taping business cards to doors

[sunsetlandscaping]

Have you guys ever taped your business cards to doors (with masking tape) instead of knocking on them or passing out fliers at every house on the block? I hate someone coming to the door and trying to sell me something too, so this is why I thought this would possibly be a better tactic.

[LawnTeam]

Lawn care business tips

Many localities have ordinances against posting anything on property that is not yours. Why give up the opportunity to talk to the owner? You don't have to sell anything. A simple compliment such as, "I can see you take a lot of pride in your property. yours is the very type of lawn I like to work on because I know you can appreciate it when it looks its best," works well to open the conversation. Of course you can't say that if it isn't true.There are so many ways to start the conversation. Homeowners often feel like no body will take as good care of their investment as they do and they like to feel like you appreciate the hard work that went into it even if they didn't do everything correctly. If you don't want to knock on the door, what about a personal note with your business card mailed to them? Anyway, whatever you decide to do, i would love to hear how it works. Always willing to try something new.

[Willco]

I would not use tape, the homeowner might get upset to find tape glue on his door. When I do leave something for the homeowner, usually an invoice, I use a rubber band and a clip, no residue and a free clip for the homeowner.

[Steve]

That is an idea that I haven't seen brought up. Who knows, it could work.

The up side to it is you could distribute a lot of business cards that way.

The down side is that you will minimize the amount of potential customers you will be talking to which could effect the total number of sales you get.

You could try out both methods and see which works better for you in your area.

[dpld]

call me what you like but if any business knocks on my door to try and either sell me something or promote themselves whether i need the service or not will be not only told to get the hell off my property they will also be the last business i would ever call for that type of service.

knocking on doors and stuffing flyers may have worked or been common practice decades ago but it is mostly frowned upon these days and in most communities is against the law and putting anything in or on a mialbox is against the law as well.

to me knocking on doors or stuffing boxes or sticking cards on doors says, " hey i got no work and i am desperate " and most people who bite at that sales method are people looking to take advantage of you to see if you hand out sucker prices or someone who just does not have the balls to say no and get the hell off my property.

no one said starting a business is easy or cheap and there is no fast track method to build one as well as it takes years to do so and if you do not have the money to invest in proper professional advertiseing and wait for your business to grow more often then not it will not end very well.

i am not trying to insult anyone and i admire the gumption and balls to attempt to do it that way but it just is not a good way to do business in 2012.

i would suggest if you are hell bent on trying to drum up business that way to do so by getting a few hundred calanders or mugs or something cheap but usefull and knock on the doors and intoduce yourself as new to the neihborhood and give them a free gift and tell them if they ever need something in the lines of the services you offer to give you some consideration and thank them for their time and walk away and not say another word unless of course they ask you something.

don't offer a free mowing or service and keep it short and sweet, basicly bait the hook and wait for the bite and at the very least every time they look at that calander or drink from that mug they will see your name and be reminded of you and who knows, maybe when they do need something they will give you a try.

[Hedgemaster]

I agree with most of what dpld said above.

I would say that if you ARE going to leave something, a decent flyer would be a better idea than a business card. You are ADVERTISING... a business card is a horrible "advertisement". You want something that catches their attention and makes them want to read more.
A simple business card left behind looks "lazy" in my opinion.

The solicitation issue is very much real. Most every municipality I'm aware of requires a permit to distribute anything door to door. Some are easy to get and inexpensive, while others require more hoops to jump through than is worthwhile.
We just listened on the scanner as a solicitor was arrested and taken to the station yesterday after he was seen going door to door without a permit THE DAY AFTER he was given a warning about doing so. Dumba$$.

[LawnBoy0311]

I thought about this too. But all I need is a phone call saying "Excuse me sir? You ruined the paint on my door..." I stuck with post cards, and stick them in the door, right where the rubber part is. They are thick enough 98% of the time they won't blow away. Its easier to carry a whole bunch too. I also think they look better than flyers. Just my opinion.

[PVMS]

Originally Posted by dpld

call me what you like but if any business knocks on my door to try and either sell me something or promote themselves whether i need the service or not will be not only told to get the hell off my property they will also be the last business i would ever call for that type of service.

knocking on doors and stuffing flyers may have worked or been common practice decades ago but it is mostly frowned upon these days and in most communities is against the law and putting anything in or on a mialbox is against the law as well.

to me knocking on doors or stuffing boxes or sticking cards on doors says, " hey i got no work and i am desperate " and most people who bite at that sales method are people looking to take advantage of you to see if you hand out sucker prices or someone who just does not have the balls to say no and get the hell off my property.

no one said starting a business is easy or cheap and there is no fast track method to build one as well as it takes years to do so and if you do not have the money to invest in proper professional advertiseing and wait for your business to grow more often then not it will not end very well.

i am not trying to insult anyone and i admire the gumption and balls to attempt to do it that way but it just is not a good way to do business in 2012.

i would suggest if you are hell bent on trying to drum up business that way to do so by getting a few hundred calanders or mugs or something cheap but usefull and knock on the doors and intoduce yourself as new to the neihborhood and give them a free gift and tell them if they ever need something in the lines of the services you offer to give you some consideration and thank them for their time and walk away and not say another word unless of course they ask you something.

don't offer a free mowing or service and keep it short and sweet, basicly bait the hook and wait for the bite and at the very least every time they look at that calander or drink from that mug they will see your name and be reminded of you and who knows, maybe when they do need something they will give you a try.

So,......Don't make offers in your marketing...
Don't use flyers.....
Don't introduce yourself to anybody??

Got me beat how you have a business at all. To not use "old fashioned" marketing media means not contacting 50% of your potential clients.
Most people intend to look someone up to call them, but either forget or put it off for what ever reason. If you give them a good reason to call "you", they will.
It really does not need to take a long time to build a business. I had 100 clients in my first year.
I made a deal to myself from the start, that if I was still on the tools myself after 5 years, I would have to reassess my way of thinking.

As far as sticking a business card on a door, Its not something that I would probably do myself, unless the card had an offer of some kind on it, otherwise i feel it may be better than nothing, but a quite passive form of marketing.

[sunsetlandscaping]

Thanks guys for all the great suggestions. I would have to admit, after awhile that I posted this, I thought "Would I really use a company that taped there business card in my door?" So I didn't do that. I have done plenty of marketing however...I'll be in the phone book in Sept. Hopefully this will atleast generate some fall clean ups for this year. Newspaper, craigslist, google, flyers...I think I just need to give it some time to work...first year and all. I realized businesses take time to build.

[Fire&LawnRescue]

I'll be honest... I have found that I did nothing but waste money and time by passing out flyers or cards or anything else. For me, and I am not saying this is the way for everybody, I network and constantly meet new people. I surround myself with successful people and get all of the business I can handle through word of mouth and by having a simple but to the point website that get's decent traffic.

In my opinion, everything else is a waste. I know my methods probably are much different than most other companies.