Our first print advertising

Just send an email to [B]dossier@windowcleaningbusinesscoach.com[/B] , and you’ll be placed on the waiting list for the official launch in Feb 2008.

[QUOTE=panelessperfection;2794

I love the card Kevin.

One suggestion though. I wouldn’t use the word affordable. If you are trying to get high-end customers you don’t need to mention affordable. Your not trying to attract cash-strapped customers. You may not even mention the price at all.

Well, first off…

How do we know what type of prospect that card is going to? That card could work well in his chosen market. My biggest market by far is younger families with an household income of $100,000-$150,000.

If you don’t think young families are looking for a way to save a little here and there, you don’t know the market.

The real power in any type of price break is to build value. In order to build value one needs to know what the target deems value. This card does build value for the type of customer in my market.

I am NOT a big fan of the “starting at $75” leader. The card needs to be over sized…

I like the terms “deal” “special” “limited time offer” more than affordable… EVERYONE wants a deal, including the rich.

I’ve ordered a very similar card, taking much of what Kevin came up with, in an 8.5" x 4.5" oversized postcard.

How are you going to mail that? What postage rate do you expect to get with that size? How many pieces will you do?

A little piece of advice for those of you not having available funds to spend $500-$1000 on a mailing.

Order postcards and have them sent to you. Addresses blank, you fill it in (like people have no extra time to do this :wink:

Send out 100 if you have only a little funds. Then send out another 100 as soon as you can etc, etc… Hording money and waiting sucks. The dollar lose value by the second. Put it to work NOW!

This postcard example needs to dump the dude cleaning the commercial building (odd mistake on an otherwise solid card) This is going to homeowners, correct?

The picture disconnects the message to market match. It adds no value.

I think that was the only picture at the time to work with as Paneless generously took the time to convert info from a website to print.

You are correct that the image should be updated to residential.

oh, I see where Paneless made it from the site now (I should read through these things) I did not even know Paneless made it lol

No wonder it looks good

I see MANY, many fliers and such to homeowners with a guy hanging off a building. I thought that is what was happening here.

my bad

I went with no picture of myself, because I’m going to be using these when doing door to door canvasing of one specific neighborhood.

I ordered 50 of them thru vistaprint for $15 shipped. They were running a special.

The pictures are very high resolution, so I had to really bring down the quality for the attachments.

Believe me, pictures are not needed.

But they’re so pretty…

I’m going to try a traditional letter sized flyer in another neighborhood with the same info, but no pictures and measure the success of each.

not so fast bucko

this is not a good test as they are not the same ads. If one pulls better than the other, why? Would you know the reason?

Split tests are very scientific and if we take halfassed tests and determine that one or the other tanked because of__________ … get ready for a lot of headaches.

I can get a 3% response off the most basic flier (which I do all the time) but I will mail 1000 custom postcards and get 2 calls! Of course I make the two totally different (mistake) as I rely on my perception of the piece to cloud my judgment.

When I spend $20 and get 3 new clients then I spend $600 and get 2… I could easily believe that direct mail does not work and kick it to the curb.

or learn why it failed. That is what is so great about fliers. They are the cheapest learning tool in marketing. If it works that way, it can work in direct mail also.

I’m going to try a traditional letter sized flyer in another neighborhood with the same info, but no pictures and measure the success of each.

are you saying that this wont work? because one doesn’t have the pictures? Neither would be direct mail.

Are you canvasing with the 100 flyers for $20?

well, if you really want an accurate test. You need to add the pic to one half of the fliers and no pic to the other half.

To compare results by using 2 different delivery forms all together can’t be accurate. Too many intangibles

But certainly advertise with fliers! You will start to find out the things that are working and what is not working if you pay attention… also don’t keep changing the entire ad unless you know for sure it is the entire ad.

Nobody would believe my ROI last year from handed out, black and white, Word document fliers…

actually I get 200 fliers for $20 (so 3 customers for $10), but yes it is one thing I do.

Let it be known… I do put out some 3 legged dogs too. Same fliers 2 miles away will get me only .5% sometimes (so 1 customer for $20)

You can see how important it is to acquire as much knowledge as possible on the prospects triggers. (example- one mailing cost me $600 and I got 2 customers… a mere $300 each! Now if I looked harder at what I was sending that time, I could have avoided that)

How are you planning on using these pieces of advertisement at the door? Are they going to be used in your sales pitch or are you going to leave them with all of the homeowners that you meet? Also, if the homeowner isn’t home, is your plan to leave them at the door?

Have you found significant success in direct mail or do you favor hand-delivered fliers right now? Or are both peripheral advertising for you right now? Please explain, thanks!

I’ll be using it in my sales pitch. I’ll be leaving my business card in the doors where no one was home. I’m waiting to get them back from VistaPrint, but they aren’t your average cards. They’re a marketing piece!

I wanted to emphasize what I feel is important and that isn’t my name or company name. The important part is to get them to think and react. Why does my name to be emphasized? They most likely aren’t going to ask for me by name when they call and if they would like my name, they have my first name in my email address at the bottom.

[SIZE=“4”]Front[/SIZE]

The back enables me to give impromptu quotes, like when out shopping or dining.

[SIZE=“4”]Back[/SIZE]

I also wanted something that would catch their attention, so between the black background and the question in red, I’m hoping that I’ve done that. Also, some businesses allow you to place your cards on a information board or in a business card holder. I don’t think mine will get lost amongst the sea of white and off white cards. I now need to figure out what to do with my white cards. Maybe I’ll place them in my mailers to current clients, so they always have a card to turn to.

[SIZE=“5”]I love all this marketing stuff.[/SIZE] Kevin is right, doing things outside the norm for your business’s image is fun.

Nice, Brennon.

Fun, yes, and more importantly - PROFITABLE.

Thats’ the irony of it all.

And remember that [I]everything [/I]you use should be viewed as a marketing piece, not just these cards, but everything.