The General Contractor

Investing in your company image makes sense and you must consider this part of your business presentation. It is as important as the signage on your location and your brochures or website. Neglecting your company vehicles is not smart marketing or presentation. What can you do to dress up your company vehicles?

Well it would seem that it is good advice to never have your vehicles looking dirty. Did you know that Fred Smith of Federal Express use to wash every vehicle every day and then eventually went to twice per week washing? He knew the value of his vehicles on the street and the image it presented to his customers and future clientele.

Today there are so many excellent options for vehicle signage to consider once you commit to keeping your company vehicles clean. Lets face it if you plan on putting cool graphics on your vehicle no sense in advertising the fact that your vehicle looks dirty?

Footbridge Media is the front running expert on getting contractors listed and promoting their business on the internet. We help contractors through our marketing program to increase their search engine exposure online.

Our Contractor Directory is building the largest online contractor directory, connecting homeowners with contractors in their area. We are now offering our “non-clients” an affordable online solution that will allow them to increase traffic to their already built website, or even allow them an online presence without having a website. We are going to be creating individual pages dedicated to your service area and services. On these individual pages, you will be able to have:

* Company logo
* Detailed company profile
* List of individual services
* Direct web site linking
* Complete contact information
* Online submission form just for your company
* Multiple listings throughout our directory.

This is a pre-launch introductory offer with 50% off for entry into our online contractor directory.

Get Listed Today For ONLY $79 per year.

Click here to place your order

Multi-step marketing is a simple yet extremely powerful strategy when you use it to its full potential. Multi-step marketing is selling people who have contacted you and asked for information about your product or service; a great way to build your own mailing list of prospects and customers.

You are able to send multiple mailings to those same people from which you have created your own mailing list. The key to multi-step marketing is following up with the prospects using an intensive direct mail campaign. How do you develop your multi-step marketing campaign? Follow these four simple steps… click here to read the entire article.

Step One
Use some sort of direct response advertising to obtain your “leads.” Your ads should have a powerful headline directed at your target audience that causes them to read the rest of the ad and respond. The purpose of your ad is to arouse the reader’s or listener’s curiosity, getting them to call. Always offer them something for free. Your goal in step one is to generate leads.

Step Two
Your prospect reads the ad and calls - leaving her name and address or she writes to you for more information. Using voice mail almost always generates more leads because people want things quickly and easily. Thank the prospect for calling, state a couple of major benefits, and end by asking for her name and address. The message should be between one and two minutes - no more. The goal in step two is to record your leads.

Step Three
Send your direct response offer to the prospect. These prospects fall into one of three categories. We’ll call them cold, warm and hot prospects. A Cold prospect is slightly interested; she is looking and will not buy. These prospects represent a small percentage of your inquiries. A Warm prospect is very interested, but not ready to buy. They represent the majority of your inquiries. A Hot prospect is very interested and ready to buy. They also represent a small percentage of your inquiries.

Step Four
Follow up with mailings to prospects who didn’t buy. Repeat this step again and again. According to “Sales and Marketing Magazine,” 80% of all people who inquire about a product buy that product within one year, but not from the company that made the original contact. Why? Because the company didn’t follow up. It generally takes at least five contacts with a prospect who showed interest in the product or service you offer before they will buy from you. If you are successful with the initial mailing, you can expect 30 to 70 percent in leads turning into customers with follow up mailings.

You don’t have to change the entire mailing each time. Generally changing the cover letter and making minor changes to the mailing is sufficient. Remember that one of your biggest expenses is getting the prospect. By following these four steps you can watch your sales and profits sky-rocket!

Excerpted from The PMS Principles - Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business - www.pmsprinciples.com - © 2005 - Heidi Richards

About the Author:

Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business and 7 other books. She is also the Founder & CEO of the Women’s ECommerce Association, International www.WECAI.org – an Internet organization that “Helps Women Do Business on the WEB.” Basic Membership is FREE. Ms. Richards can be reached at www.HeidiRichards.com .

Direct Mail may seem a little intimidating if you’ve never down it before. But like anything else, its’ much easier when you break it down into smaller steps. In fact, there are just five basic steps in any mailing.

1) Plan your Mailing
2) Choose Your list
3) Create your offer
4) Write and design your mail.
5) Track your results.

1) Plan Your Mailing
To get the most from your direct mail, it’s best to begin with a basic idea about what you want to do and how you want to do it. This is simply a matter of answering a few basic questions.

What is your objective?
Saying you want to do a mailing isn’t very helpful. You must decide specifically what you want to accomplish. If you want to give your sales team a regular flow of leads, for example, your objective may be to “generate 50 sales leads a month that convert into at least 5 sales with a per lead cost of no more than $100”. Whatever your objective, it must be specific and measurable.

What are you selling?
This sounds like a no-brainer. After all, you’re familiar with your product or service right? But your prospect may not be. So take a moment to think about how to describe it to someone who has never heard of you before. What is it? What does it do? How does it work? What do people do with it? What are the important features? How is it different, new, better, or unique? You don’t necessarily have to include all this information in your mailing, bit it’s good to have the details at hand.

Who are you selling to?
Describe your ideal customer. Is it a man or woman or both? What is the business title of this person? What responsibilities does this person have? What is this person’s concerns, fears, and attitudes a bout what you’re selling? Does your ideal customer match the actual customers you have now? The more specific you can ve now, the easier it will be to select good mailing list and crate a compelling offer later on.

What are the benefits?
Does your product save time or money? Offer more convenience? Provide a certain level of prestige? Is it exclusive? Does it help people advance in their career? Avoid mistakes, risk or embarrassment? Reduce the workload? Think about your product from your prospect’s point-of-view. Like the old saying goes, “People don’t want drills, they want holes”.

What is your offer?
An offer is much more than just the price. It’s also the unit of sale, optional features, premiums, guarantee or warranty, time limit, and so on. It is important to understand that your offer is one of the most important elements of your mailing. The more enticing your offer, the more likely your mailing will be successful.

What format should you use?
IN general, your decision about format should be based on how much selling you need to do. A simple reminder mailing to customers, for example, may work fine with a postcard. But a mailing to cold prospects may require a complete direct mail package. In general, the more familiar your prospect is with you and what you’re selling, the smaller the format can be. The less familiar , the larger or more extensive it should be.

We are pleased to announce a new client launch, Dean Corbella Remodel Services a Scotts Valley remodeling contractor that specializes in kitchens, bathrooms and room additions. Since 1982, Dean Corbella has been helping Santa Cruz homeowners with beautifying and making their homes more energy efficient.

It’s how contractors surf the Web! ContractorTalk.com has been the fastest growing online contractor community since 2003 and is happy to celebrate their 3-year anniversary this month.

ContractorTalk.com is celebrating its 3rd anniversary with over 8,000 members, over 500 new posts a day, and over 80,000 visitors a month.

“It’s real nice having a place to log in to and chat with peers from my industry,” Tim Bodine, said. “A place to ask trade questions, get advice on business matters, or to just find someone who ’speaks the same language’ as I do.”

Mostly, ContractorTalk.com is a gathering place for all contractors who are committed to their jobs and love what they do. There are forums broken down by specific industry, as well as how contractors may run their business.

Currently, the online community boasts over 8,000 members from around-the-world. Over 100 topics are discussed everyday and range from the serious to the sublime; 20 new members register daily.

Access to ContractorTalk.com is free. Registered members can share thoughts and ideas while accessing information on marketing, business tactics, and much, much more.

Contractors can participate in over 30 contractor forums and browse from over 130,000 posts. They can communicate privately with other contractors from around the world; and network with contractors in any specialty. It’s a premier contractor destination.

“Contractortalk.com it is a great place to get together and discuss new ideas and ways of doing things,” says member Robert Shaw. “Contracortalk.com has also led to almost $40,000 worth of sales for my company. Also, we have learned new selling techniques that have led to more closed sales than ever before. My company has grown tremendously in the last year from knowledge gained from Contractortalk.com”

About ContractorTalk.com – Contractor Talk™ is owned by Wingate Solutions LLC and its goal is to provide a community for professional contractors to learn business and trade knowledge. They offer free forums, articles, and other resources to their members. For more information visit www.ContractorTalk.com

We are pleased to announce our new launch of the website for Guardian Roofing. Guardian Roofing is a Tacoma roofing contractor that offers roof repairs for the entire Puget Sound area.

We are pleased to announce a new website launch, Quality Window and Door, Inc, a maryland replacement windows dealer who provides replacement windows for homeowners, remodeling companies and new construction companies. They service Maryland, Virgina and the Washington DC area.

If you mention networking to most people, they immediately think of attending an event and swapping business cards. In truth, it’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this powerful business building marketing strategy. Networking is the process of building mutually beneficial relationships — much more than a moment in time.
When networking is done well, it’s a very cost efficient business building strategy. When done poorly, it’s a complete waste of time and money! To maximize effectiveness, entrepreneurs need to strategically plan for networking in five separate areas:

1. With Clients
Your clients are bombarded with choices for quality suppliers. When you are a business buddy with them, your relationship can be the glue that keeps you together. Their loyalty and repeat business is the most profitable business you can find. Your clients can also provide you with valuable feedback. I like to ask my client buddies questions

2. With Suppliers
When your suppliers feel like they are part of your team, you will experience increased service and sometimes even lower costs — who else, but their buddy, would they call first when a good deal comes through hands? Your suppliers can also share valuable information about what your competition is up to.

2. With Competition
When you turn your competitors into industry allies you can create a wonderful source for referrals. The key to this is knowing what your unique niche is. If your competition knows your specialty and trusts you to do a good job, they can feel comfortable referring you overflow business — as well as appropriate business for your expertise that they don’t handle.

3. With Your Business Community
When you have an active network in the general business community, you can create a goldmine for referrals. The trick is to make sure that people know what you do. Too often, business owners, use general statements like “designer” and forget to educate their buddies on their expertise.

4.Within Your Own Company
Having buddies within your company across departments, as well as levels of management, will fuel your effectiveness and lower costs. If you’re a one-person show, you still have an important “company network.” They are the family and friends who continue to believe in you and your dreams. Don’t forget to take time and nurture your relationships with them as well.

Work on setting up these five important networks, and you will see an increase in referrals and your marketing success.

Recognition is powerful. One of the simplest ways to increase your referral business is to recognize your client who referred you. If a client has referred a friend who ended up hiring you, or if a client gave you a wonderful testimonial, show your appreciation by awarding them with “client of the month” honors. You should have your “Client Of The Month” posted on your website, or if you send out a newsletter, have it inserted in their has well. You should also award the client with a plaque or even a small gift. Good gifts could be dinner for two at a local restaurant, movie tickets, gift certificates, etc. This little recognition will encourage others to refer business to you.

Most people go through life feeling totally under appreciated. They get little recognition or appreciation from their boss, their children, or their spouse. By providing recognition and appreciation for referrals you encourage the referring client to refer again. Plus, every other appreciation-starved client reading about the “Client of the Month” will subconsciously crave to be the client-of-the-month too. And, they way you become client of the month is to send your company referrals.

If many people are referring business to you, base your client of the month criteria on the total number of referrals received.

Another variation of this powerful, referral-generating strategy is recognizing a “Project Of The Month” on your website or newsletter. Display photos of the job

Essentially, you award one of your favorite projects with this honor and promote it on your website with photos of the project, as well as the homeowners. This helps to spur further interest in this type of project by people who visit your website, or read your newsletter.

This is especially effective if you have a special offer or promotion going that month that relates to the project. For example, a free vinyl windows this month on any exterior remodeling project. The featured project helps readers to visualize the project.