co-op advertising - Construction Websites

November 8 2010

Close More Business in a Down Economy

Darren Marketing & Advertising Advertising, Brand Building, Brand Management, co-op advertising, Marketing & Advertising, Marketing and Advertising

Last week I did a post on using co-op advertising to offset some of your advertising costs. I hope you took my advice and got your ass moving because like I said in that post, co-op dollars usually expire at the end of the year. But, if you didn’t feel inspired by that post, maybe this will help.

Clients don’t care about you

Don’t get me wrong, they don’t wish you harm, but to them, you are just the company that is going to install this or repair that. What they do care about, especially in a down economy, are brand name products.

Sure they are going to smack you around on price, but at the end of the day, when times are tough, people look for quality products from brands they trust, so use that to your advantage in your marketing.

How to mix that into your marketing

Let’s say you are marketing hot water heater replacements in a direct mail campaign. As a home owner, I don’t know the first thing about replacing a hot water heater, but I do know that Bradford White brand heaters are pretty good. As a marketer, I also know that Bradford White will reimburse up to 50% of the cost your ad.

So play both sides against the middle

If you know a particular brand is popular in your area, find out what co-op is available to you, then advertise the hell out of it knowing you will be getting a good chunk of that money back in a reimbursement.

In the end, clients are happy because they are getting a product they know from a name they can trust, and you’re happy because you leveraged the advertising of a multi-billion dollar manufacturer to close a deal. Everybody wins, now get to work!

November 2 2010

Use OPM to Market Your Business

Darren Marketing & Advertising Ad Campaigns, Advertising, Brand Building, co-op advertising, Marketing & Advertising, Marketing and Advertising, Online Advertising

I’ve gotten a lot of e-mails lately asking how much contractors should spend on advertising, which has led to an informal series of posts on the topic. But let’s face it, there’s no fun in watching ad budgets, you want to spend as much as you can to let the world know about your good name right?

Enter co-op advertising!

Thousands of manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers from almost every product you can think of in the trades sets aside a little scratch to give to contractors like you to be used in your construction marketing program. Co-op funding, short for cooperative, is second only to referrals as the best way to get new clients or customers for your contracting company, and even better if you are in startup mode.

Unfortunately, many of you either don’t know about co-op programs or how to use them to your advantage. Or maybe you didn’t even know that you had money available to you? Maybe your distributor told you in the past that you didn’t buy enough to qualify. Well, I am here to tell you, manufacturers want their products sold and you probably do have dollars waiting for your somewhere, you just need to start asking your suppliers.

What’s the downside?

Well, one of the disadvantages to co-op is that it is riddled with paperwork and is a bit of a pain in the ass to administrate. So if you suck on the paperwork side of the house, you better let someone else manage it, but don’t not do it. Using co-op the right way will give you an opportunity to move your company forward while using someone else’s nickel to do it. Just know that it’s going to take a bit of work, but in the end free advertising is free advertising.

How do you get paid?

Well, co-op programs are like snowflakes with all kinds of restrictions, but reimbursement typically takes the form in one of three ways (there are others):

Cash reimbursement — Provide proof to that your ads ran and your co-op vendor cuts you a check, easy peasy.
Discounted merchandise — You get a discount equal to the amount of your reimbursement applied to future product orders. Not as great as cash, but still pretty good.
Free product — Kind of the same thing as discounted merchandise, except here your entire order is gratis. Still not cash, but free product is as good as free advertising!

To me, it doesn’t matter what type of reimbursement I am getting from a supplier, it’s like finding cash on the street, and all I had to do was fill out some forms and follow a few guidelines. So the next time you go to the supply house or call your vendors, ask them what you have available to use, and do it quick, since a lot of co-op cash get forfeited at the end of the year and the meter starts all over again on Jan 1.