Contractormag 3224 Checkmate2
Contractormag 3224 Checkmate2
Contractormag 3224 Checkmate2
Contractormag 3224 Checkmate2
Contractormag 3224 Checkmate2

Comfortech preview: Market domination strategy, a step-by-step system

May 26, 2016
While you’re at your customer’s house, WOW your customers. Shock them with how amazing your service is. Deliver service that is so good, they will immediately run to their phone and call their friends to tell them how good the service was.
Image: iStock/ThinkStock.

Do you want to get more customers? Whether you’re a small service business trying to grow or a large service business trying to strengthen your market position, new customers are an essential. You can’t rely only on existing customers — you always need a constant stream of new customers coming in.

In this article you’ll learn a powerful step-by-step strategy to dominate your market and rapidly build a base of customers that you can serve.

Step No. 1: Change your marketing plan. Chances are your marketing plan is too big, too expensive, and too ineffective. Many service businesses market broadly, trying to get their brand seen by as many eyeballs as possible. Unfortunately, customers respond to marketing frequency so most of your marketing dollars are wasted on people who see your marketing and forget it immediately. Instead, pinpoint a single neighborhood or street and pour your efforts into that small area. Follow the rest of the steps below and your potential customers will see your marketing over and over. Once you’ve dominated that small neighborhood or street, then you can expand a little more and a little bit more.

Step No. 2: Market to that area with various display marketing. Drive around the area and look for marketing opportunities there. Perhaps there are bus benches or billboards you can rent. Consider marketing to the newspaper that goes to this area. Instead of trying to get your brand in front of many people who might see it once, spend your money putting your brand in front of people who will see it over and over and over again.

Step No. 3: Use repeat mailings. Because you’re starting in a smaller area, you can afford to mail to the same group over and over. Consider a sequence of three to five mailings, perhaps three to five weeks apart. Keep your marketing consistent so you can get the advantage of frequent impressions working for you. Build trust. Offer coupons. When possible, combine different media types — including mail, phone and email. However, if you only have the choice of one marketing method, use mail.

Step No. 4: Show up and wow them. As your marketing starts to generate calls, show up in a clean uniform with a nicely branded truck — the brand should be consistent with your marketing. While you’re at your customer’s house, WOW your customers. Shock them with how amazing your service is. Deliver service that is so good, they will immediately run to their phone and call their friends to tell them how good the service was.

Step No. 5: Put out a lawn sign. Ask the customer if you can put out a lawn sign. Of course, not every customer will do this, but some will. Thank them and invite them to keep it there for a few days.

Step No. 6: Put up door hangers at your customer’s neighbors’ homes. When the work is completed, go to the other houses in the area — a few houses up and down each side of the street, and put door hangers on the neighbor’s door indicating that a neighbor had some work performed.

Step No. 7: Repeat this process over and over on the same street or in the same neighborhood. Do this over and over until you’ve served as many people as you can in that area and are confident that you are the go-to service business for that street or neighborhood. Then continue, but add in another street or neighborhood and repeat the process.

There are two powerful secrets at work here:

  • Frequency. This small target area will see your marketing over and over — from your signs to your mailings to your trucks to your door hangers. This will have a tremendous impact.
  • Desire to be like the neighbors. Since your trucks are working in such a small market, people see your trucks parked up and down the street every day, as if you are on the speed dial of every person on the street. That will have a powerful effect on the neighbors when they need your services.

The secret to big marketing domination is actually to go small — start with on street or neighborhood and dominate that market, then grow from there.

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