Have a Lead List of 38,000 Local Businesses. Now what? DISCUSS! :)

[HealeyV3]

So here's the scoop:

I am a 22 Year Old with a Bachealor's degree in Game Design. I know graphic design, website design, SEO Marketing, and a whole slew of other computer related procedures and software. For the past 2 years I have worked part time for a Lawn Maintenance company doing office work, such as customer relations, invoicing, crew management and scheduling, etc etc.

Just as a "test", I went on maps.google.com and wrote down the email addresses of about 100 local businesses. Of those businesses I had around 12-15 ask for estimates for Snow Removal. Of those 12-15 we signed 6 of them.

From there, I've convinced my boss to put me to Full Time and make me his "Marketing Manager". The base salary isn't that great, but he offered me 10% Re-Occurring commission on any and all sales I generate. WOW. I know :)

Our company currently services around 600-700 Residential and Commercial Clients. We are a full service company offering everything from Snow Removal, Lawn Mowing, Hardscapes, Aquatics, to Cleaning Gutters and doing massive restoration jobs.

We have never been big into "Marketing". We do flyers in the Spring, and around 2-3k a year in Adwords Marketing.

I have obtained a "Lead List" for commercial businesses within our range. The list has around 38,000 commercial properties, addresses, phone number, contact(if available), website (if available).

Here are my questions:
What would YOU do? You want to grow this business as much as possible, and you have the same Lead List I have. How would you go about contacting people? Cold calls? Mailers? Email? Brochures? Door to Door? Fax?

I can't wait to hear your thoughts and opinions!
Thanks!
-Jeff

[jymie]

Thats a good sized list. Every one of them that show interest should get some kind of correspondence from you. Call them to find out interest. Then, find out who the decision maker would be, ask them if they are interested. If not scratch them from the list so you don't waste future money sending them something. Try to meet with them to sell your service to them, make a visual of the property while your there make note of other projects they may need for future up sells. It is always better to meet face to face any potential customer, they get a feel for you that they cant get by looking at a flyer or a post card.

[picframer]

In my experience:

Face to face is best

Although we hate receiving them having managed call centres, cold calls work better than any print material however be careful they are not on a do not call list and in some states you can not solicit a business on the phone

Flyers however companies generally trash these unless it has a cover letter addressed to the person making the decision

Be careful with emailing, you do not want your url blacklisted, it's a real pain to get off again

Have you thought about contacting your current clients, do a customer service survey then pop the question to see if they are aware of others that may need your services or upsell them.

[Growing Green]

...................

[Growing Green]

In my experience:


Be careful with emailing, you do not want your url blacklisted, it's a real pain to get off again.

Oh wow! Thanks for posting this Andy. Someone on the forum suggested to go and get Real Estate magazines and send an email to all the real estate agents asking if they could use my service. Last thing I want to do is end up blacklisted. I guess there goes that idea. hehe

Matt

[Steve]

Last thing I want to do is end up blacklisted. I guess there goes that idea.

If that is a concern, you could get a free google or yahoo email address and use that for your email marketing.

Here are my questions:
What would YOU do? You want to grow this business as much as possible, and you have the same Lead List I have. How would you go about contacting people? Cold calls? Mailers? Email? Brochures? Door to Door? Fax?


We quite often hear that it takes at least 7 marketing contacts before people remember your company. Why not make it a goal to reach out to these folks 7 times next year?

But as Andy said, nothing beats face to face.

When you have that many contacts though it may be tough to reach out to that many on a face to face basis.

What is your current plan so far?

[Growing Green]

If that is a concern, you could get a free google or yahoo email address and use that for your email marketing.

True! Hadn't thought of that.

Matt

[picframer]

If that is a concern, you could get a free google or yahoo email address and use that for your email marketing.





still wont work as the email address will get blacklisted then all your hard efforts are down the drain as clients that want to contact you will not be able to.

I ran into this scrape about 6 years ago when our marketing dept did a mass mailing to clients and the clients did not recognize the email address and reported it, took three or four months to get things back to normal.

[Steve]

I ran into this scrape about 6 years ago when our marketing dept did a mass mailing to clients and the clients did not recognize the email address and reported it, took three or four months to get things back to normal.

Great insight.

Do you think this list is just too big to work? Should it be trimmed down a bit or what would you do with this size?

[picframer]

Great insight.

Do you think this list is just too big to work? Should it be trimmed down a bit or what would you do with this size?

I am not sure how your zip codes work however if it were mine what I would do is import the information into MSAccess or Excel, building a database, then by postal code break it up, drive buy a group of properties maybe 30 at a time, make notes, then the ones I was interested in I can look up the property manager or owner, then send them a personal letter saying I was driving by, I noticed......, I own an operate........, I would welcome the opportunity to offer an estimate for the following services, if you are interested in this free estimate my email is, or my number....

[Steve]

Andy,

I am sure there are those reading this thinking that the process you discussed would be just too time consuming when they could just more easily send out postcards by the thousands as they have the money to do so. What would you say to those members those as to why your method would be preferable?