72 Marketing Ideas That Work and Work and Work!!
Here are dozens of great marketing ideas that the best remodelers in the
country, members of Remodelers Advantage Roundtables, have used to
attract quality leads that turn into quality projects. Use these ideas to turn
around your marketing program!
Doing Well by Doing Good Part 1
We have a 50/60/50 program — the first 50 customers each
year who are over 60 years old, get $50 worth of service
FREE. We co-op the promotional expense with our lumberyard. Our cost was $2,000 and we received $25,000 in
direct business the first year.
Dave Stebnitz, Stebnitz Builders
Our local Capitol Region Food Program collects food for
needy families between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We
volunteer our trucks and crew (in company shirts and hats)
to help deliver the food package.
Chris Avallone, Cobb Hill Construction
Support the kids in the community and their projects. I
helped our local team on a worldwide problem solving
contest – made local trophies in our shop — a case of doing
good and enjoying every minute of it!
Chris Repp, Repp Construction
We offer a four-year scholarship at our local high school.
While our yearly cost is $3,000, we receive press coverage
through the Foundation and for the award presentation.
Special arrangements insure this scholarship will continue
after we are gone.
Kathy Spears, Ken Spears Construction Inc
Corporate sponsorship of local public radio station and arts
organizations gives us exposure in theater and music
playbills which our top customers see.
Chris Avallone, Cobb Hill Construction
Why not a high-exposure volunteer public service? We put
up a much-needed banner cable across Main Street in our
town. It took 2 crews and myself a full day but we were
featured in a front page picture in our local paper.
Bob Walker, Construct Associates
If you have a good-sized office/showroom, let community
groups host events there. We let the Chamber of
Commerce, Pampered Chef, Longaberger Baskets, Lions
Club, Boy Scouts, Rotary Club use our space and that helps
people learn about us and feel they know us.
Dennis Gehman CR, CLC, Gehman Custom Builders, Inc.
Sponsorship of an American Cancer Society fund raising
Ball & $500 a plate dinner with 500 guests who represented
our high end client. Cost: $2,000 which included a display at
the function and an ad in the program.
Scott Whitlock, Hubert Whitlock Builders Inc.
Donated 4 tickets for a local professional baseball game and
dinner at the stadium club for the local school auction. Cost
$45.
Ken Spears, Ken Spears Construction, Inc.
I was in a hotel recently that included a small handout with
the company vision and a list of charity and community
involvement which is sponsored by the hotel. A great
addition to any company packet!
Sue Hartrick, Cobb Hill Construction
Unique and Effective
The company owner wrote and published a book for
homeowners on building a custom home. The book was sold
by local bookstores and got a great response. We are doing
a $300,000 remodeling project now because the owner had
purchased the book. While writing and publishing a book is
a huge amount of work, the dollars (and books) were shared
with advertisers.
Kathy Womack, Jeb Breithaupt Design*Build, Inc.
Take a focus group of previous customers to dinner. Sell
them again on your company and get feedback from them
on what you do well and how to do things better.
Eddie Casanave, Casanave Construction Co.,
We got the management of the Indianapolis Home Show
(200,000 attendees) to pay us to create a feature display in
their show in cooperation with the gas company. No hard
costs.
Phil Gettum, Gettum Associates, Inc.
Great News!
Paul Winans writes a monthly column for the local weekly
newspaper for free. The papers have, in turn, written two
articles about our company and they publish every press
release we send them. On average our name is in the paper
at least twice a month. This has resulted in 30+ leads and 8
jobs in 2 years plus great name recognition.
Nina Winans, Winans Construction
Contact regional design related magazines and offer your
expertise as a resource for their articles relating to the home.
It creates a blizzard of activity as freelance writers will use
you for their own benefit (and yours!)
Mike Hesterberg, Ashley Remodeling
Our marketing director writes a column in the local county
newspaper. It costs nothing and he gets paid! Lots of
visibility and name recognition!
Remodelers Advantage Inc.
14440 Cherry Lane Ct, Ste 201 Laruel, MD 20707
www.RemodelersAdvantage.com
FX 301-490-5
Dan Stebnitz, Stebnitz Builders
Submit (and follow up with a call) a story of one of your most
intriguing remodeling projects to your local newspaper
reporter. Budget: virtually zero. Results: leads that separate
you from the competitor, because you are the expert
Gary Sannes, S. J. Janis Company, Inc.
Techie Tactics
We went on the Internet and found local listings of house
sales for the last 4 years. We used this list to send out
marketing information about our firm. We’re adding these
names to our database for future mailings.
Michael Menn, Design + Construction Concepts
We have a website including about 40 pages of portfolio,
employee bios with photos, awards won, listing of job
openings, etc. We’ve sold three large jobs from it in 5
months. We get 1,000 “hits” per week. Cost $7,000
complete.
Larry Parrish, R.C. Parrish & Co., Inc.
We set up our website with our presentation book materials,
photos, and newsletters. Now we refer all our prospects to it
to learn about us. We’ve listed our web address on job signs,
letterhead, etc. Cost is $2,000/year.
Alan Derrick, Derrick Design & Remodeling
Generate window leads by using Monsanto shatterproof
glass in a window at a mall or other public location and let
the public throw baseballs at it to prove the glass won’t
shatter.
Scott Bar, Southwest Remodelers, Inc
Echoed by David Bryan, Blackdog Builders Inc.
Direct Mail Works!
High quality brochure mailings on good, glossy paper with a
pre-paid return card. This must be something so good that
people can’t throw it away like junk mail. We’ve gotten a
steady stream of responses every time we sent out a new
batch.
Jerry Levine, Wentworth-Levine Architect Builder
We use three marketing spearheads: Our newsletter gets us
more referral leads and jobs from old clients. Our computer
generated direct mail around the jobsite gets us more
referrals from the neighborhood and an aggressive PR
program adds credibility in the marketplace.
Tom Callen, Callen Construction
We use direct mail 4-color postcards with befores and afters.
Cost is .30 each.
Dale Crisp, Kendale Inc. and David Foster, Foster Home
Improvement Inc.
Newsletter News!
During a slow period in 1995, we rolled up newsletters and
tied a fancy bow around them. Then rubber banded them to
mailboxes in our community or hand delivered them. They
got lots more attention.
Mark Benkowski, Custom Design Associates Inc.
Resell the Already Sold!
List your new clients in each newsletter. Past clients often
call new people on the list if they know them and the
company becomes a topic of discussion when clients
socialize.
Bill Weidmann, Weidmann & Associates Inc
We invite our customers into our office and cabinetmaking
shop for a picnic and to observe their kitchen production in
process! We provide the picnic lunch in a woven basket with
a plaid tablecloth. We want them to spread the word about
our unique product and systems.
Jim D’Alessio, James P. D’Alessio, Inc.
Quarterly newsletters that are homey and thank clients. Add
a coupon for a free small gift from stores in your town — a
cup of coffee etc. This impresses past buyers of the benefits
of being your customer and reminds them of you again and
again.
Bob Barber, Homestead Remodeling
Give a $10 store gift certificate if the client returns the 6
month punchlist callback form.
Patrick Benkowski, Custom Design
Target your newsletter to market to a specific neighbor-hood
with a specific income level. We use purchased mail lists
based on our criteria. We find it produces great leads.
Edward Lane, Lane Homes & Remodeling
We send Valentines to clients with only a hint of a logo.
People have to recognize the logo to know who sent it in.
Finley Perry, F.H. Perry Builder, Inc.
Each One Teach One
Teach a building course at a community college. It might be
three Tuesday nights from 6-8 pm with a charge of $35 or
less. List it in the newspaper — get free publicity. You’ll get
at least three leads a course and one big job out of every 2
courses (we got a $600,000 job!)
Jeb Breithaupt, Jeb Breithaupt Design/Build Inc.
We put on a remodeling seminar for homeowners where we
include a local home improvement radio celebrity, serve
coffee and cake, have our personnel ready-to-help. The cost
is $5,000 and results are 400+ potential customers who
attend, 90 leads and hundreds of thousands in sales.
Joel and Adam Helfman, Fairway Construction
We send our newsletter 3 times a year to our entire
database. The cost for it, composed in-house but copied
outside, is about $750 per issue. Each issue generates calls
and results in at least one sale.
Sharon Bellamy, Bellamy & Sons Construction.
Chuck Fannin, Fannin Remodeling
Gregg Johnson, Lee Kimball Kitchens
We tell new clients about our newsletter at the contract
signing when they are high on the morale curve. We ask if
they know anyone else who would like to receive it (in other
words, who are thinking about remodeling). We then call
those referred individuals for permission to send it to them
and that gets us in front of them at a very early stage.
Remodelers Advantage Inc.
14440 Cherry Lane Ct, Ste 201 Laruel, MD 20707
www.RemodelersAdvantage.com
FX 301-490-5
Jerry Liu, D.G. Liu Contractor, Inc.
The Right Stuff
Marketing to commercial real estate brokers: Offer a budget
estimate within 48 hours so they can do their “deals.” Include
free blueprint copying and building evaluations because they
are at the forefront of commercial relocation & renovation
opportunities.
Al Lowe, Al Lowe Construction Inc
Branding
We try to have the manufacturer of our specialty materials
create special brands for us (i.e. Rhino replacement
windows, Rhino wall permanent siding, etc.). We use live
radio ads that feature testimonial from our clients.
Terry Skilling, Rhino Builders Inc.
Show and Tell
How about the gift of the standard bottle of scotch (or wine)
for the holidays delivered to your best clients . . . but in a
beautifully designed and handcrafted wooden box with the
company logo?
Andrew Maas, Martin Construction
We give out signed coupons worth $500 off on a contract of
$20,000 or more to previous clients to give to their friends
and neighbors. Coupons are presented at contract signing.
We’ve given out 30 coupons and have gotten 3 jobs
averaging $125,000.
Susan Pierce, Commonwealth Remodeling
The Way to Buyers Hearts is Through
Their Stomachs?
Invited three past clients to a dinner party in my home. All
three decided to do additions and each has referred new
prospects. Cost $300.
Peter Martin, Martin Construction
We Gather Together
A client with a recently completed project hosted a home
tour of 400 members of area garden clubs. We supplied
existing literature at minimal cost to us. Result: 3 quality
leads and two projects totaling $320,000.
Gary Stokes, ADR Builders
We use professional photography of past or completed jobs.
Our cost is approximately $150 per shot and we now have a
library of 42 photos. Our clients are impressed that we have
taken the time to assemble this library. Great photography
lets our work speak for itself louder than we could and instills
confidence in our prospects.
Halsey Platt, Walter H.B. Platt Builders
As artists, Gary and I design and hand craft our company
Christmas cards. Our cost is very low. The result is that they
are unique and memorable communications that reinforce
our company’s design creativity and artistic abilities.
Terry Streich, Silver Bullet, Inc.
Typeset your best testimonials on 8 ½ x 11 paper — three
per page — and frame and hang them in your
office/showroom. It’s a great silent tool that works on its own.
Bruce Johnson, Lee Kimball Kitchens, Inc.
If prospects often have a common objection - perhaps price be sure you encourage past clients to give you testimonial
letters recognizing that they knew you were not the cheapest
remodeler in town but that you delivered value beyond what
they expected. In other words, shape testimonial to meet
objections and then use those golden words to sell.
Linda Case, Remodelers Advantage Inc.
Doing Well by Doing Good Part 2
We spend $4,000-$5,000 a year participating in our local
Remodelers Showcase Open House Tour and we receive
50-60% of our annual projects from this one event. The tour
lasts 3 days but the leads last throughout the year.
Mark Peterson, M/A/Peterson Designbuild, Inc.
We held a catered Open House Reception at our new
offices, invited clients and staff and displayed photographs of
our work as if you were in an art gallery. Cost $1,500.
Bruce Wentworth, Wentworth-Levine Architect-Builder
We held an Open House in a spectacularly designed
remodeling project. Our budget was under $1,000. We sent
out 600 invitations to targeted neighborhoods and 200
people showed up. We’ve received 75 leads and are still
getting leads years later from people who attended.
Doug Funk, Spengler Design
Award Winning Tactics
We volunteer our showroom as the local voting location in
our area. We are also planning a Fire Seminar with the local
Fire Department at our office.
Mike Campbell, Campbell Builders
Get involved in a high profile community project and have a
professional publicist write press releases during the project.
Finish with a ribbon cutting ceremony and invite community
leaders and the press.
Derek Reijnen, The Reijnen Company
Create an image within your community by becoming
involved in charities, politics, builders and professional
groups. The cost is your life and time. The results are long
term for you and your business.
Mike Carey, Carey Construction
Become involved in the community, your church, Habitat for
Humanity, Youth Corps. The cost is your time but the results
are that you are recognized as a solid citizen giving back
what you receive.
Scott Richards, 1-Stop Remodeling
We won 4 out of 4 “Homer” Awards for excellence in quality
of projects. We use these awards in our ads. Our cost for
each Homer submission is $600 and takes about.
Tom Riggs, Riggs Construction Co. Inc. and
Ernie Hofmann, Hofmann Design Build
Remodelers Advantage Inc.
14440 Cherry Lane Ct, Ste 201 Laruel, MD 20707
www.RemodelersAdvantage.com
FX 301-490-5
and at least pick up the video — if not sell a job. Very
effective.
Phyllis Vail, Certainteed
It’s a Sign!
We created a contest for our 10th anniversary that included
incentives for past clients to let us put a new sign up on their
lawn. We got 50 signs in one week with incredible visual
recognition.
Matt Plaskoff, Matt Plaskoff Construction, Inc
Reach Out and Touch
I call one past client each day just to say hello and chat. That
way I stay top-of-mind when they want more remodeling or
when they talk to someone else who needs remodeling.
David Merrill, Merrill Contracting, Inc.
Place a sign on the lawn of new jobs that say “Guess Who’s
Coming to Your Neighborhood” a week prior to start. Then
replace it with your job sign when you start the job.
Matt Ostrowski, Creative Enclosures LLC
I call prospects from out of town and write them when I’m on
the road as well.
Jim Strite, Strite Design + Remodel
We love those good old job signs. They generate leads,
awareness and a presence. They are continually bringing
comments from friends and strangers who say “We see your
signs everywhere.”
Jake Schloegel, Schloegel Contracting Co., Inc.
Ads the World Turns
Some owners have objections to a job sign on their lawn, so
we bought a dumpster and had it painted and lettered with
our logo and name. People loved how clean it was kept and
you couldn’t miss seeing the advertising.
John Shea, Riggs Construction
As we work in the hospitals and doctor’s clinics, we post
“Pardon the Dust and Disruption” notice with our company
name on it. Cost is minimal, the return in calls and leads
from that segment of people has been great!
Bill Medina, Medina Construction Co.
How about a countdown sign that has room for a changeable
percentage — 25% complete — 50% complete — 75%
complete—100% complete? At the finish of the job, the sign
could be decorated with wooden or real balloons. Keep
neighbors watching your sign!
Linda Case, Remodelers Advantage Inc.
Marketing Can Be Sport
I play tennis with my clients and let them win!
Wayne Neylan, Neylan Construction, Inc.
Hanging Around!
Cut up extra siding from a job into 4" pieces. Put them in a
bag and hang it -- with business card and brochure -- on
homes around your jobsite.
Neil Minnucci, Homestead Remodeling
A door hanger bag with a video and company brochure.
Canvas a neighborhood and then call and ask to come back
Place ads with an offer for a free report — mine is called The
Six Secrets to Successful Remodeling. My cost is $400 for ¼
page and I get 50 calls per ad.
Paul LaRoe, LaRoe Residential Remodeling
Instead of advertising what we do, we advertise what we’ve
done by taking after pictures of the project with the clients
and placing it in the local paper with the copy “Thank you
(names of clients) for allowing Reid’s to make your dreams
reality.”
Brian Reid, Reid’s Remodeling
As a window replacement company, we put a half page ad in
our neighborhood newsletter. The cost is $50 per month.
The first month we got 3 jobs for $12,000 in volume, the 2nd
month we got two jobs that totaled $7,000 and this month so
far we have $4,000 in work from that inexpensive ad.
Paul Case, Home Visions West
A competitor of mine on Long Island found an ad agency in
California that created a TV ad for the company which runs
frequently. The company doesn’t pay for the ad spots. When
the prospect calls an 800# (controlled by the agency), that
qualified lead is purchased by the remodeling company.
Jack Palatella, Palatella Builders Inc.
Use a 4-page full color newspaper ad/insert in local
newspaper. Feature specific types of remodeling projects
and their monthly payment when financed. For instance: new
kitchen @ $80 per month, new bath @ $30 per month,
Room addition $120 per month.
Steve Jordan, Dirty Work Construction
Take a full page ad as a remodeler in Indiana does to thank
your clients from the past year. Have the newspaper print
extra to use as a referral list.
Anonymous
I have joined a local business/professional network in my
market. We meet weekly and this has given me new
contacts and qualified leads. Cost $250 annually.
Jeff Goldstein, The House Company
Remodelers Advantage Inc.
14440 Cherry Lane Ct, Ste 201 Laruel, MD 20707
www.RemodelersAdvantage.com
FX 301-490-5