There are several ways to advertise your window cleaning business in the real world. Some of the ways to advertise include flyers, the phone book, penny saver and news papers, the chamber of commerce, business cards and many more. Business cards can be more effective than one realizes. When most people here business cards they probably think rolodex and dealing with other businesses.
I’d like to tell you how you can use the business card more like a flyer. When I first started out in window cleaning I used flyers or simply knocked doors, but once I moved to a different state I found out that knocking doors was no longer the best way to get business. So I started using flyers, but I found that the flyers were hard to place on doors and made for a longer approach.
I decided to switch to business cards. With the business cards you can cut down on the size and increase how many you can carry. The other nice thing is you can get business cards printed professionally for a cheap price. In fact the more you have printed the cheaper they are. As of right now I print with gotprint.com they have some great rates and do a top notch job.
I like to have my business cards double sided with a gloss coat. I think the gloss coat looks slick and they also last longer in the rain. Lets talk about the approach and method of using these cards and then we will talk about what to put on them.
First the best way to use these cards is to take the cards up to the door and put them in the crack of the door. This is a very fast approach and takes only a second to do. The walking to the door and back does take longer then just dropping them in the driveway but I have found that I receive three times or more calls from the ones I placed on the door as opposed to the ones I dropped in the driveway. The driveway method is the other option, where you simply flip the card into the driveway as you walk by. This is very fast pace and some even drive by and place their card in plastic bags with a small pebble. But I think that is a little bit trashy. Flipping the card into the drive way without the bag is better.
This leads me to what is on the card, as you only get a split second chance to grab their attention. This is where you need a great color scheme and logo. You need a logo that makes them question what they are looking at. I for example have a duck with a squeegee and a cap on. The duck is the first thing they see and they are probably wondering why a yellow duck is on a business card and the rest is history, they read the card.
I have two types of cards made. The first card has my duck logo with my price per window and my basic service that I am offering along with my phone number, first name and web site. I then have that printed on both sides. These are the cards I flip into the drive way so that they always land face up.
The next set of cards are the ones I take to the door. On one side I just have the duck centered on the card. On the other side I put my name, number, website, my services I am offering and a place to write a price quote. As I walk toward the house I determine a price quote based on the number of windows I see on two sides multiplied by two. If you have done the neighborhood before then you typically know how many windows they have.
This is one way to advertise your business that I find faster and more reliable then flyers and a great way to use a business card. It is small enough and sturdy enough that many people hold on to them and put them in a drawer or on a fridge for later.
If you are looking for more great articles on window washing just check us out at San Diego Window Cleaning or Carlsbad Window Cleaning.