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Fliers-50-100K

8K views 31 replies 6 participants last post by  newguy123 
#1 ·
In my service area there are two suburbs that I mainly target for my business, along with several other close ones. The two that I mentioned have about 40K houses (not townhomes, etc, but houses.) My goal is to hit these houses once, maybe twice with fliers, dropping them in the newspaper box with prices listed on the fliers. The houses in these suburbs are basically post-stamp lots. Around 8-12k sq ft before improvements. The houses are usually from 2-3K sq ft with a few thousand sq. ft. of landscaping, etc.

Anyways...my plan is to drum up a lot of business, and if I have to either sub out or just turn down work. My question is, well more of a request for advice on my idea with fliers, etc. I'd like to door hang them but that will cost a lot more than driving around and inserting in newspaper boxes. Marketing claims 1-3 % response rate with maybe half of those as actual confirmed deals. I know this is a loaded thread and a lot could be said on just being able to handle the calls coming in, etc; but I would like as much info. on the flier advice, although I would appreciate any advice.

Thank you.
 
#5 ·
few years ago i sent out post cards vs fliers...

my post cards were really high dollar looking, very very presentable and cost me a pretty penny too... on the other hand I made a flier on my computer went to kinkos made a few thousand fliers in different colors... made them decent looking but very to the point and not ornate at all... I had more customers respond to my lime green flier than i did my decked out post card... I was very surprised
 
#7 ·
Kind of late in the season to pick up new mowing clients. Reality of the returns in this business is far less than 1%. Most paper ends up in the trash as people are inundated with it. I pull 20 a sheets a day of something or another from my mailbox. All goes straight in the trash.
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#9 ·
Kind of late in the season to pick up new mowing clients. Reality of the returns in this business is far less than 1%. Most paper ends up in the trash as people are inundated with it. I pull 20 a sheets a day of something or another from my mailbox. All goes straight in the trash.
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Yeah you're right...I might not have mentioned this earlier but this will be for next spring.
 
#10 ·
"Thanks for responding. How many did you put out and what kind of return rate"

Ive put out thousands over the years. I think timing is super important. Ive hit neighborhoods just right and had better than 5% call but then I have hit other areas and had 0%.
Yeah I've heard others say timing is everything. I was thinking of a couple weeks before the growing season when most of the snow is melted and birds are chirping and the sun is shining. (Man I could write a book. LOL. Not.)
 
#11 ·
Lazer Cut,

That's really interesting. Do you credit that to the straight forward message vs the postcard? What was different in the advertising message?
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Both times i distributed them the same way either- in the newspaper bin on the boxes... dont flame me for touching the mailbox haha... but both were passed out that way and it was very interesting the ask, so how did you hear about me... they'd say oh I got your flier... i would ask either flier or postcard and 7 outta 10 times it was my lime green or hot pink flier... they didn't even put 2 and 2 together that the post card was the same company lol
 
#12 ·
I'd say for every 5 customers i got with fliers or postcards... 4 was from my fliers.

not sure if it was psychological "expensive looking postcard, means expensive company..." either way as I'm starting back up I am going to do the same method this up coming season and really track my results
 
#13 ·
Ten year average was 20k of fliers with 20 actually turning into accounts. Much better return with high quality door hangers that hold a business card hung within an existing customer neighborhood. We are just under 300 resi accts and they are in large clusters. Not too many stand alones. They key is card looks like flier and both look like vehicles. Visibilty seems to have worked best for us.
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#14 ·
I'd say for every 5 customers i got with fliers or postcards... 4 was from my fliers.

not sure if it was psychological "expensive looking postcard, means expensive company..." either way as I'm starting back up I am going to do the same method this up coming season and really track my results
That brings up question. Will most people automatically assume that an expensive card is expensive service? I would think most of the time a resounding yes...but that's me.

There was a guy on here that advertised with his prices on his fliers. Anyways another LCO chimed in and said his fliers were better...The guy said he wasn't in the business of the best looking flier only building a business. The point was that the original guy's flier wasn't flashy, but it was straight to the point with advertised prices and his timing to distribute the fliers was at the right time.

I'm going to give this a shot. What do you think about my originally plan? Two main suburbs that 90% of my business is in have about 40K homes. I plan on hitting them once, maybe twice.
 
#15 ·
Ten year average was 20k of fliers with 20 actually turning into accounts. Much better return with high quality door hangers that hold a business card hung within an existing customer neighborhood. We are just under 300 resi accts and they are in large clusters. Not too many stand alones. They key is card looks like flier and both look like vehicles. Visibilty seems to have worked best for us.
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I was hoping for an actual close rate of .005%, so 1/2 of 1 percent. Like you, I want to build dense routes and not having to put the gate down 20+ times a day.
 
#16 ·
That brings up question. Will most people automatically assume that an expensive card is expensive service? I would think most of the time a resounding yes...but that's me.

There was a guy on here that advertised with his prices on his fliers. Anyways another LCO chimed in and said his fliers were better...The guy said he wasn't in the business of the best looking flier only building a business. The point was that the original guy's flier wasn't flashy, but it was straight to the point with advertised prices and his timing to distribute the fliers was at the right time.

I'm going to give this a shot. What do you think about my originally plan? Two main suburbs that 90% of my business is in have about 40K homes. I plan on hitting them once, maybe twice.
I like that plan... I advertised in the spring, fall and winter times just to get my name in front of people... not to mention that it gave me some snow removal clients as well...

I had a great response rate with fliers lol... I had a lot of traffic from them not sure why but I had my phone buzzing all the time it seemed... then i sold out and the guy i sold to now is killing it in the neighborhoods i used to service... :hammerhead: and he does the exact same thing i did... advertise with nice flashy fliers or post cards then has the cheap looking straight to the point and if i called and asked him he'd say the samething the straight to the point ones get the message across and get the most attention...
 
#18 ·
yea i did... i did a round of my post cards... waited a week... then a round of fliers... so essentially double advertising... then when i would have phone calls i would ask which one worked best... i only was up and running for 4 years... so what i did was advertise with post cards then fliers just to experiment which one worked best... my final year i just advertised with my post cards then a couple months into the season advertised with fliers again... still the fliers worked for the all areas i serviced... even the over half million mark of homes responded to the flier more so than my post card... if i had a file of each i'd share it on here but i dont...

but when i did my experiment yes i did double advertise within a week or two period to the same houses... might have cost me a lot of wasted advertisment but at least i know now what works in what neighborhoods and for my company back then... I am going to start back up where i currently live (hour north of where i used to live) and I am going to use the same style... fliers and postcards and see what works best up here
 
#20 ·
Wow that's really interesting. When you did both postcards and fliers to the same house other than quality what was different? Prices, programs etc?
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Nothing different besides on the flier I put ask me how to receive a free cut in a square at the bottom and in small print i put must have this coupon to redeem reward... so if they had that and if they agreed to a service agreement then the first cut was free. or i changed it up and put first yard of mulch free *4 yard min*... thats the only difference... i didnt advertise prices or anything like that.
 
#22 ·
I don't like doing that because one house is different from the next... per say though in a particular place say neighborhood A all the houses were almost exact and you had an average cut of $35 a cut... so then when you advertise in that neighborhood you could put starting at $35 a cut!... but then again some people would scare away from that... then if you put say starting at $25 a cut and try to upsell them on why the flier says $25 and you're in front of them saying thats based on xyz its really a $35 per cut you're going to piss them off lol... thats the only problem i have with advertising with price... im in insurance and i have people call all day with i was quoted x then i re-run the quote now its higher then they get all pissed off well this paper says x now you're quoting me blah blah... loses you customers pretty easily
 
#25 ·
I'm glad that this happened to someone besides me. 3 years ago I passed out about 100 cheaply made to the point 1/4 page flyers and scored 3 solid customers that I still have. This past spring I passed out 1400 glossy high impact flyers and gained 1 long term customer and a few mulch jobs.
 
#26 ·
I'm glad that this happened to someone besides me. 3 years ago I passed out about 100 cheaply made to the point 1/4 page flyers and scored 3 solid customers that I still have. This past spring I passed out 1400 glossy high impact flyers and gained 1 long term customer and a few mulch jobs.
I totally believe you it just seems so weird. Why would someone go with a cheaply made flier over a nice postcard? Again, is it the idea of expensive postcard expensive service?
 
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