Most effective way to Advertise

[dirtydbs]

I live in a highly populated area and getting to all of those areas is nearly impossible without breaking the bank. So what is the most effective way to get my name and my business out there. I live in Florida, Tampa Bay area

[Landscape25]

I'm on the east coast, when you find out let me know.

[justanotherlawnguy]

For this area, Yellow Pages!!!!!!!!!!!!! FLyers is a complete waste of time and effort. I have found that flyers typically work for the lowballer who is willing to "sell/w h o r e" himself to the entire neighborhood.

WIth all the "upscale" cookie cutter communites poping up everywhere flyers is a bust, also against HOA rules. They will through you out in a heartbeat.

WIth a Yellow Pages ad, I have more work than I can shake a stick at. It is good work also, half the time people are just glad you answered the phone and well if you actually showed up for an estimate, as long as it was in the ballpark you were in...

In fact, this year I was so busy, for July-Oct I rarely answered my phone. I just couldnt keep up with all the calls being solo and all. That will all change this year, as i am going to get a helper which should help me capitalize on all that cash I passed up earlier in the year.:blob1:

I have another publication that I advertise in, which hardly any other LCO's advertise in. It is a local pub and is a goldmine as well. But that little nugget I am keeping all for myself.... SOrry, cant give all the secrets to my success..:cry:
Oh yeah, my truck isnt lettered and neither is my trailer.

Plus, once you get in a neighborhood the jobs spread like cancer...
If anyone who works in the Brandon/Riverview area wants some referrals, let me know. I do get calls occasionally for that area, but I dont service it so I always pass on it......

[jim163]

im a lowballing slut....and its working. One I have more clients prices will go up and ill be in the yellow pages.

[Landscape25]

Just,

I am interested in your yellow page success, because it isn't working to well for me. What type of ad do you have? My ad started in Oct. so can you tell me what your bad months were if there were any, and please tell me Oct. - Dec. were the bad months because that is what I want to hear :).

[out4now]

If you do the shot gun approach you'll end up driving around everywhere and may even lose money. Avoid that some work is better than none idea. Unprofitable work hurts you and also the industry as a whole. You want to target an area and get a tight route in that area. Walk ups and word of mouth are going to be your biggest advertisements in the end. I was approached at convience stores in the past and even when I worked for the school district people would stop me to ask if I did mowing in my off time. You have to get your name out in front of the customer as many times as you can without ticking them off to the point where they won't call. Door hangers and professional done flyers have a low response rate but are relatively cheap. Direct mailers will work too, that way you don't have to walk so much putting out hangers/flyers but thoose too can be easily tossed out. A yellow page ad overall will have a better response rate because they are looking for you in that case rather than you having to seek them out. If you have a webpage for your biz put the addy on your truck, business card etc.Most ISP's include one now with your service but you have to ask about it. Try Jay Levison's Guerilla For Free, better book than his others. Shorter too. As he will point out over and over it is cheaper to keep the customers you have than find new customers but you need to be continually on top of it as they will fall out and you need replacements ready to fill those slots. Do a bunch of searches on here in the Business Forums and develop a marketing plan. Your library will have lots of books that will give you ideas. There is one called How to drive your competition crazy : creating disruption for fun and profit / Guy Kawasaki with Michele Moreno. Love his yellow page idea! Good luck to you.:waving:

[cwlawley]

If you do the shot gun approach you'll end up driving around everywhere

I agree. If you do mass advertising, like in the Yellow Pages or the News Paper you are going to end up going everywhere. I advertise by flyers and doorhangers as well as just parking the truck out in the open for everyone to notice. I have got a pretty good repsonse so far.

[justanotherlawnguy]

Just,

I am interested in your yellow page success, because it isn't working to well for me. What type of ad do you have? My ad started in Oct. so can you tell me what your bad months were if there were any, and please tell me Oct. - Dec. were the bad months because that is what I want to hear :).

Oct and Nov were definately the slowest months as far as getting any new calls, Surprisingly Dec as been decent.

You said the ad just came out in Oct. Wait til Feb and Mar and the calls will be rolling. And by the summertime people just start calling down the list until they get a LCO that will actually answer the phone.

[Landscape25]

I don't offer lawn service. I do bed maintenance, design and installation, so it is difficult to say what will happen. We got hit pretty hard by Wilma and surprisingly I did not get many calls from that, one or two for trees which I am not set up to do.

[justanotherlawnguy]

I don't offer lawn service. I do bed maintenance, design and installation, .

Offering that is cool, but it may be limiting. There is a guy around called mrflowerbed, that is all he does.

Let me ask you, what part of town do you work in? Cause I get calls everynow and then for the beds or landscaping jobs, I typically pass on them cause it is just me and they are too time consuming and people are too picky when it comes to the landscaping side of things.

In the Yellow Pages, are you under Landscape Contractors? If so, that could be the reason for not alot of calls cause there are so many to choose from...Give it time though, when summer rolls around you should be booming....

[GreenUtah]

In a heavy populated area, your truck/trailer ads can easily be your best return on investment, period. If you are out working and making yourself visible, you are creating a branding opportunity, good or bad, for your business everytime you pull your truck out of the garage onto a city street. Keep your truck and equipment clean, don't mow garbage and blow grass into the street..lol..and you'll have a steady flow of walk ups and calls from numbers displayed on your vehicle. For those of you who wonder how big your number should be, 4 inch minimum in a high contrasting color (black on a white truck, white on a black truck, etc.) in a thick, sans serif font (think aerial, helvetica, etc.) not bunched up with your logo or web address. That makes an easily readable, easy to locate, way to deliver your contact. Vinyl at most sign shops for that will be under 20 bucks (phone number alone). I like front fenders for that placement as people read left to right, making it the first thing they see on your parked truck. I don't like #'s on the rears of vehicles as that encourages people to call while driving, a habit that I don't like as well as a source for "problem" phone calls from road ragers peeved at some perceived infraction. (read, I don't like following your slow truck and trailer getting on the freeway, learn to stay out of my way). Compare that with display ads in your local yellow pages and see what the cost per customer averages out to be.

[Wells]

In a heavy populated area, your truck/trailer ads can easily be your best return on investment, period.

Green.....I must be doing something wrong because for the past two years now I've had a enclosed trailer and had it and my truck fully lettered and I've only had one (1) person ever call from seeing it. I'll include a picture and maybe you can tell me where I went wrong.

I also had a poor return rate with the yellow pages ad and I went with a larger ad since my business name is towards the end of the lawn section and it still produced minimal calls.

I've tried ads in local newspapers, local magazines, coupon books, and joining the local chamber of commerce to drum up business but by far the best rate of return in my area would have to be door to door fliers. Inexpensive to produce and inexpensive to distribute.

[GreenUtah]

Wells,
How many next door/across the street/down the block neighbors have you picked up in relation to your existing accounts? Did you paper all of them? Did you ask them if they saw your truck while you were working? Branding efforts can be tough to track results for sometimes, especially if you are not asking the questions from your leads, but rather assuming that they came strictly from one source. Often times, it's a repetive exposure through a multitude of avenues that leads to a final sale. That still does not change the fact that the duration your ad will last (lettering your truck as it is now), the initial cost vs. the brand awareness it has while you work and drive your route for the time that it will last on your truck, makes it the source of highest views per dollar spent of anything else you can possibly do. If you are curious to what exactly it's worth, this spring, put a call to action on the side of your trailer, something along the lines of your normal ad giveaways, if they call and say they saw your ad on your truck or trailer. You need to treat your advertising all the same, from flyer to truck to billboard, using the pitch that works for you across the board. You may be surprised at the results. I'd agree that the majority of the other things you mentioned are worthless in this market. Beyond working your existing customer base for referrals, splashing your brand on your truck still remains very cheapest form of advertising.