Next year i am planning on dropping mowing, seeding, plantings basically everything except hardscapes. I figure its best to focus on doing what i truelly love. I was wondering if you guys had any success with door hangers to drum up hardscape jobs? I know with lawns people tend to aver 1% success rate. Is it the same with hardscapes? What about direct mail? Thanks Matt
I've had some great results with going door to door with a flyer I made on my computer, then I went out and made a lot of copies at Staples. Walked around and wedged them in doors and such. Direct Mailing and that kinda stuff can be costly, Door hangers are great, its just gonna cost you a little more compared to making some flyers up and getting copies, except with door hangers you can throw them right on the door handle which is great. Just advertising for hardscape work could be difficult at first. Try advertising in some of the local papers, maybe also offer masonary work. Good Luck. Jeff I just started a good sized wall job, Ill post pictures when im done.
I would recommend doing the door hanger thing, when you first start up. My main supplier of pavers, Belgard, gives me the door hangers by the box of 2500. I just add a sticker to it with our information. So check with your vendors. We have one of our web address on our trucks. I get at least 3 calls a week from someone driven to our website via seeing one of our trucks. A website, which is easy to find, is a must for any hardscaping business. We have received over 200K in business from people surfing the Internet. However, a website should be used as a support tool for other forms of marketing. Best of luck. Rex http://ArizonaPavers.Com
NNJ- I have had good luck from a newspaper ad. I ran a 3 line add for 5 weeks for 260 bucks. So far i got 25k in work as a result of it. I am just trying to get more and more work. I plan on offering cultured stone also, since i know how to do it. I do not know how much of that work i'll get though. I don't know if many homeowners add it to there houses. RM- I plan on getting a website after i do some more jobs and can have a decent amount of pics on it. Matt
het rid of the pic of a guy mowing. folks. maintenance work and hardscaping are TWO DIFFERENT worlds.
If you are going to use door hangers, focus the message on the one or possibly two things you want results from. The avewrage person looses their focus about 2 seconds after they read the message. If it is cluttered with everything you do, it will make a fast trip to the round file. It works better to have several different flyers with different messages, even though you will get some result from a multiple message flyer.
Hey DVS, I commented on the post because hardscape is 1 of my services. Im not the one doing just hardscapes. Someone asked to see what my flyer looked like so there it is with ALL!!!! my services. Any The picture makes the flyer more interesting, its not the best but it draws attention compared to nothing but words. So sorry to make your life so much worse DVS. Jeff
No need to apologize. I am jus trying to help you. Marketing is one of my many strengths. Most of our clients prefer to use a dedicated hardscape company. The level of expertise and competency are more comforting for a client. I suggest that ANYONE thinking of venturing into hardscapes, that they make a flyer pertaining only to hardscapes (as Bill more or less stated). You do not want to appear to be into too many different things. Good hardscape work is a specialized service. It may not be a bad idea to scan a few pics of your completed master pieces and insert them onto the flyer. let me know if I can help
