8 Ways to Stand Out This Holiday Season

‘Blending In’ may be fine for cake mix, but it’s terrible for your marketing. Why? Because you’re spending money to be different, unique or to stand out from the crowd. Copycat marketing is perhaps the biggest waste of money in all of contracting.

All the institutional and manufacturer supplied ads start looking the same, and customers can’t distinguish one from another. This adds to cost while reducing the lead count.

Be bold during the Holidays with your unique edge. Get standout recognition while your competition is fighting amongst themselves, and do it for less. Here’s how…

§  Sales Letters (in a Direct Response format) should be sent out prior to December 10. Rebate and deferred payment offers work well during this season.  Do not send any sales offers between December 10 and January 12 or you’re wasting money.

§  Postcards and Self-Mailer Letters sent first-class are faster and less expensive than enveloped mail. Plus, since you’ll receive the ‘undeliverables’ back, this is a perfect once-a-year clean up of your mailing list.

§  Low-Cost Holiday Cards can do all of the above and can be sent from Thanksgiving to New Years. Send to your entire database, but do not use a sales message or the effect is ruined. These are the #1 Customer Retention pieces during the holidays.  

§  New Years Calendars can be a good idea, but limit them to only the top purchasing customers in your database. Customers get many calendars each year, so only the most attractive will make it to the wall, which means only the costliest. Be careful here.

§  Red and green streamer tape in 2” width can visibly distinguish your service vehicles from Thanksgiving forward. For less than $4 per vehicle, you can be a standout in traffic. The tech with the best decorated truck should get a little gift from Santa.

§  Your “on-hold” message should reflect the season and mood. Have separate messages for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.  You must speak to customers in the language of the season. This costs you zip.

§  Your phone greeting can also change for nothing. Use ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy Holidays’ instead of the standard. Be consistent in your greeting message or you sound unprofessional.

§  Use bags of red and green ‘Kisses’ to give to all customers during the Holidays. For about 4 cents a customer, you bring a smile and greater reception to your message.

Not many contractors will make these small, nearly free changes. But, the ones who do will ‘stand apart’ from their competition. They’ll be the ones who are remembered and referred over the rest, isn't this what your marketing should do anyway? 

Seminar Impacts Total Strangers Hundreds of Miles Away

 It seemed like a normal seminar. Dozens of PHCC contractors piled in to get a seat at Adams Hudson’s marketing seminar to gain a lesson. They got a bit more than that.

“Plumbing contractors may not think of themselves as heroes, but I do, and so do all who’ve ever had a water heater die on them,” said Hudson. “They can save the day with the twist of a wrench. Maybe this is a hero complex, but we wanted to have a positive impact too.”

That’s what led Hudson, Ink to donate proceeds for each PHCC member who accepted a marketing package to Habitat for Humanity, a foundation dedicated to eliminating substandard housing.

“Habitat helps less fortunate citizens, plus it puts local contractor volunteers to work,” said Hudson. “It’s a great way for plumbers and other contractors to get involved in the community. Aside from the charity, it’s feel-good marketing at its finest.”

From this seminar, 28 PHCC members helped push donations to nearly $300; over time, Hudson, Ink’s donations from seminars have exceeded $10,000.

“The experience has been great for everyone involved,” said Hudson. “We hope to continue our relationship with PHCC and Habitat for Humanity for a long time.”

For more information about Habitat for Humanity, and ways you can support the cause, go to www.Habitat.org.

Hudson, Ink, Corp. is a marketing firm that creates and distributes online and offline marketing and information programs for in-home service contractors, helping them market more effectively with turn-key marketing programs and strategy. For more information, call 1-800-489-9099, email info@hudsonink.com or check them out online at www.HudsonInk.com or on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Special thanks to the 28 contractors who helped support Habitat for Humanity at PHCC Connect 2014:

3rd Generation Johnson Plumbing	Mark Johnson
A. J. Lyne, Ltd.	Andy Lyne
Al Bourgeois Plumbing	Carl Bourgeois
Bell Mechanical	Keith Bell
Brian MacDonald Plumbing & Heating	Brian MacDonald
Central Plumbing & Heating	John Cersosimo
Dial One Sonshine Plbg, Htg & A/C	Dave Marquez
Doug Turner Plumbing Co.	Doug Turner
Earl's Plumbing	Greg de Veer
Enhanced HVAC	Joe Brooks
Esposito Plumbing & Heating	Al Esposito
Feddon Mechanical	Dave Feddon
Gino's Plumbing	Gino Burgio
Jack Dolan & Sons	Mike Dolan
Jeff's Plumbing & Repair, Inc.	Jeff Voss
Jiffy Plumbing, Heating & A/C	Allan Luke
John Stevenson Plumbing Heating & Air	John Stevenson
Long's Corporation	Michael Hurt
Milton Frank Plumbing Co. Inc.	Patty Frank
Modern Plumbing	Josh Hollub
Owen Geoghegan Plumbing & Heating	Owen Geoghegan
Powderhouse Plumbing	John Macone
R.E.C. Industries	Randy Hunter
Scott Harrison Plumbing & Heating	Scott Harrison
Silverado Rooter & Plumbing	Art Cake
Terry Plumbing Co.	Terry McCarthy
Tri-City Plumbing	Todd Billiot
Williston Plumbing	Ron Doughty

                              

So a guy walks into a Pawn Shop…

After our move, my drive to work went from a 6-minute meandering to a 45-minute commute. In Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, my commute is called “A mere hop.”

Anyway, the drive begins in a neighborhood on a lake, then gets a little country, then a lot rural and – depending on my route – winds through a pretty desperate-looking area. Let’s just say the burglar bar salespeople do okay there.

That’s my route today. It’ll make whatever you were complaining about seem small. The area is a curious mishmash of businesses and homes that scarcely make the definition; lots of broken glass, far more broken dreams. “Vacant” applies to many things here. Looking up from my coffee, I see a sight that’ll flat-out get your attention. Like, now.

A youngish clean-cut man is heading into a Pawn Shop, with a toddler in one arm. And a gun case in the other.

It’s about 9 am. The adjacent liquor store is doing a brisk business already. A rattling bass seems to thrum through the streets, with little hint to the source. The man and child seem purposeful amid those who clearly aren’t. He’s got on well-worn work boots (construction variety), dusted with the whitish clay that lines this river lowland.

He’s a worker. A father. Probably a survivor. And – for the moment – a little desperate. I’d venture his Halloween had frights few of us know. Thoughts flash into my mind; I pull into the parking lot across the street.

There’ve been times in my life I thought I was desperate, or it felt so. And like the “commute versus the hop,” it’s all relative. I remember nervously twirling my new wedding band under a very long walnut table among humorless bankers, denying me a loan to finance a half-rented property. The ghouls of my memory make them bloodless and cold. The truth was that it served me right; the property was a pig and I didn’t deserve the loan.

From that hardship, I didn’t even look at another piece of investment real estate for 15 years, only then scrutinizing it like an Amish father over his daughter’s first date. The next several properties over many years performed well. Desperation is a merciless teacher, but the lessons stick.

I sometimes wish I could feel what desperate immigrants felt, leaving their homeland with little money and a lot of hope when they first saw the Statue of Liberty. Now that was a commute. It meant something. Freedom. Opportunity. Yet, entitlement?

The word hadn’t been invented yet, but if it had, every immigrant on that boat would’ve beat it up. The Italians would’ve ground it into a paste for sauce, the Germans would’ve sprinkled it in beer, both savored during the first “It Is Up to Me” Victory dinner.

I believe desperation can be a good thing, shedding fluff, reducing you to your core. I’ve said before – and it’s no more popular now – that the ‘R’ word we began in ‘08 was largely healthy. Taught us to cut out waste and any indulgence of marble-lined idiocy. Those who felt that storm first-hand are changed people. Probably some bitter ones in the bunch, but all are wiser for the experience.  

I wish every ‘My-latte-is-getting-cold’ youth in America had gotten a taste of it.

Probably’d do ‘em good in the long run. They’d likely not walk into job interviews 20 minutes late, asking how many days off they get. Would probably not don the earbuds when meaningful lessons were inches from their purview. Neediness has a place.

It’s good to need instead of just want. It’s good to be denied, instead of being insatiable. It’s good to make-do with what you have, rather than make-believe for what you don’t.

Though extreme, the Great Depression gave us a pretty darn good group of Americans. It triggered more start-ups, more millionaires, more patriotism, more thriftiness, higher family values and more eventual optimism than was ever rightfully expected of any Nation. (Capitalized on purpose.) You think the recession scared them? “A mere hop” they’d say.

                                                                

How would you treat your job and family if they were truly all you had? Would you care more, try harder, complain less, reach farther? I imagine that all progress, all customers, all relationships and any small victories would make you indescribably grateful. Not a bad attitude to have, and likely contagious.

Rattled from my thoughts, the young man emerges from the pawn shop. This time, no gun case, but he’s holding the boy’s hand as they walk toward a dented truck. He lifts his son into a car seat and carefully straps him in. He gives him a little hair tousle as he departs to his side.

I imagine the boy will remember the day daddy sold his hunting gun.  It’ll be years before he finds out why. Here’s hoping their desperation won’t last, but the lesson will.

As we enter a season of thanks, may you feel a twinge of desperation, followed by a wave of gratitude.

Adams Hudson