Antle isn’t completely certain why sweepstakes strike a chord with consumers that other marketing does not. But he is sure that parlaying sweepstakes into new revenue depends “critically” on the performance of a contractor’s telemarketing corps. “It’s imperative to have an efficient phone room to follow up on leads,” says Antle, who observes that telemarketing isn’t a strong suit for most contractors. “Since the Do Not Call rules, I see an awful lot of callers who are weak, scared, and don’t know the law,” he says. Antle refers to one company that conducted its own sweepstakes and “wasted thousands of dollars” because its telemarketers only called respondents who checked the box indicating that they wanted a free estimate.
NEBULOUS LEADS Sweepstakes marketing isn’t confined to direct mail, of course. Melani Bros. and Universal Energy use canvassers who approach customers in stores, such as Sam’s Club, that have home improvement programs. However, the postal route is how contractors reach the greatest number of households. Melani Bros. has mailed sweepstakes notices to up to 1 million households in a year. And Universal Energy conducted a 15,000-household-per-week sweepstakes mailing for 40 weeks last year, which generated leads that produced 24% of its revenue in 2006, Leventon says.
“Most homeowners only replace their home’s windows once, so we’re constantly looking for new customers and ways to generate leads,” says Karen Lauer, marketing director for Air Tite Home Products, in West Chester, Ohio, which also installs doors and storage solutions and did $25 million in sales in 2006. Last year was the first time that Air Tite Home Products did a sweepstakes, with direct-mail pieces that looked like wedding invitations — to really catch people’s attention — which it sent to 400,000 households. The company got a 1.8% response rate to the mailing and, according to Lauer, sold projects to nearly one-third of those respondents, at an average sale of about $4,500 per customer. The sweepstakes allowed the company to create a database of 10,000 households, and “it turned our telemarketing department into a profit center.”
Lauer, who joined Air Tite Home Products from Coors Brewing Co., doubts she would have gotten her sweepstakes off the ground were it not for the success of Melani Bros.’ campaigns, which Air Tite Home Products competes against. “This industry is very reluctant to try new things,” Lauer says. Green suggests that competitors that avoid sweepstakes are “small-minded.” But he concedes that his company’s initial efforts at sweepstakes marketing flopped during the late 1990s and that his father, Dan, and Solarshield’s six salespeople only agreed to try it again based on Melani Bros.’ example.
Sweepstakes pose challenges that some contractors would just as soon avoid. “You need salespeople who can run down nebulous leads,” Menendez says. Antle elaborates that sweepstakes leads aren’t necessarily in the market for home improvements. “We call them, we send someone to their home; that’s aggressive marketing.” At around 50 cents per piece, a mailing in a large metro market can cost up to $250,000, which many contractors would consider too risky an investment to capture unqualified leads.
But contractors for whom sweepstakes have worked well are pushing them harder. The theme of American Home Craft’s campaign for 2007 is “Historic Route 101,” the California road once called El Camino Real that connects the state’s 21 missions. American Home Craft’s mailer shows a map of that route, and states that 101 homeowners will win prizes.
Air Tite Home Products is sending sweepstakes invitations to all 10 of the markets it sells to (versus five last year), including those — such as Columbus, Ohio, and Milwaukee, Wis. — where its brand isn’t as well known. Lauer is confident that sweepstakes can help her company increase its overall penetration in markets such as Cincinnati, where the company’s mailing currently hits only around 70% of the city’s 690,000 households. —John Caulfield is a freelance writer and editor based in New Jersey.