No work - marketing help required!

[Ant84]

Hello everyone, my name's Anthony and I have my own external cleaning/drive sealing business. We jetwash external brick cleaning, UPVC, driveways and walls, mainly. The business has been very successful in the past, but to say work is in short supply at the moment would be an understatement, we're down to a couple of jobs a month and it's not enough for me to live on, so I need to do something drastic.

5 years ago, we were turning over £250k a year working for the major housebuilders in the UK and had work on 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. With the current climate being the way it is, the housebuilders have all but ceased building and the work just isn't there currently. Due to this, we're being forced to look at getting private work for the first time, and I don't really know where to begin with it. We've posted leaflets through doors and got flyers up in a couple of building supplies yards, but nothing more. We've had absolutely no response from these as yet, which leads me to think I'm going to have to try something different.

Professional looking business cards, letterheads and A6 flyers are probably my first port of call, but after that I need some good advice on what I need to be doing. Any would be welcome!

Thanks.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

The first thing to look at is what your competitors are doing.

If they've figured out things that work, you might as well benefit from their experience.

Steve

 

[peterjhale]

What about local builders?

It would seem that rather than people moving house they are having extensions and the like being done - classic recession reactions

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

I'd take a very hard look at your flyers and promotional material. What you write on the flyers can easily make the difference between a 0% response and a 3%+ response.

You will have to utilise two areas of your market audience. People who are looking for the services you offer and people who aren't, but may be persuaded into using them if there is a strong enough benefit. Both of these will require different forms of marketing.

As Steve has said, looking at what your competitors are doing is a good start. If something isn't broken and it working, then there's no need to fix it.

Hope this helps.

 

[maxine]

Hi Ant

Apart from private residential customers have you tried contacting facilities managers for larger companies as they might use someone at the moment but looking to save money with current supplier?

Just a thought

 

[telemax]

Hello everyone, my name's Anthony and I have my own external cleaning/drive sealing business. We jetwash external brick cleaning, UPVC, driveways and walls, mainly. The business has been very successful in the past, but to say work is in short supply at the moment would be an understatement, we're down to a couple of jobs a month and it's not enough for me to live on, so I need to do something drastic.

5 years ago, we were turning over £250k a year working for the major housebuilders in the UK and had work on 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. With the current climate being the way it is, the housebuilders have all but ceased building and the work just isn't there currently. Due to this, we're being forced to look at getting private work for the first time, and I don't really know where to begin with it. We've posted leaflets through doors and got flyers up in a couple of building supplies yards, but nothing more. We've had absolutely no response from these as yet, which leads me to think I'm going to have to try something different.

Professional looking business cards, letterheads and A6 flyers are probably my first port of call, but after that I need some good advice on what I need to be doing. Any would be welcome!

Thanks.

Anthony

Get your suit on, polish your shoes, get business cards printed, get knocking on doors.

Local industrial estates, houses anything, this is the least expensive and quickest way to save your business

I hope this helps

Jonathan

 

[gadgetgirl]

Hello - my first ever message as I only joined UKBF 5 minutes ago!

With regard to private work - private owned blocks of flats normally have pretty stringent maintenance contracts with regard to the up keep of the building - it might be worth finding out who runs these for the various blocks in your areas or talk to letting agents who have maintenance contracts with them.

 

[TCM]

Nothing wrong with the comments above, but there is never a magic bullet to solve this problem - it requires lots of things being done, which reach people in different ways.

You only have two types of customer. Those that have spent money with you, those that havent.

All we need to do is get those that have to spend more, and those that havent to spend some. Thats all sales and Marketing will ever do for you. Nothing more, nothing less.

Existing Clients -
Get in touch with them all. Offer them a deal, ask if you can use their name and some comments as a testimonial. Ask them if they know of anyone who might need your services.

New clients -
You mention youve done flyers, thats great, but what sort of quantity? if its a few hundred, its not going to do you any good. I recently supplied and distributed 10 000 in the local area for a one man window cleaner, each leaflet offering £5 off a window clean. Hes now booked up till end of February and has taken on 2 more people.

I hand delivered 20 000 flyers around all the houses in central Woking and convinced a gardener to list his website with Thompson directory. He doesnt answer the phone to me now coz hes too busy gardeing, and his wife has given up work to answer the phone and book his jobs in.

I sent 50 000 emails for a couple of quid to businesses in the south east of england for a small Handyman company offering a free quotation on general office maintenence. Hes just bought his new van in cash and taken on a trainee.

Certainly you need business cards to leave with people, and a small folded brochure perhaps with some comments from previous customers on.

You need a website - very few people search for anything on paper these days. Dont spend lots of money on it - some of the most cost effective sites ive done small businesses are under £500.00

Give people a reason to go to your website (printable discount voucher maybe) and give them a reason to sign up to a newsletter, so you start collecting their contact information, which is gold dust for harvesting future business/

Advertise in your local paper for at least 6 months. Far too many people place one advert and then complain when the phone doesnt ring the next day. This is not how advertising works.

Talk to local builders or anywhere you see a builders van. Builders make mess. These people need your services when they have gone. Chat to the gaffer and offer to grease his palm if he passes on your flyer / business card to the customer who in turn boosk you. If you get a booking through this referal, send him a case of beer as a thank you.

Get flyes under every car wiper in the nearest train station

walk aroudn your local area, and put them through the door of everyone that has a dirty drive / building.

Put a special offer together for all restauarants in your area - no one will eat in a restaurant that looks dirty on the outside. Offer a weekly clean for a discount, based on them committing for at least 3 months. And then do a good job of it.

Get some really good photos of "before" and "after" pictures for your website to show people what a difference it can make.

Above all, keep communicating. If something doesnt work after a week, do it again. People keep stuff and remeber stuff. Even today i had phone calls further to my "February Special Offer" newsletter, which people have kept for 7 months.

as far as cleaning goes, ive got a 121 year old 3 storey building in surrey. the front is very dirty from trafffic fumes and the patio bit needs a clean and weed killing and general tidy up of some brickwork etc. If you can help, let me know!

 

[JElder]

Excellent comments by TCM

It really will take a mix of things. Also consider placing some cards in local corner shops - for a very low cost you can be seen by hundreds of people a day.

A flyer with a special offer will probably get a better response than one without. You could also consider Google Adwords with a local geographic campaign, but be caution as these tend to run away cost-wise very quickly, and you do need a decent web site to point it to.

Jonathan
Synergy Connections Ltd - UK Telemarketing Services

 

[nigel]

Try approaching local food premises such as pubs and restaurants and see if there is a demand for cleaning their wheeley bins for them.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

I think Carl has just written most of your marketing plan!

 

[Valeri]

Hi Anthony, Do You Have A Company website? A company website would appeal to a lot of customers and likely to boost your business for you as too many people now search the internet to find an answer to their problem or find a particular service... If you don't have a company website yet, its a good idea that you get one developed. You can put adds in the phone book and target some builders related magazines and other similar press...

 

[Ant84]

The first thing to look at is what your competitors are doing.

If they've figured out things that work, you might as well benefit from their experience.

Steve

Hi Steve. That's a good point but there aren't many businesses of this type locally, which is possibly one of the reasons we had so much work in the past. I've been keeping an eye on websites of similar businesses to see what the latest offers/prices/services are.

What about local builders?

It would seem that rather than people moving house they are having extensions and the like being done - classic recession reactions

Hi Peter. I had noticed something of an upturn in extensions being carried out locally of late. Seems like there's a new one going up every day on my usual routes. I could try calling at the houses to offer any services and leave a business card with them, thanks for the idea.

I'd take a very hard look at your flyers and promotional material. What you write on the flyers can easily make the difference between a 0% response and a 3%+ response.

You will have to utilise two areas of your market audience. People who are looking for the services you offer and people who aren't, but may be persuaded into using them if there is a strong enough benefit. Both of these will require different forms of marketing.

As Steve has said, looking at what your competitors are doing is a good start. If something isn't broken and it working, then there's no need to fix it.

Hope this helps.

Hi Scott. This is where I've been going wrong, I think. I have absolutely zero experience when it comes to flyers, or any kind of marketing actually! After a quick read of some other threads that I thought could be useful to me, I think I've made the mistake of making my flyers too generic with the same old information on them. I realise now that I should be personalising them a little more in an effort to sell my services better and make people take notice of them more. If only I knew what to replace the boring information with! I've been thinking of maybe targetting owners of houses that are for sale, as they may have more of a desire to make their property look much better presented for a prospective buyer etc. Same goes for letting agencies and possibly estate agents to pass on my information to anyone that's selling a grubby old property through them.

Hi Ant

Apart from private residential customers have you tried contacting facilities managers for larger companies as they might use someone at the moment but looking to save money with current supplier?

Just a thought

Hi Maxine. I hadn't thought of that, actually, but it's a very good idea. I'll have to try and find the phone number of a few local(ish) ones and see if I can sort anything out with them. Nothing lost if they say no, other than the cost of a phone call! Thanks.

 

[Ant84]

Anthony

Get your suit on, polish your shoes, get business cards printed, get knocking on doors.

Local industrial estates, houses anything, this is the least expensive and quickest way to save your business

I hope this helps

Jonathan

Hi Jonathan. This was all I'd come up with before signing up, look smart and get knocking on doors. The missus is a big fan of this idea, too. She's been on at me for a while to get a job where I have to wear a nice suit!

Hello - my first ever message as I only joined UKBF 5 minutes ago!

With regard to private work - private owned blocks of flats normally have pretty stringent maintenance contracts with regard to the up keep of the building - it might be worth finding out who runs these for the various blocks in your areas or talk to letting agents who have maintenance contracts with them.

Hi gadgetgirl. My parents have just started running a couple of small maintenance contracts for a local millionaire housebuilder, so that's a start for me, and a bonus if they get more! Other than that, what would be the best way to find out who has the maintenance contracts for specific blocks? If there are none for sale for me to reach the maintenance firm through the agent, I guess it'll just be a case of going straight to the apartment owners. Thanks.

 

[Ant84]

Nothing wrong with the comments above, but there is never a magic bullet to solve this problem - it requires lots of things being done, which reach people in different ways.

You only have two types of customer. Those that have spent money with you, those that havent.

All we need to do is get those that have to spend more, and those that havent to spend some. Thats all sales and Marketing will ever do for you. Nothing more, nothing less.

Existing Clients -
Get in touch with them all. Offer them a deal, ask if you can use their name and some comments as a testimonial. Ask them if they know of anyone who might need your services.

New clients -
You mention youve done flyers, thats great, but what sort of quantity? if its a few hundred, its not going to do you any good. I recently supplied and distributed 10 000 in the local area for a one man window cleaner, each leaflet offering £5 off a window clean. Hes now booked up till end of February and has taken on 2 more people.

I hand delivered 20 000 flyers around all the houses in central Woking and convinced a gardener to list his website with Thompson directory. He doesnt answer the phone to me now coz hes too busy gardeing, and his wife has given up work to answer the phone and book his jobs in.

I sent 50 000 emails for a couple of quid to businesses in the south east of england for a small Handyman company offering a free quotation on general office maintenence. Hes just bought his new van in cash and taken on a trainee.

Certainly you need business cards to leave with people, and a small folded brochure perhaps with some comments from previous customers on.

You need a website - very few people search for anything on paper these days. Dont spend lots of money on it - some of the most cost effective sites ive done small businesses are under £500.00

Give people a reason to go to your website (printable discount voucher maybe) and give them a reason to sign up to a newsletter, so you start collecting their contact information, which is gold dust for harvesting future business/

Advertise in your local paper for at least 6 months. Far too many people place one advert and then complain when the phone doesnt ring the next day. This is not how advertising works.

Talk to local builders or anywhere you see a builders van. Builders make mess. These people need your services when they have gone. Chat to the gaffer and offer to grease his palm if he passes on your flyer / business card to the customer who in turn boosk you. If you get a booking through this referal, send him a case of beer as a thank you.

Get flyes under every car wiper in the nearest train station

walk aroudn your local area, and put them through the door of everyone that has a dirty drive / building.

Put a special offer together for all restauarants in your area - no one will eat in a restaurant that looks dirty on the outside. Offer a weekly clean for a discount, based on them committing for at least 3 months. And then do a good job of it.

Get some really good photos of "before" and "after" pictures for your website to show people what a difference it can make.

Above all, keep communicating. If something doesnt work after a week, do it again. People keep stuff and remeber stuff. Even today i had phone calls further to my "February Special Offer" newsletter, which people have kept for 7 months.

as far as cleaning goes, ive got a 121 year old 3 storey building in surrey. the front is very dirty from trafffic fumes and the patio bit needs a clean and weed killing and general tidy up of some brickwork etc. If you can help, let me know!

Hi Carl. That is an absolutely incredible post! I suddenly feel a whole lot better about the outlook of my business, although not so much about how knackered I'm going to be once I've done it all! On a serious note, I'm flabbergasted that people would go through all this effort to help me out, I can't stress how much it's appreciated. PM on the way, mate!

 

[telemax]

Based on my experience, if you made around 500 door calls in a week (it will knacker you out) you will probably end up with around 3 jobs per hundred.

You will have to deal with a couple of people telling you to get lost, but this is your business we are talking about you need to be able to take it on the chin.

However there will be those gems that make up for everything, you talk to The owner and he gives you a job there and then.

All I'm saying is, if you are a nice friendly guy it will work and at least earn you a living.

Also don't get discouraged, sometimes you need top knock on many doors before you get your first business

All the best

Jonathan

 

[Ant84]

Hi Anthony, Do You Have A Company website? A company website would appeal to a lot of customers and likely to boost your business for you as too many people now search the internet to find an answer to their problem or find a particular service... If you don't have a company website yet, its a good idea that you get one developed. You can put adds in the phone book and target some builders related magazines and other similar press...

Hi Valeri. I made a start on a website for the business a few weeks ago. Once I've got all the content I feel I should have on there, it'll be going over to my best mate whom, luckily enough, is a very proficient IT technician/web designer. He'll iron out the kinks I'm sure to leave him with, and make it look as professional as he can before publishing.

Do you have any advice on what I should include on my website, as I'm probably overlooking something major? Thanks.

 

[Ant84]

Based on my experience, if you made around 500 door calls in a week (it will knacker you out) you will probably end up with around 3 jobs per hundred.

You will have to deal with a couple of people telling you to get lost, but this is your business we are talking about you need to be able to take it on the chin.

However there will be those gems that make up for everything, you talk to The owner and he gives you a job there and then.

All I'm saying is, if you are a nice friendly guy it will work and at least earn you a living.

Also don't get discouraged, sometimes you need top knock on many doors before you get your first business

All the best

Jonathan

Thanks for the advice and encouragement, Jonathan. I'll look into getting out there and see what I can arrange by the end of the week. I like to think I'm a friendly enough guy, so here's hoping I get some work out of it!

 

[TCM]

Hi Anthony

no time like the present, if you like a few of my ideas, lets get cracking.

Existing customers -
im guessing you have a database or accounts system that you can rip names and addresses off of existing customers. Lets get a letter to them with an offer on it, valid until end November.

I will help you write some copy and give the letter an "ompfh" free of charge

Your time is too valuable to sit there folding letters into envelopes. My machines can fold, insert, envelope, seal and frank envelopes at 5000 per hour. If youve got a few hundred customers to write to, you can have use of the machine free of charge. (just pay for the postage and consumables...even I dont get those free!)

ok, so thats a few hundred letters sent. done.

That will give you enough people to call during quiet periods and chase them up, arrange meetings etc.

New customers

I have no idea where u are, but it doesnt matter.

We can reach people in only a few main ways - printed matter / fax / email / phone / Media

Printed Matter
If you want to post 20 000 flyers around, your looking at a few hundred design, 700 quid printing, and 20000 x 26p = £5200.00 postage, which is a massive £6100.00

I can point you in the direction of a company that will design, print AND DELIVER 20000 items in your chosen area for less £2000.00. Ive saved you over 4 grand already...mines a pint please ;-)

Lets get an A4 brochure, folded twice so it fits in a back pocket (that way people tend to keep hold of it). Say, 2500 for £200 plus a bit of design to make it stand out


Fax
When i know what area you are in, i can count the database and say "i have x thousand fax number of local businesses" We can fax them all with a "business facilities cleaning" offer. Not many businesses will be looking to move premises at the current time, so it makes sense they take care of what they have.

Email
Love it or hate it, emails HELP your marketing - even if they just drive people to your website. Dont correctly, there is no problems offering business services by email, PROVIDED the receiver has opted in to receive such matter. All our email data is guaranteed as such.

Our email sending system thingy (im not very technical!) is built in house and certified by many ISPs as NOT sending spam, so we get high delivery rates, AND you can see who opens the emails you send (and of course who doesnt) We dont ask you to sign a contract, and can send anything from 20 to 100 000 emails in less than 10 minutes. ( if youre interested, we charge less than £300 to send 100k emails and provide full support and tracking)

Phone
All the above can happen without much input from yourself, allowing you time to get on the phone, keep your database up to date and start talking to people. To cover more ground quickly, consider using a pro telemarketer ( there are many on the forum, and those that do this for a living will certainly get better results than people like us who busy ourselves with running a business)

Media
TV is certainly out of my budget at the moment, but if you speak to a local radio station, they are all suffering from poor business. Now has never been a better time to haggle and get some really good deals on airtime advertising on local radio.

Likewise, your local paper will throw away their rate card if you play hard ball and ask for better prices for printed advertising.


and thats about it for now. Theres more ideas, but my fingers hurt so im not typing for a bit, and im goign to have my roast chicken.

 

[Valeri]

Hi Valeri. I made a start on a website for the business a few weeks ago. Once I've got all the content I feel I should have on there, it'll be going over to my best mate whom, luckily enough, is a very proficient IT technician/web designer. He'll iron out the kinks I'm sure to leave him with, and make it look as professional as he can before publishing.

Do you have any advice on what I should include on my website, as I'm probably overlooking something major? Thanks.

Just Include the main basics about your business, abit about yourself and the services that you offer... make sure that you have all your contact details visible and easy to find... that's important... and then ofcourse do some advertising of your website, try using articles they are free to do and a good way to send some relevant and targeted traffic to your page, once you have a regular flow of traffic happening to your page you will find that your business website will get noticed in Google and other major search engines providing that your content is good

 

[homeriscool]

Hi Anthony

no time like the present, if you like a few of my ideas, lets get cracking.

Existing customers -
im guessing you have a database or accounts system that you can rip names and addresses off of existing customers. Lets get a letter to them with an offer on it, valid until end November.

I will help you write some copy and give the letter an "ompfh" free of charge

Your time is too valuable to sit there folding letters into envelopes. My machines can fold, insert, envelope, seal and frank envelopes at 5000 per hour. If youve got a few hundred customers to write to, you can have use of the machine free of charge. (just pay for the postage and consumables...even I dont get those free!)

ok, so thats a few hundred letters sent. done.

That will give you enough people to call during quiet periods and chase them up, arrange meetings etc.

New customers

I have no idea where u are, but it doesnt matter.

We can reach people in only a few main ways - printed matter / fax / email / phone / Media

Printed Matter
If you want to post 20 000 flyers around, your looking at a few hundred design, 700 quid printing, and 20000 x 26p = £5200.00 postage, which is a massive £6100.00

I can point you in the direction of a company that will design, print AND DELIVER 20000 items in your chosen area for less £2000.00. Ive saved you over 4 grand already...mines a pint please ;-)

Lets get an A4 brochure, folded twice so it fits in a back pocket (that way people tend to keep hold of it). Say, 2500 for £200 plus a bit of design to make it stand out


Fax
When i know what area you are in, i can count the database and say "i have x thousand fax number of local businesses" We can fax them all with a "business facilities cleaning" offer. Not many businesses will be looking to move premises at the current time, so it makes sense they take care of what they have.

Email
Love it or hate it, emails HELP your marketing - even if they just drive people to your website. Dont correctly, there is no problems offering business services by email, PROVIDED the receiver has opted in to receive such matter. All our email data is guaranteed as such.

Our email sending system thingy (im not very technical!) is built in house and certified by many ISPs as NOT sending spam, so we get high delivery rates, AND you can see who opens the emails you send (and of course who doesnt) We dont ask you to sign a contract, and can send anything from 20 to 100 000 emails in less than 10 minutes. ( if youre interested, we charge less than £300 to send 100k emails and provide full support and tracking)

Phone
All the above can happen without much input from yourself, allowing you time to get on the phone, keep your database up to date and start talking to people. To cover more ground quickly, consider using a pro telemarketer ( there are many on the forum, and those that do this for a living will certainly get better results than people like us who busy ourselves with running a business)

Media
TV is certainly out of my budget at the moment, but if you speak to a local radio station, they are all suffering from poor business. Now has never been a better time to haggle and get some really good deals on airtime advertising on local radio.

Likewise, your local paper will throw away their rate card if you play hard ball and ask for better prices for printed advertising.


and thats about it for now. Theres more ideas, but my fingers hurt so im not typing for a bit, and im goign to have my roast chicken.

wow what a guy! how very helpful you are, i am going to bookmark you!

 

[Hillyer]

Yes. You have made some excellent contributions Carl. I am new to marketing, and feel like an expert already after reading that post!

I hope you have had success in finding more work Anthony :]

 

[*Lexxy*]

very interesting thread, very glad someone dragged it up again!

Ant hasn't been around since mid-December, hopefully he's been too busy?! would be good to hear how he's doing...

 

[tic-tac-toe]

Apart from private residential customers have you tried contacting facilities managers for larger companies as they might use someone at the moment but looking to save money with current supplier?

What about housing associations or building / complex management companies? I didn't realise it until the other day but it's a H&S requirement that driveways of all multi-unit properties like flats need to be cleaned on a regular basis.