[Brian]

I sold a paint job last night while I was sleeping. I've never met the customer or spoken to him on the phone. I've been paid in full and we won't do the work until next week.

This is the result of a very focused direct mail campaign to 30 homes and a web page using PayPal. We are marketing around an upcoming job, and I expect to at least double the work, and probably triple it, before the campaign is done next week.

Brian Phillips

 

[Paint Works]

Brian, Can you give more detail on your campaign, I'm very interested.

Thanks
Jason

 

[Brian]

We're doing the entry gates for a gated community. While there I walked around and identified some things that needed painting, like balcony railings. We put together a mailer that we sent to each home owner. I set up a web page so they could order the service and pay via PayPal.

I offered a discount if they pre-pay with PayPal. I won't have to worry about collections.

We mailed on Friday and we've received 3 orders so far (out of 30 homes). We've also received requests for other work.

I picked things that I could easily see, and therefore price. I also picked things that wouldn't require the homeowner to be there when we do the work. It's incredibly convenient for the home owner and for me.

When we start next week we'll put a sign in the yard for each house we are working on, as well as put out door hangers. The people in this community will see our name a lot of times before we are done.

Brian Phillips

 

[KCT]

Brian, way to be. Nothing like working one area like you're gonna do. I'm a bit leery of PayPal, do you have a dedicated bank account tied to it just for that?

 

[PressurePros]

KCT, PayPal is wicked on security. They have frozen my account several times for suspicious activity. I use it for large purchases ($6000 plus) other than that it just takes money in so it raised flags. Their security always calls me on activity that goes outside the norm. They have super high encryption and are very trusted. They really have grown their user base as well. My RAD website will accept regular credit cards as well as direct payments from PayPal and at least 40% of my sales are the latter (people that have accounts). Its a great way to do business. Having their logo on your site adds credibility. You have to tie it to a bank account but PayPal has no access to your bank account unless you have insufficient funds in your PayPal to pay fees.

Brian, you coupled very specific, very targeted advertising campaign with an easy button. Thats a winner every day. Nice job. Killer return.

 

[Dave Mac]

Brian

Very nice and thanks for sharing. general question about what type of comments you put on the hangers. Do you actually list the adress, and name of the people whear your working??? or just state your in the neighborhood?? or it really doesnt matter lol.

thanks
dave mac

 

[timhag]

Brian

Very nice and thanks for sharing. general question about what type of comments you put on the hangers. Do you actually list the adress, and name of the people whear your working??? or just state your in the neighborhood?? or it really doesnt matter lol.

thanks
dave mac

Thats a good Q, I just had some post cards made up. I've been writing down the address of homes that need exterior painting. I have several addresses and been dumb about how to address them. This is my first time trying this method.

 

[Brian]

Brian

Very nice and thanks for sharing. general question about what type of comments you put on the hangers. Do you actually list the adress, and name of the people whear your working??? or just state your in the neighborhood?? or it really doesnt matter lol.

thanks
dave mac

Dave,

We aren't putting an address down because we are working on the entry gates-- at least that was the initial project. We'll have signs up at the gates, plus signs in the yards where we are working on individual homes.

We're going to hand out door hangers that just say we are in the neighborhood. That way I could get a bunch printed at once.

This started as a 1.5 day job. It's now 3 days and growing.

timhag-- You might be able to look up the owner's name in the tax records. That's how we did it.

Brian Phillips

 

[timhag]

Dave,

timhag-- You might be able to look up the owner's name in the tax records. That's how we did it.

Brian Phillips

Thanks Brian

This is the post card JMCP came up with for my company, what are your thoughts? Sorry for the low quality pic.

 

[JNLP]

timhag-- You might be able to look up the owner's name in the tax records. That's how we did it.

You could also just goto http://www.whitepages.com/reverse-lookup & type in the address under Reverse Address. It will give you the listed name & also the zip code.

* If you don't add the house number when doing the search, it will display all the neighbors too.

 

[Dave Mac]

Thanks Brian

This is the post card JMCP came up with for my company, what are your thoughts? Sorry for the low quality pic.

Tim, Im no expert, I think the coupons are way to low, and maybe should be a % instead of a dollar amount. It looks pretty good, Im always tweaking mine, I really like putting on that I am a member of BBB, I think it adds a lot of creditablility. Just getting them out their is a huge plus, and changing them as time goes on is the way it seems to work for me.

Now keep in mind this is jmo and I have had no great results, with my own, so take it for that.

dave mac

 

[Rich]

Very cool post card Tim! I really like it and haven't seen one like it yet!
Since you have decided to offer a discount, I think 10% may be better. $40 off a $2000 paintjob ain't squat, you know?

...great card though

 

[Wing 54]

I spent yesterday afternoon hanging flyers on community boards and visiting motels and REALTORS. 1 REALTOR handles all area foreclosures and was going to be needing cleaning and painting. 1 motel was going to be doing 1 floor of rooms this summer and manager had painting at home was gonna try to talk her hubby into hiring me.

Wing 54

 

[Wing 54]

Ooops forgot, thanks for the great ideas Brian and Tim.

Wing 54

 

[HomeGuardPaints]

:yes: Call 421-628 5XXX for a good time.:yes:


Brian-Good idea with the targeted mailing. Just out of curiosity did you actually write a proposal for each house or did you just include the price in a letter format?

oh and the blog is great, read it everyday.

 

[timhag]

Thanks guys for the feed back. I hear ya on the % thing. I only ordered 500 for $55. I'll going fishing with these and see what happens. My next order will be % discounts.

 

[NEPS.US]

Thanks guys for the feed back. I hear ya on the % thing. I only ordered 500 for $55. I'll going fishing with these and see what happens. My next order will be % discounts.

You may just want to cut out the "discount" all together....Maybe do it before the holidays....If you send them out on a regular basis (quarterly) maybe do discounts in the fall....set up your winter. I think you will be surprised how much of a response you get .... I use a MLS service to get the correct addresses (has a public records option). Also send them to "resident" instead or the name of the homeowner...you will waste alot of money in the cards and postage once cards start to "return to sender" if you have the wrong name or they have moved. I try to flag nice neighborhoods.... you may find that you can stike gold in 1 neighborhood and spend the summer there.... nice looking card!

 

[timhag]

You may just want to cut out the "discount" all together....Maybe do it before the holidays....If you send them out on a regular basis (quarterly) maybe do discounts in the fall....set up your winter. I think you will be surprised how much of a response you get .... I use a MLS service to get the correct addresses (has a public records option). Also send them to "resident" instead or the name of the homeowner...you will waste alot of money in the cards and postage once cards start to "return to sender" if you have the wrong name or they have moved. I try to flag nice neighborhoods.... you may find that you can stike gold in 1 neighborhood and spend the summer there.... nice looking card!

Thanks brother. There are lots of new housing plans going up around here. Thought that would be a nice target area. All these home are being built with only a coat of flat white. Eventually they will all want to add color. Has anybody else had success targeting these areas?

 

[vermontpainter]

TH

You are dead on with that, the development white washes that need custom colors...great target. Its like painting over primer.

 

[timhag]

.... you may find that you can stike gold in 1 neighborhood and spend the summer there.... !

That happens alot with us. We start a house on one street, end up doing the neighborhood.:thumbsup: