Hello,
I am guessing most of us who started with mark do this on a part time basis. Just curious, What have you tried for marketing? Did something work well? Did something work poorly? Do you find it hard to come up with a good marketing plan when you do this part time? For me I have found that magnetic business cards are a must. Its best to just talk to everyone you know abut your businss. Talk to the lady of the house. She is the decision maker when it comes to carpet cleaning. I am about to launch a spot cleaner give away promotion. I have not tried postcards,flyers,doorhangers,newspaper, yellowpages. Any one else care to share?
Steve Shimek
gosh there is SOooo MUCH free info on the net for marketing CC'ing.
i'd recommend not going YP (yellowpages), especially if your doing this parttime. the only YP that might be necessary is not an ad, but just 1 line with your name and number and that's it. when you purchase a business line, this comes free (least in my YP phone book).
so many ideas i;ve read that i'd be here for hours typing. best thing to do is goto a couple of other professional forums and use the Search feature and type up : Marketing
Hi Steve and Derek
Once again Derek is a wealth of useful information.
He did leave out, however, the website www.ocibr.com.
It is devoted just to c.c. mktg.
Possibly you want to add more commercial customers to
your mix. Charlie in Auburn ME recently posted here
that he just introduces himself, explains briefly
what his business does, and leaves some printed
material aimed at the decision maker. My own best
results in gaining new commercial customers have
occurred when I have used someone to call and make
appointments for me to go out and do demos at
commercial properties likely to have carpeted
premises. This individual has since moved away, and
as a result my commercial numbers have been declining.
I'm now trying to locate a similar individual.
He/she should be personable, maybe have some business
or sales background. You could pay him/her an
hourly rate, a percentage of each new job, or some
combination of the two.
Here's what has worked for us: a weekly mailer, thank yous after every job with referral cards, a free room for new clients, a formal referral rewards program.
