On again off again marketing is what most contractors do. They just do not understand the importance of putting together a marketing plan and sticking to it. It all begins with a budget that you can afford that is spread out over a 6 month plan.
I like to do 6-month campaigns because our market changes and so does our marketing message. I believe in mixing it up a bit and making sure you code your ads so you can track them. I always put a code number in the lower right corner of the ad. Then when the client calls, just ask them for the number on lower right corner.
You must track all your ads. This is the only way to see what is working or not working. If you find an ad not working then change it right away. Advertising is to expensive to waste, so do not be afraid to change it.
The best thing to do is put your ad campaign on auto pilot and do not touch it. Let the ads take their course and you will see the difference in lead generation and sales and cash flow.
I can tell you that everyone wants to play with the ads. They get a rush of leads then stop the ads because they panic. They feel they can not keep up with the added work load. This mainly comes from the hired help. But keep it going and stay tuff and make the employees work harder and smarter.
I have been through this and looking back I should have fired the help and hired new to keep up with my sales.
I always like a mix of advertising of inserts, postcards and newspaper ads, and this has always worked for me in the past. When you put this type of advertising on remote control it will bring you enough leads. You can then tweak it as needed.
When contractorblab.com goes live in October they have a ton of proven marketing Ideas on video and audio and special reports that you can download. A special graphics design area also will be available. So check back often and leave us some comments.
Happy Selling
Glen
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Glen,
It’s funny you mentioned to “leave you some comments.” I just read a report on “How to blog,” and it talked about sometimes having to start conversation by just plain asking.
I like the idea of a six month plan. I’ve got to figure out how to get the necessary cash flow to finance my plan or scale my plan back to fit the current cash flow. Glen, you know that we are contractors first, but our business has evolved into specialty equipment sales as well. Oh, this is “cretebuster” from contractortalk.com by the way. Hopefully you remember our discussion about this. I must adimit there is a concern about having the “proper” man power to handle an increased work load so that the increase doesn’t hurt your business.
Hey I still haven’t gotten a reply to sign-up at contractorblab.com a couple weeks ago. Is there something else I must do. Anyways, looking forward to the release.
You make an excellent point. I crank up my marketing, it begins to get traction, I get busy doing the work it produces and then let it wind down.
Our web presence has been a boon as it is always “up”. We can work on it when we are slow and focus on contracting when we are busy.