Postcard marketing can be VERY profitable for a cleaning biz.
Client Postcard/Newsletter
* Postcards are easy to mail
* You can reach your EXACT target prospect
* Flexible budget- spend as little as $100 or as much $10k
* Return on investment can be as high as 8-to-1 (or higher)
These days, the a common mistake is, “I’m cutting my postcard marketing and doing email marketing instead”. HUGE MISTAKE! Postcards are king of cleaning advertising. Regularly mailing postcards to clients and targeted neighborhoods is one of the smartest things you can do.
Mistake #1: Not understanding your different mailing options. First class is great for a small mailing of fewer than 200. Bulk mail is best for mailing to your current clients or a specific mailing list. Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) is great to target entire neighborhoods with postcards over 6.5×9 inches even if you don’t have a mailing list.
Mistake #2: Spending too much money on printing. Printers charge a huge range of prices. If you’re paying more than $50 to have 1000 full color 4×6 inch postcards printed, you’re paying too much. Find a reliable, quality printer with good prices. This is one area where saving money equals more profit.
Mistake #3: Sending out a postcard with NO offer or unique sales message. Why spend the time and money with postcards if the postcard isn’t designed to sell your cleaning services. Include an irresistible offer and set your company apart from the competition.
Mistake #4: Mailing to new prospects only and neglecting your current clients. This is the biggest mistake. Your current clients are your gold mine. Don’t let them forget you. Mail newsletters or postcards to all your clients every one to two months. I promise your repeat client rate and referrals will explode.
Mistake #5: Doing the postcard design, printing, and labeling yourself. You can waste time trying to do this yourself. But you can also waste money. Printing postcards on your own printer is expensive. If you have this done efficiently, you can actually save money over doing this yourself. In the Hitman Coaching Club, we do the graphic design for you, help you facilitate your mailing and even get you BIG discounts off printing. We can even get the postcards labeled for you and save you money on postage.
My guess is you’re not sending mailers to your clients every month because:
1. You think it’s too hard.
2. You think it’s too expensive.
NOT TRUE any more!
Client postcards and newsletters are the best advertising you can do.
And I’ve worked on a way for you to have it completely done for you. You can get the newsletters written and designed for you by us. And it’s cheap enough for ANY cleaning company to afford.
Here are some price examples since many of you asked:
8.5 x 5.5 inch large postcard
8.5 x 5.5 inch Postcard on 14pt Gloss Coated Cover with UV
500 $76
1000 $88
2500 $152
5000 $203
4 x 6 inch Postcard on 14pt Gloss Coated Cover with UV
500 $41
1000 $45
2500 $83
5000 $124
8.5 x 11 inch client newsletter
8.5 x 11 inch tri-folded newsletter on 100lb Gloss Book with Aqueous Coating
500 $106
1000 $135
2500 $177
5000 $230
*All printing is in full color on both sides and are before shipping. Prices are subject to change.
There is a small fee to have these labeled and shipped for you at a discounted rate. You don’t even need a bulk mail permit! The labeling fees are usually a flat $90 for less than 2500 postcards. And the postage is about 25 cents per mail piece.
For 39 cents per piece, you could have 2500 large 8.5 x 5.5 inch postcard printed, labeled, and mailed…out the door.
For 46 cents per piece you could have 2500 8.5 x 11 inch client newsletters printed, tri-folded, tabbed, labeled and mailed.
You get this kind of discounted printed and help getting your mailing done in Hitman’s Coaching Club.
Q: Should I mail newsletters or postcards to my clients?
A: I recommend both. But there are some pluses and minuses about
each. Historically, I’ve recommend postcards over newsletter due
to postcards having a cheaper cost and ease of use.
But there are some new factors to consideration.
1. Newsletters need to be tabbed. Tabbing adds cost to the mailing.
2. Tabs can prohibit the reader form seeing your entire mailer.
Do both. Newsletters can be great for mailing to clients. Postcards can be great too. My recommendation is to do a mixture of each, but you may decide to mail postcards a little more often than newsletters. After all, the important thing is to touch base with your clients regularly.
Below is an infographic I created for you. It’s got some of the basics about using Bulk Mail to mail clients postcards and newsletters.
Mailing to your clients is easily the #1 thing you should be doing to get referrals and repeat business. If you spend ANY money on advertising this month, mail to your clients FIRST.
Hands down, mailing to your current clients is the #1 best advertising you can do! That’s one thing that most every marketing expert agrees on.
It can be expensive to mail, so many cleaners avoid doing it.
But now you don’t have an excuse.
You can mail what I call newsletter/postcards to your clients for as little as 30 cents a piece. That’s about 25 cents for postage and 5 cents for printing. By the way, we get our coaching club members some of the best printing prices for a super deep discount.
Email marketing is great. You’ll be hearing more about email marketing from me soon. But it does NOT replace good old fashioned snail mailed postcards and newsletters!
Here’s an infographic I just created that will show you at a glance the best ways to mail different kinds of postcards.
It’s SUPER important to mail the right way. If you don’t, you could be spending a lot of extra money unnecessarily. Use this graphic as a basic guideline for mailing postcards. You may even want to print it out and keep it with you in your office.
Hitman Advertising, an advertising firm for cleaning companies, is holding a contest where one winner gets a contest set up for their cleaning business free. The contest is running through March 12, 2013.
Contests can do some great things for a carpet cleaning company. First, it can increase traffic to their website and Facebook page. Second, it can help increase search engine ranking. And last, it can help increase brand awareness about the company.
Since contests can be done very inexpensively, and even for free, it is a very attractive option for most carpet cleaning businesses. The problem is, the contest does need to be set up properly to generate the type of buzz desired. Depending on the type of contest software used, the contest can be connected to a Facebook page. As well, it can be mandatory that the contestant “Like” the Facebook page prior to official entry. Many contests allow for additional entries if the contestant tells friends about the contest. It’s all about making the contest go viral.
John Braun, head of Hitman Advertising, said, “Cleaning companies need to be aware of the power of contests on Facebook and the Internet. If this is ignored, you’re marketing in the stone age. The days of relying on the yellow pages are over. It’s time for all companies to connect online with their prospective clients.”
Hitman Advertising helps cleaning companies all over the world target clients profitably. They train cleaners on how to better use the Internet and increase online presence. As well, they provide complete packages that help companies get clients online. For more information, visit www.Hitmanadvertising.com or call 888-211-7702
