out on doorknobs of these same neighborhoods.
I’ve created an entire FREE “Guide to EDDM”
that is available on TMF and my blog.
Send letters to plumbers, realtors, interior
designers, and flooring retailers to let them know
about your referral program and special offers.
A slow week is the perfect time to nurture these
relationships. After you send them a letter, go
visit them.
Announce your special offer through social
media. Facebook, Youtube and Google Plus
are great platforms to get your message out.
Spend some time and effort gaining “likes”
and connections. Perhaps use a special offer or
contest to gain new connections. Social media
not only helps you connect with prospects and
clients, it also can help your website rank higher
in search engines.
Create a video announcing your “winter” offer.
Place the video on Youtube, Google Plus and
Facebook. Some people love watching videos.
And again, the social media interaction can help
your website rank higher.
Use pay-per-click to get clients. Traffic to
your special offer can be bought through Google
Adwords, Facebook ads, Yahoo ads, and other
pay-per-click sources. This requires only a
short set up time and you’ll instantly have local
prospects seeing your offer. But be careful. Payper-click needs to be monitored regularly and
tracked to make sure it’s getting you a profitable
advertising return.
Here are some ideas for
creating your perfect special offer:
1. Make the offer unique. Don’t even think
about running an X rooms for $XX special.
There’s nothing special about that.
2. Avoid giving straight percentage off or
dollars off offers. They’re too boring and your
competitor is already doing it.
3. Give away an extra service. For example, if
your primary service is carpet cleaning, give away
free tile cleaning with a carpet cleaning purchase.
4.
Give away a freebie. Purchase gift
certificates in through a special arrangement.
Give away items such as $50 in free gas, $50
restaurant gift certificate, free carpet rake, or a
free spot kit with any cleaning.
5. Give discounts for large jobs. You could run
a special that gives $50 off any job over $300.
6.
Use free trial offers. But be careful. You
don’t want your no-obligation, free trial to get
into the hands of an unqualified prospect. Only
give these to specific prospects.
7. Provide multiple-choice offers. Let the
prospect decide between offer #1 and offer #2.
8. Announce specials on services that are easy
for you to provide in winter. If you are set up to
do area rugs, announce a great area rug special.
If you can do hardwood floor cleaning or tile
cleaning easily in winter, announce a special for
those.
9. Make sure you give a “reason why.” If you’re
slow in the winter, you’ve got the perfect reason
to send out a great offer. Any time you give a
reason why you’re offering a special, it makes
your offer more believable and you’ll get a better
response. Go ahead and tell them the reason
you’re giving such a great offer is because it’s
your slow season.
When it’s chilly outside, it’s easy to get
complacent. Most of your competitors accept that
winter means a slow down in business. But if you
plan properly, you could have your best months
in winter. And you could be off and running with
a full schedule before spring begins. But it won’t
happen by accident.
Make an action plan list and commitment to
complete the list. If you want to assure your
success in breaking out of the winter lull, you
have to be persistent. Massive action is needed.
Get started now.
John Braun
Hitman Advertising
MARKETING 19