Advertising

[ACutAbovesiny]

Well its that time of year when I will be putting the finishing touches on my ad campaign for the Spring. I have $5,500 in my budget and plan on doing a few different types of ads.

Door hangers $500---10,000
Flyers $500---10,000
Post cards (direct mail) $2000---5,000
YellowBook $2000---1/4 page ad for the year
Misc. (shirts,pens,hats,etc...) $500

The doorhangers and flyers have the distribution costs included.

Is this a wise way to spend the money???

[lawnpro724]

I run 2 quarter collum ads in Yellow Book here under landscaping and lawn maintnance for only $485.00 a year w/green background and get lots of calls from them. Lots of bang for the buck. I only do targeted direct mail to businesses I want and it works great as well. I provide uniforms for my employees with company name and signs on trucks and trailers but have never done door hangers so can't comment on them. Everything I have done to market my business has worked out great for me, you don't have to break the bank to build your business.

[ACutAbovesiny]

wow. I pay 154 a month for my yellowbook ad. Its a color ad 1/4 page. So you dont do direct mail to residences?

[lawnpro724]

wow. I pay 154 a month for my yellowbook ad. Its a color ad 1/4 page. So you dont do direct mail to residences?

I just direct mail commercial, I get enouph residential from yellow pages and paper. I only target commercial accounts I want to have and send them an intro packet 4 times a year. I dont know what size ad your running, I think you said QC but not sure. I used to work for Yellow Book a few years ago before getting back into landscaping and lawn care. you can check out my ad on yellow book it is the only one in green to see if its the same size as yours. Oh just noticed you have a Qtr page and thats why its higher. I was thinking quarter collum and thats what I have, your ad is bigger.

[CoreyD]

:\ is the yellow pages the best way to advertise? I drive around putting fliers in newspaper boxes and I havent got any good response from them really.... unless i could get at least 20 customers from advertising in the yellow pages i couldnt afford the $150 a month or whatever it is to advertise in it

[ACutAbovesiny]

:\ is the yellow pages the best way to advertise? I drive around putting fliers in newspaper boxes and I havent got any good response from them really.... unless i could get at least 20 customers from advertising in the yellow pages i couldnt afford the $150 a month or whatever it is to advertise in it

I've had mixed reviews from people about yellow page ads. This is my first year in the yellow book. The issue came out in October 2006. Now for landscapers thats not the best time but those books sit in peoples homes for years. Anyway, we received between 15 and 20 calls from property management companies for snow removal. Out of all those calls we signed 6 contracts this winter for snow removal (I'm just waiting for some snow:cry: ). I hope I get the same response this spring.

[Tony Clifton]

Well its that time of year when I will be putting the finishing touches on my ad campaign for the Spring. I have $5,500 in my budget and plan on doing a few different types of ads.

Door hangers $500---10,000
Flyers $500---10,000
Post cards (direct mail) $2000---5,000
YellowBook $2000---1/4 page ad for the year
Misc. (shirts,pens,hats,etc...) $500

The doorhangers and flyers have the distribution costs included.

Is this a wise way to spend the money???


Where are you getting doorhangers for that price?
Heck, it should cost more than 500 just to distribute them, and you have that cost already factored?
Are they glossy, size?

[mikefromny]

where are you getting the doorhangers distributed for that price? 10,000 the cost alone should be around like 370 so only $130.00 to get 10,000 of them out?

[billsdepot]

Talking about advertising has anyone ever listed there services with Servicemagic.com. If so, what are your thoughts about this company?

[Team-Green L&L]

Talking about advertising has anyone ever listed there services with Servicemagic.com. If so, what are your thoughts about this company?

My thoughts are that you pay WAY too much money for that referral service. They will not promote your company, but will make your website visible on the internet and provide you with leads generated from their databases. They do this with SEO techniques that are quite possible to do for your own site and they make a fortune doing it. I looking at them and even contacted them, but the costs were too high for us to consider.

[GreenN'Clean]

Well its that time of year when I will be putting the finishing touches on my ad campaign for the Spring. I have $5,500 in my budget and plan on doing a few different types of ads.

Door hangers $500---10,000
Flyers $500---10,000
Post cards (direct mail) $2000---5,000
YellowBook $2000---1/4 page ad for the year
Misc. (shirts,pens,hats,etc...) $500

The doorhangers and flyers have the distribution costs included.

Is this a wise way to spend the money???

Do you advertise in your local newspaper as well???????

[mrusk]

If i were you i'd advertise is your local news paper service directory.

[ACutAbovesiny]

I've never put an ad in the paper before. What does it cost (average)?

[vale of paradise]

I have been doing some research myself because it is that time of year to be prepared. In my research I have found a couple sites you might be interested in taking a look. www.doorhangers.com they are having specials for the doorhangers and if you go to www.gotprint.com for the postcards you might find the prices a little more reasonable. Gotprint is offering 5,000 postcards starting at $99.00. Seems to be glossy too. I can't speak for what is the best advertisting is in your area but if you can get a better deal for what you want, why not. This will give you a change to budget the money at other things if you need to.

For the New York person. We are getting snow here in Indiana I will try to send it your way.

[mrusk]

Only way to find out is call your local paper(s) and ask. It can vary by alot depending on what kind of sections they have and the way they work it.

One paper had a service directory where you could have 3 lines for 5 weeks for $275. Another once a week local paper had a section with display adds about 2/3's the size of a business card. I pay 900 for 15 weeks. The ad ran once a week.

[ACutAbovesiny]

Thanks...im gonna look into it.

[RyanD]

Sometimes ads in local newpapers can be even cheaper. In ours, we pay $12/wk. It is a classified ad. I keep it simple. Ours just says "lawn mowing" and my phone number.

[vale of paradise]

How long did you put your ad in the classifieds? What kind of response did you get from it?

L