OK, so you’re not Liza BUT I’m about to save you a fortune on wasted marketing anyway.
All you need to do is find the holes in your bucket which sounds simple but after a number of similar different experiences in the last month, maybe it isn’t.
In the last month I have sourced quotes for a bathroom tiling project along with many other bits and bobs.
My wife and I scoured Trusted Trader, found some good reviews and asked for quotes. Two different people got back to us. Great marketing.
However, neither of them showed up.
What a waste of time, effort and marketing investment.
They’ve got zero chance of being asked to quote again and if a friend asked me for a recommendation I would tell them to run a mile. They had Facebook pages, not great but they were there.
We checked them. Again, that effort is totally wasted but they can’t blame their marketing for that.
Eventually we went old school and I checked the local Post Office window. We were in luck. I dropped a text to the chap and then and he replied immediately, even offering to come over there and then. On a Saturday.
Talk about impressed.
We arranged to meet on Monday. He was 10 minutes late which did worry me as he didn’t warn me of this which would have been courteous, never mind sensible for a trader seeking to quote for a job.
Anyway, he arrived and was very polite and professional. He even gave me ideas on how to save money rather than waste it. There’s a theme here folks.
We agreed to a schedule just after Christmas which was even more impressive, especially as he said he was starting a corporate job in the new year so wanted to get this done and dusted for us pronto.
Altogether now…’Oh it’s all gone quiet over there.’
Then it went a bit quiet.
Very quiet.
I chased him to check he was STILL coming over the next day. Silence and then…an excuse about family illness and that no, he couldn’t make it.
That’s fine. We’ve all been there and it is awful. I asked him for when he could pop over, it was only a day’s work according to him.
Silence again.
Well, it turns out he couldn’t make it at all and that he was starting his new job soon so he can’t do it now but he does have a mate who might be able to help.
If you think I was going to call his mate who ‘might’ be able to help you’d be wrong. I associate his mate with him and his professionalism, or lack thereof.
These things happen but all he had to do was to tell me proactively. Then I’d have been tempted to call his mate IF he had already set it up for me, which would have made sense.
‘Sorry Greg, I can’t but Gary is a specialist and I’ve briefed him. Same cost and he’s available to help you’.
I didn’t reply.
I have since gone out to a national outfit who have bigger marketing pockets and better systems. They actually paid NOTHING to get my work other than the investment in their branding over the years.
What a wasted opportunity for the local tradesman.
Now, just think to yourself before you invest in an awareness campaign, do you want the leads it might bring? Do you have capacity? Do you have the skills?
If you can’t, it is no problem at all. You can tweak your marketing message to make sure it fits your skills or hold back on your campaign until you can do the work.
Just don’t blame your marketing campaign if you don’t convert open goals and don’t pour marketing budgets into leaking buckets.
Fix the holes first dear Henry.