Lessons learned from cheap labor
Estimated Reading Time: about 4 minutes
Hi all, this is Matt Bidstrup again. I’m trying to understand better who the readers of The Steel Road actually are so that we can provide the most valuable content possible.
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When I was a young boy my dad would often recruit me to help build his business.
Almost every year during Thanksgiving Break we would spend hours putting together large envelopes filled with calendars featuring work from a local photographers. We mailed these to every home within the service area.
I’m convinced these have had an incredible ROI for the business. A calendar with great pictures will be hung up and looked at every day of the year. It’s a subtle reminder and keeps the company top of mind.
We also went on a crusade to pass out bags to every single home in the service area. We put together reusable grocery bags branded with the company logo and filled with pens, notepads, magnets, and other typical items. Every morning at 5 am my siblings and I would get up to hang these bags on doorsteps. I swear we covered the entire city.
It was actually really fun to see a teacher show up to school using one of the bags we passed out or see a random person at the grocery store putting their groceries in it. To my young mind I didn’t realize the significance of this, but providing even a tiny bit of value to prospective clients goes a long way when they are looking for a service business.
As you are designing your marketing strategy, keep in mind you can’t just fall in love with one medium and use that exclusively.
Your marketing funnel is the key to growing your business. Without elements of each level of the funnel, you’ll never get anything more than a semi interested customer.
The calendars we mailed were the perfect example of that. It hung on the wall all year displaying the company logo for all to see and spreading awareness, but in the month of April there was a coupon for 20% off an air conditioner tune up to drive decision making.
Check out this previous post to learn more about the marketing funnel.
The next time you get a piece of marketing material in the mail, or get a flyer dropped off at your door, go through a mental evaluation. Did this work on me? Did I actually read the promotion or just put it straight into the trash?
As you start to evaluate what happens to you in real life you’ll begin to see patterns that you can replicate in your own business.
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