A recent email from a fellow window cleaner:
Hi Steve,
I collected the program from my post office box today!
A couple of things I noticed in the marketing section:
Here (in Australia) you are not allowed to approach houses and put advertising material in door jams, on door handles or under mats, etc. But you are allowed to put material (non postage) directly in mailboxes!
A quick question: As I will be a new business starting out, with the flyers is it a good idea to put an offer and deadline on them to get more of a direct response? E.g. 10% off your 1st service, offer ends dd/mm/yyyy.
The reason I ask this is that I previously ran my own personal fitness studio and after some trial & error we got a better response when we put an offer and deadline on our advertising.
Cheers,
Jim
My Response:
Hi Jim,
Good morning and I’m glad everything arrived safe and sound. I look forward to working with you as we build you a successful window cleaning business.
That’s great that you have the ability to put non postage items in mailboxes. Excellent. That’s actually better than what we’re able to do here in the States. We have to walk to their door which adds additional time to our marketing process.
I personally would not offer a deadline when you’re first getting started with your first batch of flyers, postcards, etc. The reason is because you want to go back into the exact same neighborhood multple times. This is where you will see the most success. One time flyer distributions/mailings simply won’t generate the highest rate of return. People need to see your message multiple times. So if you put a deadline on your first flyer/postcard, what will you put on your second? See what I mean? You’ve kind of hurt your marketing efforts into that area again because I’m not sure what you can do to top the previously offered discount/deadline unless it’s a bigger discount or an extended deadline. So for now, I’d recommend that you don’t use a discount/deadline.
With that said though, I would encourage you to test this concept out in the future. It’s definitely worth a test for sure. Each area is different. So if you have a twist that you’d like to add to your marketing message, you should always test it out and see if it works for you. But I wouldn’t recommend it right out of the starting gate. I would recommend that you simply use the materials that I’ve provided you “as is” (change the company name/phone number of course) and run with ‘em. They’ve all been proven to work over and over again.
I agree that you will most definitely get a better response generally speaking when there is a deadline to an offer. People are procrastinators by nature, so they need to be motivated to act. Deadlines will typically make someone take action. I use deadlines all the time on my websites. The problem though is that if you have picked out a few ideal areas to market your window cleaning service and you focus your efforts in those areas, I’m not sure how you can continually mention a deadline. After awhile, people won’t take it serious because they’ll know the next flyer/postcard you give them in 3 or 4 weeks will have another deadline on it. 
Just some thoughts to think about.
Take care for now and please keep in touch. I look forward to working with you once again. Have a great day.
Regards,
Steve
Want to double your business? Read what one of our software members wrote:
Our business is again on track to double in size this year and we couldn’t keep track and stay up with our customers without your software. It is a huge asset to Brightview…Dale Pittman
So if you’re serious about wanting to increase YOUR business, visit The Customer Factor
