anyone use valpak for advertising

[grassguy123]

anyone use valpak for advertising....what does it cost....how many customers replied

[Kimber Landscapes]

I have and I got one call from another maintenance company asking me if I wanted to buy some customers. Thats all the calls I got. And the ad looked great.

[csalisbury]

Val-paks can be a good investment....IF you have extra money left over from your other marketing efforts. The key to a good val-pak ad is remembering that the majority of the time, it's the woman of the house opening it. So, you've got to write your ad targeted at the female of the house.

Also, you need to make sure to give your potential prospect a good reason for calling. Unfortunately, everyone expects a free estimate these days so it needs to be something else. Either that, or you need to package your estimate so it looks like something of significant value.

Another suggestion is to use testimonials in your val-pak ads. Let your satisfied customers tell everyone else how great your service is and that they'd be silly not to call.

[dwyman]

I've been using them for the past 7 months. I just finally got some free time to sit down and figure out the numbers. In the last 7 months I have spent $4410 to receive 18 calls @ $245 per lead. I've closed 8 of those calls for a 44% close rate which is higher than what I'm used to, but it is probably because a lot of calls were for aeration (1x small price tag). Those 8 calls generated me a whopping $1964 in sales. Number don't lie, what do you think?

Just when I thought calls were finished for this month, I did close a xmas light gig for a HOA to double my sales from valpak. That almost gets me back to even. $3944 in sales cost me $4410.

[csalisbury]

dwyman,

I hope you've kept the information for all 18 people that called from the Val-pack ads you ran. Ad them to your list you continually market to and I bet you'll convert more of them as you present different services or offerings to them.

Also, even though the calls you received were for small one time jobs, hopefully after you finish the job you'll present them with another offer for the additional services you provide.

The key is to look at the potential lifetime value of the customer and not just the one time revenue. If you're only counting the one time revenue and not presenting them with additional service offerings, you're not completely capitalizing on your marketing $$$'s.

[comfortlawn]

one thing to remember is that any time you get your name out ther that somone will remember it and give to somone else in other words think of your advertizing as an investment for the future to me the more they see my name the better always have a way they know your out ther i run a 16 ft.box truck with a hydro gate and advertize on it.were ever im at its seen if you dont have somthing that big multi use of flyers local small papers ect , no every month but enough so people know your still around

[dwyman]

dwyman,

I hope you've kept the information for all 18 people that called from the Val-pack ads you ran. Ad them to your list you continually market to and I bet you'll convert more of them as you present different services or offerings to them.

Also, even though the calls you received were for small one time jobs, hopefully after you finish the job you'll present them with another offer for the additional services you provide.

The key is to look at the potential lifetime value of the customer and not just the one time revenue. If you're only counting the one time revenue and not presenting them with additional service offerings, you're not completely capitalizing on your marketing $$$'s.

All estimates and services rendered are stored in quickbooks. I can pull reports to give me names of previous callers. As far as value of the customer, I understand lifetime value. I am using numbers that I have now to track advertising dollars. I could only speculate as to what additional revenue will be generated.

You bring up a good point to offer additional services at completion of the job. A lot of the times I don't do that, but it makes a lot of sense to do so everytime. I'm sure I've missed a lot of opportunity in the past not doing that, but that will be something I will include from now on new jobs.

That's why this site is great. Little bits of advice that can add up to success. Some things should be common sense but you don't think about it until someone mentions it. Thanks for the tidbit, I honestly think that will add quite a bit to sales just by doing that.

[csalisbury]

dwyman,

All estimates and services rendered are stored in quickbooks. I can pull reports to give me names of previous callers.

First off, congrats for having the foresight to hang onto all that information. That's a critical lesson many new businesses could definitely learn from.

The hardest and most expensive part of marketing your business is getting prospects to identify themselves as someone interested in your services. You have a list of people that have already taken steps to let you know they're interested, but for whatever reason they weren't prepared to take the final step. Don't give up on them.

Now that they've let you know they're interested, stay in touch with them and keep sending them information and offers via a newsletter, postcards, or even email. 'One shot marketing' more often than not leaves a whole lot of money on the table.

Just as with the original estimate you provided, they may not take you up on your offers initially, but the odds are in your favor that at some point they'll take action and hire you to provide services.

[lawnchick]

My husband used ValPak...$790 for a basic mailout....he rec'd around 4 calls...got 2 as customers. Big waste of hard earned money!
He will never use them again.

A "business card-sized" ad in the small local newspaper (in his 1st season), putting business cards in the foodstore (every spring) & our free website got him more customers.