Flyers

[XOFMOT]

Back for your help again! Get use to it everyone, I'm going to use this site to its full potential!

Flyers. What's the best "WORDING" to attract some customers? Should I use colored paper? List some pricing on there? (example: most area lawns mowed for $30.00)
Where do I distribute them? Hang them up in Supermarkets, walk the neighborhoods, parking lots, direct mail.....?

PLease note I am very new to this, any and all advice will be studied. Thanks again for all the help!

[Eric ELM]

I'm going to use this site to its full potential!

If you are going to do this, you need to use the search feature, there are several threads and many posts on this. You have lots of reading to do. :)

http://www.lawnsite.com/search.php?action=showresults&searchid=6260&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

[KirbysLawn]

Eric beat me to it.....:(

[1MajorTom]

I definitely say no to parking lots. I know I personally do not like to come out to my car after shopping, and find a flier on my windshield. I don't even bother looking at it. I just toss it to the ground. I find that it a very lazy way to advertise. Plus, by leaving fliers on cars, you have absolutely no idea what kind of lawns you will be targeting. For all you would know, you could be leaving fliers on cars whose owners live in a senior citizen home or apartment building.

If you are going to go the flier route, I would suggest picking out the neighborhoods you would like to work in, and then leave a flier at their door. (Do not leave fliers in mailboxes. )

I'm sure others will differ on this, but I do not like the idea of putting prices on fliers. People see a price say "most lawns starting at $30.00", and that's what they will be expecting to pay. Don't limit yourself on the pricing.

You will have to lay a lot of fliers to get volume customers. Your best bet is to get in a neighborhood with a few lawns, then do good reputable work, and the rest of your customers will come from word of mouth.

[KirbysLawn]

I agree with everything Jodi said except I just toss it to the ground, no littering! That's why so many LCO's that do commercials have all that trash! ;)

[1MajorTom]

:) :) LOL.

You got me there Ray, good one ;)

[lawnboy82]

if you are gonna go to the area you were talkin about in another thread you are gonna have a very hard time goin door to door. cause most houses over there are gated properties. with long driveways. i will only go to them if i am working right next door or something. leaving fliers in mailboxes or anything like that will get you a nice warning, if not ticked from the postal service. so be carefull!!!

[AielLandscaping]

I've put out a lot of different flyers and when your putting together your flyers keep in mind the neighborhood you want them to go to if the houses in the neighborhood are older say built before 1950 your sitting on top of a goldmine, there are a large number of senior citizens living in those homes and most can't or don't want to care for their lawns but they highly desire the upkeep.. so tailor your flyers for these targets, word it nicely black on white with a large font, remember elderly have a hard time reading smaller fonts, next keep it simple just like a postcard they have to have read the entire flyer before they have time to set it down, the fewer words the better. if your going to target a nieghborhood that is newly developed say 1990 or newer your dealing with a whole different genre of clients, these are typically your people say around 30-35 or so, and your targeting mainly married couples (speciffically the wife) her husband commutes or works long hours to pay for that brand new house, she's tired of her husband spending his weekend in the yard and not with her. these customers are almost always very picky but they are usually willing to pay for full service, so keep that in mind when wording your flyers, keep it as short as possible, and i also put coupons on mine, "first week free" seems to work for me, people always like getting something for free, also you have to prompt them to call, somehting like "limited time offer" or availablity limited" something like that so they feel rushed to call. other people may have different stratagies, and i'm sure that different areas have different needs but this is what works for me.. i'd expect to recieve 1 call out of every hundred flyers, and 1 new customer out of every two hundred at least.

Jeremiah

[XOFMOT]

Thanks again to all who have contributed in my quest for getting my business off the ground! I will follow your advice. I really like the idea on the door hangers...I'm going to check into that during the AM hour tomorrow.

This is all very exciting to me right now, I'm 33 years old (as of this coming Sunday,HINT-HINT:D ) but this makes me feels years younger, or maybe it's like giving birth and watching your baby grow. Well, whatever it is, this adventure of mine sure makes me feel GREAT! Thanks again all!---Keep the ideas and suggestions coming!!!!

[lawnman_scott]

go back and read what aeillandscaping wrote, ive done lots of flyers, and had great sucess with them, and i do most of what he said. I also like to put an average price on mine, not a starting price. some people dont like the price on the flyers, but i think its mandatory to make them work. read any advertizment you get in the mail, and see if it has a price on it. sure some people wont want to pay more than the average price, just tell them why they are more, maybe a corner lot, ect.

[AielLandscaping]

i agree with putting a price on the flyers, if you say an average lawn is 30.00 a month, and someone calls sure they are going to expect 30.00 but from my experience everytime i give an estimate and tell the customer that their lawn is larger then average, they always seem proud to have something of greater value then the average person.

[XOFMOT]

How about generating flyers for a certain area, then another flyer for another area?

Area A average lawn $25.00....
Area B average lawn $40.00....
and so on...

Just a thought:D

[1MajorTom]

Quote: Area A average lawn $25.00....
Area B average lawn $40.00....
and so on...

Nah, I don't like that.
A son or daughter from average A lawn decides to pass their flier on to their elderly mom. But mom doesn't have the average "A" lawn. She has the Average "C" lawn. Elderly mom feels she should be getting charged for the Average "A" lawn price. When you tell her that her price is more, she feels somewhat cheated. I don't know. Just seems to me to end up causing confusion.
Just my opinion.

[XOFMOT]

Thanks JODI

I think your right! That's all I need at this point in time...MORE CONFUSION:o

Thanks again for all your input!