fireandrain
New Member
Thanks for the input on my new postcard advertising image, I appreciate your input!
Hi Guys, the following is just to share some of my experience when it comes to successfully marketing a residential pressure washing business.
Most of my target market brings in over 150K p/year and own homes valued between 1-2 million. These people are less interested in "monthly discounts" or specials, and more interested in a contractor that is actually going to show up on time and execute the project as promised. I mean, all prospective clients want that level of service, but these big ticket clients EXPECT it. I think because of their socioecomonic status, they believe that they are entitled to top notch service delivered on-time, and with a smile!
Frankly, I think that everyone deserves this level of service. The bottom line is that my target market out here is willing to pay top $ for a superb experience with a contractor. Alot of guys out here still show up an hour late to do their bid (wasting clients time,again), and jot down their price on blank piece of pape, or just mumble to the client, "Sure, I can do it fer two-fifty, pretty sure I can get it to it this week sometime"...
Sorry Im on such a rant, maybe Im gettin' off point a bnit, but I think in order to be successful as any sort of tradesman, you need to understand your target market. I'd rather spend the same $5K advertising on a more frequent basis to a select # of "target homes" than blow it on mailing the same qty. of postcards to a larger # of homes that don't really represent my target market.
Obviously, not all of us live near the kind of high-end client that is less concerned with price and more concerned with a "pleasant" shopping experience. The median price of homes out here is in the 600-700K range. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find a single home in my target area here that is worth less than $1 million.
Sorry about the long rant on targeting your market, but I just wanted to share my experience out here. If your target market is saturated with budget-minded homeowners, than I definitely think its imperative that you include, if not feature, advertising that includes "monthly special", or coupons and the like. However, if you have access to the big ticket clients, than its more important that you distinguish yourself from all of the other generic looking mailers. Give them something that is pretty to look at! My target client is the soccer mom who drives the 4 kids to soccer practice everyday and handles all of the home maintenance hiring for the husband who is busy trading stocks all day in the big city. When she opens her mailbox, Volvo still idling in the 3-car garage driveway, she wants to set her tired eyes on something "pretty", see some attractive colors, nice photos of houses like her own. She doesn't want to be assaulted with a thousand words that bark at her about opportunities to save $,etc...
So something simple, thats what I go for with my advertisements. And, ALWAYS full color direct mailer postcards, the big ones 6x9" not the little 4x6's where you can barely read the print or see the pictures. I know everyone has their opinions when it comes to advertising, but I NEVER advertise in the yellow pages. I think its a huge waste of $. Its all about distinguishing your services from the 'other guys'. Why then would you spend your hard earned profits tossing your name into a list with your competitors.
If you have a ton of $ and can afford to diversify your advertising so much to do yellow pages as well as direct mailers,etc, then more power to you, but if your like me, and really need to stretch your advertising dollar, than focus on a single target market defined by its average income (the higher the better) and its location. Just one mans opinion, but I think the fastest and most cost effective path to success as a contractor is to really spend some quality time studying your target market. Once you think you got a grip on it, hit them with multiple rounds of attractive full color advertisements ( again my favorite is the 6x9 postcard) Your #1 objective,in my opinion, is to instantly distinguish your biz from the other guys. Invest your money on inventing top-drawer advertisements, not on usps postage sending a half-ass postcard to everyone in town. Again, quality, not quantity.
One more thing, and I know most of the pros in here know this one well, but, I think ill mention it anyways. ALWAYS feature before/after pics on your advertisements. I mean, most of my clients have no idea what kind of potential their properties have when it comes to getting all cleaned up. Spending money on an advertisement that doesn't have any pictures on it, is like drafting a pitcher to the big leagues without looking at his minor league E.R.A.! (Sorry, had get at least one baseball metaphor in there! I never go to a job site without my trusty $100 digital camera on hand. Gotta capture all the pics! I keep a folder on my computer which keeps a visual record of all my past jobs on it. Great for selling jobs to new clients as well as a using for future advertisement ideas.
Wow! guess my 3 cups of Sunday morning coffee finally kicked in! Well, gotta head out to my work shed to play around with my new Deckster! Can't wait to see it in action this week!
Have a Great Week Guys and Gals!
Hi Guys, the following is just to share some of my experience when it comes to successfully marketing a residential pressure washing business.
Most of my target market brings in over 150K p/year and own homes valued between 1-2 million. These people are less interested in "monthly discounts" or specials, and more interested in a contractor that is actually going to show up on time and execute the project as promised. I mean, all prospective clients want that level of service, but these big ticket clients EXPECT it. I think because of their socioecomonic status, they believe that they are entitled to top notch service delivered on-time, and with a smile!
Frankly, I think that everyone deserves this level of service. The bottom line is that my target market out here is willing to pay top $ for a superb experience with a contractor. Alot of guys out here still show up an hour late to do their bid (wasting clients time,again), and jot down their price on blank piece of pape, or just mumble to the client, "Sure, I can do it fer two-fifty, pretty sure I can get it to it this week sometime"...
Sorry Im on such a rant, maybe Im gettin' off point a bnit, but I think in order to be successful as any sort of tradesman, you need to understand your target market. I'd rather spend the same $5K advertising on a more frequent basis to a select # of "target homes" than blow it on mailing the same qty. of postcards to a larger # of homes that don't really represent my target market.
Obviously, not all of us live near the kind of high-end client that is less concerned with price and more concerned with a "pleasant" shopping experience. The median price of homes out here is in the 600-700K range. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find a single home in my target area here that is worth less than $1 million.
Sorry about the long rant on targeting your market, but I just wanted to share my experience out here. If your target market is saturated with budget-minded homeowners, than I definitely think its imperative that you include, if not feature, advertising that includes "monthly special", or coupons and the like. However, if you have access to the big ticket clients, than its more important that you distinguish yourself from all of the other generic looking mailers. Give them something that is pretty to look at! My target client is the soccer mom who drives the 4 kids to soccer practice everyday and handles all of the home maintenance hiring for the husband who is busy trading stocks all day in the big city. When she opens her mailbox, Volvo still idling in the 3-car garage driveway, she wants to set her tired eyes on something "pretty", see some attractive colors, nice photos of houses like her own. She doesn't want to be assaulted with a thousand words that bark at her about opportunities to save $,etc...
So something simple, thats what I go for with my advertisements. And, ALWAYS full color direct mailer postcards, the big ones 6x9" not the little 4x6's where you can barely read the print or see the pictures. I know everyone has their opinions when it comes to advertising, but I NEVER advertise in the yellow pages. I think its a huge waste of $. Its all about distinguishing your services from the 'other guys'. Why then would you spend your hard earned profits tossing your name into a list with your competitors.
If you have a ton of $ and can afford to diversify your advertising so much to do yellow pages as well as direct mailers,etc, then more power to you, but if your like me, and really need to stretch your advertising dollar, than focus on a single target market defined by its average income (the higher the better) and its location. Just one mans opinion, but I think the fastest and most cost effective path to success as a contractor is to really spend some quality time studying your target market. Once you think you got a grip on it, hit them with multiple rounds of attractive full color advertisements ( again my favorite is the 6x9 postcard) Your #1 objective,in my opinion, is to instantly distinguish your biz from the other guys. Invest your money on inventing top-drawer advertisements, not on usps postage sending a half-ass postcard to everyone in town. Again, quality, not quantity.
One more thing, and I know most of the pros in here know this one well, but, I think ill mention it anyways. ALWAYS feature before/after pics on your advertisements. I mean, most of my clients have no idea what kind of potential their properties have when it comes to getting all cleaned up. Spending money on an advertisement that doesn't have any pictures on it, is like drafting a pitcher to the big leagues without looking at his minor league E.R.A.! (Sorry, had get at least one baseball metaphor in there! I never go to a job site without my trusty $100 digital camera on hand. Gotta capture all the pics! I keep a folder on my computer which keeps a visual record of all my past jobs on it. Great for selling jobs to new clients as well as a using for future advertisement ideas.
Wow! guess my 3 cups of Sunday morning coffee finally kicked in! Well, gotta head out to my work shed to play around with my new Deckster! Can't wait to see it in action this week!
Have a Great Week Guys and Gals!
