My new marketing idea

[jon6336]

Umm...I'm definitely not doing the newspaper again. I'll probably stick to my internet marketing, and do more pamphlets. I also do trade shows like home and gardens shows. That's what it is called in Grand Rapids at least. Maybe do some door to door marketing...I'm not totally sure yet.

[picframer]

Lawn care business tips

Sorry to hear that it didn't work, this is the first time I read your post or I would have offered some feedback for what it is worth. I would have listed services you could offer rather than Groceries, Laundry etc. I have been involved with marketing at many levels for 28 years from small to multi million dollar companies, I learned a lot from the marketing crew and it has really paid off for me, people tend to glance quickly so you only have one shot, I actually even personally overlooked the gutter cleaning at first glance. We only advertise in one small community newspaper where we do most of our work and the results are simply stunning, ad is small but to the point, we received at least 80 inquiries over the summer, most ended up in us performing various services we offer.

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Andy
Halifax, Nova Scotia

[Steve]

Sorry to hear that it didn't work, this is the first time I read your post or I would have offered some feedback for what it is worth.

What other thoughts did you have on this marketing method?

[picframer]

I think it is better than most I have seen, but keep it short to what you are after, Gutter cleaning, Organic Lawn Sprays, Wood Chipping, Pressure Washing.

The key to marketing in my experience is you want to give just enough information to get the prospect to call, that opens the door for you.

Given the right time and the target ad, I think it would do well.

[jon6336]

Originally Posted by Steve

What other thoughts did you have on this marketing method?

I thought that this would work very well. I mean all I needed was less than 1% call back to make my money back. Didn't do that for me! I did it the second week of October, which in Grand Rapids was prime time for gutter cleaning. The people at the press are supposed to be the professionals, so I thought that their design would've worked. Here is my list of marketing for this year:

-Mail out letters (Right around 900 letters mailed on average once a month until the fall, then I send them every two weeks.)

- Google Adwords- has been pretty good for me.

- Mail out postcards

- Trade shows- I sell a gutter protection and the trade shows are the best marketing for it hands down.

- BNI- this is a networking group that has made me more than enough to pay for my time in the group this year.

[Steve]

Are you tracking where your customers come from?

Google Adwords- has been pretty good for me.

Do you know what % of your customers come from there?

If it is decent maybe you should be looking into more SEO to improve the ranking of your website? Would that help?

[jon6336]

Originally Posted by Steve

Are you tracking where your customers come from?

Do you know what % of your customers come from there?

If it is decent maybe you should be looking into more SEO to improve the ranking of your website? Would that help?

I get roughly 20% of my clients, 10% of total revenue from internet advertising. I ask every person how they found out about my company when they call me. So yes, I do track my customers. I would love to do more SEO, but I do not have enough money to invest in that right now. Winter is slow for me, and right now I look at Google Adwords as a better investment for me.

[Steve]

That is very interesting! The other thing I think about with this is, do you find the people who find your internet site and contact you are easier to sell too and are not as problematic as customers that are found through other means? Say for instance like craigslist? Or no?

[jon6336]

Originally Posted by Steve

That is very interesting! The other thing I think about with this is, do you find the people who find your internet site and contact you are easier to sell too and are not as problematic as customers that are found through other means? Say for instance like craigslist? Or no?

On craigslist, I only market my gutter cleaning. I do not market my gutter protection product. When your talking about a $65-$125 typical gutter cleaning, most people just go with me because it's not a high ticket item. I find that people that find me over the internet for our gutter protection are a little harder to close than people I find at the trade shows. This is because at the trade shows we have a roof display with water going down it to show the prospect why our product is better. When you meet someone in a home, it is a little harder to "show" them why it is better because of no roof with water. What I do to combat this is go to their sink and show the water goes through our gutter protection product just fine. We sell a very high quality foam gutter protection product.

[Steve]

This is because at the trade shows we have a roof display with water going down it to show the prospect why our product is better. When you meet someone in a home, it is a little harder to "show" them why it is better because of no roof with water.

It would be fascinating if you had a display you could bring into a home that had a small pump to show the water flowing down!

This is because at the trade shows we have a roof display with water going down it to show the prospect why our product is better.

Is this a video or a model? I'd love to see it!

I get roughly 20% of my clients, 10% of total revenue from internet advertising.

When you study the % it is quite interesting to see how this customer group can make up 20% of the clients but only 10% of the revenue! That would make me wonder if they are on average 50% cheaper than your other clients when it comes to the services they purchase through you. Very interesting!