Filtering Posts by Topic: Direct Mail

Driving Around And Literally LOOKING For Homes That Need Your Services Is A Quick Way To Round Up Easy Leads

Use Your Brains Instead Of Your Checkbook To Generate Home Improvement Leads

By Rich Harshaw

A few years ago I was talking with one of my clients, the owner of a very successful metal roofing company in Indianapolis. We were working on a dizzying array of sometimes complex roofing marketing campaigns including everything from high-frequency mailers to radio, pre-positioning materials, home show displays, phone scripting, email marketing, and more.

At some point during one of our many conversations he sighed and said, “It was so much easier when I was young and new in this business. I got all the business I could handle by driving around high-end neighborhoods in my truck with a handheld microcassette recorder looking for homes with roofs that clearly needed to be replaced. I’d make a note of the specific addresses on the recorder, then go back to the office, jot them down, then send them a simple hand-addressed letter saying I had noticed their roof had some issues and would it be okay to come over and give it a formal inspection?”

When I quizzed him a little bit more about how many letters he could send in a day (ten to twenty, a few times a week), how many responses he would typically get (two or three for each ten sent), and whether or not the inspections led to quality sales (yes), I asked him the only remaining logical question:

WHY ON EARTH DID YOU STOP DOING THIS!?!?!
Read More

You Don’t Have To Hire And Manage A Van Full Of Sketchy Door Knockers To Have Success With Canvassing.

Just Start (And Finish) With One Guy.

By Rich Harshaw

Read to the end of this article for a challenge. It’s limited to the first three companies… so hurry.

About five years ago I had a client in Washington D.C. that had built his entire business on canvassing. You know what I’m talking about—old school, pavement-pounding, number-crunching, knock-till-your-fingers-bleed canvassing.

His secret weapon was the University of Maryland, which was about five minutes from his office. Back in the days before online message boards, he’d post notices around campus on real life bulletin boards and telephone poles advertising high paying part-time jobs for college students. He’d get a virtually unlimited stream of kids willing to pound doors… and in return, he’d pay them $10 to $20 an hour depending on their production. This was back when minimum wage was in the $3 to $5 range. On the strength of those college kids, he built a solid company that always had an abundant lead flow and healthy sales.

Then when the century changed, a funny thing started to happen—the university students stopped responding to those bulletin board notices. Promises of signing bonuses, spiffs, and higher starting salaries did little to change the tide, so he started looking elsewhere, including Craigslist, miscellaneous job boards, and even street-corner day laborers. Suffice it to say, the quality of the canvassers went down… to the point where he abandoned canvassing altogether and got serious about advertising instead. That’s how and when I met him.
Read More

The Old “Send Three Postcards” Trick Doesn’t Work.
Turning One Job Into Many Takes Effort, Know-How, & Persistence.

Written by Rich Harshaw

Radius Mailers. Proximity Marketing. Neighborhood mailings. Whatever you call them, they simply don’t work for most remodeling companies. In fact, in live seminars, when I ask for a show of hands how many people successfully use this tactic, I almost NEVER get affirmative hand raises. More usually, I hear “we used to do that,” or “it doesn’t work anymore.”

The tired old “send three postcards” routine simply doesn’t work anymore (if it ever did). To understand why it doesn’t work, and how to crack the neighborhood mailing code, I present to you these 5 quick tips:

Tip 1: Understand The Real Situation: First realize this: just because your customer bought windows (or siding or a kitchen) from you doesn’t mean that his neighbors are automatically thinking about the same thing. Stated differently, if your neighbor buys a new TV or hot tub (or whatever), do you automatically want one too? To get these neighbors on board, you’re first going to have to get their attention, and that’s going to take a serious, concerted effort. You’re going to have to use what I call a “multi-touch” approach… it’s geared to hit them repeatedly until they can’t help but deal with you. That sounds a bit roughshod—and maybe it is—but hey, you gotta do what works.
Read More

How We Transformed A Rehash Letter To Feel Less Like A Death Threat…
And More Like A Generous Offer From A Caring Contractor.

You want to send out a “rehash” letter in an attempt to recover lost sales. That’s smart! So you phrase the letter is such a way that the prospect isn’t sure if he’s being asked to attend a colonoscopy, being audited by the IRS, or being held for ransom. That’s dumb!

Check out this amazing “before and after” transformation of a closet organizer “rehash” letter. The letter has good intentions, but the execution is perfectly terrible. It’s stodgy. It’s antiseptic. It’s boring. And it actually sounds kind of threatening. Never fear—that’s why MYM is here. Let the Extreme Makeover begin!
Read More