5 Marketing Rules for 2009
Hey All,
I hope you all had a mighty fine Christmas and are ready for the New Year. Here are some marketing rules that will assist your business in 2009 and beyond. Enjoy!
1. Get lots of exposure and do it repeatedly. Obviously telling a few people or having some customers talk about you is great, but it’s not enough. You have to get your message out into your target market in a BIG way using leverage whenever possible. When I’m referring to leverage, I’m referring to having fellow service business owners talking about your business to THEIR customer base. It’s a lot easier than you as just one person having to do all the talking. So get other business to talk it up. The jobs you’ll gain from this talk will put you on the map. Some people don’t realize how much power there is in numbers. Imagine having 10, 20, 30, or more businesses out there spreading the word about you. Powerful!
2. Be Memorable – If your marketing doesn’t wake someone up and make ‘em remember you, then you did it wrong. It absolutely needs to be memorable. So tweak it until it is. The good news is that there are loads of average joes out there just following the crowd, so it’s not too hard to stand out and be noticed.
3. Be Meaningful – Today more than ever it is important to provide consumers with REAL value. The importance of providing value in your marketing and in the jobs you do will get the wheels turning quickly. Many people don’t know this, but I do zero advertising for my window cleaning software product The Customer Factor. And the reason is because I don’t have to. Other software users do my advertising for me. So again, be meaningful, provide value, and then get out of the way and watch your business grow.
4. Fear of Loss, Social Proof, and Testimonials are the reason why I was able to charge what I did for window cleaning. Using my window cleaning service wasn’t cheap. But by using a combination of these tactics (fear of loss included reverse psychology of giving the prospect an estimate and then walking away…social proof and testimonials came from word of mouth advertising from satisfied customers and lots of references in each estimate package) it worked. Of course it all has to be backed up with a quality job which relates back to point 3 (be meaningful and provide value).
5. Reinvest a good portion of your profits back into marketing. The percentage to reinvest depends on where you are in the business and what your ultimate goal is for your business. If you’re just starting out and you want to eventually go full time, then a 30% reinvestment is good. If you’ve been in the window cleaning business for a year and you’ve got the ‘ole marketing machine producing results for you, then 15 to 20% may be a good reinvestment. But always, always reinvest a portion back into your business.
Lets make 2009 YOUR Best Year Ever!!!
Take care for now.
Steve
Merry Christmas To All…
Hey Folks,
I just wanted to make a quick post to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and happy holiday season. I hope you all have a great time with family and friends during this time.
In the week between Christmas and new years is also a great time to make plans for 2009. So with that said, I have some good information and tips that I’ll be sending you over the next week or so which will be really beneficial to you and your business next year. This info. will be sent out to you via email and also posted to this blog. So stay tuned over the next few days.
Well…my wife is calling me to open presents, so it’s time to scoot. Again, have a great holiday and a super duper Christmas day. Ho Ho Ho.
Sincerely,
Steve
An Ireland Visit…
An Email From Ireland:
Hi Steve,
I have not spoken with you for some time. We are the same as the US with regard to our economy. All you hear every day is bad news, with so many people losing their jobs. My Window Cleaning business is absolutely flying. It’s non stop. 1 year ago I would not have thought this was possible.
To-day I had SIGN WRITING put on my Van. I waited this long to know exactly what to put on it. I’m enclosing the Art File separately so as you can see it. Apart from Window Cleaning, I’m also doing Gutter Cleaning which is a very good money earner. I’m also Power Washing walls and footpaths, and in the new year I will add Roof Cleaning to my list as I’m constantly asked for this service.
I also intend to have my own Web Site early next year. Thank you for all your help. May I take this opportunity to wish you and your family a Very Happy & Peaceful Christmas. I hope your son Troy is well. Let me know what you think of the Art Work on my Van.
Regards,
Tom
Postcards, Addresses, and Demographics
Steve,
I was wondering if you might know the answer to a question. I live in a small affluent area maybe 10,000 people living here.
Do I have to purchase a mailing list in order to direct mail out postcards? Would it be possible to drive around writing down addresses and simply compile my own list of addresses of specific homes I think would meet my criteria as far as target market goes?
Maybe a program that you type them into that can be submitted when you go to mail them? I have some friends in the real estate business maybe they have some sort of access they could pull some strings on to get addresses based on certain demographic factors like home value?? I am gonna probably try and get a batch of postcards printed up soon and shipped out
very soon. I am gonna sit down and try modifying one of the postcards that you included and using that.Talk to you soon.
Luke
My Response:
Hi Luke:
Good morning. I would follow what I talk about in chapter 7 as far as using the "carrier route" method. The problem with driving all over the place copying down addresses is that it’s way too time consuming. It would take a long time to come up with a decent list and then have to write each address on a postcard. If you look at my postcard file that I sent you (the "pdf" version), you’ll see it says "Attn Postal Patron". So every homeowner within a carrier route will get one. This is much easier than having to address each postcard.
And the problem with mailing lists sometimes is that yes…you can target the lists by income, by home value, etc. but the homeowners may be spread out all over your town. You want to use laser focus and target specific areas of people that are close together. That’s what carrier route mailings do. Each route consists of a group of homes (usually in the same subdivision). So this works to your advantage because once you start getting jobs in an area, other folks in that area will see you, they’ll be receiving postcards from you, and you’ll be getting more exposure vs if you bounced from one area to another area to another area to another area, etc. etc. Make sense? So I personally focused on few areas and spread out from there.
If you have any questions on this, let me know. And I’d recommend going back and rereading chapter 7 also to catch up on what I’m talking about as far as carrier route mailings. Take care for now.
Regards,
Steve
