?? about flyers

[LAWNPRO2]

Hi guy's

I have a ?? about flyer's. This if my first year doing flyer's. what
do you think is better to get business?

2 free mowing's & a free fertilizer application with a yearly mowing services.

or a $10 off coupon for mowing and trimming.

and a $20 off coupon for mulch application.

can any of you :help: me on this thanks

[KINGjosh]

$10 off coupon for mowing

[Petr51488]

10.00.... the 2 free mowings and fertilizer is too much.. the only other reason why i would give a free mowing would be for people who refer me.. - Peter

[walker-talker]

I think it depends on how much new business you are looking for. I will put it like this, since I don't give away anything. I am selling the perception of something is free. Of course by me advertising "3 Free Mowings", of course I am not giving them away. For one, they have to want weekly service that starts by a given date. They have to use my uninterupted service for the entire season and then and only then, they will get 3 mowings at no charge (the last 3 mowings of the season).

Advertising "3 Free Mowings" may not be the route for you, but in my situation I need to gain at least 40 accounts this year to make enough money to quit my full-time job and go full-time with my business. This is an aggresive decision on my part and felt that I needed to do this in order to gain that many accounts. I could have low-balled the price of my service, gained a lot of customers and then raised my prices next year, but nobody likes prices raised. This way I can make $3 less a week this year and next year keep the same prices, just no more free mowings. Does that makes sense?

So I say, offer the free mowings if you need to pick up more accounts. I have tried offering just free winterizer applications for yearly service, but that absolutely no help at all.

I also give 1 free mowing to my existing clients for referals. I would gladly pay an average of $30 for another $1000 worth of work.

[marko]

Sounds like you are giving alot away on the surface (2 free mowings and a free fert app) could equal $30+$30+$40 or $100. I have seen people say that they spend $100 in advertising to gain 1 customer. If you have tracked this in the past, I would think you could figure out a break even point and know what you can give away to gain a customer. I would think on these you want everything free given away at the end of the year, or have them pay by credit card incase they "change their mind" during the year and dont fulfil the obligated time.

[westwind]

I've never offered a single discount and have never had trouble getting bussines. i offer my service and let the work speak for it's self. just an opinion.
last year, i increased my route by 25 accounts, residential flyers. flyer stated bussiness description and reference addresses where they could see my work. good luck!

[Lux Lawn]

Not sure if the one comment was about my flier or not but here it goes.Like Walker Talker said make the think they are getting something Free as far as the Mowings are going because you are going to have to give it to them.When you give the Estimate in the Spring you need to keep that in the back of your mind that this person has a coupon not to say you are going to price gouge them but you don't want to get burned either.As far as a Fertilizer Application goes if they buy a 5 step program from you and you give them the last one free you have already made you money on it..There no extra drive time to get there because you are already there cutting the lawn.The way Walker is doing his is Great the last 3 are free..Mine you are going to get a free cut in May,a free cut in Oct. and Free Fert.in Oct. our season usually ends in early Nov.

[Team Gopher]

Hi walker-talker,

I like your 3 free mowing concept. Did you offer this last year as well? Or was this the first? Have you had any feedback so far on it?

[LAWNPRO2]

Walker
How many flyer's's are you going to put out to get 40 accounts?
I am trying to get 50-60 accounts this year. I did not make much
money this year snowplowing. So i have a lot i have to pay on
mowers ext.. can you let me know thank's :waving:

[suprman9019er]

I've never offered a single discount and have never had trouble getting bussines. i offer my service and let the work speak for it's self. just an opinion.
last year, i increased my route by 25 accounts, residential flyers. flyer stated bussiness description and reference addresses where they could see my work. good luck!
hey westwind how many flyers did you put out to get 25 new accounts, and did you do anything else other than flyers?

[Expert Lawns]

I do 2 free mowings with a year agreement OR 10% off one of the following services: mulch installation, spring cleanup, fall cleanup

[walker-talker]

I do 2 free mowings with a year agreement OR 10% off one of the following services: mulch installation, spring cleanup, fall cleanupWhat kind of sucess rate have you had offering 2 free mowing?

Walker
How many flyer's's are you going to put out to get 40 accounts?I have 30,000 going out. They are going to be inserterd into neighborhood association newsletters. The most of them are only costing .03 cents each....that just for the delivery and fairly cheap. Of that 30,000 I am hitting only 10,000 homes, but 3X. It's actually more like 8,000 in March, 14,000 in April and if needed, another 8,000 in May. So it's more like I am going to hit 8,000 home 3X and 6,000 homes just once. I had a small run of 600 go out last weekend and received one call. That run was just to get my name out there to see what happens. That neighborhood will actually get hit 4X as a sampler to see if I have a higher response rate by hitting homes 4X instead 3X. I am hoping for the best. I also have about 3,000 doorhangers from last year and 1000 postcards I can play with. The postcards I have will be mostly just used as a "thank you for letting me give you an estimate" card. The day of or next day I will send this out to the person I gave an estimate to.

[Maxwells]

when you hand out flyers how soon would you go back and flyer drop the same area ?

[walker-talker]

when you hand out flyers how soon would you go back and flyer drop the same area ?
If I was delivering them by hand, I would like to hit them every week or 10 days and hit them 4X. I think that way you would get your highest respose rate. I have been to seminars given by marketing experts and they have always said 4 is the magic number before your name really startes to sink in.