[BlueSky]

My girlfriend works for a cell phone company and her boss wants to do cross advertising with us. What will happen is we will put their flyer's and her ( my girlfriends) business card in our monthly invoices and they will hand out our flyer's and business cards to their (new) customers.
My question is, have any of you done anything like this before and if so how well did it work?

[BJR]

We did something similar when my wife and I oned a retail garden centre.

The difference is that we offered a discount and the other business, a video outlet, offered free weekly rentals. It was hard to guage if it attracted new customers. The idea is sound, and if costs very little worth a try. But make sure that your brochure is bright and interesting. Even if you put a big "FREE" at the top of it followed by a small "quotes". Anything free attracts peoples attention. It is even worth the money to have a graphic designer to mock up the brochure for you.

[justgardens]

We cross advertise all the time. I have aligned myself several industry related businesses. We all exclusively recommend each other. I don't offer lawn mowing service so on my website I link to the website of who I recommend. He does likewise on landscaping. Same with a local builder. I sub out all my retaining wall(not natural walls) paver walks and patios to one guy. His company in return has agreed to send all his landscape customers my way. I work with one supplier for all my stone, gravel ect. needs. He advertises us in his commercials when we offer seminars at his place. All phone calls I do the same. It is a fine line who you align yourself with and it may not work for eveyone because you may offer all these services yourself. This works exceptional for us and we get 4 times the advertising for the buck.

[agla]

I think cross-advertisement would be much more effective if you were reaching a target audience. That could be by working with a related field like architects and builders, or companies selling to people that are shopping for home improvements, or at least a targeted income range such as an upscale boutique or restaurant.

A cell phone company has the shotgun approach to marketing because it works for them. In this business you need a scope on your rifle. Look at everyone carrying a cell phone and ask yourself how many are worth spending some money on to try to solicit work. You don't know if they own a home. You don't know if the have the inclination to invest in landscaping. You don't know if they have the money to put into landscaping. All you know is that they have a cell phone. Do the same thing in a real estate office and you have people that are all purchasing a home and a lot more opportunity to get more good leads for the same investment and you know the timing is right.

[BlueSky]

Thank you for the responces,
I posted awhile back " how do you guys get the 20,000+ job" I feel that this might be a step in the right direction. The cell phone company is located in a high end area, and the cross advertisment is free so I think it is a win win situiation. I also placed an ad in the local phone book under 3 diferent catagories....900 a month... but I'm at the point where it's either sh** or get off the pot. I have tried to run a business basised on quality, but all the low ballers are coming in and going for quanity. I just can not compete with them....I WILL NOT COMPETE WITH THEM.. I want my business to be top notch but the signs are saying don't worry about quality go with quantiy..
Sorry bout the rabling. Feels good to get it off my chest though..
Thanks for listening

[spiderlily]

Although I agree with agla that targeted advertising is best, free or almost free advertising is good, too, as long as it looks professional and reaches an audience you want to reach.

Free can be really bad if it generates a lot of cruddy leads and wastes a lot of time, so I tend to shy away from FREE anything in ads. ( I do offer free stuff to existing clients for a referral, though).

[justgardens]

BlueSky where are you located?I only pay $80.00 per month for a nice business card size phone book ad and one bold heading. $900.00 seems outrageous to me. Is that the norm? For less than $900.00 a month you can get a billboard for a month here. I would think for that much money per month you could really make more of your advertising dollar. How big of an ad is it? Do you track your calls from the yellow pages? What is the competition like in the phonebook? I also run a business card ad in a monthly newsletter targeting realtors and rental properties. Only costs $50.00 a year. Check out if you have anything like that. Worth a shot. Run your own exclusive placemats. A lot less than you might think. Some legwork involved though. Any local nurseries you can do a "free seminars" at? Especially if they don't offer landscaping or hardscaping. They get a patio or landscape done with free labor , you get your name out! My husband just put out for bid a landscape job for one of their banks. I did the design for it to be bid out on since I cannot ethically be offered the job. Only one person returned a bid and only because I told him he should bid. $10,000.00 isn't bad work for November around here. I have stopped at construction sites and left my cards only to receive for example a $20,000.00 hotel job because no else bothered. I stopped at another that ended up being only( I say only, but I would take those kind of jobs any day of the week!) $6,000.00 but it began a long term relationship with a building company. I get all their work.These people at these construction sites don't usually have a local landscaper at their fingertips. Hustle , hustle, hustle and the jobs WILL come in.

[NC Lawnscapes]

Here the Best to try and cross advertise with is the Relators.

People moving into the Community Will most likey be looking for someone quick and if your name is the First they see then that helps alot.

In my experience Yellowpage ads dont work, The only calls I seem to get is the ones from People on saturday mornings that want there Lawns done TODAY. (because there mower tore up and they have a dinner party at 5)

And they will go down thru the phone book till they find someone willing to come out and get it done TODAY.

But as always WORD of mouth is best

and having a Nursery who will recomend you Is always Great to have in your back pocket

[Team Gopher]

Hi BlueSky,

I think it's a great idea and worth a try. If it works, find other companies you can do this with.

Let us know your results.

Thanks!

[GLAN]

I think it's a great idea......same as the one where you allie yourself with other professionals in a referal service.......That is what I do....

I have friends in other business and we just refer each other.