What has been your biggest marketing mistakes

I will tell mine when I be back this afternoon

What's yours?

Placing add on one of the restaurant menus. Wasn't expensive, but the problem was they didn't trough the old menus away. I went to eat there to check on the add, when the waiter left the me menus it was the old one. I asked him why he wasn't using the new menus. He said they don't have enough. So I fussed and told him how business's paid for those for advertising.

TV Commercials. I explained to them that I was happy with direct mail and could predict pretty well what the return from each mailing would be. I shared with them that I did not have extra money to spend - so every additional dollar spent on new advertising has to produce a decent quick return. I told them what my expectations were and that if they were not met or exceeded in a specified period (30 days), I was cancelling the ad and the contract. Because I really did not think TV could work in the short term, I stressed these points multiple times to the same response - Don't worry you will be good on camera... it will work for you... As I was signing the twelve month agreement, I reiterated everything again. They assured me that it would produce what I wanted and if not it was a loose agreement that they would cancel without penalty. Of course I did not get that in writing. After 30 days with minimal results I cancelled. Of course they did not remember our conversations and pointed out that we had a six month contract. When they ran the ads again the next month and did not get paid they got kinda irritated and pissy and sicked collections on me. I told them (just a little white lie) that I was in the process of filing bankruptcy so they could either take what I was going to give them and leave me alone, or they wouldn't get anything. They finally took it and went away.

The morals of the story: 1) Get everything in writing. 2) Trust your gut instinct 3) Only do TV if you have money to use for a long term investment or if you are going to do a "Crazy Eddie" type "have I got a great low price deal for you.."

Other advertising that sound good but never worked for me: Back side of Grocery Receipts. Individual post cards.   

Cdaddy, u were happy with direct mail but not individual post cards.. can u be more specific on on what direct mail works for you?
Mine was a full page back cover ad on a green living magazine Lol. Other mistakes is thinking I was going to talk broke folk into spending any money on getting their carpets cleaned.

Oh and every coupon book I've ever been in the PNW.

Charlie - Money Mailer and Val Pak

Local paper advertising. I ran ads in two papers for two months. Not one call, and it cost me about 1K.

I had two great mistakes #1 was the joe polish free room offer I just got the bronze program from Joe and was ready to geterdone!

I followed the directions to a T! Sent out only to nice homes of higher value must have spent 1000 dollars on the mailing.

Lord and behold the phone started ringing right away. So I started with the first house. After I cleaned the first room up to 150 to 200 sq feet. I then asked if they were thrilled with the cleaning.

Then I asked if there where any other areas or rugs or furniture they would like cleaned.

Most were pretty honest and just said they just called for the free cleaning!
A few had me clean a extra room or two.

The most asked question after the cleaning was how much more can I do for free.

I found the brutal truth the high end loves a free deal much more than Bob Bleu collar. Over a 3 or 4 month period of time I must have cleaned 25 free rooms with no other income being made. Maybe around 5 or 6 had me clean extra room or so. I did have a few where I did the whole house but not enough.

Even after the expiration date I was getting calls. I made the mistake of being talking into that if they liked the cleaning I could have more work.

Those were lies just to get me to do the free room,

So I called Joe and talked about my problems with the free room he assured me that thousands of cleaners around the country were doing well of it.

So then for me to really ( GET IT ) I should go to Joe's marketing boot camp and maybe even joining the Platinum membership ( private coaching )

At this time I got Joe figured out pretty quick the real money was in mining the minors.

I asked for my money back which I got but then all the weekly letters from Piranha to get me back in the fold. As the more I did not respond to the letters the more insulting they got.

Like People are making millions doing this and that sorry you found no value in this and that and a new deal each time for me to give joe more money.

Local Realtors did a coupon booklet. I did the free room thingy. Plenty of work, only 1 had more areas done. Had to let callers know that I was doing 1 coupon per week. Asked a few to call back in a week or two they didn't. Go figure, they didn't want the freebe.
Carpet daddy- Amen to your moral to the story. Get it in writing! Which road is paved with good intentions(verbal promises)??

My first swing at it was advertising in the local paper how me and my Steamin Demon could out-clean all others. It included a nice photo and words about how the high-flow cleaning would be superior to the truck mounts out there.

My ad ended up placed right next to the local grocery store's ad on rug doctor rentals. I couldn't shake the comparison for months and finally ended up shopping for a truckmount.

I like that machine and it really could clean very well with the high flow, but I couldn't convince the public. They all thought I was just pitching a rug doctor cleaning and it crippled me.

Placement is vital in any ad...I failed to approve the final placement and it cost me.

they are red and white like a rug doctor best place to be in a news paper is in the obituary's page everybody reads that page

ODIN wrote:they are red and white like a rug doctor best place to be in a news paper is in the obituary's page everybody reads that page

Funny that you said that as my father reads the obits every day and circles the ones that died younger. He likes to keep score.  

if his name is not there he is going to have a good day

yelp so far has been the worst for us. cheap customers, crappy return, filtering/blocking a bunch of real reviews from real people that raved about us after a cleaning, dashboard says estimated revenue 60k (that is the most annoying part)

600 impressions for 350/month, I get 1700 for $10 on facebook I get 3500 on google adwords for like 15 bucks

plus at anytime some psycho could call us with a house full of cat pee and then bash us online and people might believe it.

ACpower1 wrote:yelp so far has been the worst for us.    cheap customers,   crappy return,   filtering/blocking a bunch of real reviews from real people that raved about us after a cleaning,   dashboard says estimated revenue 60k (that is the most annoying part)    

600 impressions for 350/month,    I get 1700 for $10 on facebook    I get 3500 on google adwords for like 15 bucks

plus at anytime some psycho could call us with a house full of cat pee and then bash us online and people might believe it.  

I have to say I'm really surprised by your comment, in my area Yelp is actually a LOT cheaper than google adwords, the $ 350 that we used to spend a while back generated 600 impressions through Yelp, however with google adwords, you can't really look at the impressions amount because what gets you calls is clicks and per click in LA market used to cost $ 5 - $ 8 on average when we stopped it sometimes last year, with the same budget, you only will be getting 45 - 60 clicks, I have to say Yelp is a LOT cheaper, and regarding their customers, we always set our expectations prior to cleaning, especially with pet urines, if their expectations can't be lowered, we politely tell them we won't be able to do the job because they won't be happy with the results, so far most yelp customers treating us good, I agree on the filtered reviews, but I can't complain that much either because they filtered one of our negative too, lol.

ODIN wrote:I had two great mistakes #1 was the joe polish free room offer I just got the bronze program from Joe and was ready to geterdone!

I followed the directions to a T! Sent out only to nice homes of higher value must have spent 1000 dollars on the mailing.

Lord and behold the phone started ringing right away. So I started with the first house. After I cleaned the first room up to 150 to 200 sq feet. I then asked if they were thrilled with the cleaning.

Then I asked if there where any other areas or rugs or furniture they would like cleaned.

Most were pretty honest and just said they just called for the free cleaning!
A few had me clean a extra room or two.

The most asked question after the cleaning was how much more can I do for free.

I found the brutal truth the high end loves a free deal much more than Bob Bleu collar.  Over a 3 or 4 month period of time I must have cleaned 25 free rooms with no other income being made. Maybe around 5 or 6 had me clean extra room or so. I did have a few where I did the whole house but not enough.

Even after the expiration  date I was getting calls. I made the mistake of being talking into that if they liked the cleaning I could have more work.

Those were lies just to get me to do the free room,

So I called Joe and talked about my problems with the free room he assured me that thousands of cleaners around the country were doing well of it.

So then for me to really ( GET IT )  I should go to Joe's marketing boot camp and maybe even joining the Platinum  membership ( private coaching )

At this time I got Joe figured out pretty quick the real money was in mining the minors.

I asked for my money back which I got but then all the weekly letters from Piranha to get me back in the fold. As the more I did not respond to the letters the more insulting they got.

Like People are making millions doing this and that sorry you found no value in this and that and a new deal each time for me to give joe more money.

You said you had 2 great mistakes, what's the other one ?

dp1 wrote:

ODIN wrote:I had two great mistakes #1 was the joe polish free room offer I just got the bronze program from Joe and was ready to geterdone!

I followed the directions to a T! Sent out only to nice homes of higher value must have spent 1000 dollars on the mailing.

Lord and behold the phone started ringing right away. So I started with the first house. After I cleaned the first room up to 150 to 200 sq feet. I then asked if they were thrilled with the cleaning.

Then I asked if there where any other areas or rugs or furniture they would like cleaned.

Most were pretty honest and just said they just called for the free cleaning!
A few had me clean a extra room or two.

The most asked question after the cleaning was how much more can I do for free.

I found the brutal truth the high end loves a free deal much more than Bob Bleu collar.  Over a 3 or 4 month period of time I must have cleaned 25 free rooms with no other income being made. Maybe around 5 or 6 had me clean extra room or so. I did have a few where I did the whole house but not enough.

Even after the expiration  date I was getting calls. I made the mistake of being talking into that if they liked the cleaning I could have more work.

Those were lies just to get me to do the free room,

So I called Joe and talked about my problems with the free room he assured me that thousands of cleaners around the country were doing well of it.

So then for me to really ( GET IT )  I should go to Joe's marketing boot camp and maybe even joining the Platinum  membership ( private coaching )

At this time I got Joe figured out pretty quick the real money was in mining the minors.

I asked for my money back which I got but then all the weekly letters from Piranha to get me back in the fold. As the more I did not respond to the letters the more insulting they got.

Like People are making millions doing this and that sorry you found no value in this and that and a new deal each time for me to give joe more money.

You said you had 2 great mistakes, what's the other one ?

EX Wife?!?   

The worst advertising mistake for me was when i hired a SEO company called Yodle that promised they would bring more carpet cleaning jobs for us in New Orleans area. I was paying them $200 a month for about 6 months and didn't get even one call. They were promising a lot but delivered nothing as usual.

We never really had any "big" mistake because even if we dont get a call from an ad....we know it builds our name.

I never really liked the penny saver type ads because those customers always want a coupon type deal as if Im burger king! so, not much luck on the quality from those type of ads.

Welcome to the forum Nola. I didn't know Yodle did SEO  too.

Nola....I like your logo!

nola@dgcarpetclean.com wrote:The worst advertising mistake for me was when i hired a SEO company called Yodle that promised they would bring more carpet cleaning jobs for us in New Orleans area. I was paying them $200 a month for about 6 months and didn't get even one call. They were promising a lot but delivered nothing as usual.

Well you sure are doing a great job on SEO now Nola. Good work.

Direct mail in the wrong areas many years back.