Trades

Avoiding Marketing Malpractice
In the Home Service Trades

Geoffery Moore Marketing
Hi, I’m Geoffery Moore. If you’re frustrated with your marketing, I wouldn’t blame you a bit! There’s a lot of marketing malpractice in the home service trades, and I’ve heard all the stories:

  • The plumbing & heating contractor who paid $60,000 to a consultant, and got nothing but a white paper he didn’t understand.
  • The air conditioning firm that paid $100,000 for a series of mailings that generated virtually NO business.
  • The building contractor who paid a monthly retainer to an agency for two years and saw NO results.
  • And on and on.

So why should you trust me? Well, the truth is, you shouldn’t! Never jump into any advertising option without giving it a lot of thought, checking out references, etc.

And before you spend a dollar on advertising, make sure you understand…

The #1 Reason why Marketing Doesn’t Work for the Trades
In his best-selling book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey says, “The way you think about the problem is the problem.”

I’m convinced that this is a big reason behind so much frustration among home service contractors. The way contractors and marketers THINK about the marketing problem IS the problem.

Let me give you an example.

Is Your Marketing Having a Heart Attack?

When business is good, there’s no time to think about advertising. But when business slows down, suddenly it hits everyone like a heart attack: “We need phone calls, we need sales, and we need them right now!”

When everyone is in this state of mind, any thought of a well planned, consistent approach that steadily builds your business goes right out the window!

All you want to hear is someone promising that they can deliver an avalanche of phone calls immediately!

And guess what: there are plenty of people who will claim they can deliver that…and take your money!

So you try an idea, then another, then something else—always looking for that silver bullet. Over time, this leads to an inconsistent, scatter-shot approach.

The way you think about the problem is the problem.

So what can you do? For starters, I’m going to tell you…

A Secret Worth Millions

Actually, it’s not that much of a secret! But it could, literally, be worth millions to you.

One of my clients, Heritage Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, interviewed a number of plumbing & heating firms who were doing more than $20 million in annual sales. He asked them how they got there.

What they said was revealing. They used various marketing methods, but they all agreed on one key point. They said:

The key to long term growth is to develop a solid marketing message and method that you have confidence in and then run with it consistently and persistently, month after month, year after year.

No special gimmicks. No silver bullet. Just do a good job and stay with it.

This just makes sense. After all, this is the way you’ve built your business. You get up every day, work hard, do a good job, and you stay at it.

The same is true with marketing. You’ve got to find a way to be out there in front of people with a strong, positive message—month after month, year after year—if you want to grow.

The Contractor Who Doubled His Business

This is the approach we’ve taken with our clients, and it’s been very effective. For example, we created a branding campaign for Heritage that has helped them more than double their business in just a few years.

We started by coming up with a concept for turning all of their trucks into eye-popping, rolling billboards. Then we used the same concept on their yellow page ads, print ads, direct mail, website, blog, and more. Now all of their advertising ties together and tells one, strong consistent story.

Now, Heritage is working on a plan to double their business again in the next few years.

So where do you start? Let me make a suggestion:

Send me an email and tell me two things:

  1. the biggest marketing problem or challenge you face
  2. your greatest wish for your business–what you would like to see happen in 1, 3, or 5 years.

Then, I’ll do two things for you. First, I’ll email you a description of how we helped Heritage double their business.

Second, I’ll call you with some ideas about how we could meet your challenges and make your wishes for your business come true.

Then, if my ideas seem promising to you, I can give you an estimate for what it would cost to execute the ideas.

And I’ll promise you this: No Marketing Malpractice!

To your success and enjoyment,

Geoffery Moore