There are a lot of little things that can kill the response rate and ROI of your home services direct mail marketing campaigns. Whether you have an HVAC, Plumbing or Electrical home services business, it’s important you educate yourself to help choose the right direct mail marketing partner for your Home Services business.
Don’t assume that your direct mail marketing partner knows your industry and has worked with HVAC, Plumbing and Electrical companies like yours. During your consultation with whomever you are considering, pay close attention to see if any of the below points are discussed.
A good mantra to go by is trust but verify.
In no specific order, below are 6 tips you need to ensure your direct mail marketing partner is aware of and addressing when consulting with you about targeting new residential prospective customers for your specific home services business.
1. ADDRESS REMOVAL
If your home services business is sending out new acquisitions direct mail marketing to get more residential customers, it is likely this will be done by selecting postal carrier routes. Carrier routes are a further break down of a zip code and the type of direct mail that provides the lowest postage rate. It is also the most popular strategy for Home Services, HVAC, Plumbing and Electrical HVAC companies.
In doing so, you will want to make sure that the following addresses are identified and discussed and/or removed.
- Businesses – Always Remove
- Residential PO Boxes – Always Remove Unless You Are In a Rural Town That Only Gets Mail By PO Box
- Seasonal Addresses – Identify and discuss if you want to target seasonal homes.
- MDFU Apartments – Always Remove as they will never need your services.
2. CUSTOMER SUPRESSION
Make sure you discuss removing your current customers from your new customer acquisition direct mail marketing. You current customers should not receive new acquisition direct mail marketing, they should be setup on a customer retention marketing plan, with a different message.
3. PENETRATION REPORT
Make sure your direct mail partner uses a penetration report. The penetration report plots all your current customers on a map. This information is this used to strategically identify the most viable areas to target.
4. THE RIGHT OFFERS
Make sure your direct mail marketing partner consults with you on what offers to run and has a strategy behind their suggestions. Having the right coupons/offers can make or break your direct mail marketing results.
The most glaring example of a good vs bad offer is the Furnace Tune-Up offer. By editing the ad copy on the standard furnace tune-up offer, to be easier to understand and to include the benefits of a furnace tune-up, it is possible to increase interest in your offer by up to 74% based on our consumer research found in “Cracking The Code.”
Below is an example from our consumer research.
The full results of this consumer research example can be found in “Cracking The Code.” We highly recommend you download a copy today for this as well as many other game changing consumer insights.
5. TECHNICAL JARGON
50% of consumers do not know what HVAC companies do based on our latest consumer research from “Cracking The Code.” Therefore, its critical you analyze your ad copy and marketing message in great detail to ensure that every single prospect reading your direct mail marketing can clearly understand what you are saying. This is even more critical when dealing with younger customers as illustrated by the graph below.
Although the example below is specific to HVAC, you can assume it is the exact same with most other trades.
6. PERSONALIZATION
Make sure your graphic designer discusses personalizing your direct mail marketing. Whether that
be with an image of you, your team and or a picture of one of your vehicles, personalization will resonate much more with consumers as compared to pictures of HVAC equipment.
To learn more about how we strategically help Home Services, HVAC, Plumbing and Electrical companies get the best response with their direct mail marketing by addresses each of the 6 points above as well as many others in conjunction with proven direct mail marketing best practices contact one of our expert home services direct mail marketing experts today.