Direct Mail Marketing

[agrilawn]

Originally Posted by Steve

You seem to have a big following here. Who knows, maybe you could start offering lawn care marketing consulting to newer lawn care businesses as a side project!

I've helped a few businesses grow and become prominent in their industry, but the lawn care business is new to me. I have loads of ideas, but I'm not sure who would pay me for consulting. That would be great though!

[Steve]

but I'm not sure who would pay me for consulting. That would be great though!

Well right here. All of these posts could be potential free advertising for you!

Have you considered setting up a website? That would be cheap and a great way to get started. You can experiment on here and see how your ideas apply to the lawn care industry and as you go you could scale up and offer the services to more lawn care businesses.

I like the idea. It's a great way to express yourself and get a chance to really play with all those marketing ideas you have. If one business doesn't want to use them, others might.

I bet if you sat there and thought about it, you could come up with many many more ideas you thought were to wild or extreme but might just work!

Maybe we could do a marketing makeover for a current lawn care business on the forum as a way of promoting your talents.

[Steve]

Another thing I was wondering, do you have any thoughts as to how this company got so big? What factors do you feel made them stand out enough to grow and expand while most other lawn care businesses stay small?

[LawncareMarketingMagic]

Agrilawn,

You're definitely doing a lot of things right. Now if you could only convince the owner that they'd do a whole lot better if they simply targeted their mailings! The key to that is to simply show credibility or proof that it works. I've got some resources/numbers I'll post that you might be able to use as back-up. Until you get more targeted with your mailings, you might as well take a % of your marketing budget and throw it out the window because that's basically what you're already doing!

One comment about the customer cancellation rates. It's pretty typical in ANY business to see the majority of your cancels refunds occur very shortly after the purchase. It's called 'buyer's remorse'.

One of the things I suggest to my clients is to send a customer 'stick' letter/card shortly after the first visit or two, reminding them about your great service, why you're such a great VALUE, and of all the BENEFITS they'll be getting. You might even consider including in your 'welcome packet' (which is another FANSTATIC idea I recommend to all my clients as well) a customer survey asking what they're hoping to receive and/or the reasons they hired you. Consider including a postage paid envelope to make it easy for them to return, but when they do, send them a 'thank you' card with some type of gift card or other 'goodie' as a way of letting them know you appreciate their feedback.

Again, great job with a lot of what you're doing and it sounds like your biggest constraint is the owners. It may take a bit of work, but there are definitely ways you could persuade them to 'let go' so to speak.

[Steve]

I've got some resources/numbers I'll post that you might be able to use as back-up. Until you get more targeted with your mailings, you might as well take a % of your marketing budget and throw it out the window because that's basically what you're already doing!

Could you tell us more of what you mean by that?

send them a 'thank you' card with some type of gift card or other 'goodie' as a way of letting them know you appreciate their feedback.

Any thoughts on what type of goodies would work well? How much value should it be worth?

“When researching our cancellation history I found that most of the cancelled lawn care accounts had been cancelled within the first 3-4 months. If they had been more informed from the beginning, maybe we could have saved the sale.”

Do you have any idea what % of the customers were canceling? This could help figure out how much money is being lost and how much value should be put into a 'goodie.'

[agrilawn]

Originally Posted by Steve

Another thing I was wondering, do you have any thoughts as to how this company got so big? What factors do you feel made them stand out enough to grow and expand while most other lawn care businesses stay small?

I think the fact that the founder is a OSU degreed Agronomist and a certified Arborist has helped a lot. We have also have several employees that went to school for horticulture. In a lot of our marketing material that is one of the things we promote. With the founder graduating from OSU and knowing the area it helps. He knows what works for the area and what don't. We are big on customer service, so I know when he started out, he did whatever the customer needed done. Many of the customers that he started out with are still with us. Another thing that may have helped are the employees. There are at least 6 employees that have been here for 10 or more years. The longitivity helps the customer get to know and trust their tech. The tech knows their yard and knows what to look for.

[agrilawn]

Originally Posted by Steve

Do you have any idea what % of the customers were canceling? This could help figure out how much money is being lost and how much value should be put into a 'goodie.'

We have about a 75% - 85% retention rate.

[Steve]

Consider including a postage paid envelope to make it easy for them to return, but when they do, send them a 'thank you' card with some type of gift card or other 'goodie' as a way of letting them know you appreciate their feedback.

Have you thought about if you would send out some type of goodie to your new customers and what kind of things would you like to ideally send out?

Could this be something you experiment with a % of the new customers to compare and contrast their retention rate with the other customers?