subject: Target The Customers You Want With Door Hanger Advertising [print this page] The volatile and limited job market today has resulted in many starting their own businesses either by necessity or a desire to create a self-employment opportunity with stability for the future. The service industry offers many possibilities for entrepreneurial opportunities, often with little start-up costs. Housekeeping, painting, landscaping, carpet cleaning, and many, many other types of service companies can be very successful when marketed wisely.
Effective marketing is absolutely essential to any type of business but is especially vital to service industry companies that have so much competition for limited dollars. Effective marketing is not simply bringing business in, though that is certainly one of the ultimate goals. It is bringing the right kind of business in at a cost that makes the business generated profitable. For example, spending $5,000 on radio advertising to generate $5,000 of business is not economically feasible. Spending $500 for that $5,000 in business can result in a profit.
Effective marketing is done by directly reaching the target audience, or demographic of those who are in need of the service. Advertising a roofing service to apartment residents is a waste of advertising resources. Advertising housekeeping services to upper-end high rise residents, however, will probably generate some excellent business. This seems obvious, but this is exactly the problem with much of the expensive advertising being done on radio and TV. The advertising is certainly reaching a large number of people but when the actual number of people who may use the service is factored along with geographic limitations, the reality is a significantly smaller number of potential customers at a high advertising cost.
How does a small business target those potential customers at a reasonable cost? There are several very effective tools that can be used alone, or most effectively, in combination. A simple, inexpensive website is a valuable tool that can provide information about the business and help to generate inquiries and business. It won't work alone though since with the many millions of competitive websites on the internet, potential customers won't see it unless they are directed to the website with some other means.
The most cost-effective means of marketing a service business are direct mail and door hanger advertising. They are low cost to produce and go directly into the hands of the target audience. Creatively designed direct mailers or door hangers with coupons or some other value included that direct potential customers to visit a website or call for information have been proven very effective in driving valuable business. By selectively targeting the customers you want, those are the customers you will get.
