It has been a real busy week for me thats for sure. Working on The Lawn Blog, setting up my marketing for Murphy Property Maintenance and help taking care of our newborn. Life seems to come at you all at once at times. Anyways, I have been working on a lot of marketing material for my property maintenance business, and I thought I would post the door hanger that inspired the previous post.

What are your thoughts of the door hanger? This the original one before I edited it. From this image and the previous post, would you make any changes to it?

I recently made a door hanger and posted it on a forum to ask people what they thought of it. I had lots of comments some good some bad mostly one liners like “I like it” and “It’s ok”. But I had one comment from a gentleman named ‘John White’. I was first pleasantly surprised by the length of his post and then I got into reading it…this lad actually knew what he was talking about! He gave me some great advice and also agreed to write an article for The Lawn Blog. The following is an original article and I would like to extend many thanks to John White for his time and efforts in preparing this for The Lawn Blog.

Advertising for Start-ups and Growth
by: John White

Getting new customers is often the hardest part of the gardening, landscaping and planting business. Advertising is often the best vehicle to generate new business, given the old tried and true word of mouth as the exception. Many contractors also find new customers at client properties, as their work speaks for itself and nearby homeowners will approach them at the client property. Instead, this article is about how best to obtain new customers through advertising avenues.

As with any plan, and your advertising program should be a planned strategy, but first some goals have to be outlined, and the target market should be well defined. For instance, if your target market is middle class income, smaller sized properties, it needs a different approach than going after five acre estates in the most affluent sections of your territory. Budget restrictions may limit what you can and can’t do in terms of advertising expenditures. Define which and what segments of the market offer the most opportunity for revenue growth in your working territory, and let that dictate what the highest priority will be in terms of advertising investments.

Door hangers – These are very effective ways to advertise. This vehicle does have some drawbacks, however. Distribution is labor intensive and time consuming, but the 0.5 to 2% response rate beats any other method out there. Why such a big variation in response rates? That is primarily a function of how effective the layout, design and appearance is, particularly as it does or does not appeal to the target client base.

For very upscale areas, a four color single fold 8X11” brochure-hanger with photographs would work better than a single one color half sheet hanger would. Use that piece on a middle income 80X100 plot homeowner, and it would scare him off. Affluent areas that fall between these two target markets might respond well to a four color 4X11 door hanger, while middle income homeowners won’t be left with a bad first impression from a single one color hanger, as long as the information is easy to read, clear and concise.

There are few hard and fast rules with advertising, but there are some. People are inundated with signs, ads and commercials. Often, they will simply filter out most advertising, but a door hanger requires action, even if it’s to remove it and throw it out. The vast majority of people will at least glance at a door hanger. That means there are two or three seconds to communicate a message. THAT message should always convey who you are and what you offer. When designing a door hanger, keep this in your foremost mindset. The eye should be automatically drawn to the who you are and the what you are offering in a second or two. That is all the time you have.

Once the target client has that first, most important message, then a clear concise easy to scan listing of services offered will be read by any potential customer that might be interested in getting or changing their existing contractor.

Be sure to differentiate yourself from other companies. Free front lawn double cuts for new customers, free soil testing for customized soil and turf treatment plans (even though it is likely that they will get the same program you offer other customers…. It is still a custom plan if the soil test is normal) or if you are a start up with not much heavy equipment, sell the idea that you will do fall cleanups in three trips instead of one for the same price. Little do they know, nor do they need to know that is what you would have to do anyway, given your startup equipment inventory. Soil testing kits are dirt cheap. It’s a way to differentiate your business from others for nearly no cost. Find a way, no matter how creative to separate yourself from your competition.

Other Advertising Print Media – The same general rules for door hangers still apply to local advertising newspaper type ads but while these local community “flyer” type booklets seem inexpensive, the cost per response falls far short when compared to door hangers. Half page ads work well in these publications as far as image goes, but image is not what small localized businesses should care about. Reputation is far more important, and that cannot be purchased.

Silver Bullets:

Consider advertising in local church bulletins. They are inexpensive, and extraordinarily effective. People trust companies that advertise in church bulletins, and it’s important to live up to that trust as well. It is a vehicle that is very local, keeping new customers close by in your target territory which saves on expenses when servicing any new accounts you may win. Keep in mind that if you don’t live up to your commitments with these customers, the church will refuse future ad placements. Every silver lining has a dark cloud.

Inserts, Newspaper ads, local advertising mailers:

As previously mentioned, the number of responses per dollar is very small using these vehicles. Lawn and landscaping referrals are the norm, responses to ads in these publications is rare. Now, if you are looking for an expert spackler, or a reliable local plumber, people will use these vehicles as they are not contractors that show up every week. The next door neighbor may not have someone to recommend. Not so in this business of lawn care and landscaping.

The last thing is that even though there are a few solid rules in advertising in this service industry which should be followed, it is still your business. Where and how to advertise is your decision. You after all are the one who has to live or suffer with the results of spending hard earned cash.

Be brief.
Make you and your services offered easy to read and up front in a matter of seconds.
Start pre-selling your services AFTER you have established the WHAT you are and the WHAT you offer has been clearly stated.
Answer phone calls the same day.

After that, it’s a matter of how you want to do things. Best of luck, and happy advertising!

Well the lawns have stopped growing the trees have shed their leaves and soon most of us will be under two feet of snow. For those of us that do not do snow removal this can be a real depressing and a motivation stopper. Well it doesn’t have to be. This is the perfect time to put together new services, products and marketing for your business. Get customer feedback and what they think of you.

What they want, what they really really want.

Sit down grab a hot beverage and go through your notes from the year. Have your clients shown interest in anything new? Did they express how happy they were about any particular service you provided? If so, how can you expand on that service? For example:

You installed annuals for the Smiths in the spring and they loved how they turned out. The colors were perfect and placement couldn’t have been better. They have a long laneway and a large front porch that are pretty much empty.

Why not send out a flyer to your clients advertising that you are now offering planters and hanging baskets. You can customize the planters with specific annuals that match or contrast with the landscape you already maintain. Your foot is already in the door, heck you are already in the room! Up-selling your services is how you can grow your business effectively.

What do they think of you?

Make some phone calls, send out a survey and get your customers opinions on how your service was for the year. This is very important information to find out and work with. Most customers won’t even let you know if they are displeased about something, they just won’t resign in the spring. So get on the phone and start asking:

How did you find our services this year?
Is there anything in particular you would like added to your services in the spring?
Is there any areas in our services you can see room for improvement?

This is even a good time to let them know about a new service or product…you got them on the phone already, so just ask! Make sure to thank them for their time and ask them if you may call back and how often may you call back. Communication with the customer is key, and recognizing concerns early is good practice.

Get out of here!

Sitting in the office all day can make you stir crazy, so get out there and introduce yourself. Knock on doors let people know who you are bring a flyer too. You are not necessarily selling products or services directly like most canvassers, you are just saying hello and informing ‘the potential customer’ of who you are and what your business can offer them . Leave them with some contact information (flyer, business card) and move on to the next house. This tactic can be very successful, neighbors talk, and they will spread the word around that you came to visit.

So make sure not to sit around twiddling your thumbs and then run like a madman weeks before your start date.

I am going to take a few minutes and share some of the Marketing tips and rules I have acquired over the last while. You may agree with some and disagree with some; however, I would like to hear your comments on this article.

Well let’s start off with the basics:

The Five “P’s” of Marketing

Price

We try to make sure that it is a balance between competitive and profitable. You want to try and stay with the current rates of what the market will bare. Make sure to find out what your competition charges, and don’t undercut to get jobs. Clients are willing to pay that little bit extra to your quality of service.

Product / Service

Now whether you are in the greenhouse industry or a landscaper, you need to know your market. Does your market need this product or service? Do research before jumping into something new.

Promotion

Appropriate and effective advertising is key. We all cannot rely on “Word-of-Mouth” advertising. Have you ever tried anything else? Well how do you know if it will work or not. I recently attended a training seminar on Marketing for Small Business, and the instructor asked me what types of advertising do we do. I said “None”. Then he asked “Do you have signage on your trucks?” Yes, yes I do. Here was my breakdown on what advertising I thought I didn’t do.

- Signage on trucks
- Business cards
- Yellow page ads
- Letterhead
- Signature lines on emails
- Uniforms
- Shop/office placement on major highway
- Ad in classifieds for employment
- Jobsite exposure

See there are many types of advertising. Make a list of what you do. I am sure you will be surprised!

Place

Are you accessible to your clients? Are you visible from the road? Place is not everything, I believe that people will drive great distances for what they want. However, it does make things easier.

People

This is the most important element in your business. If you have bad employee’s you business will then give bad service. Someone with all the experience in the world that has a bad attitude can be more detrimental then a person with no experience that knows how to treat people.

So there are the “The 5 P’s of Marketing”. Why are there always 5 steps to everything? And always an odd number too.

The 7 sins
101 pickup lines
10001 baby names
3 strikes your out

Why is that? I have no idea…if you have any idea let me know

Let’s move on…

Ever heard the phrase “Let Common Sense Rule“? Makes sense eh? Make sure to stick with what works. And if it is not broken and you can assess that your clients can find you…then leave the vast majority of your marketing program in tact. But, if you are interested in NEW clientele (for new or different products / services) then be willing to TRY NEW APPROACHES.

Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.

The important best “common sense” questions to ask yourself today are:

a) What current marketing and advertising initiatives are working?
B) How do you know these initiatives are working?

Set a staff meeting (if you have staff) and ask them the above questions and listen carefully. You might be surprised on the input they have.

When in Doubt…ASK!

Here is a bit of interaction on your behalf. I have a challenge for you that you can start right after reading this. Over the next 3 weeks ensure that every customer that enquires about your business (questions, products, services) is asked….

How did you learn about our business?

THEN…keep track of the responses. All too often we discover that a disproportionate amount of business comes from some very simple and cost effective advertising and/or marketing. Why would you spend thousands of dollars to put a 1/2 page ad in the yellow pages when only 2% of your business is coming from there? Scale down to a 1/8 ad and put the money where it works for you.

Now what can you offer your customer? What benefits can that customer receive from your company? Stick to the basics and focus on marketing your five (there is that magical number again) biggest benefits to your customers.

Are you an industry leader?
Are you an established business with a great reputation?
Are you an innovative company that stays ahead of the industry?
Are you known for your expertise?
Are you known for specializing your services or products?
Are you known for exceptional and proven customer service?
Are you known for quality service and work?
Have you built a reputation for quick and reliable delivery of your services/products?

Meet with your staff and ask them their thoughts on why your business succeeds. Invite a few of your best clients to a breakfast and discover their reasons for their loyalty.

So that is just a taste….I’ll be posting more on marketing in a bit.