Postcards work for trade businesses for a simple reason: the people most likely to need a roofer are the ones living next to a house that just got a new roof. This guide covers who to mail, what goes on the card and when to send it.
- The best time to mail a street is the morning after you finished a job on it.
- Mail fewer homes, picked better. Skip the ones that will not hire you.
- One photo of the actual job beats any stock picture.
Who to mail
Start with the homes around a job you just finished. Those neighbors saw your truck, and their houses are often the same age with the same problems.
Then cut the list down. Leave out renters, who do not make the decision. Leave out homes that just had the same work done. Leave out your current customers and anyone who has asked not to get mail. Every card you do not send to the wrong home is money kept.
What to put on the card
- A photo of the finished job. Real work on a real house nearby beats any stock picture.
- The street. "We just finished the roof at 412 Oak Ln" tells them you were right there.
- One line about what you do. Not a list of twelve services.
- Your name and number, large.
Skip the coupon border, the clip art and the paragraph of text. A neighbor gives a card about two seconds.
When to send it
The morning after the job. The work is still fresh on the street, and the dumpster may still be in the driveway. A card that arrives three weeks later has lost its reason.
How many
Fewer than you think. Fifty well-chosen homes near a job do more than five hundred across a zip code, and cost a tenth as much.
Know what it brought in
When a call comes in from a street you mailed, note it. At the end of the month, add up the jobs that started with a card and set that against what the cards cost. If you cannot make that sum, you are guessing.
