Online presence

[SECTLANDSCAPING]

I couldnt agree more. You said it better then I ever could. I spent sometime playing with social networks and had no returns on it. Instead of spending a few hours a week I could take out a paid ad in the local paper. I could save time and focus my energy on something that works. I think social sites could work if you had a product geared to people under 25 but not a service business with customers 40-60. Maybe when this generation starts to own property it might work. On another note my friend is a electrician who decided to work for himself last year. He used craigslist exclusively and failed miserable. He went back to work for the same company he quit this year. I dont think he saw the connection that his customer base wasnt going online to find a electrician.

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[ringahding1]

Lawn care business tips

ONLINE Presence is absolutely essential. Research is KING. Flyers are great. Keywords RULE. SEO Article writing on your niche is absolutely recommended. Word of mouth could fall into the category of KING, also! Internal link building will be found by Google(shiii giving away my secrets) Back-Linking to quality sites Check out this site if you have time WordPress Website Builder

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[Steve]

Craigslist seems to me the one site that seems to work for some while not work for others. I think that is based on the demographic of your service area.

Troy,

So after going through this experience, do you suggest any types of marketing to experiment with? I bet a lot of newer business owners are reading this and thinking ok, now what?

[TiedemanLLC]

Originally Posted by Steve

Craigslist seems to me the one site that seems to work for some while not work for others. I think that is based on the demographic of your service area.

Troy,

So after going through this experience, do you suggest any types of marketing to experiment with? I bet a lot of newer business owners are reading this and thinking ok, now what?

It's really hard to say one way may work better than another. For example, I have heard some people say they have had great results with newspapers, while I will never do newspaper ads ever again. Same with yellow pages, they only get people to call up that want prices over the phone (going with the lowest price).

Where I have got most of my work from over the years:

Referrals
Direct Mail
Networking (kind of the same as referrals, but from other business owners)
Lawn Signs

To be honest with you, the best is by far referrals and networking.

Businesses need to experiment and see what works best for the area, but don't give up so easily either. I did the social sites for three years before I finally saw they were useless. So just because a business owner sends out a batch of flyers to clients, and gets zero response are they going to give up early? No, I recommend to stick it out, change up the game plan a bit though with different marketing material.

The main thing is find out from your current clients what works best. Demographics is key. Feel free to pick the brains of some other local businesses in the area of what works for them. I would also recommend trying to find a mentor in the area. If you do mowing, and they do installation work, perhaps they can give you some pointers on what type of marketing has worked for them.

[Steve]

To be honest with you, the best is by far referrals and networking.

I think this is part of what makes all this so confusing. We do see the importance of networking and referrals, and with that said, why do you feel that just does not translate to online social networking sites? Why does it seem to work in person but not through sites like facebook/twitter etc?

[TiedemanLLC]

Originally Posted by Steve

I think this is part of what makes all this so confusing. We do see the importance of networking and referrals, and with that said, why do you feel that just does not translate to online social networking sites? Why does it seem to work in person but not through sites like facebook/twitter etc?

I think it's because the social networking sites online is mostly just pleasure. Something to look at...eye candy.

[Ducke]

I tend to disagree I think Social Media when used right is a major help.
Its just its all so new and we are really just starting to learn what it can do for us.
Just some quick stats from my offering online:
I have 37 Likes on my company facebook page.
out of the 37 28 visit on a daily basis.
27% are male 45-54 years of age
12 of them are from my home town 2 more from the UK (they are friends of the family) 8 are from USA.
I know 5 out of the 12 hometown are friends.
So that leaves 6 that are following me here in town that are now or could be customers.
I have gone through my sales for last year 74 quotes in all.
31 said they got my info off the internet,7 said my Kijiji ad 9 said my Web Site.
So that leaves 15 that just said internet which leaves open any of the ways I use the internet.
For me it works great. I believe its all got to do on how you use it and how your area use the internet. We have a lot of high tech businesses here RIM has an office here Microsoft has an office here and several software developers etc. so this all inflorescence how you sell and how people buy.
The above numbers may not be large but it is only my first year. I plan on tracking this again in 2012 so we will have to wait till next January for that info.

[jymie]

How do you get the stats showing where they come from for the facebook page visits?

Originally Posted by Ducke

I tend to disagree I think Social Media when used right is a major help.
Its just its all so new and we are really just starting to learn what it can do for us.
Just some quick stats from my offering online:
I have 37 Likes on my company facebook page.
out of the 37 28 visit on a daily basis.
27% are male 45-54 years of age
12 of them are from my home town 2 more from the UK (they are friends of the family) 8 are from USA.
I know 5 out of the 12 hometown are friends.
So that leaves 6 that are following me here in town that are now or could be customers.
I have gone through my sales for last year 74 quotes in all.
31 said they got my info off the internet,7 said my Kijiji ad 9 said my Web Site.
So that leaves 15 that just said internet which leaves open any of the ways I use the internet.
For me it works great. I believe its all got to do on how you use it and how your area use the internet. We have a lot of high tech businesses here RIM has an office here Microsoft has an office here and several software developers etc. so this all inflorescence how you sell and how people buy.
The above numbers may not be large but it is only my first year. I plan on tracking this again in 2012 so we will have to wait till next January for that info.

[picframer]

Social networking works for certain business's, I know I follow various resturants for example, it also works well for malls however lawncare is probably not the best.

[ringahding1]

Originally Posted by picframer

Social networking works for certain business's, I know I follow various resturants for example, it also works well for malls however lawncare is probably not the best.

Suggestion for everyone:

If you want social networking to work for your lawn care business, hold a contest. We held a Face Book contest for "one FREE service" for three lucky winners and my FAN-BASE grew in a crazy fashion...We told our clients who have emails, and the ones who don't use email, had no idea of this contest.

NOTE:While honoring one lucky winner with a core aeration, a lady was walking by and asked if I could aerate her yard. So basically I got paid for one of my customers that one the contest.

OK we currently 400 have some fans. At the time we we're under 350, I have new fans that actually participated in this and I don't have a clue who they are. They may live out of our service area, I don't know. They apparently were Face Book members already and that was how they found us. I had friends tell relatives, friends signing up for relatives and so forth!

If it is not working for you, there may be a reason for that. Are you on a regular basis chatting with your FB (not fans) Friends? Why do I ask this? We've heard this somewhere on the internet, "Build Your Brand", in other words...BUILD TRUST with your friends.

Steve could back me up on this, any opportunity you have to plug your biz, do it! Just try to make it 60 seconds or less, and if it's via the internet, try not to over do it. We all got the "Tips" form Steve via email, what if he did that everyday? We would be sick of it, right?

I mean if you just make a Fan Page and than tell the world and it's not everything you hoped for, you must've missed a step, like BUILDING the TRUST first.