For those of you who offer specials, how often do you change them?
Also what do you find to be the best “respond by” time period that instills a sense of urgency?
-2 weeks
-30 days
Some on here will say 2 weeks. I find it easier to say “…and just for the month of June…”
It depends on the ad and delivery method.
Fliers- 5 days to call (I try like heck to not let them toss it in that drawer, otherwise known as the ad graveyard)
Mail- depending on if I am doing it first class or bulk, 10 days
There are techniques to use in an ad to explain the deadline better. I’ll use a “[B]Call now and schedule anytime up until June 1st to claim this special[/B]” type of thing for those that are not ready to buy this week.
They can schedule for a month away. They get the special and I have far less wasted ads and also book up the next 2 months this week.
oops, I did not answer the how long until I change the offer question…
when it stops working
We did a flier last year and had a deadline of about 10 days out. calls were trickling in a few per day until the last two days of the promo. It was chaos after that. It was a great mailer that filled our schedule up for about 3 weeks in August (traditionally slow month for residential window cleaners).
It was mailed out to our spring customer clients that we had done earlier in the year. I wouldnt personally put a month expiration on anything as far as a sale goes. It will be far more lucrative to add urgency to call soon or they lose out on a discount. Im not saying that a 30 day expiration doesnt work at all, it just lets people ponder on the deal too long. It will end up in their stack of junk mail which will eventually end up in the round file.
Steve
