National Clothesline

How are your sales these days? Is everything humming along fine? Or have you thought to yourself, “Help! I don’t have enough customers!”

Recently, I talked with a cleaner who has never advertised since the day he pressed his first pair of pants. Up to now he’s been fortunate, but his luck is running out. Because of a new competitor, the pie’s a bit smaller now. In fact, sales are down 28 percent.

When some of his big spenders disappeared, his average transaction dropped like a Frenchman’s rifle. And some recent sightings of pick up and delivery vans darting throughout the neighborhood have prompted him to circle his wagons in a nervous effort to protect the status quo.

Unfortunately, a lack of customers usually means a lack of cash, and how can you advertise without money? In this case, the operator knew nothing about promotion. To him, marketing was simply a cost to avoid.

As a result, he had no database, no way to communicate with customers and no clue how to reach new prospects. He needed help. He needed it fast. And it had to be done on a shoestring.

For cleaners who are financially on the ropes or for those who simply want to make a big impact as quickly as they can for as little as possible, I suggest a rarely used guerilla tactic… an inexpensive way to quickly reach a large group of potential customers in a short period of time with a surprisingly big return.

By definition, guerilla marketers work on a very small budget and, instead of using money, their primary investment is usually a combination of time, energy, and imagination.

Done properly, a “door hanger” campaign is a fast and affordable way to stimulate sales. Believe it or not, humble little sheets of card stock hanging from doorknobs offer some very powerful advantages when it comes to promoting business.

Think of it. Every day your potential customers can choose from hundreds of TV channels, thousands of print ads and millions of web pages… but they only have one front door.

Door hangers are the first piece of advertising your prospects will see when they arrive home and because they’re on the front door, there is a good chance they will be carried into the house. These cards are highly visible. They can be distributed inexpensively. And they won’t get lost in the crowd with direct mail or newspaper ads.

Why be one of dozens of ads falling out of an already too big newspaper? Why be just another offer stuffed in an envelope along with your competitors? Why pay to be delivered to homes that aren't even located in your market area?

Because door hangers are delivered by hand, they can be targeted with pinpoint accuracy to very specific geographic and demographic areas. This is a huge advantage! They can be delivered only to homes, only to apartments, only to businesses or to any combination of these. They can be delivered on weekdays, weekends or holidays… even on Sundays. It’s up to you.

Another advantage? Door hangers are a lot cheaper to deliver than any other form of solo print advertising. Hire a service and you’ll pay between four and eight cents a piece. Compared to postal rates, that’s a bargain.

But you want it cheaper… right? So put some kids to work, but make sure they’re supervised. If you want the best deal, though, you’ll need to invest some time and energy and do the work yourself. That’s what a true “guerilla” would do.

I was inspired to write this article following a conversation with my son, Kevin. He’s currently working on a graduate degree, but in the meantime, he and his friend, Kellen, have decided to become entrepreneurs. They intend to start a lawn care service in the spring and wanted to know the best way to get customers.

These guys are a lot like the cleaner at the beginning of this article. They have very little money to invest, they have no marketing experience and they’re entering an industry that is just as competitive, if not more so, than drycleaning.

Their plan was to design a color flyer, get 200 copies made at Kinko’s and hand them to people leaving church on Sunday morning. Ouch! That idea lasted about as long as a kiss from your sister! I couldn’t believe they would solicit on Sunday morning outside a church.

On top of that, it would take a king’s ransom to get the flyers copied, so I offered another idea and convinced them to go guerilla, but with a little pizzazz.

Considering their limited finances, I knew they wouldn’t be mailing these so I suggested a door hanger instead of a flyer. The key to an effective door hanger promotion is to combine the right design with the right call to action. If you can do those two things correctly, the only remaining variable is the target.

Being experienced in computer graphics, Kellen designed an attractive full-color door hanger. They could have saved a few bucks by printing on blank stock from our in-house color printers, however, I convinced them to check out a couple of companies on the Internet. There would be no aggravation and the results would look much more professional.

They ordered the minimum… 500 door hangers for $185. The cards arrived three days later and were they ever eye-popping! I knew if we could just get these into the right hands, the business would take off like a tiger.

In true guerilla fashion, the guys did their own distribution. They went door to door a week ago last Saturday and, within 2 1é2 hours, had given away their entire inventory.

Almost immediately the phone began ringing and hasn’t stopped. So far they’ve booked 29 jobs, which is fantastic, considering the fact that we still have snow on the ground and the last thing on peoples’ minds is lawn care.

In just two weeks these guys have set up what promises to be a thriving business. At $35 a yard (minimum) and at least 20 visits for the season, they already have over $20,000 of work ahead of them… all from a $185 investment plus a little time and some sweat. That’s marketing guerilla style.

By the way, two days ago they placed another order… this time for 2,500 oversized door hangers.

Want to get a big sales boost really quickly on a tiny budget? Go guerilla! It’s simple; as easy as biting a dentist. If you’d like to learn more about door hangers just call or email. I’ll be happy to discuss the subject in more detail.