Lately it seems every time we meet with a residential contractor they mention neighborhood mailings.
“I tried job site mailings,” they whine, “but it didn’t work.”
This is not surprising.
The purpose of job site mailings is to capitalize on your presence in the neighborhood. Makes sense. But wait a minute…. What are the chances that just because you are working with Janice at 4100 Neighbor Lane, Carroll at 4106 is also ready to buy your stuff right now?
Possible. But it’s also very likely that Carroll will learn about you from Janice, see your sign, get your one-off mailing — but by the time she’s ready for her project — she will have forgotten about you completely.
Instead of calling you, she’ll call whoever is top of mind when she is ready to buy.
So, if you are considering neighborhood mailings, here are two important things to keep in mind.
1. If you are only going to mail once, consider spending your limited marketing dollars another way. One-off job site mailings are better than yard signs alone. But not much. If you are going to do it just once, consider a “pardon our mess” message, and give people a way to contact you if they have concerns about crew conduct, cleanliness, or noise.
2. Repetition improves effectiveness. Instead of mailing once to a hundred addresses around the job site. Add just a few people — those who are most likely to have had word-of-mouth contact with your client — to your mailing list. In other words — use direct mail to add oomph to word-of-mouth. Be prepared to include job site neighbors in your direct mail campaigns for months, maybe even years.
That way, when they are ready to buy your stuff — you’ve touched them not a few times, but many times. And you’re top of mind. Not someone else.
Filed under: direct mail, strategy, tips and ideas
