[uniscaper]

Hey all,
Has anyone ever used a Consultant or agency to direct their advertising and marketing?
We have come to the eye opening conclusion that we need alot of help in that area and quite frankly we really don't know what to do.
We are in an area that really doesn't have a very good source for advertising. Which makes life for us difficult at best.
So do any of you put your trust in a company to manage your advertising and marketing or do you just wing it or what ??????
If it sounds as though I'm kinda lost it's because I'm really lost.
Any thoughts.

[my big dog]

Unless you have a large advertising budget consultants won't pay. ( Although I've never hired one.) We have always had the best luck w/ yellow pages and direct mail. For direct mail we have seen an 8 to 12% response but we have always done the leg work in collecting addressess of areas we thought would be the best. others will have diffrent ideas

[Inspired]

I used to work for an Ad Agency many years ago. My first thought is, you don't have the money. Most landscape contractors and suppliers don't. But, I don't know your situation.

One of the problems is the things you pay for in the industry aren't really what you're after. What you want is customers and a positive image. What you pay for is printed materials, TV or Radio time, Newspaper or Magazine space. Most Ad people won't let you pay them based upon anything quantitative relating to image, market share or new customers unless you have a very, very large budget.

That said, there are good people out there working to service niche markets. They used to be called Marketing Gorillas. Just keep a professional attitude about it. Many ad reps will try to get your ego involved. Stay focused on who your customers are, why they like your company and how you can reach more of them. Again, without knowing more about your situation it's difficult to say much.

[lasting impress]

Are there any spring home shows in your area??? A bunch of su landscapers in our area have teamed up with one of our local suppliers, and we build a booth in our local home spring show. We see 10,000 people or so. Seems to work pretty good. The only cost too the landscapers is time and business cards. The supplier foots for the booth.

[LandArts]

If your area doesn't have great advertising resources a Google-optimized website could be your best friend.

[tjl]

I have used a advertising agency to arrange contract pricing for TV ads, not so much for consulting. His knowledge of where to put our ads was very helpful, but in the end I made the final decision. In producing the ads, we had full control of what was being presented and the script.

I had tremendous results from our ads, when they ran, our phones rang. It was by far the best results I have ever seen. As for the cost, you would be surprised how inexpensive it is especially if you could afford say, $3-5,000 for the entire year. I figure approximately 4-5% of sales for our advertising budget.

I think you could also do the same thing, if you brainstorm what you want to sell and how to present it.

Yellow pages, unfortuantely, is necessary, however I have found that the percentage of closing on sales was not anything like TV, especially since the audience could see my face and hear my voice. My agent would say that the yellow page was good to have because once the potential customer was ready, they would use that to get estimates and hopefully your TV ad would then lead them to call you.

I also track every single phone call on a customer information sheet. At the end of the year I take all those sheets and seperate them according to the advertising vehicle, then I can determine the per cent of closing. With this information in hand it makes it easy to determine where to put your ad money.

I hope this helps.

[uniscaper]

Thanks for the input so far.
lasting- Yes we have a large garden show that we have been a part of for the last 5 years. We have built an elaborate booth each year and upon scrutiny have found that to be an awful large amount of ad money for minimal results. We have decided this year to down scale that show and spread out to a couple of new ones this year that will feature home improvement and remodeling. This way we can touch some new faces that are maybe more directly looking for our services.

We have an awesome website that was just launched this year we believe that will certainly help.

Here it is: edgewaterhomeandgarden.com and click on landscaping.

Let me know what you guys think.

Our ad budget will be about $15k this year so we do have some $ to play with.
We are also thinking about purchasing a demo list and mailing to them.

[Inspired]

Very nice. After looking over your site I wondered if you guys might consider an gardening show on a local TV or radio station. A gardening or home improvement show that plays early Saturday or Sunday mornings could be very popular. Radio and TV stations sell 30 to 60 (or more) blocks of time during off peak audience periods. The cost can be very reasonable, often less expensive then a 30 second spot during peak audience times. The radio time early weekend mornings would probably be even cheaper then mid morning or mid day.

I know a financial adviser that buys local radio time on a Saturday morning and basically produces his own little financial talk show. He sells occasional ads to offset his cost, but he claims the show pays for itself many times over with the prospective customers that call his office during the week. The downside is the time it takes to put it together and that he has to be there every Saturday morning. However if the station has the equipment, you can pre-record your shows and the station will play them for you.

TV is a bit more difficult depending on your market and station size. TV time can be much more expensive then radio. A lot depends upon the marketing goals of the station in question. In other words, if they want to sell more home improvement advertising, they might consider creating a home and garden segment to sell sponsor ads for. You could become the gardening "Expert" for that station and they might insert you into the weather reports. They might also include you in a morning talk show.

Another idea for TV might be like the botanical garden trip you already do. You might visit local gardens that you installed. Talk about how you put the gardens together, all the elements, design , grading, drainage, irrigation, lighting and of course plants, plants, plants, etc. You might even include the home owners to talk about how they use the space and how much they love it, etc, etc. Like HGTV, you could film the process as it develops or talk about maintaining the space, whatever you want.

BTW, don't make your show to much like HGTV. Never copy someone else's work, I just used it as an example to get you thinking.

Just a thought, hope it helps.
Bill

[LandArts]

So are you serving the Madison area? Portage looks pretty small. If customers are spread thin on the ground I think a very targeted mailing list could be the best answer.

[uniscaper]

We are just starting to push into the Madison market. And I agree we probably do need to really hit the target mailings.

[Dot Pecson]

Here are my thoughts... I realize that advertising/marketing is a huge investment that, when successful, is quite amazing. In addition to specialized techniques that are used, consider this:

When you select a marketing/advertising service, be sure it's a match with you -- your company and what your goals are. Remember that you need to communicate frequently and effectively back and forth.

This service should: 1) know who your targeted market is and how to present you and your company to that market in the most effective manner; 2) know about what your services are, understand the botanical side of your services, be able to translate what the results your company gets into meaningful words your prospective customers will react to the way you want them to; and 3) be able to offer you several levels of service so that you can adapt their talents to your budget. For example, if all you can afford are doorhangers, the marketing/advertising service should not push a website with a full-page yellow book ad on you. And they may offer critiquing services if you can't afford to have them create a full-blown brochure for you. And so on.

Flexibility, knowledge, training are key here. Plus personalities must function together as a team.

Dot