7 Moving Company Marketing, Ad and Sales Tips to Use All Year

This article about moving company marketing and advertising was written by Ryan Grieve, owner of Growth Steps.

7 Moving Company Marketing, Advertising, and Sales Tips

Many moving companies experience a seasonal lull at some point during the year and struggle to keep busy. While you can’t control the number of people interested in your service at a particular time of the year, you can implement a moving company marketing and advertising strategy to get as many of those people looking, to become clients.

1. Expand & Refocus Your Advertising

In the slower months, I recommend expanding your advertising. I know what you’re thinking. Why would I expand my advertising when there are less potential clients for my business at this time of year? Well, as the market of potential buyers shrinks so does the effectiveness of your advertising. The only way to combat this challenge is to increase your exposure in the market.

Focus on Pay for Performance Advertising

During these slower months try expanding any pay for performance advertising. This is a total win because you only pay for people who click through to your website. Examples of this form of advertising are platforms like Google AdWords or Facebook.

Reduce Your Traditional Advertising With Limited Reach

The audience in traditional advertising mediums typically doesn’t change much from month to month. If there is a notable change it is a good indication that this type of advertising is not effective during that time period. For example, if your average revenue from December – March is half of what it is from in April – July clearly this form of advertising is half as effective during these months.

So why not reduce your traditional advertising during this seasonal lull and re-allocate those funds into performance-based marketing slower months.

2. Expand The Geography Your Service

During the slower months, consider expanding your coverage area temporarily. This is an easy way to access a larger segment of new potential customers.

3. Be Great at Follow Up

When a lead comes in via your website, jump on it. Keep in mind, this person probably also requested information from one or two other companies, so being the first to reach out will increase your chances of capturing the sale.

It is proven that following up quickly does produce exponential returns. Check out this study from The Harvard Business Review.

The study included 1.25 million sales leads received by 29 B2C and 13 B2B companies in the U.S. Firms that tried to contact potential customers within an hour of receiving a query were nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead (which we defined as having a meaningful conversation with a key decision maker) as those that tried to contact the customer even an hour later—and more than 60 times as likely as companies that waited 24 hours or longer.

Prioritize It

So how do you stay on top of your follow-up? By making it a PRIORITY and setting up the correct processes and software to make everything seamless.

Let’s look at the basic psychology of a person looking for a service provider to see why quick follow up is so important.
Someone is thinking about hiring a moving company – so they fill out the form on your website to request more information. Then it’s off to the next task on their to-do list. When you reach out to them right away, it increases your chance of capturing the sale because:

• They may still be available to actually speak with you and make a commitment – so they can then completely cross the task off their list.
• Your competitor hasn’t had a chance to reach them and your offer sounds great and they make a commitment – so they can completely cross the task off their list.
• You have now shown them how responsive you are. They are impressed and make a commitment.

4. Call Every New Lead Immediately

Not every person will provide a phone number, but if they do, pick up the phone and call them IMMEDIATELY… Why?
You are more likely to close the sale over the phone, than by sending an email with a quote.
Your email response could end up in a spam filter if you’ve never emailed the prospect before.

It shows that you are responsive a quality that many look for in a service provider. If you cannot reach them on the phone leave a voicemail letting them know you’ll be responding to their inquiry via email.

Don’t Stop There – Email Them Immediately After

After you reach the person over the phone, send them an email right away to recap your conversation. This gives them easy access to all the information you provided and ensures that there aren’t any misinterpretations.

Keep Going – Follow Up Repeatedly

When you speak with the prospect be sure to ask when you should follow up. If their response is “I’ll contact you if I have any questions” or “I’ll contact you when I’m ready”. Come back with something like “I know life gets busy, is there a reasonable time to check back with you if I don’t hear from you.” Their response to this question will give you an indication of their level of interest so you can then decide when or if you should follow up with them.

5. Use a CRM to Automate Your Follow Up

CRM (Customer Relationship Management): A CRM is a cloud-based software program that records all interactions with prospects. It allows you to set up tasks to follow up with prospects at specific times, so you won’t forget. Many CRM solutions even have built-in form integrations, which will automatically import a customer’s information directly into the CRM from the completed form on your website.

Many CRM software systems have automation built in to eliminate manual follow up. You can set the software to email prospects in a specific sequence that are preprogrammed. Vonigo offers appointment confirmation and reminder emails that are designed to work for moving companies.

If you want to run even more sophisticated moving company marketing automation, use a dedicated program like MailChimp, Hubspot, or Infusionsoft to help close more leads to bookings.

6. Contact Current Customers for Repeat Sales & Referrals

To encourage repeat sales, reach back out to your current clients to see if they need anything. Your current customers are one of the best sources for new business and referrals. Consider a time-sensitive offer exclusive to current customers.

Bonus Tip

Offer a customer referral bonuses so if they don’t need any additional services right now, perhaps they have friends or family who would be interested in your services.

7. Offer Deep Discounts or Free Offers on High-Margin Add-On Services

Since you are doing less volume during your slow season, offering discounts or free offers on high-margin add-on services can help to turn things around. The goal of this tip is two-fold. First to try and increase the average revenue per sale, and second to incent prospects to move forward quickly.

Here is an example of a free offer from a moving company – “Big savings on boxes and packing material” if a person uses their full-service packing. Think about which services have the best margins and get creative on coming up with ideas on how to offer them to increase your volume of business during your seasonal lull.

If you have additional questions or you would like to improve the results you’re receiving from your advertising efforts please request a free consultation.
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Ryan Grieve is the owner of Growth Steps. Growth Steps works with field service businesses to help them increase sales and lower acquisition costs.

Interested to learn more about Vonigo’s moving company software can help you manage bookings and customer relationships? Book a free, private demo.