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Hey wait, that's my house!

by joe golfer
16 replies
This direct mail piece for a roofing company uses photos of each individual house.

Roofing Company Sends Me A Postcard Of My Own House
#hey #house #wait
  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    I have done some time consuming promotions in my time.. but this one.. this one takes the cake.

    Kind of reminds me of some of use here ( not me ) that suggest sending images of a prospects website to them, and tell them it needs fixed. I can only imaging the response to be very similar.
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  • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
    Not so much my house....

    ...but I know of a leading steel frame shed builder that targeted homes by checking out satellite images of people's yards.

    First they went for suburbs that had a fewer than average number of garages or sheds...

    Then they started to look for extra cars parked in driveways and for uncovered boats etc.

    This technique could be used for anyone targeting things that can bee seen from above.

    A pool for a pool cleaning business...no pool for a pool builder etc.

    Lots of trees for an arborist...few trees for a landscaper and so on...
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  • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
    We had a solar installation company do a rough estimate via Google Earth.
    I thought it was clever and saved a lot of time for both of us, fuel for them.

    Taking individual photos and mailing would be incredibly time consuming.
    And still creepy.
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    "If you think you're the smartest person in the room, then you're probably in the wrong room."

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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    I think it's brilliant marketing.

    Imagine a local swimming pool business, they can literally look in an entire neighborhoods backyards from Google Maps satellite view & do laser targeted advertising to only homeowners that have swimming pools.






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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      I think it's brilliant marketing.

      Imagine a local swimming pool business, they can literally look in an entire neighborhoods backyards from Google Maps satellite view & do laser targeted advertising to only homeowners that have swimming pools.
      This I could absolutely agree apon. but you aren't sending them a photo of their house that says "Hey we see you have a pool need it cleaned?" LOL

      I actually have a competitor in my Market with satellite Installations that wont drive to a house to install unless he thinks he can do it based on Google Maps. The maroon actually refers the customer to us. We are talking 8 to 10 calls a week. We install 90% of them. ( I have to assume he thinks he is being funny and wasting our time. ) And he wonders how we double and triple and more his sales every month - month in and month out.
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      • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
        Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

        This I could absolutely agree apon. but you aren't sending them a photo of their house that says "Hey we see you have a pool need it cleaned?" LOL

        I actually have a competitor in my Market with satellite Installations that wont drive to a house to install unless he thinks he can do it based on Google Maps. The maroon actually refers the customer to us. We are talking 8 to 10 calls a week. We install 90% of them. ( I have to assume he thinks he is being funny and wasting our time. ) And he wonders how we double and triple and more his sales every month - month in and month out.
        Hope he is not reading this thread. LOL

        Sounds like he's lazy, has a small or one man crew, and figures it will be too much work or manpower for him.
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        • Profile picture of the author savidge4
          Originally Posted by bizgrower View Post

          Hope he is not reading this thread. LOL

          Sounds like he's lazy, has a small or one man crew, and figures it will be too much work or manpower for him.
          Im not sure he can read! J/K and actually he is a bigger outfit than I am. He is just cutting corners in all of the wrong places. The major difference between the 2 of us is the basic business model. He pays his guys by the hour.. I pay my guys by the job. His guys get paid if they drive all the way to tim buck two and back and don't do an install. my guys only get paid if the job gets installed.

          You simply do not drive 2 hours to get to a job knowing there is a 2 hour drive back, and not do whatever is short of humanly possible to put it in. Not to mention I have been there done that, and my trucks are loaded down with some pretty nifty feats of redneck engineering that allow for installs that most others cant do.
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          • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
            Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

            Im not sure he can read! J/K and actually he is a bigger outfit than I am. He is just cutting corners in all of the wrong places. The major difference between the 2 of us is the basic business model. He pays his guys by the hour.. I pay my guys by the job. His guys get paid if they drive all the way to tim buck two and back and don't do an install. my guys only get paid if the job gets installed.

            You simply do not drive 2 hours to get to a job knowing there is a 2 hour drive back, and not do whatever is short of humanly possible to put it in. Not to mention I have been there done that, and my trucks are loaded down with some pretty nifty feats of redneck engineering that allow for installs that most others cant do.
            I like that: MIT RN engineering
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    • Profile picture of the author jamesfreddyc
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      I think it's brilliant marketing.

      Imagine a local swimming pool business, they can literally look in an entire neighborhoods backyards from Google Maps satellite view & do laser targeted advertising to only homeowners that have swimming pools.
      A much more efficient and less costly/time consuming way is to just download the property appraisers dataset for that locale/county and run an attribute search rather than going thru aerial imagery. Most ownership databases will have a "Pool" boolean field.

      You can also gather lots of other unique intel about properties/ownership information.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jack Gordon
    I think it is brilliant.

    This is something that forces the recipient to pay attention and consider what he/she is looking at. What more can you ask from any kind of marketing effort?

    The cost may be higher, but the far more important metric is ROI.

    My only criticism... I would have certainly made it clear in the ad that this was a custom photo of their house. No need to creep people out when you are trying to make a positive impression.
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    • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
      Originally Posted by Jack Gordon View Post

      I think it is brilliant.

      This is something that forces the recipient to pay attention and consider what he/she is looking at. What more can you ask from any kind of marketing effort?

      The cost may be higher, but the far more important metric is ROI.

      My only criticism... I would have certainly made it clear in the ad that this was a custom photo of their house. No need to creep people out when you are trying to make a positive impression.
      I thought about a clarification as well. Then I thought it would still kind creep a lot of people out.
      "You took pictures of my property without permission". "Did you catch one of my wife through the
      bay window after her shower?"

      Google Maps, Street view still kinda creeps me out. Hey, there's my car...
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      • Profile picture of the author Jack Gordon
        Originally Posted by bizgrower View Post

        I thought about a clarification as well. Then I thought it would still kind creep a lot of people out.
        "You took pictures of my property without permission". "Did you catch one of my wife through the
        bay window after her shower?"

        Google Maps, Street view still kinda creeps me out. Hey, there's my car...
        My philosophy...

        You'll never make everyone happy, nor should you aspire to.

        In my experience, the greatest opportunities lie midway through the spectrum of provocation. You need to grab your ideal prospects' attention without pissing too many of them off. Find that sweet spot, and you'll reap the rewards.

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        Fifteen Lessons I have learned over 15 years and six businesses (or, My 1000th-Post Manifesto)
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        • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
          Originally Posted by Jack Gordon View Post

          My philosophy...

          You'll never make everyone happy, nor should you aspire to.

          In my experience, the greatest opportunities lie midway through the spectrum of provocation. You need to grab your ideal prospects' attention without pissing too many of them off. Find that sweet spot, and you'll reap the rewards.
          I'd find other ways to stand above the other players.
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          "If you think you're the smartest person in the room, then you're probably in the wrong room."

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  • Profile picture of the author V12
    These people have been doing something similar for some time:

    Pfaff Auto
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  • Profile picture of the author AmericanMuscleTA
    I love the idea!!!


    In the article it says 74% of people would be offended. I say, if you're not offending anyone then you're not doing it right.
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