Your preferred way of advertising

I'm just setting up and hope to start in the next couple of weeks doing window and gutter cleaning in the South East.

What do you find gets the best results? Door knocking? Posting leaflets, local facebook groups? 

If y our starting out then i suggest u knock on doors 80% and leaflets 20% , Local facebook groups will attract time wasters, if u want good leads via Facebook u need to use Facebook ads and they are not cheap at all, but if u get a facebook ad voucher u can get very good results.

Stick to door knocking build your base

Gotta agree with @Haychh, I started think like 7 months ago now and knocking doors although brutal at times was what I used to get going. Facebook ads generated me revenue but was poor at getting me regular customers if that makes sense? 

For the time of year I'd knock doors on Saturdays between 10am-3pm which I found my best hit rate and delivered leaflets on a Sunday as it's not a post day so more chance of them looking at it ( I found it did anyway) 

Another avenue is to list on as many local free sites as possible...Yell/ThompsonLocal/etc

(google window cleaning in your area and see what ads come up and if free list yours on their too)

Leaflet first and then call back a few days later 'Hi I'm X from Y Window Cleaning, I'm just calling back to see if the leaflet (handover/hold up copy) I left was of interest, we clean 'blah'  - would you like a free, no obligation, immediate quote now? Quote...recruit custy...don't forget to cross sell - Suggest listing all the services you offer on your quote form..(like a menu) so the custy can see what services you provide.  and just fill in the service requested...if you spot gutters full (turf etc) green s+f+g just politely offer to provide a quote for that as well....if done in a non confrontational manner most often say 'of yes please that would be great'...

Make sure you note down any houses with no responses...call back another time/day to catch in...e.g if first visit M-F during day 9-5PM try outside this times for the return visit. Try 3 times then move on to new area.

Haychh said:

If y our starting out then i suggest u knock on doors 80% and leaflets 20% , Local facebook groups will attract time wasters, if u want good leads via Facebook u need to use Facebook ads and they are not cheap at all, but if u get a facebook ad voucher u can get very good results.

Stick to door knocking build your base

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How do you mean ad voucher? I am spending stupid money on these ads. Does this mean its possible to get the ads cheaper?

PureShine said:

How do you mean ad voucher? I am spending stupid money on these ads. Does this mean its possible to get the ads cheaper?

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Apparently he knows how to acquire vouchers for spending on Facebook ads that give you a 90% discount. So he will spends £1k per get £10k worth of advertising. 
 

Do you get a ROI on your advertising spend? And not to be too intrusive but are do you run the ads consistently every monthly? 
 

I’m still tinkering with trying to get Facebook ads to work for me. 

As previously stated, knocking doors is in my opinion the best way, make sure you look smart and presentable, be confident and make sure you have a dedicated media to take the customers details, whether it's your phone or a good old pen and notebook.

I previously used FB ads, but had very little return, for me it's an ineffective expense. Advertising in local FB groups probably won't get you a great customer base, but will help generate income and also a good way to advertise/sell add on services like gutter/conservatory cleaning.

When I first started I would send a follow-up message after the first clean, with a link to my FB and Google pages and ask the customer to give a 5* review, I found this would help and definitely lead to more work.

Good luck

Buying work is an option if you can do it for a sensible price. I haven't in the past but I've been given a few which have turned out to become good customers. A cleaner that's winding down and has previously given me a very good job (£75, pretty big house but only takes just over an hour) I gave him some decent beer for that as he didn't want anything. He has told me he has another very good customer to give up, husband's in the house of lords, only deal with the wife that's lovely, £90 per clean every six weeks. If the other job is anything to go by it'll take about an hour and a half. He wants £90 for that, will introduce me in person and it's in an area I pick up my water from. I reckon that's money well spent.

Some will try to charge loads, I wouldn't pay it but if you're starting from scratch and it's good work, well priced it's an option. Many sole traders (like me) that don't want to become an employer can very quickly get full up and need to off-load work.

Fb is getting a lot harder to target work through now. Even a sponsored advert has to have minimal text now or they penalise you by either not showing it to the full audience its expected to hit, or they don't pass the advert at all

This was a couple of years ago...so easy to pick up work off a biz page on fb. I've a competition running and it's doing terrible, last year a similar one was killing it. Fb algorithms have changed a lot. 

In the area where I am Camberley, Facebook for some reason. I get messages almost everyday. A few time wasters, but it's up to you to explain to them how regular window cleaning works and how much you charge( don't go low)

70% Facebook adverts on free groups

20% canvassing

10% my website on the 94th page in Google???

Hi,

I am interested to know what people have found to be the best method to gain new customers that is not canvassing.  We are using facebook reasonably well, leaflets we struggle to get a response on but don't think the messaging is right.

I have been  going 6 months but want to build up the customer base faster.

Thanks all

Rebecca

g pat said:

Hi,

I am interested to know what people have found to be the best method to gain new customers that is not canvassing.  We are using facebook reasonably well, leaflets we struggle to get a response on but don't think the messaging is right.

I have been  going 6 months but want to build up the customer base faster.

Thanks all

Rebecca

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I have merged your topic as this is something that is covered on a regular basis 

PureShine said:

How do you mean ad voucher? I am spending stupid money on these ads. Does this mean its possible to get the ads cheaper?

Click to expand...

 
Of course there is, facebook ads are available throught the right sources but I can tell u now they are becoming more rare and rare as months tick by.... I used to sell a few vouchers but not anymore that's how rare its become, facebook ads is the most powerful marketing tool on todays market 

g pat said:

Hi,

I am interested to know what people have found to be the best method to gain new customers that is not canvassing.  We are using facebook reasonably well, leaflets we struggle to get a response on but don't think the messaging is right.

I have been  going 6 months but want to build up the customer base faster.

Thanks all

Rebecca

Click to expand...

Hi Rebecca,

If you want to avoid canvassing, then the only other method is to do the advertising and marketing purely online.

Think Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Yelp, Bark, Yellow Pages, etc.

Obviously, each of these works to various effect and is priced accordingly.

From the above, I'd say the cheapest options are Yellow Pages and Yelp, but arguably also the least effective.

On the other hand, Google Ads is probably the most effective and the quickest method to gain new customers, but it's also the most expensive. However, if done right, you can definitely have it working in your favour without robbing a bank.

Have flyers posted (either by yourself, royal mail/flyer print and post com) in targeted areas

Post cards in local shops/newsagent's (if you still have them) windows

ads in local free A5 mags - the one with pointless 'news'/recipes/local walks' articles but mainly just ads ? 

NoName said:

Have flyers posted (either by yourself, royal mail/flyer print and post com) in targeted areas

Post cards in local shops/newsagent's (if you still have them) windows

ads in local free A5 mags - the one with pointless 'news'/recipes/local walks' articles but mainly just ads ? 

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These are more traditional ways of advertising and they do work and are pretty cheap, but definitely slow and time-consuming, especially if you are going to go round yourself posting leaflets.

Advertising online would be more effective, albeit will cost more. I'm not sure about Facebook, as I've never used it, but with a properly set up Google Ads campaign, you could have your phone ringing the next day. It's just a matter of finding the right balance of spending money on ads and completing enough jobs to cover the costs.