The easiest way to beat your competition and get away from competing on price is by offering something your competition doesn’t. One of the easiest things to do is offer a better warranty or guarantee on labor. If the marketplace dictates 5 years on labor, go to 10. Go to 25.

Whatever it takes to outshine your competition. It won’t cost you much more in repair work if you are as good as your advertising says you are, so put your money where your mouth is and beat the snot out of your competition and don’t let the trunk slammers keep nipping at your heels just because they can offer a lower price.

If you are trying to figure out how to get it all done; the work during the day, the accounting at night, the marketing on the weekends, let us help. We provide construction marketing services to contractors trying to figure out how to get it all done through our Contractor’s Toolbox suite of construction marketing campaigns.

If you have the ability to turn your sales process into a solutions-based system that gets people what they want, you can cut down your sales cycle, keep your margins and close more business. Or you can just keep selling more square feet or a better countertop. Up to you.

Let’s face it, running your own business is more than a full-time job. Raising kids is more than a full-time job. Maintaining your relationship with your spouse is a full-time job. During this busy season, spend some time caring for and feeding your relationships too.

One of my recent newsletter topics talked about vision. How developing and running your business based on a vision was key to your success. How once you get buried in the minutia that is your day to day running of your business, you could find yourself losing your vision.

The topic hit home…

I had a client contact me later in the day to ask to help her develop her company’s vision. And that’s where the story ends.

Here’s why

I can’t help you develop your vision. Your vision is your own. It’s why you got into business in the first place. It’s what made you tell your last employer to go fuck themselves, that you could do it better and you weren’t going to take it anymore.

Your vision is your North Star

People try to hire me all the time to help them create their tagline or motto. I tell them to keep their money, that isn’t my job. It’s no one’s job other than the very person willing to pay someone else to create it for them.

I can’t GIVE you or CREATE for you YOUR vision. You have to own that shit. Otherwise, it won’t mean anything to you. Your vision and your motto and your tagline are what you are going to use to motivate your ass to get out of bed on some shitty Saturday morning when you don’t want to.

Your vision is going to be what keeps you focused when you are thinking about expanding, buying or building another business or service.

Your vision is going to be what helps you find your way home when you’ve stopped listening to it for too long and you need to refocus the business and get your shit together…or you won’t.

And that is when you will go out of business

Most businesses succeed or fail by either executing on or forgetting their primary vision. Sure, plenty run out of money or close when they can’t adjust to the shifting tide of a fickle consumer market, but if you dig deep enough, it is because they forgot or ignored what should have been the cornerstone of their business. Their vision.

 

 

With inexpensive online marketing opportunities presenting a multitude of options for modern contractor advertising, you may think that there is no longer a place for traditional direct mail. While it is important to build the online presence of your company, direct mail can be a vital element of your marketing strategy if used wisely. Direct mail is an effective local marketing tool that can be used to target prospective clients in closest proximity to your business.

Direct mail can be more effective than email campaigns.

Email may be easier to send out to thousands of people with a small investment of your marketing budget, but direct mail is often kept longer and has a higher response rate if your target audience is chosen with care. Email is often deleted before it is even opened; you can design your direct mail to have a greater impact than that.

Direct mail will increase your online success.

Your website, social media profiles, and blog should be featured in your direct mailings, giving readers a way to find more information about your business. QR codes are a great way to do this because many people are curious to discover what is hidden behind the maze of black and white.

Direct mail drives sales at your physical location.

Including a coupon or special offer on your direct mail does two things: increases the likelihood that your mailing will be kept around longer and gets people in your door to take advantage of the offered savings. Direct mailings will increase sales at your store.

Direct mail increases online sales.

Because direct mail can be effectively used to guide people to your website and online store, it also increases online sales. Include online only promo codes if your goal is to increase website traffic.
Direct mail is ideal for local coverage.

With programs like the US Post Office’s Every Door Direct Mail, you can inexpensively saturate your local market with your message. If you are simply looking to put your name in front of a large audience, few marketing strategies are more effective than a blanket direct mail campaign.

Targeted campaigns enable you to customize your message.

Direct mail is more than the standard flyer addressed to “resident.” Do some research into your area to plan targeted mailings that are customized to specific audiences. For example, you could send one mailing to new homeowners, another to those living in apartments, and a third to families with small children. Developing separate campaigns for different groups of prospective customers greatly increases the effectiveness of your campaign.

Strengthen your brand with direct mail.

You have invested in a quality logo and company message. The more you put it in front of your community, the more people will remember your name and connect your company with a need for the services and products that you provide. They see it on your company car, your signage, your billboards, and on the postcards that they get in the mail.

Direct mail gives you complete control of your message.

If you are advertising through other print methods, such as newspaper ads, you have control only over your tiny square of space. If an editor decides to place your ad next to an inappropriate article or your competitor’s advertisement, you won’t know until the damage is already done.

A direct mailing campaign increases the effectiveness of your other marketing efforts.

A customized postcard or letter is a great follow-up for other contact with your customers. For example, you can send a mailing to guests at an event, the past year’s customers, or those who have responded to other advertisements. By using all of the marketing tools you have at your disposal, you are more certain of a positive effect.

Direct mail won’t be redirected to a spam folder.

Email campaigns are great for reaching a large number of people at once, but a portion of the people on your list never see your message. Because many email systems have filters or automatic spam settings, many of the people who receive your email won’t know it. With direct mail, you know that your prospective customers have your message placed in their hands where it is up to them what they would like to do with it.