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Just wanted to know how great franchise xpress is working for you guys. We have over 700,000 now in population. Should we go for it? What do you guys think? What days and sections do you run your ad? etc, etc…
Let me know.
God Bless,
Mike Nowlin
When I was with Chem Dry (I apolegize for cussing on the board), they did a study to find the most spontanious day of the week. The answer came back that there was two, one for inside the house, and one for outside the house. The outside was Friday. New movies at the theaters are on Friday. On Friday we think about getting out of town or just going to do something. Friday was the spontanious outside the house day. Tuesday was inside the house day. New release day to purchase movies and CD’s are generally on Tuesdays. It was the day most grocery inserts in the newspaper came out. With this knowledge I only advertised on Tuesday. However this study was done in 1991. Currently the biggest newspaper day nationally is Sunday. Advertising for cleaning I would still recommend Tuesday.
I agree with newspaper ads, We ran ad on Sunday in lifestyle section and it made phone ring on Monday Tuesday, Started running same ad on Wed. and it made phone ring on Thursday, Friday. Also there was discount for running ad twice a week. Most of my people have tried coupon mailers with little success. Chamber, newspaper, yellow page and networking are the best advertising for their dollars.
Ron
My Franchise Xpress flyers have done very well for me. I have run them mostly on Wednesdays. I wanted to try earlier in the week, however, our local newspaper doesn’t do inserts on Monday or Tuesday.
Concerning what section, the flyers just go in together with any other flyers for that day.
My ROI for the last several times I ran them was 200 – 300 percent.
Mike
-What’s your population there Mike B.? So Wednesdays huh?
-Gordon, you say Tuesday. Do you still use franchise xpress, Gordon?
-Smith, thanks for the info, and have any of your operators or you tried franchise xpress?
-Mike B.; wow, 200 to 300% return on investment. How many did you run to on your first run and how long or do you run every month. I think I saw some info on one of your ad’s on another post.
Thanks guys.
Keep ’em coming. I really am considering this. It’s a good price for the amount they send out.
Answer… Since selling my area to my son in law in March of this year, I haven’t done advertising except as a state owner.
Thanks Gordon. I appreciate it. Hope all is well with your son and you as well. Thanks for the info. What do think about Direct Mailing–post cards, etc.
Mike Nowlin
I have tried Franchise express a couple of times early on, but got a very little in return. I have just had some post cards made (Vistaprints.com). And I will be mailing these to specific targeted homes over the next several months. To help spread out the cost of postage, I will probably mail about 50 or so every week.
I am looking at purchasing a mailing list for only those homes valued over a certain limit in this area (say $400,00 and above) and use that list to make labels. In the sort run however, I can get good address info off of the County web site for those upscale neighborhoods that I know about. In time, I will ensure that I have gotten an individualized piece of info on us to every high dollar home in this area and at a manageable cost since I will mail these out little by little each week.
If you are interested in using Vistaprints, they are very reasonably priced (much lower than any printer here locally). I just gave them access to our AD site and had them edit the text on a specific post card that I wanted to use. Total cost, including their creative work, came to around $180 for 2,000 post cards, full color one side and with return info on the rear. I received them in about 5 days after the order.
If you are interested in mailing lists, D&D was about the least expensive out of about 12 that I checked out. They cost about $50 per 1,000 with a minimum of a $150 order.
Danbo 8)
Mike,
I run 15,000 – 20,000 most of the time. I experienced mixed results the first couple of times I ran them. I had to experiment with my coupon area and test various zip codes to find the better results. I do feel the first ones probably helped in terms of awareness and planted the seed for some of the people who called later.The 200 – 300 percent ROI I mentioned in my previous post in this thread was for all of last year. I ran them five times last year. All runs returned at least 200%, my best month was a little better than 300%, and they averaged about 250%.
The population here is well over 200,000, however, that isn’t particularly relevant to my ROI as I had them distributed only in certain zip codes with better incomes.
All of mine last year were distributed throughout spring and early summer. I ran no more later in the year.
The info I used in my coupons last year is in another thread somewhere.
I have talked to some others who also consistently experience good results. Ron in Arizona has done very well as have many others. Almost all of them mentioned their first run or two were not as good as later.
One piece of advice is to try them at a time when you should be able to get some bites. For example, most operators have a tough January. I tried to beat that trend once by running some FX flyers and other ads in January, but I simply wasted my money. I believe you can do better sending out cards or other ads to your existing customers in the tough months, but I feel it is even more difficult to pick up a new customer in those very slow times. If you are new and don’t have many existing customers, then you can only try for new ones, but be careful with your money if it is limited. It may be better to spend your time pursuing some commercial work or trying to establish a relationship with some realtors during the worst month(s). Your shoe soles cost little to replace;)
FYI for anyone new and reading this – the tough months vary some in different regions based on weather. So check with others in your region or your state owner to get the best info on this.
Good luck for any who try them.
Mike
thanks guys. I appreciate the info. Our slow time of the year is June and July–hot climate here south tex. September is always slow for some reason. The other months are pretty good with spring being busy or consisten. I mostly have commercial accounts and am trying to get more residential. Thanks again guys, keep ’em coming.
Mike Nowlin
I tried it once and I really didn’t give it a chance you have to do it for a while and I wasn’t willing to give it the chance. So if you do it give it a while to work.
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