Ted

How many doorhangers do you put out to get a new residential client?
How many cold calls does it take you to get a new client?
How many days is the average sales process for you?

Silverdot

My personal results

I passed out 150 fliers and put them on random doors throughout my apartment complex and got 3 jobs.

so that's a 4.5% return rate. From what I've research with other cold direct mailing the average return is about 3%. Maybe others have had better results?

I plan on passing out 600 fliers next weekend keeping everything else the same. So at an average of 3% I should get 18 new clients. Could be more or less depending on where I market. Also my first 3 cleaning were move outs, so not normal cleanings. Lots of variables there. I'll post back here with my results.

SanitarySpecialist

What company do you have do your work, or is it a local print shop?

bluefish

By my math that only works out to 2%

Anyone else have anydoor hanger results they can share with us?

bluefish

I have just began a door hanger campaign. I currently have a very small sampling (about 400) and I have seen a 1% call rate but have only pulled off a 25% conversion or (.25% of the 400).

There are a couple reasons for the poor conversion.

1. I am male. I believe house wives expect to speak to a woman.
2. I am coming in at at the high end of the area's price range (purposely)
3. I have never given phone bids before and feel under qualified, just need practice.


Does no else have experience with door hangers?

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kingskleen

Where do you get your door hangers?
I have searched online and didn't find any I liked.
I read that I could print my own as a postcard and attach a rubber band to it to hold it on the door knob.

tempy

You can't get an average rate with 400 flyers, that's just not enough data. You'll need a minimum of 5,000 flyers to get your average. It can vary depending on several factors. The most important is going to be where you live in the first place. Most types of businesses average around .01 to .008 percent. However, depending on where you're at, the cleaning business market is usually flooded, so you should expect somewhere between .007 and .003. You won't know what it is until you do a large enough distribution to get accurate data.

Printing can have an effect on either side. You can print simple 5,000 flyers for $30 or you can print full color glossy etc etc for $300 and up. So do you want to do more flyers with simple flyers or less flyers with more expensive flyers. Find the sweet spot.

You can also take your target market data and use census data to figure out what the best areas to flyer are. You can also map out you current clients versus the areas of distribution, and run census data on that to verify that you target data is accurate.

etc etc.

AZ PowerWash Pros

I have put out about 5000 door hangers this year. We usually have our employees put them out in residential areas after cleaning homes. Usually I get like one call out of every 500. But people hold on to door hangers and call like a year later sometimes. Door hangers work but not instantly they need time. The best way to market door hangers is hit the same areas every quarter if you want to see the best results.

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Waldorf's EcoClean

Interesting info on this method of marketing. I've been thinking about going this route...at least to test it.

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vital151

Hi Blue Fish, I'm new in the cleaning business also. My wife and I started our business Mid January, and I am the one who goes on all the sales calls. I don't think the low closing rate is because you're a man, so far I'm closing 80-90%. I joke with the wives and let them know that I'm just selling and that there will be women cleaning the house. That makes them feel better.

As far as advertising goes, fliers / door hangers are gold for us, and Ad-Words work as well but a little pricey for now.

www.loadsoffyourback.com

ryanrachael1

Hey vital51, your website looks great! Did you mean you just started this past Jan? My wife and I just started our cleaning business this month and our website is being built as we speak. What is the best method of marketing just starting up? best bang for your buck? We are going for residential as well as commercial at this point.

MCCMN

My exhusband's parents were ad-execs and they always said there was about a 1% return on average. I have found this to be about right. For residential cleaning I would do craigslist, adds in local papers, and groupon.

april1979

This topic seems to be covered pretty well. That is definitely an good point that you need higher numbers to get an an accurate statistical average. Passing out 100 flyers isn't enough to understand how the percentages are working. One thing that I have found helpful is to design 4 or 5 different versions of an ad and print them on my computer. Then I show them to friends and colleagues asking them for their input about which ones they like best and why. Another thing, I have tried printing up my own flyers, postcards and brochures from my own printer and from kinkos. I have found that it is actually more expensive to do this. Ink cartriges and Kinkos are expensive. It is actually cheaper to have material printed for you if you are going to do it in volume. What I do is design the ad myself on photoshop and then upload it to a online printing company. Vistaprint (I am not affiliated with this company btw) has very good deals on printed material. A final thought, think of your printed ads as seeds. Only distribute them where you think they have a good chance of sprouting. For housecleaning you may want to save your seeds for well-off neighborhoods.

Bainbridge Island Window Cleaning

sprintcar93

Since 1998 and what seems like 20 billion flyers later, I agree with the 1%. About a month ago we got a call from a flyer that was passed out over 2 years ago.

If you plan to pass the flyers out yourself just realize that talking about passing out 1000 flyers is MUCH easier than actually passing out the 1000 flyers. If you get a good method and a good neighborhood with close houses and you're in good shape and if you hussle you might get 500 out in about 6 hours. It takes about 35 seconds on average from 1 house to the next but you have to realize you have end of blocks you will have to walk around and sometimes all other kinds of obsticles that make you lose time. And most people take a break here and there. I don't take breaks but most probably have to. And then when you finish the first 1000 flyers.... you might get a call that day, that week, that year or not at all. So it's off to pass out the next 1000 flyers.......

sandersjessica9

I haven't used door hangers, but I have used flyers and they have worked really well. I have a car washing business and I put a coupon on a flyer and put it on car windshields and the return has been about 5%, which is great. I found some cheap flyer printing online so I save time and money.

Donnyboy8

Anyone try this for commercial cleaning? We focus on office spaces and office buildings.

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