Drake

New Member
Is your power washing company stuck in the 100-500k range? Let Drake business consulting come in and help you get to the next level. Drake is a new business founded by the owner of the biggest power washing company in the DC metro area. This company has been is business for nearly 20 years and has been a million dollar plus company per year focusing on mostly residential work. We are planning to do seminars in the spring/summer of 2012 but in the meantime have decided to help individual businesses one at a time. We can come to your site directly and set you up with the same business model we used to get us too over a million a year in sales. Please let us know if you have any interest or questions. We guarantee that we will show you the way to expand. We are not working with clients within 75 miles of dc, thank you
 

vcap

New Member
Drake,
I have a powerwash business on Long Island,N.Y. that is based on fleet washing but I am very interested in expanding to flat work,etc. I am interested in talking to you about you helping me do that. You can e-mail me at vcap55 @aol.com.
 

mbpw

New Member
Drake,
I am new to the forum and would like to talk to you about your services and the costs. Thanks
 

Doug Rucker

PWN ADMIN TEAM -
Staff member
Guys be careful. Drake joined us in June and has made two posts, both advertsing his business. Not saying he is not legitimate, but we have many guy's here that have been in this business for years, and contribute a lot to this forum. Any of us will be glad to help you in any way we can. If you have some questions post em up here and you will get lot's of opinions and advice and many of that you will be able to use. best part is it's all free. ALso, I am sure any of us will be glad to help you on the phone too. I know I will.
 

Scott Stone

New Member
You will also notice that the two people that responded, responded on their first post. My thinking is, a little promotion by creating interest isn't a bad marketing ploy.
 

Doug Rucker

PWN ADMIN TEAM -
Staff member
You will also notice that the two people that responded, responded on their first post. My thinking is, a little promotion by creating interest isn't a bad marketing ploy.

Didn't notice that Scott, and your right, not a bad a ploy at all. But no follow up marketing???? HMMMMMM
 

mbpw

New Member
Doug,

Thanks for your words of warning. I was looking to talk to someone who has had good success with Postcards using a systematic method to get the best results. I was looking for specific information rather than general information about postcards. There are plenty of articles on the internet about using postcards that don't really give you enough detail.

I've used postcards in the past for marketing and I found that they work very well but I didn't do the marketing in a systematic way to get the best results. For example, I did not try different versions of the postcards and track the results. I purchased 5000 postcards all at one time from Postcardmania.com because that was the minimum number they would sell. I listened to their so called "Marketing Experts" and did what they told me to do. Postcardmania mailed them for me over a 3 week period to different names on a list I purchased from InfoUSA. Once I got busy with work, I didn't followup with tracking and tweaking the postcard copy to try to improve my results. In all fairness to them, they do have articles on their website that say to mail out smaller quantities and track and tweak the postcard but you still have to buy a minimum of 5000 postcards. That was too expensive to send out 5000 postcards and then try another 5000 so I did not try different versions.

Since then, I have found that I can purchase smaller quantities from Gotprint.com at a reasonable prices. Of course the biggest expense is the postage. But I just recently discovered the Post Office's "Every Door Direct Mail" program in which you can mail a minimum of 200 pieces for 14.2 cents a piece.

Anyway, I was looking to talk to someone who has mastered the above and could share their method with me.
 

Doug Rucker

PWN ADMIN TEAM -
Staff member
Bill, I have been doing postcards for years, though I have not mastered it. And your right, postcards will work, but they must be done in the right way. My opinon on post cards is they mus be simple. Here are some of my thoughts on psot cards and hopefully others will chime in.

1) I have sent post cards that tout all my services but the ones that seem to do best are the ones that are very simple and advertise one specific service that I do. Like a "ROOF CLEANING" card or a "DRIVE WAY CLEANING CARD" etc etc.

2) Plan your post card to arrive on the day that the neighborhood DOES NOT receive junk mail. For instance in my area, junl mail ay is every Tuesday. Also it seem's I get better response the closer to the weekend that they receive them.

3) Make sure you have call to action, like a discount if they call before a certain date.

4) When possible I mail a post card to a street that I will be on in advance of the day I'll be there cleaning. I time it to arrrive 2-3 days before I am on the street. Then I follow up again with another mailing a couple days after. This way the homeowners on my street see my postcard before I arrive, see my truck while I am cleaning, and then see a post card again. I sue the local property appraisers web site to get specific addresses or streets I want to mail to. I also use zillow and white pages.com as well.

The postal service every door campaign is a great one. It's kind of an old service they have had for years but are really promoting it again. Can't beat the prices, plus you can target whatever neighborhood you want.

I have got to head out to a job now. Feel free to call me later this afternoon or evening and I'll be happy to discuss some more with you if you want.
 

vcap

New Member
Never had a reason to post befor. Been washing trucks for over 20 years and really want to change up to flat work. Lot of work here in NY on Long Island but never took advantage. Was looking for insight on how to make the change . I've been doing awnings,decks and some houses but only as additional work,was always focused on trucks. Tons of decks,awnings,sidewalks,parking lots ,etc here just was lookin for some help to get into that kind of work in a big way . Tired of fleet washing!
 

archie_MN

Moderator
A good friend of mine works in corporate advertising....he told me almost exactly what Doug just said.
1 Be specific
2 Call to Action (Ask for Business)
3 Repetition (If you're trying to saturate a specific area, hit them at least 3 times in 2 months. Yard signs and badging on your vehicle count as 1 of them, as long as you're there when it's visible. I'm working my way into a neighborhood of about 2,000 homes with over 80% GM infestation. I've mailed twice since June 1, and I like to do a few jobs on Saturdays to increase visibility. So far....8 roofs )

The only exception I'd offer to Doug's suggestion is that I never offer a discount until I quote a price. Otherwise you might give the impression that you're inflating the price to discount it. You know that feeling, when you're at the store and you lift up the "Sale" tag to see if you're actually saving anything. There are special circumstances (i.e. volume deals, holiday deals, deadline deals, etc.).


Also, new fellas, please fill out your profile and signature info (house rules).
 

dave mac

New Member
Doug I change it up, I currently offer a free gutter scrub with a time line, I may change that to a free sidewalk in the future, the basic lay out stays the same, but always tweaking, and at the top of the page in bold letters is what we do not my company name. I get a lot of feedback from clients and the things they say the most about hiring us from out flier are the following.

1. We see your flier all the time so we know we can trust you.
2. We see you are rated applies with BBB
3. you are insured

the thing with postcards and fliers is they take some time to work,at least a month of weekly delivering before results come in,IMO
 

New Look

Registerd User
Where you all getting your snail mail addresses? Are you targeting any demographics such as a particular zip code. If your house file is coming from multiple sources are you getting the file to go through a merge-purge before paying for it. Merge purge at the source drops duplicated addresses or incomplete addresses. Of course you want it ran against the NCOA house file as well. If you are having a mail house do the actual mailing make sure you request that you be permitted to insert "seed addresses". Seed addresses are addresses that you pick out (friends/family/business) where you will know that the actual mail piece was mailed. Mail houses have been known to say they mailed out your 10,000 postcards but how can you be sure? If you are doing your own mailing then the above scenario (seed addresses) do not apply.

There are other things to consider such as using a broker if you are doing volume mailings. With that terms such as 1 month, 3 month hotlines, reuse order, 1/2 price test come into play and should be thrown out there for consideration when dealing with a list broker.

Enjoy!!!!
 

Doug Rucker

PWN ADMIN TEAM -
Staff member
Postcards are way too expensive. There are much better options for the money.

Joey, When you get a chance please fill in your signature line. You can do this by going to the top of the page and Click on Settings, on the left side of the page, under My Settings, click on Edit Signature, and fill in your name, company name, phone number, and web site address if you have one, and then click Save Signature.

It's a little forum rule we have to help us identify each other.
 

archie_MN

Moderator
Postcards are way too expensive. There are much better options for the money.

When you decide exactly what you want on your card, shop them around.
I get my double sided high gloss 5x7's for less than $.03 each, and my 1 sided direct mailers 4x6's for about $.04 (without postage).

Carlos, I've been getting my addresses from a little local ad firm, for about $.10 each. The data comes with name(s), address, and last year's tax value of the home. I specify zip(s), minimum value, and max value to him, and he pumps em out 5,000 at a time. All that info is free public record, I just don't have the time to find the lists and sort through them.
 

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