Most effective way to Advertise

I live in a highly populated area and getting to all of those areas is nearly impossible without breaking the bank. So what is the most effective way to get my name and my business out there. I live in Florida, Tampa Bay area

 

I'm on the east coast, when you find out let me know.

 

For this area, Yellow Pages!!!!!!!!!!!!! FLyers is a complete waste of time and effort. I have found that flyers typically work for the lowballer who is willing to "sell/w h o r e" himself to the entire neighborhood.

WIth all the "upscale" cookie cutter communites poping up everywhere flyers is a bust, also against HOA rules. They will through you out in a heartbeat.

WIth a Yellow Pages ad, I have more work than I can shake a stick at. It is good work also, half the time people are just glad you answered the phone and well if you actually showed up for an estimate, as long as it was in the ballpark you were in...

In fact, this year I was so busy, for July-Oct I rarely answered my phone. I just couldnt keep up with all the calls being solo and all. That will all change this year, as i am going to get a helper which should help me capitalize on all that cash I passed up earlier in the year.:blob1:

I have another publication that I advertise in, which hardly any other LCO's advertise in. It is a local pub and is a goldmine as well. But that little nugget I am keeping all for myself.... SOrry, cant give all the secrets to my success..
Oh yeah, my truck isnt lettered and neither is my trailer.

Plus, once you get in a neighborhood the jobs spread like cancer...
If anyone who works in the Brandon/Riverview area wants some referrals, let me know. I do get calls occasionally for that area, but I dont service it so I always pass on it......

 

im a lowballing slut....and its working. One I have more clients prices will go up and ill be in the yellow pages.

 

Just,

I am interested in your yellow page success, because it isn't working to well for me. What type of ad do you have? My ad started in Oct. so can you tell me what your bad months were if there were any, and please tell me Oct. - Dec. were the bad months because that is what I want to hear .

 

If you do the shot gun approach you'll end up driving around everywhere and may even lose money. Avoid that some work is better than none idea. Unprofitable work hurts you and also the industry as a whole. You want to target an area and get a tight route in that area. Walk ups and word of mouth are going to be your biggest advertisements in the end. I was approached at convience stores in the past and even when I worked for the school district people would stop me to ask if I did mowing in my off time. You have to get your name out in front of the customer as many times as you can without ticking them off to the point where they won't call. Door hangers and professional done flyers have a low response rate but are relatively cheap. Direct mailers will work too, that way you don't have to walk so much putting out hangers/flyers but thoose too can be easily tossed out. A yellow page ad overall will have a better response rate because they are looking for you in that case rather than you having to seek them out. If you have a webpage for your biz put the addy on your truck, business card etc.Most ISP's include one now with your service but you have to ask about it. Try Jay Levison's Guerilla For Free, better book than his others. Shorter too. As he will point out over and over it is cheaper to keep the customers you have than find new customers but you need to be continually on top of it as they will fall out and you need replacements ready to fill those slots. Do a bunch of searches on here in the Business Forums and develop a marketing plan. Your library will have lots of books that will give you ideas. There is one called How to drive your competition crazy : creating disruption for fun and profit / Guy Kawasaki with Michele Moreno. Love his yellow page idea! Good luck to you.

 

I agree. If you do mass advertising, like in the Yellow Pages or the News Paper you are going to end up going everywhere. I advertise by flyers and doorhangers as well as just parking the truck out in the open for everyone to notice. I have got a pretty good repsonse so far.

 

Oct and Nov were definately the slowest months as far as getting any new calls, Surprisingly Dec as been decent.

You said the ad just came out in Oct. Wait til Feb and Mar and the calls will be rolling. And by the summertime people just start calling down the list until they get a LCO that will actually answer the phone.

 

I don't offer lawn service. I do bed maintenance, design and installation, so it is difficult to say what will happen. We got hit pretty hard by Wilma and surprisingly I did not get many calls from that, one or two for trees which I am not set up to do.

 

Offering that is cool, but it may be limiting. There is a guy around called mrflowerbed, that is all he does.

Let me ask you, what part of town do you work in? Cause I get calls everynow and then for the beds or landscaping jobs, I typically pass on them cause it is just me and they are too time consuming and people are too picky when it comes to the landscaping side of things.

In the Yellow Pages, are you under Landscape Contractors? If so, that could be the reason for not alot of calls cause there are so many to choose from...Give it time though, when summer rolls around you should be booming....