Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Green Plumbing Company Startup

Posted by Colin.Watley on 3/27/2009 at 3:18 PM ET 1000 Points
We are a earth conscious plumbing company that plans on starting in the residential area, and then the commercial as the manpower of the company grows. Beyond service and new construction we will have a large emphases on solar hot water heaters as they provide the best margins for the work we could be doing. The solar hot water systems are comparably very low cost and could be fit onto any large commercial building, ie school, hospital, govt. buildings.

We are advertising through high quality direct mailer coupon booklets and have our first full page ad coming out April 15 to 39,000 homes and businesses in a wealthy part of town.

Because we are a very niche company I am looking for ways to get more PR and a buzz surrounding the company on a shoestring budget. Our company website should be up by the end of March (seventhgenerationplumbing.com) and I have joined the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce and several networking/lead generation groups.

So any good PR ideas would be great, and or guesses on the # and rate of calls from the mailers would be good.

Thank You,
Colin A Watley
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by joshuacrumbaugh on 3/27/2009 at 5:38 PM Accepted
    You will have to actively monitor the incoming leads, but helpareporter.com is a great resource for finding stories written in your area as well as nationally. Currently there is a great deal of interest in green products and services.
  • Posted by telemoxie on 3/27/2009 at 6:57 PM Accepted
    Will you also be dealing solar hot water for residential? If so, would this only be for new residential construction, or would you be adding new solar hot water for existing residences?

    If you will alter or residential solar hot water systems, you might approach area corporations to see if he did do a brown bag lunch regarding reducing energy bills. Several years ago, I had worked with a mortgage broker to set up brownbag lunches, and it was a very successful program.

    Please fell free to send me an e-mail for more information. Good luck.
  • Posted on 3/27/2009 at 9:14 PM Accepted
    Hi Colin,

    You might get a few ideas from Greenwerks. They're a Chicago contractor focusing on green renovation, painting and handyman services. Beyond that they're involved in virtually every Green event in Chicago, while also documenting the steps they're taking to reduce waste in their office.

    It's a full commitment to sustainability, and whats really cool is how they've integrated more traditional marketing (tradeshows, email) along with social media (blog) to get the word out about their business.

    Check them out, along with this post I've written about them using social media to augment traditional marketing https://cli.gs/9z0b6D.

    Cheers,

    Jesse
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 3/28/2009 at 9:07 AM Accepted
    You have two basic audiences: people that are looking to reduce their "footprint" and people that are looking to save money. These audiences do overlap, but the message is slightly different.

    You can't get publicity unless you have something worth publicizing. Simply starting a new business isn't newsworthy, so you need to take actions that would make it so.

    You could team up with some well-connected non-profits in your area, and offer their mailing list a special offer: you'll donate 5% of the cost of the system to their non-profit. It's a classic win-win.

    Or, donate your services to Habitat For Humanity in Phoenix (https://www.habitataz.org/). They'll help with publicity, and you can point to the great work you do in your community, etc.
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