advertising

[zimm4]

What are the best ways to secure new clients?

[yardsmith]

best ways for me have been bus. cards & yellow pgs.<br>I've never gotten anything out of newspaper or spring/fall newspaper supplements, phone book covers, etc; Waste of my hard earned $$. Even had a guy ask me to advertise on paper resturant placemats! How many people go to dinner & say 'Geez! There's what I've been looking for! Someone to cut my grass.'<br>Bus. cards are relatively cheap & can be put out everywhere- hair salons, laundromats, bars, Walmart, Farm & Fleet, etc. Flyers at the same places of public gathering have done pretty well too. Be sure to get permission.<br>Once you get some bus. built up, call local yellow pages in mid summer. They take new ad orders in june-july for the next years book. Not everyone gets the paper. Not everyone watches 'channel 2 ads'. Not everyone listens to the radio at the precise time your ad is on. But practically EVERYONE has a phone book. Where do YOU look when you need plumbing fixed, or rental places, etc. The phone book. The general consensus is that the more professional up & up businesses are in the phone book. Joe's lawn mowin' is the type you expect in the paper (generally). Plus your ad is in there EVERY DAY for an entire year. All you need is 1 to 2 new customers (usually 1 if a smaller ad) to pay for your ad. Everything else above that is 'profit' so to speak. I've been in the phone book for 3-4 yrs. & I'm constantly turning down work. This also benefits me in that I can be choosier with what I take on.<br>The lifeline of my bus. has been the yellow pages.<p>----------<br>Smitty ô¿ô<p><br>

[Grassboy]

Read this great book by Henry Beckwith: <br>&quot;Selling The Invisable&quot; It is a great book. It talks about how to advertise and stategies for a business. It taught me a lot. One thing I love about it is it isn't too long. I'm a slow reader.Try it, it'll help you.<p>Grassboy

[Kevin]

The best form of advertising is word of mouth. The worst form of advertising is word of mouth. Do the job right, make other people find out who does that lawn. (Hopefully you.) Do a bad job, the same cus. will let others know who did their lawn.

[Retro67]

I got a price for a display ad today of $758 for an ad 4.25&quot; wide and 2&quot; tall run every other day for 30 days. This size ad would cost $121.60 to run once. There is a significant savings by runnning it 15 times.<p>Has anyone run ads of this magnitude and what were the results? It sounds like a bunch of money, but I could &quot;break even&quot; if I got one contract for the season. I would hope I would do much better. I see one of my competitors has an ad this size running right now. The ad goes in the newspaper rather than in the classifieds section. I can run line ads cheaply, but want some advice from someone that has spent the big bucks.&lt;p&gt;John

[NateinAtl]

I don't know the demographics of your area but, I would advise everyone to try to meet a sales rep with Trugreen Chemlawn, or anyother national chemical company. Tell them you are looking for mowing customers, and will in turn help them find fert customers. I promis you this works, for I am a former TruGreen sales rep. I did zero advertising this year, and am now having to turn away a substantial amount of work. In two weeks, TruGreen helped me get about 25 maintenance customers. It is well worth it to me!!<br>

[Retro67]

Trading customers won't work since I'd rather have the fertilization/pesticide applications myself. Great idea, though. The fertilization is good money, wouldn't want to pass it up. The demographics are as follows:<p>Daily circulation: 61,217<br>Sunday: 70,424<br>Population:<br>City:110,651<br>County: 190,617<br>Metro area: 204,013<br>Retail trade zone: 471,300<p>Probably way more information than you wanted to know. I figure I may use a services directory ad to feed the fund to run the other ad. If I attain enough customers with the services directory ad, the advertising pays for itself in my view. I think it would do wonders for name recognition in the area.&lt;p&gt;If there is anyone who feels I would be throwing away money, let me know.&lt;P&gt;John

[Knightrider2]

NateinAtl<br> Thank you,I think this is a great way to get business. I look forward to trying it.<br> I also would like to thank everyone else that has posted info. on this forum, it has been very helpful.

[HOMER]

I have said it before and will say it again, the Yellow pages are the way to go! I despise paying for the add that we got last year, $300.00 a month for 2 cities, one I have only received one call from, but it has doubled my customer base since it came out.<p>I reduced the size of the ad for the next years book, and only ran it in one city. I wanted to stay back there and can do it for $13.70 a month vs. $300.00. If I get 1/3 of the response next year that I got this year I will be turning most of it away. It does give you the flexability to pick and choose. I tried everything else for 3 years and nothing really worked. If you can handle fast growth (better be careful) this is your ticket.<p>Homer

[Retro67]

Homer-<p>Yellow pages won't do me much good right now. I can contemplate it for business next year, but not an option for us now. If the newspaper ads work, I will be encouraged to advertise, otherwise I will continue to use flyers. I will be passing out several thousand flyers again this year as well.&lt;p&gt;I am just doing anything possible to build a customer base. I may call my competitor and try to find out what type of response they get from that ad. I don't have to tell them what I do, just that I was talking to so and so at the paper and he said to call a couple of the advertisers and ask them, they would tell whether they were satisfied with the results.&lt;p&gt;If they say calls have been infrequent regarding the ad, I would have to rethink this thing.&lt;p&gt;John

[HOMER]

Why is it not an option? Price? Timing?<p>Homer

[slagerlawncare]

make some quality flyers..put them in a door hanger bag..target certain areas...put your boots on the street and put some flyers on some doors...<p>best bang for your buck...<p>just MO<p>

[Retro67]

Homer-<br>Next yellow pages won't be out until December. May work next year, but I'm looking for work now.&lt;p&gt;Also flyers will be distributed as well. If I have to turn down customers, so much the better. I doubt I will be that lucky, though.&lt;p&gt;John<br>

[sdgoes]

I was up in the air on using door hanger bags or just rolling the fliers and using a rubber band to hang on the door. Any suggestions? <br>thanks,<br>Steve<br>

[slagerlawncare]

sdgoes,<br>use door hangers, they are more professional and a good wind or rain takes care of em' with the rubber band..<br>my bags are from R.N.D. signs...1000 for 20 bucks 1-800-328-4009<p>good luck and happy walking! it's worth it!<br>