National Clothesline

Often I am asked advice on direct mail pieces, flyers, door hangers, the internet, etc., and I am always asked to which one works the best.

Should I include a coupon or should I have my price list on it? Should the coupon be for $20 or 20 percent off? My standard response is this, “What is your goal and what do you expect to have as a return on the investment for spending money on marketing? ”

I hear all kinds of feedback. Usually the standard response to this is to get new customers in to the store or to add volume to the plant.

This often leads me to the next question, “What did you use before and did it work?”

Again, the standard responses are “not really” or “not well enough.”

Thus, most operators discontinue their marketing pieces and rely on hope. But what if you could rely on a marketing plan that does exactly what you want and more?

See, you can’t just rely on one piece to grow your business. Look at it like a dieting plan — you not only have to eat right, but exercise as well. You must continually work the diet plan as a whole to get the results you want and once you get there you must continue eating right and exercising on a daily basis. Trust me, I need to follow this advice.

So what about your advertising? Are you trying to market your business and then hope for results? You see, in developing your route, I believe in including every single marketing piece, the internet, etc., then following it up with the ultimate marketing piece: door-to-door sales.

We all can agree about the results from a direct mail piece. We all share in the pain of the “up-front” costs of marketing. If all these were so good standing alone, why in the world do we need salespeople — no matter what business you are in.

Salespeople rely on the other forms of advertising because it generates branding and allows for them to be more successful. I truly recommend that you combine your efforts and give your door-to-door salespeople an edge — direct mail followed up with a knock on the door.

Marketing is not just for new customers; it is for your current ones as well. The critical element is that you often have to use discounting to bring in new clients, but you end up only sending out coupons for those who would have came in anyway.

In addition, we end up training our customers to become coupon shoppers and some wait for the next coupon to come in and often will go to your competition.

That is why I love delivery service so much. Look at it this way; the three reasons people purchase items is because of convenience, quality and price. The route capitalizes on the first two and eliminates having to discount, which affects the third.

To help you with this matter — what is price anyway? I look at it as value for the customer. The time and money they spent making two trips to the drycleaner is valuable.

In addition, if you are marketing your route in this way, the word “Free” is priceless. I often explain that we are a free service and there is no better discounting term than that. In fact, I was on a recent project in which the flyer offered $20 off the first order.

After my extensive training, the trainee refused to promote the free offer and signed up 10 people on his first two days. He then gave them the $20 coupon after they signed up. Now we ’re talking!

I return to the question, “What is your goal of marketing your delivery service?”

To me, it is to develop a long-term business relationship in which we serve customers on a regular basis. The word relationship also implies a personal component. A printed piece plants that seed, but your door-to-door specialist can and will develop that quicker and keep it going.

Love it or hate it, to develop your route, you must develop a complete marketing plan and go door-to-door.

James Peuster offers onsite training and all aspects of routes. Management, marketing and maintenance are all key components in developing a million-dollar route. His e-mail address is james@theroutepro.com. His route manual is available through the Golomb Group. You can listen to his radio programs on www.theroutepro.com.