Tried and True still Works in Business

The door-to-door salesman in the photo to the left may not be having much luck, but the old tried and true marketing practices of years gone by have not gone away...they are still with us and being utilized by solo-preneurs and small businesses everywhere - and with great success. 

I live in a neighborhood in a community of just under 80,000 in the highly populous region of the Bay Area of California.  Bay Area gets capital letters because there is the main Bay Area of San Francisco and its environs, there is the North Bay (Marin et al), South Bay (Silicon Valley and surroundings) and East Bay communities (where I live).  Every week, if not every day, there are flyers, brochures and doorhangers left on my welcome mat or hung on the door knob or folded into the door handle.  These marketing pieces represent all kinds of businesses: real estate, landscaping, house cleaning, tax preparation, handyman services, hauling services (we just got one yesterday advertising for e-waste hauling) and even the occasional direct seller like the Avon catalog.  Some years, one of the real estate agents includes a seedling tomato plant with her brochure - that represents quite an investment in her marketing budget.

Admittedly some of the flyers are not professionally done: they have all the hallmarks of having been done on a home computer and copied off at a local copy place...however they represent some small business person's efforts at gaining new local customers.  We received a doorhanger yesterday for a house cleaning service that I was very impressed with.  It was obviously professionally printed and much thought went into it.  If I were to give a critique to this piece here is what I would say [and, at one point in a past career I did do things like critiquing marketing pieces]:

*first, the part that hangs on the knob was clear of information...this means nothing important got lost in the hanging process

*second, in huge letters you know right away what this business is...House cleaning.  Couldn't be simpler or more concise

*it asks the questions that you might actually say "yes" to

*I personally like this part - it imparts the idea that the business owner actually enjoys their work and wants "you" for a client

*the use of photos is good...rather than just a simple bullet point listing, the photos give the doorhanger some pizzazz 

*Wow.  This business is always available - means the owner can fit into your schedule

*this is a good bullet point list - it tells you at a glance what you get with the service; you know before you call that they do showers and tubs; you know they will change the beds; you know that they will clean your cupboard surfaces.

*good sales points - this is obviously how the business owner sees herself

*It's good to know you can get references if you choose to have them; especially in some service industries.

*This business owner spent money on marketing - you know this because the name of the printing company is on the card - this tells me this is a small business owner serious about her business

*Here you know without having to call first that you can get a Free Estimate

All-in-all this is a successful marketing piece.  [I blanked out the phone number/email address to protect the business owner.]

UPDATE on my blog change and writing business:  hopefully by tomorrow the "pointing to" process of pointing this blog platform to my domain name will be accomplished.  I had no idea how complicated the process is to the uninformed but I'm very thankful for all the help that both the sixapart/typepad tech folks  have given me (especially Melanie) and the tech support for Buy Domains Now (especially Ted) have given me.  I learned a long time ago working as a newspaper reporter that it is best to be right up front about things you know nothing at all...saves time and confusion.

Some things about this new version of Linda's Business Blog that are different:

1. it's on a different blogging platform - Typepad
2. it has two profile pages...one is the default Profile page that comes with the theme - I named it Short Profile; the other is my "about" page I titled Much Ado About this Blog 
3. I have a page called Cool Stuff - why? part of my business plan for 2010 is to earn part of my living through my art and part of my living through my writing - earning money via my business blog is one of those ways.  The Cool Stuff page is a listing/links to products and/or services that I've either used or received value from and recommend to anyone to check out for themselves
4. in the right side column of the blog will be ads for various products and services...again, part of my earning potential - available for anyone to check out if interested

Other than that, the goals are the same: to carry on a conversation about business and share what I learn, what I know and what I think is interesting.

Comments

[Insolvency Advice]

Its really a good way when you have truthfulness in your business because it can really help keep your image in good form.

[Home Business]

Being tried and true really works based on my personal experience as a businessman. It has made me mature in how I do business.

[Christy Strauch]

The other thing that works with this door hanger is that the business owner has done some work (hopefully) in figuring out the most likely places to hang it.

The good news about a cleaning business (also the landscape people, Realtors, handyman services and tax preparers) is that they can use demographic data (in this case, address/zip code) to find their most likely prospective clients. And demographic data is a lot less expensive to get than the other kind: psychographic data (like what they like to do in their spare time, their political/environmental and other views, etc.) You can get demographic information (name, address, income, level of education, etc) from places like www.infousa.com or www.zapdata.com. The easiest way for small businesses to get psychographic data about their clients is to ask.