marketing direction help

[PH-removals]

good evening,

i'm a co owner/director of a small ltd removals company which started in April 2016, we have tried various advertising strategies, local paper (expensive and fruitless) leaflet dropping, google adwords.

We have a presence on Facebook with a small number of good genuine reviews, a presence on yell.com with a good review and the same on google, we would like your opinions on where to focus, we think facebook advertising as we already have a good identity on the site but have heard mixed opinions about it, so anyone with experience or can suggest an alternative please.

thanks

 

[garyk]

I would be leaflet dropping houses that have a for sale board outside, super targeted.

 

[AllUpHere]

Sounds to me as though you are putting the cart before the horse. You mention advertising, but there is no mention of any work on an actual marketing strategy. Advertising is hard work and very expensive if it's not guided by a decent plan.

 

[webgeek]

The removals companies I've worked with previously have had the best success from leaflet drops.

 

[SEO Lady]

The removals companies I've worked with previously have had the best success from leaflet drops.

The removals companies I've worked with previously have had the best success from buying leads from mortgage companies - around £25/lead - so if someone in Leeds applies for a mortgage in Doncaster, the contact details are provided for the removals company to send them a letter through the post offering their services with a discount offer.

Also [details may be fuzzy] if someone puts their house on the market these leads can be bought then letters can be sent out in a specific postcode surrounding area "Look how much this house is worth locally to you, thinking of moving too? Here's our offer"

Also, no mention of SEO investment instead of paying for Adwords?

 

[NewGardenStyle]

Are you operating in an area where people are actually moving house? In some pars of the country house sales have dropped off the proverbial cliff...

 

[ethical PR]

Who are your target customers and who influences them regarding removals.?

You haven't mentioned letting companies and estate agents. What work have you done with them to get them to recommend you?

 

[PH-removals]

thanks for all replies, general consensus seems to be that leaflet dropping is the most cost effective method available to us.

We have discussed estate agents but in our view they won't risk their name recommending a business they don't know and in the case of estate agents which are affiliated with sites such as rightmove have thier own removals company comparison engine, we will be making a list if letting agent in our area though.

being a small company we aim for up to 2 bedroom size properties and rentals/housing association tenants as are our main targets.

We signed up with a removals comparison website during November and December, which at around £7 a lead was pretty expensive bearing in mind you paid for every single one and after doing some calculations only 1 in 10 was a genuine person looking to move or willing to pay the going rate for a move, we did convert almost all of the genuine leads into jobs though.

thanks again

 

[Oliver King]

Hi there. I think the offline approach - if targeted can work well. However I would also suggest that a lot of people will use Google to find someone. Here you have a few options:
1) Organic search - depending on your target audience this could take a bit of time and you would need to invest time into the site.
2) Paid search, such as Adwords - you could create a highly targeted specific campaign and probably do a lot better than £7 a lead for poor quality leads
3) I would also recommend adding your company to Google Business (if feasible) as your company would potentially show up as a local business when people are searching...

Ultimately, all companies need to embrace the world of digital...

Oli

 

[Bluebayremovals]

I too am in the same boat as PH removals and am buying leads that cost around £7, most of the leads dont answer the phone or text messages in a last ditch attempt , However you do get the odd good one.

I have set up an adwords campaign but my knowledge is very very limited , well actually I paid someone $35 off of fiverr.com to set it up as I am a new business but I havent activated it yet as it costs around £2 per click!

I recently joined checkatrade but have not had one enquiry from it

I could really do with some advice..please

 

[Bluebayremovals]

The removals companies I've worked with previously have had the best success from buying leads from mortgage companies - around £25/lead - so if someone in Leeds applies for a mortgage in Doncaster, the contact details are provided for the removals company to send them a letter through the post offering their services with a discount offer.

Also [details may be fuzzy] if someone puts their house on the market these leads can be bought then letters can be sent out in a specific postcode surrounding area "Look how much this house is worth locally to you, thinking of moving too? Here's our offer"

Also, no mention of SEO investment instead of paying for Adwords?

Is SEO better than Adwords which is about £2 per click in my area.

Thanks

 

[ChrisRM]

Is SEO better than Adwords which is about £2 per click in my area.

The argument of if SEO is better than AdWords is subjective, but they both work.

SEO is a long term game, you'll generally have results in 3-6 months. This can be frustrating when you want results now but you'll reap the rewards long term. The results in Google take a while to change and once you're in a good position it'll take a while for competitors to displace you (if they even try to). Its a shady industry with fly by night operators but if you can get to the top of Google then you are in front of people actively looking for your service.

You can bypass this waiting with AdWords. You can be at the top of Google (where people are looking for you) straight away. But you are obviously paying for that benefit. Long term it will probably (subject to individual situations) be more expensive than SEO. But you can turn the tap and on off.

The 'trick' with AdWords is to get the best 'click through rate' of all those advertising. The 'click through rate' is the % of people clicking on your ad v the number of searches. Google 'rewards' this with a slightly lower cost per click because people are clicking on your ad more and they get more money.

For example Advertiser A has a click through rate of 2% and a cost per click of £1. Therefore Google get £2 for every 100 searches. Advertiser B has a click through rate of 1% and a cost per click of £1.30. Therefore Google get £1.30 for every 100 searches.

So the question becomes, how can you stand out against your competitors in the adverts?

 

[Bluebayremovals]

The argument of if SEO is better than AdWords is subjective, but they both work.

SEO is a long term game, you'll generally have results in 3-6 months. This can be frustrating when you want results now but you'll reap the rewards long term. The results in Google take a while to change and once you're in a good position it'll take a while for competitors to displace you (if they even try to). Its a shady industry with fly by night operators but if you can get to the top of Google then you are in front of people actively looking for your service.

You can bypass this waiting with AdWords. You can be at the top of Google (where people are looking for you) straight away. But you are obviously paying for that benefit. Long term it will probably (subject to individual situations) be more expensive than SEO. But you can turn the tap and on off.

The 'trick' with AdWords is to get the best 'click through rate' of all those advertising. The 'click through rate' is the % of people clicking on your ad v the number of searches. Google 'rewards' this with a slightly lower cost per click because people are clicking on your ad more and they get more money.

For example Advertiser A has a click through rate of 2% and a cost per click of £1. Therefore Google get £2 for every 100 searches. Advertiser B has a click through rate of 1% and a cost per click of £1.30. Therefore Google get £1.30 for every 100 searches.

So the question becomes, how can you stand out against your competitors in the adverts?

Thanks for your advice , Maybe i can stand out by taking enquiries from 7am-10pm and offering home survey or video survey?

 

[ChrisRM]

Thanks for your advice , Maybe i can stand out by taking enquiries from 7am-10pm and offering home survey or video survey?

A video survey is an interesting approach / good use of tech.

Apologies wasnt clear, I meant stand out in the results page on Google, the words in the link and description below it. What could you say there to encourage people to click on you rather than competitor...

 

[London Gary]

If you can't get to specific people when they're about to move then you need to be found when those specific people are looking for removals services.

ChrisRM has basically nailed it: for quick results create a first-class ad for Google adwords. Your ad will only appear in front of people who are looking for removals firms.

But pay attention to the conversion points if you want the ad to be successful.

A good Google ad converts the Google searcher into a lead. By 'lead' I mean that they've clicked on your ad because it seemed relevant to them - and they ended up at your landing page/website as a result of clicking. That's conversion 1 - you've turned someone who was searching for removals services into a new business lead for your firm. Congratulations.

Now your landing page/website has to convert that lead into an order. That's conversion 2. If it doesn't, you've paid for a click that became a lead that then didn't turn into a paying customer. So don't send these people - whose clicks you have now paid for - to a rubbish website. They'll just click back to Google and look at the next firm on the list.

Get your ads and your website properly written. This will achieve two very important things:

(1) your ad will attract potential customers and the website will help the visitor realise you're a quality outfit - and that they should seriously consider hiring you

(2) it will start the SEO process by getting some search terms into your site - making it more likely you'll eventually be found through normal, everyday Google searches.

Marketing is a process rather than an event. Look at where the customer has to make a decision - a conversion point - and make that decision go your way. Forget you're a removals company and become a sales and marketing machine (that just happens to operate in the removals business).

Once you've got it right you have a stream of incoming business - and can then decide what to do next to take it up a level.

Good luck,

Gary

 

[Improve Marketing]

Start with the basics. Your office should have strong signage, your vehicles well designed livery. Create a leaflet, when you are picking up and dropping off (your Van has been sitting their all day), post a few leaflets in that street. Make sure your website works. Add your website to lots of local directories. Yell is great, 192.com, thompson directories, free index etc search directories and pick the ones that come up highest. How about asking for reviews from your clients? Get them to post on Google (raises your profile in search engine results pages) and on Facebook (you get referral from other friends of the poster seeing your review). Forget FB advertising, you won't make it work. How are you tracking your advertising? Make sure you can source where your leads are coming from, when you hear of a rich vein, do more of that! Get that lot up and running and then email me, I have some more ideas. Paul.

 

[Bluebayremovals]

Thanks I appreciate all your input, Please be critical

I have a website under the name of blue bay removals and a checkatrade page and a facebook page under Blue Bay Removals Cornwall, Unfortunately I cant post links until I have 30 posts

I am currently paying lead generators for leads via various websites and some leads are good and some terrible, i.e they dont answer their phones, texts etc and I really need to make this work

 

[Bluebayremovals]

I have also thought about incorporating live chat on the website, its free for 30 days then $16 a month, whats your views on this? Is there a cheaper or better solution

 

[BusinessTradeCentre]

Have you not heard of www.uship.com you can bid on removals. this would be a great way to gain clients.

 

[Bluebayremovals]

Hiya, I haven't heard of them before and I have registered an account so I appreciate the referral.

What I have noticed is there isn't any house moves on there in my area and just 2 courier jobs within a 50 mile radius of my location that are really for people that are going to a specific location or en route to a location but thanks anyway

 

[webgeek]

Try deliveryquotecompare as well - they have a very good operation that can help in locating jobs for couriers/haulage.

 

[Bluebayremovals]

Try deliveryquotecompare as well - they have a very good operation that can help in locating jobs for couriers/haulage.

I am a member of that site and sometimes look for return loads if I am heading back from a job up country, We are looking for house removal work mainly mate not courier really

I appreciate your input

 

[webgeek]

Aaah - then flyers in neighbourhoods with houses is the way to go (for most removal companies). I had a client several years ago that was in the removals business and got half his income from flyers. The other half was organic search rankings to his website. Oh and he got some business from one of those multi-vendor sites where people search and the leads go out to several bidding companies.

 

[Chris Needham]

Hi, I have worked on SEO and PPC for removal companies and it is EXTREMELY competitive. Leafleting could be a good idea.

 

[JulieJL]

Hi there. One thing you can think about is PR. It's pretty affordable, especially compared to advertising and it will help you raise awareness locally about your business. You said you tried ads in local newspapers. What if you tried to target journalists instead of paying for appearing in the newspaper? That will give you way more credibility and results as people are more likely to trust a review from a journalist than an ad. Thanks to online PR platforms, like JournoLink or Response Source that can be done really affordably.
PR includes social media, content marketing, SEO as well.

 

[TheConsulter]

There are different approaches that can be used.

1. Co-operate with real estate companies. They have contact details about people who are about to move and can pass the details to you. Then you can contact the people through post offering your services. Of course you will have to provide the real estate companies with a share of every sale.

2. Use AdWords. This will take you to the top of Google search.

3. Use Google Business, so your business is listed as a local business when people search for the services you offer in the area.

4. Increase the brand awareness. Make sure that your vehicles have your brand and are well designed.

5. Start a leaflet campaign. Many businesses in the sector you are in have success with delivering leaflets in their areas.

6. Add your business to credible online directories. Add information about your business name, address and telephone number.

 

[HazelC]

I do a lot of work for a removals company in Essex and we write 4 new pages for their website each month, these are local pages and will be things like house removals in Hornchurch, removals company in Romford and so on. It means there are regular updates to the website but also landing pages and targeted pages for longtail keywords that customers could look for.

May be worth a try?

 

[estwig]

On occasion I have cause to find people's names and addresses from a picture of a house and a road name on Rightmove. I then contact them. It's a bit of a faffy process, with refinement you get used to it and can pin contact info down quite quickly.

Targeted marketing like this for you would be bang on the money! A well written template letter, with subsequent follow up letters!

 

[Boxchilli John]

There is lots of good advice here! I have marketed for your industry personally, and did the following with my client:

1) Facebook campaign - Increasing page likes (gives you a wider audience to target for free, although Facebook's algorithm does prevent you from being able to advertise to this whole group for free - think more like 5% reach). Increasing website traffic from Facebook. Posting relevant and interesting posts. Boosting certain posts. Content is key here. Be interesting, engaging and relevant. Sometimes it helps to have a "professional" take care of this for you at the start.

2) Leaflet drops. Still a great way to advertise in your industry. Also goes along with door knocking, to try and increase the success rate.

3) Make sure you are on all online and offline directories (Yell, Google, G+, LinkedIn, Foursquare, etc.)

4) Email marketing. You can purchase a list for homeowners or something like that and target them. Alternatively you could look at students just leaving uni or something. Again, as with all things content, it is advisable to get a pro to take care of this for you.

5) Website, SEO and PPC. It's important to have great online presence as your industry is a very competitive one. It is advisable to get a professional to take care of this side for you, due to the technical difficulty and time required to really get good results.