Service Magic

[950thomas]

Z z lawns I don't no what way he gets them sent I have them text fax and call my leads in

[DillonB92]

Lawn care business tips

is it a text message or is it an email sent to your phone?

[950thomas]

Text and ph call plus they fax and email

[bgarlow]

If you're looking to grow, Service Magic is a great investment.

We're in Southwestern Michigan, the Kalamazoo area. We signed up with Service Magic in July 2010 and it grew our business right away. It is a VERY SMALL investment to create your profile and become one of there vendors. Yes, you pay for leads, which is hard to get used to, but they do a thorough job of making sure you are set up to succeed. Its worth the phone calls and followups from them. (((A residential lawn lead runs about $12, commercial leads are like $20. Its a 1X fee per lead. We had about a 70% bidding success rate. In 2010, we spent $600 for their Service Magic leads... it brought us $30,000 in NEW BUSINESS last year alone - and we didn't start with them until July))).

Honestly, we had so many leads coming in to us in the fall (for leaf cleanups and snow plowing) that we had to temporarily suspend the service in November and didn't restart it again until March 1st of this year. That in itself should tell you something.

To be fair, I wanted to point out the only 2 negative elements of the service: (1) ServiceMagic offers "leads" the option to be directly connect to you via telephone (if the lead is an exact match to your criteria). This is painful when you're an owner/operator. Your phone rings, your just finishing up a lawn, your tired & dripping sweat, ...and its a recording saying "please hold while I connect you to your Service Magic perfect match lead"...you find yourself scrambling to find something you can scratch notes on and it tends to make you sound unprofessional to the caller. Inconvenient more than anything. But, all those leads are safely stored on your Service Magic account portal so you can followup on them when you get time.
(2) Website offer. They have a partner company that does websites. They will build you a site for $50 (which sounds like a great deal). Then this "partner" charges $25/month for it. Month-to-month (so you're not locked in or anything). The $50 site itself is only 2 pages and its rather "cookie cutter" looking. But, it does get hits because they register it with the major seach engines like Google & Yahoo. The Service Magic Seal is a great eye-catcher on the site, they also give you a contact page so people can email you for quotes and such.

All-in-all.... I'd recommend the service if you're looking to put your advertising money into something that gets results.

Hope this info helps!

Garlow Property Maintenance LLC
Portage, Michigan
www.garlowpropertymaintenance.com

[Steve]

How did service magic compare to your other marketing methods and have you stopped all other marketing now because of this service?

[bgarlow]

I found that this was the most effective campaign to date. We had traditionally ran ads in the local paper in the spring and fall... which ran between $100 - $200 per time (depending on how long we ran the insertion). The return on print ads was very small and nearly impossible to track without a very conscious effort to ask every caller that contacted us. In 2009 we did a postcard mailer campaign (through VistaPrint). About a $600 investment and we got very little response, maybe 2-3 small jobs... nothing worth doing it again. From 2006-2009, we had traditionally placed an ad in our local paper to run 2 days ($85-$100) in the early spring for lawncare and again in the last summer/early fall for leaf cleanups... we did get a few good jobs from that marketing investment, but it was nothing compared to ServiceMagic's results. All-in-all, it has definately been the best investment for us that generated long term, re-curring revenue.

[mcleargrounds]

I just signed up last week. I am in Macomb Ccounty Michigan and my current target is 10 mile radius with 2 leads per week - $24 cost. I haven't received any leads yet - but I will keep everyone updated.

The services I found helpful was the advertising support. They gave a lot of great advice with regard to marketing your business - and how to grow your business as a whole.

Also, I have my own website - and now I can advertise with a the Service Magic seal of approval.

[Steve]

It seems like this service may work in some areas while it doesn't work too well in others.

The services I found helpful was the advertising support. They gave a lot of great advice with regard to marketing your business - and how to grow your business as a whole.

What kind of advice stood out?

[Shark1611]

Originally Posted by bgarlow

If you're looking to grow, Service Magic is a great investment.

We're in Southwestern Michigan, the Kalamazoo area. We signed up with Service Magic in July 2010 and it grew our business right away. It is a VERY SMALL investment to create your profile and become one of there vendors. Yes, you pay for leads, which is hard to get used to, but they do a thorough job of making sure you are set up to succeed. Its worth the phone calls and followups from them. (((A residential lawn lead runs about $12, commercial leads are like $20. Its a 1X fee per lead. We had about a 70% bidding success rate. In 2010, we spent $600 for their Service Magic leads... it brought us $30,000 in NEW BUSINESS last year alone - and we didn't start with them until July))).

Honestly, we had so many leads coming in to us in the fall (for leaf cleanups and snow plowing) that we had to temporarily suspend the service in November and didn't restart it again until March 1st of this year. That in itself should tell you something.

To be fair, I wanted to point out the only 2 negative elements of the service: (1) ServiceMagic offers "leads" the option to be directly connect to you via telephone (if the lead is an exact match to your criteria). This is painful when you're an owner/operator. Your phone rings, your just finishing up a lawn, your tired & dripping sweat, ...and its a recording saying "please hold while I connect you to your Service Magic perfect match lead"...you find yourself scrambling to find something you can scratch notes on and it tends to make you sound unprofessional to the caller. Inconvenient more than anything. But, all those leads are safely stored on your Service Magic account portal so you can followup on them when you get time.
(2) Website offer. They have a partner company that does websites. They will build you a site for $50 (which sounds like a great deal). Then this "partner" charges $25/month for it. Month-to-month (so you're not locked in or anything). The $50 site itself is only 2 pages and its rather "cookie cutter" looking. But, it does get hits because they register it with the major seach engines like Google & Yahoo. The Service Magic Seal is a great eye-catcher on the site, they also give you a contact page so people can email you for quotes and such.

All-in-all.... I'd recommend the service if you're looking to put your advertising money into something that gets results.

Hope this info helps!

Garlow Property Maintenance LLC
Portage, Michigan
www.garlowpropertymaintenance.com

They have been calling me for about 10 months now. I just got one today asking for me to join in that they need people in my area of Texas. Will they tell me how many people in my area are signed up? I started this business 11 months ago and it has been growing very fast. I just left my full time job last week to do this full time now. A part of me is looking a calling them but I am a one man show. I do have the time right now to mow more lawns and I need to store up my money now while the grass is growing. I hear them on the local radio here all the time so I think I would get calls. Most if my jobs are around $50.00 for mow, trim, and blow. These are not huge yards but they take me about an hour. Thanks for the information I guess I will read a bit more on this.

[Shark1611]

Originally Posted by mcleargrounds

I just signed up last week. I am in Macomb Ccounty Michigan and my current target is 10 mile radius with 2 leads per week - $24 cost. I haven't received any leads yet - but I will keep everyone updated.

The services I found helpful was the advertising support. They gave a lot of great advice with regard to marketing your business - and how to grow your business as a whole.

Also, I have my own website - and now I can advertise with a the Service Magic seal of approval.

Give us an update. Has it paid off?