[fitzg2md]

this question goes out to the new guys (or the old ones who could remember the hungry days...). This is our first full year in a certian area. What have you found to be the best way to get your name in people's minds? What kind of advertising do you do to go from just being a record in the business license department of the city to an actual company people will hire? We have done some doorhangers, and such but they arent getting the response rate I had hoped for. Sure having your stuff lettered, word of mouth, etc is all good stuff, but Im looking for more proactive types of stuff. Any suggestions?-MF

[GLAN]

What gets all contractors phone ringing where I am is what we call Shoppers Guide / Pennysaver type publications that are mailed or hand delivered once a week.

This year I went back into one......after almost 15 years of just having a Yellow Book ad.....It got my phone ringing early.

[justgardens]

Return phone calls and show up to appointments on time. A very novel idea for many contractors! This is the number one thing you can do to better your business. Other ideas:
1. Offer to do a "free" landscape in your local mall.
2. Do your own placemat
3. Offer to local radio stations an appearance by the "landscape expert"
4. Offer local newspapers to do a"Jump into Spring" landscape or lawn care article
5. Offer all exisiting clients a free dinner or mowing , ect. for any referral they give that you actually get
6. Take out advertsing, such as a full page ad with sevral other contractors or subs you use to cut costs and refer each other.

[pineapple]

If you are targeting a certain area, try direct mail.

I did this my first year: Postcard with full color glossy photo of annuals on one side and blurb on the back.

Get their addresses online or buy a mailing list.

Postcards from
www.vistaprint.com

Addresses from www.reversephonedirectory.com
or
www.infousa.com or others

I got 2 jobs that paid for the entire mailing.

[jwholden]

In the early days I appeared in a pennysaver type publication. Of the 6-10 calls I got I was happy to land one good customer. Several of my best customers are from that ad. The other 5 to 9 calls were often wasted time on my part. People looking for someone one step above a high school kid. Have some basic questions ready to qualify the phone calls.

[Stonehenge]

I have to add in that I like the idea of direct mail, but so far I'm less than impressed with the mailing list I purchased. More dead wood than I would have expected, and had a second meeting with a client and they told me they just received a second postcard - dup address, different name (and the name was of a person that had never lived in that home).

Hmmm....

Jury's out for me so far, but I realize my results may be tainted by a bad list.

[fitzg2md]

about the direct mail...for those of you who have tried it, what kind of effectiveness do you see from it? I like the idea, simply because of its quickness, but am worried that the percentage of good leads I get from it may be lacking. Other than word of mouth, what is your best source of leads? -MF

[Dragonfly]

I have done Pennysaver since day one. People may laugh however if you pre qualify you can get some great jobs. Had a 100 k job last year from it. Average is 20 -40k with good pre qualifying. Yellow pages was a waste of $. However the best advertising is word of mouth referrals. (75% of our biz)

[LandArts]

Man, I can't friggin' believe Pennysaver works that well for upscale leads! We will definitely have to test it this Spring.

fitz- we do direct mail but it IS expensive. You might be better off canvassing.


www.land-arts.net

[justgardens]

Check out 5,000 postcards for $99.00 full color glossy at www.gotprint.com They have beautiful 4x6 postcards that you download your own info on. I have used them several times. Have you thought of going online to your county courthouse for listings of new home building permits or transfers?

[Stonehenge]

We've been talking to our local version of the pennysaver, and I'm having a hard time buying into them. I look at the services advertised and it's all low-dollar services ($250 and under), which might work fantastic for maintenance, but if installs is all you do, I don't know if it would be as effective. One local landscaping company uses them, but they promote their retail trinkets (birdhouses, gazing balls, etc) in the ad, and I guess it's in the hopes of upselling $10K on top of that.


Unfortunately, our local munies do not offer data online. It's all hardcopies, and you have to drive to each muny. Pretty time consuming. Verified with our local paper that it's how they collect the data as well (and is the reason they stopped collecting and printing it).

[pineapple]

Our postcards come to about 32 cents a piece to print and mail.

The repsonse rate varies and is low, but worth it for high-end design/build work. The first year I got a couple of jobs that totaled over $100k and we continue to do yearly work on these properties.

We have had 1-3% response rate. However, some people who call me have kept every card for the last 3 years. Accumulation seems to help or maybe I just wear them down.

The mailing list we purchased had about 5% moved-no forwarding address. If you put a return address on your mail it will come back to you and you can correct your list. We have added to the list over several years, using online lookups and drive-bys.

Don't know if this would be as successful for straight landscape maintenance services or low-end mow and blow. We specified high house value, income level, and education when we bought the mailing list.

[fitzg2md]

Thanks pineapple...thats alot of help. Is there any company you would suggest for buying a mailing list, or should I look for something local? Obviously, not all lists are created equal, and I would hate to spend $$$ on a bunch of crappy data. -MF

[pineapple]

We got ours from
www.infousa.com

mainly because you can do it online. I think most of the lists are similarly priced.

Read the fine print. You can get a list for one-time use or multiple use. It may have changed.

Good luck.