[colley614]

Hi guys,

I posted 500 leaflets last week and am due to post another 500 leaflets this week. The thing I noticed is that I use a mobile number on my leaflets and don't seem to get any response to my leaflets so I was just wondering if anyone has ever changed from mobile to land line and got a better response.

I posted them the other day then the next morning was watching BBC Breakfast and they were saying that you shouldn't contact somebody who advertises a mobile number as they are cow boys. I thought this was unfair because most sole traders I know just use a mobile number. Maybe my advertising would have a better hit ration if I had a land line. 

[mikethechamois]

yes it pays to put your landline on as well even though they will probably ring you on your mobile

[colley614]

I have been thinking about this for a while now. My problem is I have kids at home and my wife won't take business calls because she is quite shy. So I wonder if there is any chance I could divert the calls to my mobile.?

[mikethechamois]

yes you can or leave an answer message saying your out at work please ring my mobile

i had my landline on divert and my bill rocketed as i ended up paying for the calls to my mobile

your wife will have to wait for the answerservice to kick in before answering so she knows whose on the phone

i ended up with an extra line for business for the same reasons as you,bt charged me over £ 100 to connect  and the rental was high but i got a freelisting in yellow pages and yell . com, the whole thing was tax deductable as it was business use only

[colley614]

We don't really use our land line because we both get loads of free minutes on our mobile phones so I could just use our existing land line.

[jjames]

I picked up a customer the other day who searched on google and would only ring landline numbers, she said that she would not trust people who only put their mobile numbers up.

Justin

[Tosh]

I have been thinking about this for a while now. My problem is I have kids at home and my wife won't take business calls because she is quite shy.

I think the perception of putting only your mobile phone number on a leaflet could be that you have something to hide!?  I'm not saying you have, only that that's what the perception could be; and given that some people think window cleaners are burglars in disguise, that's probably not good.

Can you not ask your Missis to take a name and telephone number and tell any prospective customers that you'll phone back?

Alternatively, can you not use your land line number on your leaflet and use a 'Caller ID' on your phone, you can programme in numbers your Missis will answer; such as family and she can ignore the rest (you can even do a different 'ring tone' for incomming pre-programmed numbers).  She could ignore any numbers not programmed into the phone.

Then you can go through the stored up Caller ID numbers and phone them; even if they haven't left a message; which some don't or won't.

On my 'office' phone there's an icon that lets me know if someone has phoned while I've been out; and then with a push of a button I can see the phone numbers that've called.  I can then ring them back and say something along the lines of, 'Hello I had a missed call to my landline number...' and take it from there.

[Rob_Mac]

I put out the same amount of leaflets at about the same time.

Land line, mobile, email and web site all listed.

I know have 10 more customers than I did before I leafleted. The landline shows you are fixed and not a fly by night who is travelling through the area!!!

Rob

[seandyer2003]

i find you get loads of emails through your website if you advertise that on your leaflets, i get loads of emails from areas ive leaflet dropped as they can go online check you out and then email....Just put a contact form on your site and then they will send you info like name, address, house size, what they want- ie internal/ external/ con clean/pvc clean/gutter clean etc..and then you ring up knowing all the details....

I get lots of work from leaflets but mainly through that way!!

[colley614]

I've found that I have never got any activity through my website. I think its done badly to be honest!

[Tosh]

I've found that I have never got any activity through my website. I think its done badly to be honest!

How are you advertising it?

Sean uses it as an extension to his leaflets; and that's how he generates traffic to his site.

A website can be like a shop in a cave; if no-one knows it's there, no-one's going to visit!

(I've had a free consultation from some Welsh Assembly website guru and this was one of his points; it'd normally cost about £500; they write a big report up for you with reccommendations and stuff; but I still haven't bothered getting a website ).

[chrisyg]

I've found that I have never got any activity through my website. I think its done badly to be honest!

its that bad it not working!  :

[colley614]

I wouldn't mind but I paid for it to get done. If I done it myself and it didn't work I suppose I'd understand.

[Thomas Ecclestone]

I would use a voip service ( such as voipfone , skype etc ) ... most give you a seperate land line number, which you can easily redirect to your mobile phone.  So you would only pay for business calls.

[windowwashers]

I wouldn't mind but I paid for it to get done. If I done it myself and it didn't work I suppose I'd understand.

your website is not loading M8, so not a good start

[colley614]

Yeah just noticed that myself mate! I will be popping down the graphic designers in the morning to speak about that  . Not good at all that.

[seandyer2003]

Crazy how these lads who have paid for websites have so many problems, or the sites are really badly done, no optimizing etc...makes you wonder if some are just pretending to be web designers!!

Hope they sort it for you mate - and get a good contact page done too, not looked if you have one or not, so if you do then thats good , but unless your site gets customers to take action ie email , ring, etc then all theyve done is read something, so make sure you can use it to funnel them into doing something - "call to action " the marketing gurus call it

[wightsurf]

Dump your graphic designers and give Window washers a call  He will help you out.

[seandyer2003]

Dump your graphic designers and give Window washers a call  He will help you out.

Very true, and probably be more value for money too, he knows how to optimize - just search for window cleaners and see his website on page 1 nearly 99% of the time!!

I have a page on his site and it helps mine rank higher as ians is so highly ranked...

Give him a call - you shouldnt struggle to find his number

[jaykie]

Yeah just noticed that myself mate! I will be popping down the graphic designers in the morning to speak about that  . Not good at all that.

is this yours

http://elitewindowcleaning.co.uk/