free touch up between july 1 and august 31. The idea was I was supposed to be slow in the summer so I figured I could upsell furnitture etc but I have been steady-busy in those months. If a customer asks I give them the deal

 

[Bruce Humphrey]

*Note to Self* Put Keith and Jay on the voodoo doll list.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Insensitive fair weather cleaners, hate'em! :mrgreen:

 

[Jay D]

I is sorry it was cold pasin out flyers today. had to wear a hat and a sweatshirt. it was cold.

 

[XTREME1]

jay do you have your old starving postcard in a pdf

 

[Jay D]

pdf? a no i dont thin so.....but if you pm your address I can send ya one. or search it and it will come up.

 

[XTREME1]

you sent me one a while back it was yellow right?

 

[Able 1]

I is sorry it was cold pasin out flyers today. had to wear a hat and a sweatshirt. it was cold.

I did flyers today in my car, it was cold!!! My special starts the 15th so that makes me want to put them out now..

 

[Jay D]

Yes greg thats the one. change it to fit you. lots dont like it but it works with your client list if you mail it. Most laugh and say they don't want me to starve. I tell them I will try and find my ribs to show them when i get there. Where did i put my ribs? oh ya under the FAT. :roll:

 

[dgargan]

We hit the commerical market hard over the past few years and now have several quarterly and monthly accounts. We Have 2 Cimex's, some rotarys and a GLS so we hardly TM commerical anymore. We do slow down here in TN for residential in the winter but the temps are not close to the cold you get up north and we still have a steady stream of house's to clean. Now that we have our commerical going strong the dip in residential doesn't effect us like it used to.

We stay clear of water damage. Just not for me. No interest in it.

 

[Chris A]

big resi sale in Jan and Feb and lots of commercial cold calling, I'm joining a BNI chapter and looking for one for my wife. I'm also going to start looking joining my local chamber.

 

[Chris A]

workin on it.

 

[Fon Johnson]

Very tightly targeted marketing to those that NEED what we provide.

Or maybe just head to a warm beach until April.. :mrgreen:

 

[XTREME1]

If you join your local Chamber be active in it. Just being a member won't do squat and don't be afraid to join in the weekly meetings with suggestions and help lead a direction. Even if your a first year member your just as much a member as a 10 year member.

Also, people have had varied success with BNI. I was part of a group that just wasn't local enough and got alot of bum referrals but Marc Imbesi can make a living just off his BNI so search out which group to join make sure that they aren't just big companies putting people in there and that there are alot of self owned businesses who understand the importants of networking. Anyone who doesn't pay their own fees and dues will less likely be as invested.

 

[Jeff Madsen]

We run a January special insert with our newsletter with a follow-up mailing two weeks later. We do the same in February with a different special. Keeps us busy, if at a discount. We don't discount the other ten months of the year, so the coupon clippers are always waiting for our mail. How that works is many of my highest PITA factor clients call during that time - I clean them for less money than I should and I have to engage in lots of extra hand-holding. I am always slightly annoyed at this turn of events! Did I mention it keeps us busy?

 

[Bob Foster]

.

 

[handdi]

we are keeping advertising going but is not doing anything.
I just hope we are building our brand
hope the phone starts a ringin and yes it is ringin out.
Thinkin about offerin 300 sq ft to realators for the next few weeks to get our name out.
Got to pay my tech so might as well try to get something possitive out of this slow time.
So i see a lot of free carpet cleaning for the next few weeks.

 

[Larry B]

WTF are you posting pics of Bawb for?