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Digging Into Your Numbers.

Dig Into Your Numbers And You Just Might Find Some Gold Nuggets

Dig Into Your Numbers And You Just Might Find Some Gold Nuggets

Don’t Be Afraid To Question Your Assumptions

& Double Check Your Numbers.

Have you ever walked into your closet to find something, searched high and low, and couldn’t find it… only to have your spouse walk in, grab it off the shelf right in front of your face, and hand it to you?

Of course you have.

It must be a human frailty. Sometimes it’s nearly impossible to see stuff that’s right in front of your face.

Funny thing—this happens all the time to remodeling contractors in their marketing.

I recently began working with two new clients on their marketing; one is a huge HVAC company and the other is a large kitchen & bath remodeling company. Both of them are outstanding companies that are run by extremely talented people. Both have robust marketing plans that are funded by sizable marketing & advertising budgets.

And in both cases, I was able to uncover some pretty major inefficiencies just by asking the right questions… and knowing how to dig into the numbers.

Let me tell you a couple of stories:

Story #1: Why Are We Even Mailing To The Old Guys?

The HVAC company I work with generates a sizable share of its revenue through direct mail. In our kick-off meeting discussion, they explained that they send six mailers a year to the part of their customer base that hasn’t either purchased a new HVAC system… or hasn’t at least purchased their service plan.

Me: Okay, so how many customers are you mailing to every six months?

Client: About 40,000.

Me: 40,000? Wow. That’s a lot. How far back do these customers go?

Client: Since we started the company.

Me: When was that?

Client: 2002

Me: Do you get a very good response from the customers who are 8, 10, 12 years old?

Client: (thinking) I’m not really sure.

After the meeting they went and checked the responses from the most recent mailing, and here is what they found:

Last Service Year % of leads
2014 49%
2013 16%
2012 6%
2011 7%
2010 5%
2009 5%
2008 4%
2007 2%
2006 1%
2005 3%
2004 2%
2001 1%

Quick math shows that 65% of their HVAC marketing leads from past customers came from those who have had service within the last 2 years… and a whopping 83% comes from the last 5 years.

Think about how much money has been wasted on mailing to those old customers that could have been invested into higher frequency mailers to the more recent customers… or some other lead generating activities.

Story #2: Why Are We Advertising On These Specific Days?
The kitchen & bathroom remodeling contractor was advertising heavily on radio and television. When I reviewed the existing contracts, I saw that they advertised on TV only on Mondays, Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

Me: Why do you advertise only on those days?

Client: That’s when people are thinking about remodeling their kitchen or bathroom.

Me: How do you know that?

Client: We had a marketing person tell us that a few years ago. That’s the way we’ve been buying it ever since.

Me: Do you know if that’s when the calls actually come in?

Client: We could check (starts to access reports from their tracking system).

After a quick check of documented radio leads, here’s what we discovered:

Day of Week Average Number of TV Leads
Monday 8.3
Tuesday 6.0
Wednesday 3.0
Thursday 3.0
Friday 2.2
Saturday 1.0
Sunday 0.0

Wait a second, these numbers don’t match up to the days that they advertise!

Well, they kind of do. Monday and Tuesday are strong. But the weekends are terrible for leads, even though they are advertising heavily on both days.

So moving forward, instead of trying to “chase demand” like car dealers do, we are going to advertise with the goal of having an ongoing conversation with as many viewers as possible… 5 days a week… knowing that in due time they’ll call use when they are ready to remodel.

If you want to know more about a great strategy for radio and TV, read this previous post (https://mymonline.com/mymblog/?p=513).

The point of today’s post is not about how to advertise on TV. Or how to manage your direct mail. It’s a gentle nudge of encouragement to question your assumptions and dig into your numbers for answers to important marketing questions.

Who knows, you just might strike gold.

Click Here For Free Lead Generation Audit (http://www.mymonline.com/why-you-need-mym/web-marketing-audit): We’ll perform an in-depth audit of your company’s website (contractors, HVAC experts, and everyone else is welcome) and lead generation activities. Then spend 90 minutes on the phone with you discussing our findings… and conducting an Identity discovery session. This valuable marketing insight is worth $4,500, and is yours for FREE—if you meet the conditions.

© 2015 – 2016, Rich Harshaw. All rights reserved.

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