[Mac]

Ive written a marketing plan for this upcoming year but it makes me very nervous. Alot of the plan relies on an offer that I belive is phenomenal, but I have not "tested" it yet. I will be testing it with my current clients but that is a limited and segmented audience.

Has anyone ever done any type of pre testing of a marketing campaign? How did you do it and did you find the efforts worthwhile? Thanks.

[Mac]

Im surprised no one has any input on this subject. Do you just come up with your marketing piece based on what you think is good and hope it flies? What sort of things to you consider prior to unleashing a campaign?

[ckcland]

Mac,
Our marketing has always been basic, yet very good for us. I have read allot of threads on this subject and opinions vary widely depending on location, specialty, existing cust base, ect..

If we are looking for new lawn maintenance accounts, we use brochures on mailbox's on the first good weather weekend of the late winter/early spring. For high end landscape/hardscape jobs, we do direct mail (post card) marketing to recent home buyers. Interent is good for all categories so a good web site to show off your work is key.
You've peaked my interest with your "offer" idea. I've seen allot of landscapers do allot of different "gimmics" ,and I'm not implying that yours is a gimmick but, I have found the best special "offer" you can have is reliability, reasonable price, and good work. Sounds old and broken but it's true.
I have written many marketing plans over the years and the key to a good plan is flexibilty. Most landscapers are balls to the walls in the early and late spring. My point is, if you have something printed, try your best to keep it generic as far as timing goes. No specials with dates. This way, you'll be able to re-use the brochure/flyer another time of year when you need it.
Check out www.affordablepromoting.com for printing templates.

If you can, please share your idea. I hope I was helpful and good luck!

[Mac]

I appreciate your feedback. I wholeheartedly agree with the "reliability, reasonable price, and good work" comment. Ive managed to grow the maintenance division approximately 100% in two years on those principles strictly through word of mouth.

In no way do I intend to sound like a snob, but I can not reveal what the offer is. It is somewhat of a clever accounting trick that anyone can replicate, however I hope most brush it off as in idiot not knowing thier costs. I just need to be the first mover in each area, which creates a slight issue with pretesting the campaign.

I was not planning on making any of the marketing materials time or branch/location specific so I can order quantities and use them as/where needed.

[fakie99]

ckcland,

good info. what type of response have you had with direct mail? i am getting ready to order a mail list and wondered if it was better to specify income range, house value or - like you mention - recent home buyers. has it been a good response rate for you going that way? what type of postcard are you sending?

jim

[ckcland]

I just mailed out 2000 oversized post(8.5"x5.5") cards in late Oct. I would consider this late for a marketing campaign but i wanted to test the waters. My post card featured a 4000 sq ft pool deck job we recently completed so needless to say I immediately got 4 calls for paver/pool jobs. Each estimate was over 30K . I lost one to a lower bidder (poured concrete), one has booked for March of '07, and two are still in the planning stages but I believe I am in the mix for those jobs. I still think it's not unreasonable to think I will still get some calls next year from that late mailing.

Bottom line, the mailing cost me somewhere around $1100 (700 stamps, 400 post cards). With that one booking I feel OK about it. If I book a couple more high end projects I would consider it a success.

One thing it opened me up to if you mail out post cards. Put a specific picture of a service/job you want to market. Sounds obvious but I only got calls from that mailing from people interested in pool decking so far. I was really shooting for any/all hardscaping.

[fakie99]

ckcland - thanks for the reply, and congrats on the response to your mailing. i want to show you a postcard i sent out last fall - 5000 of them - and.......1 response. I'd like your opinion, but perhaps I used too many images, not just one on the front as you suggest....

jim

[fakie99]

back

[mrusk]

fakie99- What did you use for a mailing list. Did you do 1 mailing to 5000 people or several mailings to the same people that totaled 5k peices.

The post card isn't the best, but i think you should of gotting more than 1 call.

Matt

[Lawn Lad]

Generally direct mail at best will get you 1 to 2% response. A 1% response should have yielded you 50 phone calls.

Where did the list come from? How was it qualified? Mailing out post cards to people who live in an apartment building, condos or town homes isn't going to get the same response. Are they new homes where people might have less money sine they're still decorating and finishing the interior. It's funny how people spend their money, and landscaping unfortunately isn't always at the top of the list, particularly on a discretionary item like patios.

When I read the book 'A millionaire next door' several years back, I began to see my customer base in a different light. It was funny, those that could least afford the landscape work tended to be those in the largest houses, with the fanciest cars and all the trimmings. Those that had no objection to pulling out their check books were those that lived more modestly and within their means. I started to qualify my prospects differently as I noticed these patterns. I'm not sure what your marketplace looks like, but consider the demographics of your target audience and find a list that more closely reflects who your customers really are - and then maybe you'll get a better response.

[ckcland]

I think the guys who mail post cards more often will say that you need to do a mailing 3 to 4 times a year to establish a connection. What this means I'm not sure but I have been told that if you mail out 3 to 4 times a year you will achieve a 3-4% response. Fakie99... I really like the post card.

[ckcland]

BTW: your killing me with this marketing offer. When the time is right and you have implemented and there is no danger of anyone stealing your idea please let me know what the hell your talking about..... curiousity I guess.

[Jake Wolf]

Does anyone here track their ROI (return on investment) when advertising with doorhangers, flyers, mailings, yellow pages, print, online ads etc?

I've only tried adwords - no leads at all, moneymailer - reliable for getting 10-20 calls and costs $20-50 per call and an active yahoo group that allows business postings 3x a year which has brought in 100,000's and costs absolutely nothing. Can you tell which I'm the biggest fan of? What about sticking flyers in stores and cafes? Any leads there?

I am interested in getting feedback from anyone who's advertised in local papers.

[Stonehenge]

Jake, let me get this straight. I'm piecing this together from different posts, so please correct me where I'm off:

You're a one man show.

You've gained $100,000 (I'll assume for this moment it was one hundred thousand and not hundreds of thousands) in work through postings on a Yahoo group, all in your first year in business.

You live somewhere on the East Coast, somewhere north.

By some rough math, 10 hours of work per day, 6 days a week, every week, for eight months, billing at $50 per hour (you mentioned on another post) gets you right to that $100,000 point. That assumes every hour you work is billable to your clients (which would be a first in the industry, but not impossible).

I do have a question - how many contracts came from this source of leads? Was it many smaller ones, or few big ones?

Call me a skeptic, but I think there may be more to that story than meets the eye. I'd love to be shown that my skepticism is unfounded, as it'd give me and others a great place to get our company message out.

So please, share more details. How many clients it was - what line of work they were in (relevant to the mode of marketing?), what type of work you landed, your geographic area, the average dollar value of the client you landed - all that stuff.

[Fine Edge]

Stone, I was thinking the same thing because we could all use free advertising if it really pays the dividends.
Fill us in, Jake, our curiousity is peaking.