Advertising Budget for 2005

[Kelly's Landscaping]

Total for the year around 10k about 3k of that will be yellow pages 1k of that is newspaper and the rest is our spring direct marketing campaign.

[DiscoveryLawn]

$9500.00. but I am trying to come up with more. This number does not include discounts for referrals or comissions. $4500.00 of that is in a yellow pages ad. I am still working on where to invest the other 5k.

David

[Tony Clifton]

From what I have heard 1% is average, but do what you feel you need to.
We will probably spend 20-25,000 this year. In years past has been less than 7,000.

[Mueller Landscape Inc]

$15,000 here, no yellow pages.

[kdbetters]

Originally Posted by Mueller Landscape Inc

$15,000 here, no yellow pages.

How come many choose not to use the yellow pages? bad experience, is it not effective, bad target area, pita customers, please give me some insight as to why people are choosing to pull their yellow page ads. I've seen several posts lately about lco's choosing not to continue their yellow page ad. I am spending about $1400 for my ad in the book this year. Also when I am looking for a service (recently shirt makers, and printers), the first place I go to are the yellow pages. Is this not true with lco's?

[PMLAWN]

8% This is the 2nd most important part of the business. (learning to sell is #1)
We have goals that we try to meet each year and we plan the budget with the goal in mind. If all goes as planned we should be at $40,000 by years end
This is all parts of business-Maintenance-Landscape-Lawn care-Irrigation. Always look at free or cheap ways to get our name out.
Flyers-newsletter-mailings-Real Estate network-Ads-sponsorship of things- these are the bulk of the budget.

[PMLAWN]

Originally Posted by kdbetters

How come many choose not to use the yellow pages? bad experience, is it not effective, bad target area, pita customers, please give me some insight as to why people are choosing to pull their yellow page ads. I am spending about $1400 for my ad in the book this year.

"is it not effective, bad target area, pita customers"
Yes to all this.
You say you spend $1400.00. What is your return. We chart every call and can decide what works from year to year. YP is too big an area and the calls were more just to find out if they were paying the right amount.
Also produced the lowest % of closed bids. Just to many shoppers.

[tinman]

Originally Posted by kdbetters

How come many choose not to use the yellow pages? bad experience, is it not effective, bad target area, pita customers, please give me some insight as to why people are choosing to pull their yellow page ads. I've seen several posts lately about lco's choosing not to continue their yellow page ad. I am spending about $1400 for my ad in the book this year. Also when I am looking for a service (recently shirt makers, and printers), the first place I go to are the yellow pages. Is this not true with lco's?

I think most people do not want calls coming in from outside their area of service. Wastes their time even taking the call. When you look for shirt makers & printers they do not care where you are , because you come to them. LCO must go to the clients property to perform the service. So they (smart ones) do not want to drive 40 miles out of their way 30 times a year to cut grass. My ad is in the yellow pages, but just because it was free with my pressure washing ad.

[kdbetters]

Originally Posted by PMLAWN

You say you spend $1400.00. What is your return.

Well last year I paid $264 for my YP ad and it returned slightly over $2000 dollars. To be honest I did not track all the calls I got or the amount of time or gas I wasted on estimates. However, last years yellow page ad cost 13% of its revenue. Now the problem that lco's dont realize is, not every avenue of advertisement will cost you only 5% of its revenue, that does not mean it you should not do it. So if my numbers hold true for next year (thats all I can go by), my YP ad should bring in about $10,600.

Also if someone calls, the first question I ask is where are they located. If they are out of my service area, I will simply tell them and try to refer them to someone who can service them(very important, you should always have a reference or affiliate).

[Rex Mann]

I'll spend just over 6,000 this year. No YP ad. Just high end local magazines and our web site. MY manufacture picks up 1/2 the cost of all my marketing and web site. So I really spend 12,000, but only have to kick in 6 with the other 6 coming from the manufacture.

Peace,

Rex

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