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Help with advertising moved from smack

2K views 37 replies 22 participants last post by  coryjones 
#1 ·
I need some 100% honest opinions here. If you where looking for a lawn care company to mow,landscape remove snow, or install a pond how would you find them? Newspaper,phone book internet? What specific news paper,phone book or internet search page would you use to do this? If anyone has another way they would look for them please feel free to let me know.
 
#2 ·
Re: Help with advertising

Local newspapers, and phone books. Best way is by word of mouth. Ask around. Chances are if someone does a good job and is has reasonble prices, his name is out there.

Are you looking for advice on where to advertise or are you just looking for someone to do some work for you?
 
#3 ·
Re: Help with advertising

generally word of mouth is your best bet. I know alot of people who mail out flyers or put them on peoples doors and seem to have good luck, as the above said a ad in the local paper helps. Once you get a yard or two put a small sign up in it if they will let you.

gluck
 
#4 ·
Re: Help with advertising

I started ALL ABOUT LAWNS last year (leagly) and have been looking at different way to advertise. Currently i have 2,500 door hangers made up and ready to go. I talked to a yellow book rep yesterday and just trying to wiegh my options. With them a quarter page add under lawn care and snow removal and a 2 1/4x 2 1/4 add under pond matinence and installation and pressure washing. and bold print in all categorizes and add on yellowbook.com and a web-page it ends up being $1,800 a year.
 
#5 ·
Is that the book used by the local phone company and how many phone books are distributed? The value of the price depends on the coverage. Direct mail is a good way also but it can get pricy and time consuming.
 
#6 ·
Direct mail can get pricey. Especially if you hire out all of the work. But there are some communities that you will never get into unless you use direct mail, or are lucky enough to meet someone who lives there that is willing to give you a shot.

As a small start up I would forget about the YB add and use advertising that allows you to localize your work into one area. Use door hangers, direct mail, and bussiness cards. Once you have business in that area you can use yard signs and vehicle signs to get the other homeowners in the area to learn your name. At this point your door hangers and mailers will begin to have more effect. Then the best form of advertising comes when your customer tells their neighbors how hassle free it is having you maintain their lawn.

Have fun. Knocking on doors sucks but it is part of it.
 
#7 ·
Word of mouth, make your face well known in the community, focus your efforts in one community or part of town to save yourself time.

Magnets for your mowing truck

T-shirts are cheap advertisement in my opinion. for $1800 dollars worth of yellow book ad, i suspect you could get roughly 350 simple t-shirts @ 5 each. Single color, lots of sizes. Sometimes people will even pay you for them.
 
#8 ·
#1 Word of Mouth

#2 Service

#3 local trade paper

#4 CHEAP add in the phone book(nothing special) they are just looking for your number. They can ask you what you do when they call

#5 Flyers


Take out a small ad in the local swap shop paper "Lawn Maintence and Service 555-5555" el cheapo

Make some nice simple flyers go by and visit your local feed stores, TSC, nursery's etc. Talk to the managers/owners ask to hang flyers on the door and the counters. Offer to mow their yard for free(helps your word of mouth) you do a good job at thier place they tell all their customers about you. Or if they have a yard at the store offer to mow it for free if you can put up a sign.
 
#9 ·
My buddy and I do a small time lawn care business (about 30 lawns) and all of our customers are word of mouth. Find a friend with a big family that lives in the area and get him to ask if any would like a lawn service then work from there. T-shirts/sweatshirts with your company name and a phone number go a long way also.
 
#18 ·
By the end of the year i want to be doing 100 yards a week by my self and be looking at hiring a second persone next year to up that number. with the average yard being $35 here that is $14,000 a month i have 24 customers now. I have big plans and if it requires big advertising then it does. We did 300 door hangers last year at the end of the year and picked up 3 yards. not good.
 
#13 ·
This too. I have a friend that does a referral type program. If you refer a yard the referrer gets 50% off or something like that. Get creative.

I mow about 15 a week. I know thats not alot but I work alone and don't want anymore to do being I spend more time on the farm now.

And what equipment do you run?
 
#11 ·
save yoiur money and skip the YB. Where I work we don't even have a YB in the building with the web you don't need one. When we bought our new building 1st thing I did was go around and ask who people were using and how did they like the job they did. Now I have a shirt and hat from the company I picked (which do a awsome job).
 
#20 ·
Don't spend big $$$ on the phone book it won't pay off. Spend $100-300 with them for a small ad in a couple different sections and call it good. Spend the rest of the money elsewhere
 
#22 ·
$300 wont do #### in that book cheapest they have just to get your name in bold was almost $300 not even a add.
 
#23 ·
100 yards a week by yourself??? I take it all the yards are going to be 1/8th of a acre lots connected with no trees or anything needing to be weedeated? I live in a smaller rural area with big yards so i think 100 would be hard, but dont know your area.

Lawnsite.com is a good site, but the best advertising your gonna get is to do good and use word of mouth. Go out and just start mowing so people see you and your name gets out. Just dont get to big and not be able to keep up and get a bad name for yourself.


Good luck, i used to mow some for money. I mow 4 yards now and i get paid 40 bucks for one of them, the other ones are free so i lose alot of money hah.
 
#24 ·
I have a buddy that does landscaping and survived and made a lot of money through this recession. He gets 90% of his business WOM.
Secret to doing it. When you start off make your money and save it and buy things as you grow. Starting a business and buying a $50K truck and a $250K house , you won't survive. Your life grows with you business.
 
#27 ·
From my professional opinion I will tell you the best way is by brand recognition. First off I will go to the one that I know about off the top of my head. Then I will look up a search on them and see if they have good service and what other ppl have said about them.

-Do you have a portfolio?
-Do you currently advertise?
-Do you have your name on all your trucks, tractors, mowers, trailers?
-Maybe you can discount 10% if someone will let you put a sign in their lawn saying you worked on it. Business's will usually let you do that and then you have hundreds of employees and visitors looking at your sign daily.
-Do you have a website?

I work with companies such as Sony, AT&T, MGM Casinos all day creating brand recognition and ads for them. Shoot me a PM if you have any questions. I would be happy to give you any advice you want or even build something for you if needed
 
#28 ·
Landscaping blows. period. no money in it because its cut throat no start up cost. I currently cut 15 lawns weekly and its word of mouth. I hate every second of it but i cant beat the money.
 
#30 ·
i would have to say 90% of all my work in my construction business is by referrals from past jobs i have done. I do 0 advertising. most people done use the yellowpages anymore.. at least not the book kind... if anything just do the online version but i still dont think you need it...

another good way is to do Craiglist adds...

-Raul
 
#31 ·
I was doing mowing last year part time and got let go from my regular job. I'm trying to go full time this year. I found this sit lawncaredirectory.com. It's online advertising. It's $99 a year but you get a 2 month trial for $1. I just signed up yesterday so I can't tell you how it works.
 
#33 ·
Just kind of quickly read the posts. Sorry if this has been mentioned.
What about something like the local Chamber of Commerce if there is such a thing in your area. Don't know, it might be a Canadian thing.
 
#34 ·
If it were me, I would get a bunch of signs made up and then offer your current customers some sort of deal on theyre lawns if they let you put up a small sign in theyre yard. For instance, say you normally charge them $25 to do theyre lawn, maybe tell them you'll do it for $15 if they let you put up a sign in theyre yard. Another thing you could try, tell your current customers that if they can refer a new customer to you, then you'll give them $5 or $10 off of theyre lawn. Those are the 2 things that worked really well for me when I started my plowing buisness. 1 more thing that worked was putting up ads in local gas stations and stores. It may take awhile, but if you do a good job and treat your customers good they will pass it on to theyre friends and family members. Just make sure you dont bite off more than you can chew, cuz good word of mouth travels fast but bad word of mouth travels even faster. Good luck with your buisness
 
#37 ·
:whs: I also hate the door hangers..... it goes along way to ask permission, rather than just hanging something on their door. If you are going thru all that trouble, just get some flyers made up and go door to door, give the flyers to folks who want them, that way you are not wasting your advertisement dollars. Do it in a neighborhood where you can give actual reference to the work you do, maybe a photo on your flyer of some of your work.... and options with estimated pricing.... kinda like a fast food menu
 
#35 ·
This is just my personal thoughts. First...I hate the door hangers and flyers left on the door. I live in a cul-de-sac and when the wind blow guess where all those loose flyers and door hangers end up....you guessed it....my yard. I am also not a fan of mailers, but would rather that because there is less of a chance they will end up in my yard! Also the YB goes straight from my door step into the trash. If I am looking for a company then I will look for one online. A nice website full of info and pricing will sell me before any door hanger or flyer.
 
#36 ·
The ones i use don't blow off the have glue on them like a postit they are very good at staying on but yes i know what you mean during the election i must have picked 20 of them up out of my pound out front.
 
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