No Craigslist attracts the cheap minded people! !

 

No Craigslist attracts the cheap minded people! !

I couldn't disagree more with this, you have to weed then out but CL is a place a lot of folks go because they don't know of any other places to turn to. It's free advertising, pound it.
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It's worked okay for me starting out. Not the most ideal customer but it will get you started.
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Oh and make your ad as professional as possible, you WILL get tons of hits.
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I've tried all kinda things for ad's. Craig's list, news paper, postcards, flyers and such.

What has gotten me the most accounts and work is being in a yard, working hard and producing a good product and have a sign with your number people can see on the truck or trailer.

I've had people tell me they've watched me service this or that yard for months and watched my work and how I always showed up and did the job.
Then they approached me and asked for my service. Most jobs come from word of mouth, only ad companies will tell you different.

Good luck and Keep truckin.

Good work sells its self.

 

1st problem is that people do not know that ads that are the most successful only get a 2% response. In reality most ads get less then 1% response rate.

So 1,000 flyers may yield up to 10 responses if lucky to get a 1% return rate on your ad. Out of those 10 maybe 5 will want a estimate. Out of that 5 you may get 2 jobs. Of those 2 maybe one will want weekly service.

So when you say you hit up 300 people and say why you are not getting enough business I'm on rolling on the floor and laughing my a$$ off.

You have not begun to advertise.

I have tried craigslist and have gotten very little response. The responses I were cheap people that did not want to pay. So all I got to do was waste my time doing a few estimates.

 

It's worked okay for me starting out. Not the most ideal customer but it will get you started.
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Long as you have a few questions you can ask all potential clients, that will weed out the cheap ones.
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Last year I kept an add on Craigslist, and kept it bumped to the top. But didn't hardly get any calls, and when I did it was somebody who lived off and didn't read where my travel radius was. Or it was scam text messages.but it didn't help that there was 20 other mowing guys putting adds on there also. I got a few calls from the newspaper but didn't really cover the cost of the add. Put business cards in every establishment that would let with a few calls from that. I think other guys were throwing them away when they would visit same places. Ever yard I got I bust my butt on, never miss the scheduled date by more than a day. And that's where I get business from. Word of mouth usually a neighbor, family or church member of someone I mow for who bras on the work. Also it seems corny but Facebook swap shops that center around a certain town have picked up some business for me with people posting looking for certain services but you have to be watching them all day and during mowing season it doesn't help me much due to mowing all day. Hope this helps
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Craiglist is hit or miss. I have gained a lot of good customers from it, i have also found cheap sob's on it. You need qualifying questions to weed out the worst. Don't be afraid to turn down a yard either, it may seem odd but it's not worth driving 20 mins each way for $20. But, It's free so it's worth a shot. If they make us start paying for it then we will see. It might be worth it more cause the beer money guys won't spend the coin on it.
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300 flyers? Read up on marketing, you'll see 300 flyers is nothing and getting 1 response out of 300 flyers is a typical response rate.

As far as CL goes....why not? It's free and takes a few minutes to make.

My top 10 clients are from CL....that's not to say I haven't gotten cheapos from CL... but really, you're flyers hit cheapos as well. Someone has to be naive to think that the flyers they hand out never land on a cheapos door...or the cheapos don't read the paper your ad is in.......

My top client is from Craiglist and is $60 a week mowing (she makes the check out for $65), her yearly mulch bill is $1200. Her leaf cleanup is $400. Her aerating and overseeding is $600.....all because of a free ad on CL. The others are typical average lawns, but I get a Christmas Bonus from them....I get those from others that haven't used CL to get me, but the point is CL people are not all cheapos...a lot of really good people that want to pay for good work at a good price are on CL as well...you just need to know how to weed them out.

Bottom line is CL is free...use it because it doesn't cost you anything....BUT have a system to funnel cheapos out on the phone call AND don't use it as the ONLY way to get clients......and don't just post "Hey i'll cut your lawn"...make it look nice...professional etc.

 

1st problem is that people do not know that ads that are the most successful only get a 2% response. In reality most ads get less then 1% response rate.

So 1,000 flyers may yield up to 10 responses if lucky to get a 1% return rate on your ad. Out of those 10 maybe 5 will want a estimate. Out of that 5 you may get 2 jobs. Of those 2 maybe one will want weekly service.

So when you say you hit up 300 people and say why you are not getting enough business I'm on rolling on the floor and laughing my a$$ off.

You have not begun to advertise.

I have tried craigslist and have gotten very little response. The responses I were cheap people that did not want to pay. So all I got to do was waste my time doing a few estimates.

The problem is that I don't have much time to advertise because I'm in school and I have sports. Should I hire someone to send out flyers for me?

 

The problem is that I don't have much time to advertise because I'm in school and I have sports. Should I hire someone to send out flyers for me?

Yup hire the post office.
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Craigslist works. It hasn't been a great way for me, but it does get some calls. It sounds like what you're doing is working. Do what you're doing all day long and you will see results. Now is the time of year to do it too. Clients don't generally come super easily without effort or money. Find a way to get out 20 times more fliers asap and you will start getting calls.

 

As some have noted, Craigslist can work if you do it right. It's free and takes very little time to do. Here is what I have done in the past:

1- Create several ads, all with different angles. This will help you find out what works.

2- Make sure your ad is the nicest one in your area. Good pictures, no spelling mistakes, etc...

3- Don't emphasize price, focus on the quality of your service.

4- If you have a website, encourage people to visit that before calling you.

5- Keep tweaking your ads until you are getting calls from the kind of client you want.

 

Every craigslist customer that has ever called me in the past 10 years has been cheap,price shopping or just plain unrealistic!
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Every craigslist customer that has ever called me in the past 10 years has been cheap,price shopping or just plain unrealistic!
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It's anecdotes like this that raise far more questions than answers.

 

Every craigslist customer that has ever called me in the past 10 years has been cheap,price shopping or just plain unrealistic!
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ive never had a bad customer from craigslist honestly ... my best and nicest customer was off of craigslist

 

It's anecdotes like this that raise far more questions than answers.

Yep, both of em. One 3 years ago... and the other I can't remember.

 

Yes cl can work. It depends on Your area also.
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Any little bit helps / never rely on just one thing !!! Last year was my first yr going back full time so I tried diff things to advertise. Got around 30 new accts : 20 weekly service / 10+ for side work or plowing. Plan on tweaking this yrs advertising and trying a few new options as well.

16 Accounts - LOCAL TOWN PAPER !!! regular Classified Ad ran all summer.
8 Accounts - References
4 Accounts - Monthly Coupon Book Ad (2 issues)
2 Accounts - Flyer posted in stores w the phone #s u can rip off
2 Accounts - Craigslist
0 accounts - dropping flyers in driveaways - complete waste of time & $$

 

Really depends on what area of the country you are as to whether any advertising works. The only way I get work is being referred by a regular customer. Just too many people mowing lawns in many areas of the Country. People can't afford to hire a lco on the other side of the coin. Never had much luck on CL. Just one of hundreds of ads

 

I have gotten 6 of my best customers from CL. They always welcome me back each mowing season.
Here's one of my ads.

http://knoxville.craigslist.org/fgs/4960192832.html

Put a lot of pictures in your ad.

 

I have found that pictures don't work in my area for whatever reason. Same ad one with pictures, one without. The one without pictures got 10 hits over a couple of days and the one with pictures of zero over the same time frame.
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They've changed CL up a bit lately. Your limited to ads per account and day and if they are too similar. Run different ads especially if you offer different services. Open several accounts using different mailboxes. Good quality photos. Posting several times a day. When you talk to the customers on the phone a few good questions help weed out the time wasters. If you think it's a waste then don't use it. It beats finding out it doesn't work for you fir free than spending money buying bogus leads.
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I recently put up my first Craigslist ad in hopes of getting my first customer. It's pretty saturated in my area but after reading this thread, I also found a video that seems pretty relevant to this conversation.

I liked it and some of his other vids.