Marketing Idea

[picframer]

Here is an idea that has been working for us and working very well.

I have my post cards printed by a company called Vista Print, the quality is simply amazing. A few weeks ago I was driving with an employee and we noticed a lawn that was covered in dandelions, well to the point there was no grass.

It struck me we sould have a card along the lines that "We were driving by your property today and noticed ......................, Our company Oakridge Yard Care would be pleased to provide services to help you out and as always our estimates are free. A complete list of our services is on the back of this card or visit our website at ...................

So I had 500 cards printed, here are a few for the blank above

Dendelions have taken over your lawn
Weeds are taking over your lawn
Brown patches in need of help
Mold from trees on your siding
Leaning trees you might want to have cut
Driveway might need to be graded
You have a pile of top soil you might want us to spread
Save your back, we can spread that crusher run for you
Brush seems to be taking over, we have bruch saws
Your front deck might like a pressure cleaning
The water on your lawn, we offer drainage solutions

I know there are a couple more as I think we came up with 12, if I or the employees have time and notice something driving by a house, they will stop and give the owner a card or leave it in the door, it really works well as the prospect sees that we are paying attention.

[CHEESE2009]

I like that idea!

If you point out to a potential customer that they may have something that needs to be taken care of, they will trust a professional.

It's like woman.

"Scott you can't wear shoes that don't match!"

i would have never cared, but she's the professional. If she thinks I should change it, I probably should ...

in other words it's like telling a chubby person to lose weight, they don't think of it until they get constructive criticism, eventually they will agree & attempt to lose weight.

[Steve]

That is very creative!

Maybe you could highlight or check or even circle the services you think they could use too? To bring extra attention to them.

[picframer]

That is very creative!

Maybe you could highlight or check or even circle the services you think they could use too? To bring extra attention to them.

I thought about that as it would have been cheaper than having cards printed for various services however I thought one card for each would look a little more professional, I know from traffic people are going to the site anyhow which has every thing that we do.

This works well, our recent focus has been pressure washing decks and siding, I hired a full time employee with a vehicle to do only this service and it's working very well. Since we have staff at various sites every day, they know to look around and they either mention it to the customer and leave a card or they simply leave a card if the client is not home.

We find we are picking up a significant amount of business from neighbours, word of mouth and the lettering on our trucks and trailers.

I did a small excavation job for a lady yesterday, now Halifax is over 300,000 people, she said I see your trucks, trailers and employees everwhere I go, you must me a big company and doing well which is why we hired you.

I laughed to myself and told the staff later, I don't consider us a big company, our vehicles do get around and some of the staff like to wear their jackets outside work hours which is great, I was once told by one of our marketing people in another company, image is everything.

Anyhow it's been fun for the most part so far.

Andy

[Steve W]

Very good Idea. Andy you are livin my dream. Building a lil Big company with workers to help you keep it growing and still having fun doing what you like to do and thats hands on and seeing what you have done.
Keep it up

[picframer]

Very good Idea. Andy you are livin my dream. Building a lil Big company with workers to help you keep it growing and still having fun doing what you like to do and thats hands on and seeing what you have done.
Keep it up

Thanks bud, things overall are going well, planning months ago before we started when things were quiet has made a world of difference, I tried to think of every scenario and what to do should it arise from buying equipment to staffing, had the marketing material ready although the majority is still here, researched what others were doing, what was working what was not, talked to a lot of our woodworking clients and asked them what they would consider an ideal yard care company, what is it you do that you do not like to do, if you hire someone what are they good at, how could they improve. From all this feedback I was able to determine what equipment we would need, what are we looking for in an employee for the various tasks (I call them divisions as I have one employee in charge of each) what software could I write to streamline everything etc.

We have had a few bumps, had to change course a couple of times, had to add different equipment to handle demand, overall it is going well, now we just want to enjoy the sail so to speak as it seems the storm is behind us.

When one is this busy there is barely time to sleep so planning in the past is making my life a lot easier.

I try to take Saturday mornings and prepare the work orders, the software I wrote produces a material list by site, I email the various suppliers with the details and everything is delivered either the evening before or the morning of the job, it works slick.

Overall as a team we are having fun doing this, still things we need, mainly vehicles and another cargo trailer but I do not want to acquire anything else this year.

Andy