marketing help!!

[ADVANSCAPES]

I am new to the forum and need some guidance. I have a landscaping company and a turf care company. I am desperately wanting to get out of the lawn maintenance business and focus solely on tree and turf care(fert, weed, insect, disease). What have you guys experienced as being the best way to get new turf care customers? Salespeople, doorhangers, postcard mailings...etc...I have had a large,visible yellow page ad....IT GETS ME ALMOST NO BUSINESS!! I need to get at least 100 new customers NOW.
Do you market year round or just in spring and summer? Please help...I am at my wits end.
Thanks in advance.

[Rayholio]

need 100 customers now? buy them.. LOL seriously.


Or you could spend $2000 on a mailing.. $2000 on door hangers.. $1000 on vehicle signage.. and wait.. nothing will get you customers like 3 years and a good reputation... well... maybe 5 years and a great reputation?

Don't waste your money on ANY advertizing that will not personally touch your target audience. Yellow pages is great if you want a lot of bidding war type calls.. Radio, and TV ads suck..

Bottom line.. Depending on your area, you'll need AT LEAST a year to land 100 customers.. that's investing a lot into it. If you don't have a reputation, and referrals coming in, you don't have a growing business...

but there is always the origional option.. buy someone elses business :)

[J Hisch]

Door to Door sales in a area where you just did a mailing. If you cant afford a mialing then do door to door. You can add about 100 accounts in 20 hard days at it. 5 accounts per day. but 100 accounts at 300 dollars average a year is only 30k

[ADVANSCAPES]

Thanks for the replies. I had an employee last year who worked for another fert/squirt company. This company went from 0 to almost 4000 accounts in 4 years basically using door to door, so I know that 100 accts can be achieved in less than a year. I certainly do not need nor want 4000 accts but some extras sure would help with keeping my guys busy and getting me closer to never having to own another lawn mower. I do have the money to mail 10,20,30, thousand postcards if need be...just wanted to get opinions on what might be the best overall option. Do you guys do the door to door yourselves or hire that out?
Ray, I absolutely agree..YP is a waste of money
Thanks
Alan

[naughty62]

Door hangers ,Friday and saturday morning .Be prepared to do on the spot estimates .Then start your services in that area shortly afterthe hangers are out.

[GreenN'Clean]

The best way to reach a lot of people is to advertise in your newspapers you will get your name out faster and to a lot more people and its worth every penny you spend to run an ad. I haven't ever had any luck with running an ad in the yellow pages because most people looking through the phone books are bargain shoppers and pick the cheapest.

[Shades of Green LService]

Local county/ town papers works best in my area.

[get rich]

The best advertising money can buy is almost free. Choose a middle to upper income neighborhood or subdivision, drive through and write down the address of homes on both sides of the streets right at the entrance way and exits if there is more than one. Mail them a letter offering fertilization at a discounted price or free core aeration,free 6th or 7th application(depending on how many you do in your zone) then once you have a couple homes under contract do an extreme amount of care and good work on these lawns and by mid-season put small yard signs out by the road advertising your company. Use signs that are catchy like....."formally one of the worst looking lawns in the neighborhood, call us today for your lawn turn around" or say "call today for your lawn make over" or " Another quality job by.......... call today for your free quote" You see word of mouth and seeing is believing is free, it just take's a little longer. But if your good, and smart on targeting you could do it by fall of this year. I put deals or packages together like fall core aeration and fert for a deal then sign them up for next season. Good luck!

[GreenN'Clean]

Your gas, time wear and tear on your vehicle and your shoes isn't really free. Id rather do the paper route because it will get to more people and you can be out doing jobs will the paper does the advertising for you

[turfsolutions]

Consider offering current customers incentives for every referral they provide that signs up for your program. It does work.

[ADVANSCAPES]

Thanks for the responses everyone!! Some really good feedback. I have tried offering a free treatment to customers who refer us to friends. Have had a little luck with that. We do great work at a very fair price, are very professional, and dont get many cancellations...but we just dont get many refferalls either even when we ask for them. $800 monthly in yellow pages got us nowhere. Savvy shopper(coupon magazine) was a total waste. About to send out 20k postcards to targeted areas, and hanging doorhangers in same areas in hopes of getting some bites. Do you guys distribute hangers/flyers in neighboorhoods with NO SOLICITING signs? Cant make any real money in this business without having hundreds of customers. Just trying to get to that point. Thank you all.
Alan

[MStine315]

I agree with the referral program. It takes a while, but it's exponential, i.e. the more customers you have, the more you get, and the more customers you get, the more referrals you'll get, etc... This is by far the cheapest and most effective advertising I use, which includes yellow pages, door hangers, flyers on community bulletin boards, and business cards in local businesses to name a few.

[mwaller98]

[QUOTE=ADVANSCAPES;1726806]I do have the money to mail 10,20,30, thousand postcards if need be...

if you have the money to spend on this amount of mailing, then at a 0.25% response on 30K you'll get 75 customers. 0.25% is not a very good response either when we get anywhere from .5%-1.5%. just think about the cost per sale...follow up...repetitiveness of your mailers....etc. and you'll get the 100 you're looking for in no time!

[turfsolutions]

Around here there is a lot of competition and a lot of companies sending out mailers this time of year. I get a half dozen or so at my house. I have done the mailer thing, and some friends have done it with a lot of money spent and not much return. It averaged out to be the same price as buying contracts from another company. In some areas mailers will work great. Just make sure you are in such an area before spending thousands.