Merits of the Media Bruce of American Home Design notes that his lead costs for Renewal by Andersen products average 14% of sales, whereas contractors he knows in other markets where the Andersen brand is better known spend just 5% on leads. These market-by-market disparities leave the door open for debates among contractors over the relative merits of different media.
Over the years, Barratt says, First Coast Rainguard has tried and stopped using radio, postcards, glossy magazines, and billboards. On the other hand, he’s found the Service-Magic and SunroomTree.com Web sites to be productive lead sources. Total Remodeling also draws “lots of leads” from its own Web sites, says Edwards (though he won’t say how many). And Melani Bros. is attracted to the Internet, partly because Internet lead costs are just 3% of sales.
But the Internet has been a major bust for other companies. Alure Home Improvements, in East Meadow, N.Y., recently conducted its first e-mail blast to 100,000 people, a tactic described as “an absolute failure,” by Alure marketing director Seth Selesnow.
Despite audience fragmentation and other drawbacks, TV is still hard to beat for getting customers’ attention. Archadeck has placed ads on HGTV since 1996, and that network’s programming “is a perfect fit for us,” Kiger says. Alure promotes its Owens Corning basement division on TV because “OC is a recognized name; it’s a unique product and we’re the only ones (in our market) carrying it,” Selesnow says.
Print media is still effective for some companies. Metropolitan Siding & Windows, in Waldorf, Md., has had “surprising results” from ads in local penny savers. Converted to sales, these prospects “spend as much as any lead,” claims Metropolitan’s vice president William Richmond. But many contractors have all but abandoned newspapers as a way of finding new customers.
“Newspapers in our market are dying,” asserts Lloyd Gillman, president of Chicago-based ABC The Window Guys, a $16 million-per-year window installer. Instead, ABC — which opened its second branch, in Northwest Indiana, in April — finds direct mail to be its sturdiest lead source. Using a service called Local Values that’s offered by media giant The Tribune Co., ABC places ads on a wrap that goes around inserts mailed twice weekly to 2.2 million single-family homes.
Direct mail came to Melani Bros.’ rescue two years ago after Lowe’s discontinued its in-store sell/ furnish/install (SFI) program, from which Melani at the time derived a staggering 91% of its sales. The contractor turned its lead generation over to a company called Sudden Impact, which developed a comprehensive direct mail program that sent out more than 600,000 pieces last year, and added 30,000 people to Melani Bros.’ database. Those mailings, Menendez says, yielded more than 2,100 appointments and $2.9 million in business. The company’s revenue rose to $16 million in 2004 from $9.6 million in 2003, and was up 20% through June 2005. Melani Bros. still gets one-fifth of its sales from SFI, but Menendez wants to reduce that to zero by next year.
Expedited Canvassing Melani Bros.’ most fertile lead source continues to be shows and events. The company participates in at least 40 per month, ranging from home shows to one-day seafood festivals. Alure sends trailers for its roofing, siding, and insulation products to the 30 home shows and 15 to 20 events — carnivals, oyster festivals, pet and flower shows — its demonstrators attend monthly. And this fall, ABC will start participating in home shows for the first time, expecting to exhibit at 12 to 15 over the proceeding six months.
Menendez refers to events as “expedited canvassing” because Melani Bros. can show off its products and services to many prospects at once. But several contractors point out that home shows — or any other lead source, for that matter — are components within an integrated marketing matrix that, ultimately, is only as good as what salespeople do with the leads they receive. —John Caulfield is a freelance writer and editor based in New Jersey.