Every one of you reading this knows that placing yard signs is good in growing top-of-the-mind awareness and generating neighborhood sales leads. And yet I’ll wager that maybe 1 in 500 contractors consistently does it. There are probably lots of “good” reasons why you don’t: the local code won’t allow it, I don’t know where to buy them, it’s expensive to get them back, my comfort advisor won’t put them out, my service technician won’t put them out, my installers won’t put them out…need any more?
At a contractor meeting today I sat at a table that included Ben from Ben’s Heating in Detroit, MI. We had been discussing how each had the most success generating leads and all the good strategies came up…getting referrals, lead-generating by techs, direct mail to clients… and then Ben said he used yard signs and pay-per-click Google advertising. That got everyone’s attention. He said at any given time there are something like 50 yard signs in front of homes in his market area. WOW!
Here’s how he does it. He reprinted his service invoices with a small check off box on the bottom offering a $5.00 discount on any service call when the customer allows a yard sign to be placed. They can leave it out as long as they want but a month seems pretty common, he said. He also pays his technician a $2.00 spiff for each one he places.
What happens? It shouldn’t be a surprise that they get some neighborhood calls! How does this work with the pay-per-click Google Adwords? All of those continuous yard sign impressions create top-of-the awareness of his company name so when people are searching the internet they are sure to notice his name at the top of the page.
Guerilla marketing…the basics…done consistently and done well will provide some of your best leads. Your equipment suppliers can help you with the signs. There’s also an excellent tutorial on this done by Matt Michel at Service Roundtable (www.serviceroundtable.com). Not a member? Click here to download a trial membership application.
Well done, Ben!