TOPIC: Marketing Ideas

Drawings for TV's and other things for past customers. Just make sure you get you company info on anything you give away.

You must be doing better than we are, to afford that idea!

Ya, the signs don't need to be real big. You can get some plastic board and have vynil letters and logos printed up, attach them to some sturdy legs and vwola!

Hek if need, or want to do a lot of decal printing a plot printer runs about $2,000.00, do all your own decals and may be some for other companies.

Here's my order for 20 double sided coroplast signs, with stakes:

Hello Russell,

Thank you for your purchase from Signs365.com. We have recieved your order and it will be processed and shipped promptly. If you chose the local pickup option, we will contact you when your order is ready for pickup.

We reccomend that you both print and keep a copy of this e-mail for your records, should you ever need to recover this information.


PRODUCTS ORDERED:

Coroplast Sign(24in x 18in)
Quantity: 20
Number of Step Stakes: 20
File1: www.signs365.com/uploads/1191283444/1191...-27-MIC_Sign_RSS.jpg
Price for this item: 119.80

Ya, the signs don't need to be real big. You can get some plastic board and have vynil letters and logos printed up, attach them to some sturdy legs and vwola!

Hek if need, or want to do a lot of decal printing a plot printer runs about $2,000.00, do all your own decals and may be some for other companies.

Here's my order for 20 double sided coroplast signs, with stakes:

Hello Russell,

Thank you for your purchase from Signs365.com. We have received your order and it will be processed and shipped promptly. If you chose the local pickup option, we will contact you when your order is ready for pickup.

We recommend that you both print and keep a copy of this e-mail for your records, should you ever need to recover this information.


PRODUCTS ORDERED:

Coroplast Sign(24in x 18in)
Quantity: 20
Number of Step Stakes: 20
File1: www.signs365.com/uploads/1191283444/1191...-27-MIC_Sign_RSS.jpg
Price for this item: 119.80

That's a damn good price for that size.  I went to Kinko's for my quote originally and they quoted $40 per sign double sided corrugated signs with wire stands.

I'm torn on the price.  I think signs are important and that is a great price.  But that's still a lot considering all the other stuff that we do per inspection. 

Which leads me to my next question.  What percentage per inspection do you all put into marketing?  Do you all keep track of how much you put into marketing?

Hey, at 6 bucks a sign, you can afford to set them out at the entrances of developments on Fri & pull them on Sun PM.
If someone gets a case of the a$$ & pulls them, they're expendable.

Also, with the Ice Damming going on this year, I'm thinking of making up signs to advertise Mold Testing this spring!

Putting them at neighborhood entrances is a [glow=red,2,300]GREAT [/glow] idea!  And if you go and pick them back up you can use them over and over again.  Your hitting the whole area with just a few signs!

Okay everyone, no one is really commenting on the list break down so lets move on to critiquing everything we have posted.  Any and all comments are welcome at this point.  The object is to get the Pro's and Con's of each idea and find what will work best for you and your company.  Hope everyone gets some good ideas from this and makes tons of money in the new year!!!  Just done forget the little people on your way up! 



Marketing before inspection

1) TV and Radio ads may work (but are costly).
2) Join your local chamber of commerce
3) Vehicle signs
4) Put flyer's on houses with for sale signs in the yard.
5)  Flyer on grocery store bulletin boards
6) Press release to newspapers/TV stations/Inspector associations
7) Bus bench advertisements
8 ) attach large banner to vehicle and sit on a popular corner for a day.
9) Most of us have websites.  So how can we get our sites in front of all those clients (other than SEO)?
10) I thought if you travel around with your IR gun, play with it in front of people, and give them your business card.
11) Advertise with Angie's list
12) Join a networking group like BNI
13) Distribute pens, brochures, magnets and business cards to offices and include with inspection materials.
14) Place a sheet of paper or a post card with your info on it, place in a clear newspaper plastic bag and fill the bottom with pea gravel and delivery to local area and place by drive apron or mailbox.
15) Discount Coupons
16) Open houses
17) Sponsor a little league baseball tem (helps if you're the coach too!)
18) Get involved in your community


Marketing during inspection

1) Leave a brochure and business card at ever home you inspect.
2) Use company info and make labels for the homes main and interior shutoffs.
3) Put magnetic business cards on every refrigerator you can.


Marketing after inspection

1) Send out cards when people do not expect them.
2) Mailing post cards
3) Monthly or weekly newsletters
4) Yard signs


Realtor Marketing

1)  Have a small flyer done up with logo and website address and distribute them to every realtor mail box in your service area.  In my case, that would be over 20,000...
2) IR scans without the home inspections may be one way to entice Realtors
3) Advertise to Realtors one free inspection for every 10 you do for them (could do this on a monthly basis too, count resets every month).
4) Join your local real estate association
5) Active Rain
6) Make a coupon with the Realtors name on it.


Multi Functional Marketing

1) Do pre-sale inspections for free, leave 30 copies of your report on the counter for potential buyers to pick up and look at the great report. These buyers will need inspectors and now have your report. Make sure to call the owner to see if they have run out.
2) Get a booth at small festivals and charge $10 or so for taking peoples pics with the IR gun and print it out for them.  Then hand them your business info too.
3) Give away nice golf shirts with your company info on it.
4) Get a booth at an area real estate home show
5) Create a client and realtor questionnaire (Survey)
6)  Blog and add Realtors to your list of inclusions.



Additional Services

1) I have been thinking of offering termite inspections as a one stop shop for Realtors!
2) IR Inspections
3) Well/Septic
4) Radon
5) Mold
6) New construction warrant inspections

Added 17 + 18 above