Thursday 13 June 2013

Cialdini's Six Principles of Influence

 
Cialdini's Six Principles of
Influence
for Carpet Cleaners

AKA Convincing Prospects to Say "Yes"


Do you give a fantastic carpet cleaning service?

In return do you get all the jobs you want, at the rate you want…or indeed deserve?

Most carpet cleaners are nice guys, fully trained and offer a good service, however their marketing and more importantly their face-to-face sales let them down.

The problem is being ‘nice’ and having a ‘good’ … or even a ‘great’ carpet cleaning service will not put food on your table.  You need to convince people to buy into YOUR SERVICE and you need to persuade them to buy into YOU too. 

Put simply, to make a sale you need to ‘Influence’ others, which can be challenging, so this is why it's worth understanding some of the psychological principles behind the ‘influencing process’.

This is where it's useful to know about Cialdini's Six Principles of Influence.

In this blog, we'll examine these six principles, and we'll look at how you can apply them to influence others to buy your carpet cleaning service.

When we say Influence, we mean ‘change’ – change in attitude, in a perception, or behaviour. We can’t lay claim to influence until we can demonstrate that we’ve changed someone.

Because the principles of influence can be so powerful in causing change in others, we have to consider our ethical responsibilities in the process. Fortunately, the way to be ethical in the use of these principles is the same way to be profitable in using them.

About the Six Principles
The Six Principles of Influence (also known as the Six Weapons of Influence) were created by Dr Robert Cialdini, Regents' Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. He published them in his highly respected 1984 book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion."

Cialdini identified the six principles through experimental studies, and by immersing himself in the world of what he called "compliance professionals" – salespeople, fund raisers, recruiters, advertisers, marketers all skilled in the art of convincing and influencing others.

Now lets look at the Six Principles of Influence a little closer and from a carpet cleaner’s point of view…

1. Reciprocity

Reciprocation recognises that people feel indebted to those who do something for them or give them a gift.

Cialdini says: “The implication is you have to go first. Give something: give information, give free samples, give a positive experience to people and they will want to give you something in return.”

The easiest example is a ‘FREE Carpet Spotter’ given as a gift upfront.   If you understand ‘Reciprocity’ you will know the rewards completely outweigh the cost.  You could even say to your prospects they’ll receive a life-time supply when they become a client, as you’ll replace (or top-up) the bottle on every visit.

However, the best example of ‘Reciprocity’ is to offer a ‘FREE ROOM OF CARPET CLEANING’

The ‘Free Room’ was first introduced in the UK in 1997 and has given a many smart carpet cleaners lots of new quality clients.   Recently I saw people discussing the ‘Free Room’ on Facebook and was amazed how many carpet cleaners in these modern times just don’t understand the simple power of ‘Reciprocity’.   By targeting a ‘Free Room’ of cleaning offer to a pre-qualified prospect you’ll gain jobs worth over £170 on average…well given 15 years of proof, it can’t be wrong!

Here’s how it works…the ‘Free Room’ offer is given without cost or obligation of any kind, to prequalified prospects (ie. people living in the type homes, in areas we know are our type of clients).   This will allow people to ‘trial’ your cleaning and experience the level and the quality of your service…without risk.  The only request you should make, is to be allowed to give a FREE quotation for the rest of the carpets in the house prior to cleaning.  And if the prospect is delighted with your work, then they’ll naturally want to get additional cleaning done with you. And if they’re not, (and if your service is good this shouldn’t happen), you walk away and never pressure them in order to buy more, which is the complete opposite of what a lot of price-discounters and the ‘bait and switchers’ do.

Also people taking the 'FREE Room offer' will stay loyal clients at a higher job ticket... it's really worth looking at!

2. Commitment (and Consistency)

Cialdini says that we all have a deep desire to be consistent. For this reason, we’re more likely to do something after we’ve agreed to it verbally or in writing. People strive for consistency in their commitments. They also prefer to follow pre-existing attitudes, values and actions.

One way carpet cleaners can influence their clients is by asking the client if it’s OK to call them in 6 months to arrange the next visit.  A bit like most of us will rebook the dentist before we leave our last appointment.   This is a simple task, but if it gets the client to verbally agree it is most likely you can dramatically increase the frequency that your clients buy from you.  Even if they decide not to have cleaning at that time … you can rebook the call for another few months and still speed-up the frequency.

This one action of increasing your clients cleaning frequency could double your business with almost not cost to you!

3. Social Proof

This principle relies on people's sense of "safety in numbers."

For example, we're more likely to do something if we can see others are doing the same, like put a tip in a jar if it already contains money, or eat in a restaurant if it's busy. Here, we're assuming that if lots of other people are doing it, then it must be OK.

You can go out into the world and tell people how great you are all day long. But when you’ve got other people to do it for you, it’s infinitely more believable.

Always use written testimonials in all your marketing letters and flyers (and keep them local to the area of the letter or flyer)…Video your testimonials of your cleaning clients and upload them on your YouTube channel and embed them on your website.  You can even load the videos on a smartphone or tablet to show when with prospects.

Also when selling, always ‘package’ your services into three (the middle package being your preferred package like clean and protect) and tell the prospect that most of your clients prefer this package (we are assuming your protection sales are over 50% here … if they are not you need to work on increasing them).  Or if you offer ‘maintenance plans’ tell the prospect your clients on this package really enjoy the extra benefits of always having clean, healthy carpets etc...

4. Liking

Cialdini says that we're more likely to be influenced by people we like. Likability comes in many forms – people must be similar or familiar to us, and we must feel we trust them.

People are more likely to buy from people like themselves, from friends, and from people they know and respect, so always talk to them on their level.

So find some common ground, like children, hobbies etc… often people will have their interests on display around their home, if not compliment them on their home or ask them about themselves … that's most peoples number one subject!

Be interested in them and ‘Show Interest’ in their problems.

5. Authority

We feel a sense of duty or obligation to people in positions of authority. This is why advertisers of pharmaceuticals employ doctors to front their campaigns, and why most of us will do most things that our manager or boss requests.

Job titles, uniforms, and even accessories or gadgets can lend an air of authority, and can persuade us to accept what these people say.   Remember on your inspection to carryout all the checks on the carpet … we know you what you’re doing, but you are demonstrating and reassuring to the prospect that you are the local expert.

When people are uncertain, they look outside themselves for information to guide their decisions. Given the incredible influence of authority figures, it would be wise to show you have ‘authority’ as a member of the NCCA, certified by the IICRC and endorsed by TrustMark.  All these help persuade prospects to make purchases with YOU.

6. Scarcity
 
This principle says that things are more attractive when their availability is limited, or when we stand to lose the opportunity to acquire them on favourable terms.

For instance, we might buy something immediately if we're told that it's one of the last few available.  Or if the buy one-get-one FREE offer is for this week only.

Always show that a special offer on your carpet cleaning flyers, adverts or letters, that is limited by number or time and give a date to show it will soon expire.

When you are selling to the prospect, which sold be face to face, explain how busy you are and you only have limited places to book their cleaning in so they must be quick or they could miss their slot.

If your carpet cleaning service is genuinely unique, be sure to highlight its unique qualities to increase the perception of its scarcity…
    ‘the only company in (area) to offer a 14-step cleaning service and fully guaranteed to clean deep down’…
    or
    ‘the only company in the area to use Rotary Extraction and Rapid Drying Service… to remove more soil and leave the carpet dryer’.


So there they are ... I hope you enjoyed them, and understood how these small tweaks can make a massive outcome. 

I strongly recommend you buy and read the book: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Dr Robert Cialdini.

The Six Principles of Influence are a very powerful tools and will help you to ethically sell more carpet cleaning services to your clients. Use them wisely!

As always let me know how you get on.

Regards


 


Keith Robertson
Vice President & Marketing Director NCCA.

PS. If you would like to hear more then follow this link http://youtu.be/4ZUZshxCQQA  or click the video below to hear Dr Robert Cialdini being interviewed by Joe Polish, the leading expert in marketing for carpet cleaners.









Friday 17 May 2013

The MAGICAL Email


The MAGICAL Email

In my last Blog ‘Acres of Diamonds’ I explained how I consider carpet cleaners spend a disproportionate amount of time chasing after new leads rather than re-engaging their existing customers.

I wrote about two carpet cleaners, and fellow NCCA members, Jim from Essex and Mark from Hertfordshire, both of whom made over a 10:1 ROI on mailing their existing database (10:1 is the ‘Return On Investment’ from their mailshots, which means they made over £10 for every £1 they invested).

So far the highest ROI form a mailshot to a carpet-cleaning 'list' in this current campaign that I’ve been told of is a return of 35:1. This is amazing £35 back for every £1 they spent, which was done by a franchise carpet cleaner, based in the 'Home Counties' and the jobs are still coming in. 


This was achieved by using two of the tools I recommended in my last Blog. These were both NCCA Corporate Members, Allan Simmons of ‘Get Booked Up’ and Neil Jenkins of ‘Mail Boxes Etc…’

Before I start, hopefully this blog will answer the carpet cleaners who questioned why I ‘only’ recommend ‘Old School’ offline marketing. In carpet cleaning (as with any industry) you MUST use ALL types of MARKETING to GROW your business. More importantly, my message was to target your EXISTING carpet-cleaning clients before you spend money finding more people. 


The MAGICAL Email

Or to give it its full title, The MAGICAL 'NINE WORD' Email, works great with both existing clients and ‘Dead Leads’.

Firstly let’s start with the ‘Dead Leads’ by defining the term ‘Lead’. It’s that person who has ‘raised their hand’ and contacted you and let you know that they are interested in what you have to offer… which you do through effective direct response, education based marketing.

So when a person has simply shown interest, but not ‘bought’ from you yet, they are a ‘lead’. Maybe you’ve even gone as far in the process as giving them a 'free quotation' or even a 'Healthy Home Carpet Audit', but they still haven’t paid you any money.

At this stage what do you do? 


Just ‘write them off’ and move on, chasing after the next lead? Or do you know how to ‘dig in’ and find those ‘hidden profits’?

Don’t get me wrong, keeping a steady stream of fresh leads coming into your carpet cleaning business should be an integral part of your automatic marketing systems. However, it’s what you do with those leads once you get them into your database that can mean all the difference in the world to your profit margins.

Statics show that once a person has shown interest in what you are offering and not bought from you …there is still a 50% chance that they will buy from you in the next 18 months.

So for every 100 leads you have that didn’t become paying customers, their business could be still worth somewhere in the region of £7,500.00 to your bottom-line (i.e.; if your average carpet cleaning job ticket is £150 and you get 50 out of 100 of those leads to buy from you). Therefore it’s definitely worth your while to pursue converting your existing leads into ‘paying’ clients for your carpet cleaning services.

World-leading marketer Dean Jackson revealed what he calls the 9-word e-mail that works like magic (marketing magic) in re-engaging and converting sales from your existing leads.   His friend and fellow Marketing Ninja Joe Polish, well know to many UK carpet cleaners has already introduced this to the carpet cleaning industry in America and it's working great. 


Here it is….

First, find every lead you can in your business. Look for the email of every person who you have ever had contact with that hasn’t become a client yet. All of them, even the names of clients you haven’t heard from in 2 or more years.

Now here is the steps for the 9 word email, which works so amazingly well… (Please note: you can very easily turn this into a ‘print’ or ‘offline’ piece and mail directly).

Step 1.

Type your leads email address in the box marked 'TO:'   
(eg: keith@keithsemail.co.uk)

Step 2.
Put the person’s first name in the subject line of the email
(eg: ‘Keith’)

Step 3.
Then type these 9 words for the body…no more no less…
 “Are you still looking at getting your carpets cleaned?”

Step 4.

Press 'SEND'
 

If you want to see what that a 9-word email looks like here’s an example...

====


From: Mr Carpet Cleaning
Date:
15, May, 2013 at 9:53 AM
Subject:
Keith
To:
keith@keithsemail.co.uk

Are you still looking at getting your carpets cleaned?



====

That’s it. Nine words ... End of story.

Don’t be tempted to say one more thing!
There is no need to sign it or include a phone number in the e-mail because with one ‘click’ they will respond to you.

(Please Note: If you are printing and posting this piece make sure to include a way for the client to contact you, i.e. a phone number, email or web address, or all three, but don't go over board, you don't even need printed letterhead).

Now it might feel weird to just throw a question out there with no reason or explanation, but leaving this ‘open loop’ is what makes it work.  We want this to go off like a rock ... Putting a carpet cleaning offer in will dampen the fuse. 


You will find your ‘leads’ cannot resist the open-endedness of this conversation and it will engage them. You’ll find your inbox filling up with responses.

One business person that Dean taught this to had a 40% response in just 12-hours on leads she was literally about to throw into the bin because she thought they were ‘dead ends’.

Look at the stack of carpet cleaning ‘leads’ you have had over the last 18-months. What if 50% of those could be converted into £150 carpet cleaning jobs, and they could be if you just take the time to re-engage them in a ‘conversation’ with you…?

And remember, there is no such thing as “But I’m in carpet cleaning…” or “But my clients are different…” or “My area is different…” the response to this is universal. It’s human nature and that is consistent across the board, no matter where you’re located or what business you are in.

Try it on your dead leads … what do you have to lose?

Also, if you want to see a quick cash infusion from jobs next week, don’t look any further than the customers you already have. We know you'll have a better take up when using direct mail ... but email is FREE

I challenge you to try a ‘Magical Nine-Word Email’ to your own carpet cleaning database. You could send it in-between the direct mail letters.

Here’s a few of ideas for existing carpet cleaning clients…

Want that fresh, clean look to your carpets again?

Could your home carpets do with cleaning… again?

Remember how your carpets looked after my cleaning…?

Dirty Carpets Again? Do you like my help…?

I look forward to hearing about your ‘Magical NINE Word Email’.


Regards



Keith Robertson
 
NCCA Vice President and Marketing Director

PS. For more information on the ‘Magical NINE Word Email’ and more FREE marketing tools and ideas from the great Dean Jackson I recommend you visit his website at http://ilovemarketing.com

PPS. For great tools for marketing your carpet cleaning business contact the famous 'Joe Polish' at http://www.richcleaner.com/blog/



Tuesday 30 April 2013

‘Acres Of Diamonds’


“Are You Too Busy Finding New Marketing Ideas And Missing The ‘Acres Of Diamonds’ At Your Feet?” 

NCCA Member, Jim Leech of Essex, Went Back To ‘OLD SCHOOL’ Marketing And Made £7,084 (And Counting) From A £698.00 Investment …
And Took Him Minutes To Do!


Being from the ‘Old School’ of marketing myself, I was very glad to hear from TWO current NCCA members that have gone ‘off-line’ with their marketing this month.  They were ‘gobsmacked’ at the results of their ‘Old School’ marketing both with the amount of money they made for very little time and effort. 

Mark Pritchard, NCCA carpet cleaners makes a 12:1 Return on Investment by sending Postcard to his clients
Please keep reading and I’ll share with you the actual numbers from both these carpet cleaners and how YOU can also make between 10:1 and 12:1 return on your investments (£10 - £12 back on every £1 invested). 

Firstly, this reminds me of the story of “Acres of Diamonds” … and I’d like to give you a quick overview of it.

In marketing it is said a good ‘List’ is solid ‘Gold’.

But if lists are gold, then your own 'Client List' has to be like finding “Acres of Diamonds”.

“Acres of Diamonds” is not a ‘new-fangled’ marketing idea … in fact it dates way back and was from a parable, told in lectures over 6,000 times by a Baptist Minister from Massachusetts, USA called Russell H. Conwell.

Russell discovered the story himself while travelling in the Middle East, upon his return he spent many years travelling North America giving his lecture and encouraging his audience to find “acres of diamonds” in their own ‘backyards’.

Now this wasn’t ‘old school’ motivation; it was positively ‘pre-school’ as Russell gave his talks and lectures way back in the late 1800’s, therefore making him one of the original ‘motivational speakers’. 

Acres of Diamonds - carpet cleaners find your diamonds by marketing to your own database

It was over 100-years ago “Acres of Diamonds” was first published as a book telling this ancient ‘true story’ about a contented and wealthy farmer called Ali Hafed, -- contented because he was wealthy, and wealthy because he was contented.

Unfortunately one day Hafed learnt of the discovery of precious diamonds in Europe from a travelling Monk. This left
Hafed feeling less than contented, in fact he felt ‘poor’. This feeling ate at Hafed so much he sold his farm and left his family to go in search of Diamonds for himself.

After years of searching, without any success, he lost his health and his wealth and finally in desperation he flung himself in to the sea, never to be seen again.


Acres of Diamonds - marketing message to carpet cleaners, mail your list
Ironically, the new owner of Hafed's farm discovered, on the very same land the great diamond mines of Golconda, which were to produce some of the most magnificent diamonds in all history. Even the Koh-i-noor diamond, in the British Crown Jewels was found in the Golconda mines.

The moral of the story is that we often dream of fortunes to be made elsewhere. The idea that the "grass is always greener on the other side"... and so on. 


Instead we ought to be open to the opportunities that are around us.  Now I’m not suggesting you physically go and start digging up your back garden, so how can you find your acres of diamonds?  Just look around you now and find your Diamonds.
  
“Acres of Diamonds” For UK Carpet Cleaners Now. 

To bring this back to marketing for carpet cleaners in the 21st century, is simple… A lot of carpet cleaners seem to always be looking for new clients.  Trying to find the new magic marketing tool to bring them success.     Some of these cleaners tell me they attract all their new customers on the ‘Internet’ and ‘it doesn’t cost them much money’.

While I completely agree, the Internet is a great way to find new customers and if done correctly, it can be very cheap too. However, it often costs far more than people think!
 

When I question these ‘Internet Cleaners’ I find they spend hours and hours per day online tweaking multiple sites, or you can see them posting on Facebook 24/7 etc… they seem to forget their 'time' is precious! 

So the Internet can be a great tool to help you bring in new customers, but may I suggest you spread your marketing budget (on-line and off-line) around a little more.   And the first place you should be focusing on is your very own customers.


Building a ‘good list’ from your customers will become your “Acres of Diamonds” and all you really need to do is keep in regular contact with them offering deals and specials etc...

Now, if you are new to business and don't have a single client then compile a list of your "circle of influence", or people you know or are acquainted with, and start from there.

Or, align yourself with a business owner who already has lots of your type of customers - and offer his list an amazing deal only for his/her customers. (Hint: It might help if you demo your carpet cleaning service to this business owner for free so he can confidently recommend you to his clients)


Why Is This List So VALUABLE?

Because you already have a relationship with these people!
 
Rather than only searching for new prospects and working with 'cold' lists, we want to convert your 'warm' database of customers (a customer is a one time transaction) into a 'hot' list of clients (with regular, ongoing relationships), full of people who are familiar with you, they have used your service before and trust you.

You’ll get between 500% and 600% increase in return from your investment when you market to your clients instead of running after new people all the time.

NOW, for a ‘quick-start’ I recommend you use ‘Old School’ off-line marketing first.


There are two main reasons for this…
  1. Ask yourself how many emails, addressed to you, came in your inbox last week (not including spam). Then ask how many letters (not bills) did you receive by post last week? A letter by Royal Mail stands out more than an email and will provoke more people to take action.
  2. How many emails do you have in your list for your customers? And of those emails how many are current??  People often DO NOT give out their main email, they a secondary ‘home email’.   The secondary or home email is often from their broadband suppliers and will change them every couple of years or so when they change internet providers… and shock horror they do this without telling you first!
Unquestionably the most reliable way to contact your customers (and convert them in to clients) is via good old direct mail and by posting them a letter.

With direct mail you need to aim for your ‘lowest hanging fruit’ … or market to the warmest list, which is the people that are more likely to purchase now. Try dividing your customers into four groups.
  1. Current Customers. People that have purchased in the last 6-12 months, you like them and are mid to high-end ticket jobs. This is your hot list. 
  2. Past Customers. People that last purchased between 12 and 24 months, you like them and they can pay your invoices. This is your warm list.
  3. Old Customers. People that last purchased between 24 and 60 months and are willing to pay your invoices. These are cooling down. 
  4. Dead Customers. Anyone not returning within 60-months are now cold. Plus anyone you didn’t like working for or that you don’t think would pay £100 plus for your service. You should think carefully marketing to these people, it could be very costly.
What If You Don't Have The Tools?

Don’t worry if you haven’t got the ‘software’ to segregate your customers or indeed the ‘knowledge’ to set-up and send out an effective mailshot yourself … as help is at hand.

In the last year or so we have had THREE NEW ‘Corporate’ members join the NCCA that can really help you convert your ‘list’ in to
“Acres of Diamonds”.

Two of them have ‘Client Database Marketing Software’, or in other words computer programmes written for UK carpet cleaners to you get the most out of your customer database and create great marketing lists.


Both software packages are designed and owned by genuine people and both are still carpet cleaners, you may know or have heard of …


Allan Simmons, with Get Booked Up www.getbookedup.com


Kevin Loomes, with Cleaners Mate www.cleanersmate.co.uk


Please give them both a try as they have FREE sample software on their websites.


The third Corporate Member I recommend you contact is Neil Jenkins, he runs a ‘printing and fulfilment house’, called Mail Boxes Etc... of Maidenhead.   Neil will provide the paper for letter, the envelope, print the letter, stuff the letter in the envelope and post it for you ... all cheaper than you can buy a 2nd class stamp for!  


And the great thing is as a NCCA Corporate member Neil will give NCCA members the same great deal of just 39p (47p inc vat) for one letter or up to 1 million letters. 

So a for 500 letters, you just send the letter and 500 names and addresses, along with £235 ... and Neil will do all the hard word of printing and posting ... to generate you £2,350 worth of work. 

Neil Jenkins, with Mail Boxes etc… Maidenhead www.mbe.co.uk/maidenhead


DO YOU want to fill your diary next week and bring in immediate money into your business, send out an "irresistible offer" to your existing clients that haven't used you in 6 months or more.

Harvesting Your "Acres Of Diamonds"

As I said at the start of the blog I have had TWO long-term NCCA members send me their results of their off-line mailshot to their ‘list’ or current customers.   

One member used a letter and the other postcard, however, both these cleaners used a on-line printing and mailing company to take out all the hard.   And thankfully both these guys have allowed me to share with you their numbers. 

The first is Jim Leech, from Essex.    Jim, who would be the first to admit he is not great on computers and dealing with mailshots.   He had his daughter help him put a letter together and built a list for him from his database.


Jim's mailshot was a letter with a £10 OFF voucher and over the last few months he has been sending the letters to his list in groups of a few hundred people … here’s Jim's results...

Marketing Piece:
Printed Letter
Marketing Target:
Old Customers
Printed Offer:
£10 off Voucher
Printed & Posted by:
DocMail
Total Pieces Sent:
1,800 letters
Total Cost:
£698
Total Booked:
42 people
Total £'s Taken:
£7,084.00
Average Job ticket:
£168.66
Return on investment:
10:1

1,800 letters, gets 42 jobs and makes £7,084.00, plus this amount is growing as Jim still has more prospects to quote for and more calls almost daily.

For this campaign Jim used Docmail (www.cfhdocmail.com) which is an online printing and post company.    It now takes Jim just minutes to send out a few hundred letters.  However, Docmail does have a number of downsides compared to Neil at MBE, like...
  • Docmail only use 'window envelopes' which means your customers address will take up a large chunk your letter, Neil at MBE allows you to use all the letter for your message as he prints the clients address on the outside. 
  • Docmail will not allow 'teaser copy' on the outside of the envelope, as MBE print on the outside they allow you to add teaser copy for free.  Teaser copy is making an offer on the outside of the envelope which gets it opened quicker and increases responces. 
  • Docmail charge extra for your 'return address', with MBE its free, so allows you to clean your list with people that have moved.
  • Docmail need your list 'post ready' and sent to them in certain way, if not they will not send or charge you extra. Just call Neil at MBE and he will talk you through it. He'll discuss what you need to do ... and send you a printed sample of your letter FREE.     

The second person to do really well with his mailshot is Mark Pritchard of Hertfordshire. 

Mark, said he didn’t want to write a letter, (couldn't be bothered more like) so he asked his wife to make up a postcard out of an advert she already made for him.  Here is a copy of the postcard...

Mark Pritchard, NCCA carpet cleaners makes a 12:1 Return on Investment by sending Postcard to his clients

Marks postcard was A6, but when he noticed it was just 2p more for A5 size, he went for that printed full colour side.

Here's Marks results...



Marketing Piece:
Postcard
Marketing Target:
Old Customers
Printed Offer:
3 for 2 Offer
Printed & Posted by:
DocMail
Total Pieces Sent:
896 postcards
Total Cost:
£397.83
Total Booked:
30 people
Total £'s Taken:
£4,813.00
Average Job ticket:
£160.43
Return on investment:
12:1

Marks figures are great, although one of Marks domestic clients works at a school and got him a £900 job there (what a shame). So if you wanted say that one job didn't count and remove the commercial job, Marks average job falls a little to £134 and his return on invest falls just below 10:1.  

Regardless ... Mark did a great job and made £4,813.00 from a £397.83 investment.

Which works best Letter or Postcard...?   I personally like the letters, as you can add more details and personalise them more.  The real answer is they both do ... try mixing them up a little and test the results for yourself.


(Please Note: Most letters/postcards sent before the post office price increase 1st April 2013). 

So there's my proof ...  Old School marketing does work.   Jim and Mark have made it look easy, don’t they? Well I’m going to make it even easier for you.

But first here's something you should remember when using direct mail...
Most people live their lives with tunnel vision, they only see what they want to see.  Therefore Jim sent his letters to 1,800 people and only 42 purchased ... so he CAN keep on mailing, every few weeks to the other 1,758 people.
Don't think because you sent someone a letter this year you will have to wait until next year to write again.     
Here's what to do...

Step 1: Fill in the form below and I’ll send you THREE ready-made letters all with vouchers attached...FOR FREE. These cover the 3 main sections of your customers...    
     a.  Current Clients: 6-12 months with a £10 off Voucher. 
     b.  Past Clients: 12-24 months with a 3 for 2 offer 
     c.  Old Clients: 24-60 months with a FREE ROOM offer 
Step 2: Download the ‘FREE Client Database Software’ packages from both of our Corporate members. Allan or Kevin can help you create three groups from your database, as above be selecting the people you want to work for. I suggest you work in batches of 300-400.
Step 3: Contact Neil Jenkins at Mail Boxes etc… call him on 01628633336 and he will help you put the mailing and database together for you. He will even send you a sample of the letter FREE.   

Carpet Cleaners - get 3 FREE Marketing Letters to your database
 Get these letters here for FREE...


What could be easier? As Jim and Mark have already shown, you could be making between £4000-£7000 additional money over the next few weeks.

Please let me know your success stories.  


Regards







Keith Robertson 
NCCA Vice President and Marketing Director

PS. I’d like to thank Jim Leech and Mark Pritchard for sharing their actual marketing figures with us all. And please remember these guys have their own businesses, so please don’t call them … call the three Corporate members who are willing and able to help you better.

PPS. If you have any successful marketing you would like to share with others please contact me via the office.