Newspaper ads

[F3Nelson]

Anyone ever have any luck placing newspaper ads for lawn service?

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My hair is turning white, my necks alwayas been red, my collar is still blue

[musician/lawnman]

Lawn care business tips

Worked pretty well for me. Keep it simple 3-4 lines. Then answer your phone or get somebody to do it for you. To many lco place adds then they're out working all day & don't even return the calls the same day. If we don't answer we make sure to get back to them within 30 minutes (If they call the office my wife calls the cell phone & I check it between virtually every stop). Often times if you get there 1st to provide an estimate & you are professional, Courteous, & knowledgeable you can earn their business. If you wait to get back to them, somebody will beat you to it! Good luck!

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[Steve]

Chuck that is a very good point. Consumers will just go down the list of lawn care businesses and go with those who answer. No doubt.

Mike also remember if you do place an ad in the paper, make sure you track where your customers heard of you when they call. Some ads will work for you, others won't. The only way to know which ones are working is if you ask the callers when they initially call.

[musician/lawnman]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Team Gopher @ Mar. 02 2008,9:44)]Chuck that is a very good point. Consumers will just go down the list of lawn care businesses and go with those who answer. No doubt.

Steve,
The only reason I know that to be a fact is that I was (& am a licensed health/life Insurance agent) just prior to starting my business. With the firm I worked for we specialized in affordable products for small business & the self employed. I spent days cold calling mom & pop shops from construction to pizza places, to landscapers, to painters & lawn care companies. I found it odd that I never got a hold of a single lawn care owner or manager on the 1st call. ( & no my caller ID didn't say abc insurance co....)
Oddly, 1 did call me back & do business with me... during my appointment with him I admitted the hours in the insurance biz were crazy, 80+ hours most weeks & the cash was good but I had no life at all. I said I was contemplating starting a business of my own. Lawn care was already on my mind which is why I said that to him, I was wondering what he would say. The guy said "why don't you start a lawn care business? There's a lot of competition but plenty of work & most of the competition out there is pretty lousy at what they do. I started mine 3 years ago & I make about 2k a week most weeks". Well we sat there shooting the breeze about it. That night was the first time I seriously ran the idea past my wife. We are now friendly competitors.

[Steve]

You know that is a great point and for a while now I thought to myself, if someone on here started a lawn care phone answering service, it would take off. I bet a lot of the lawn care business owners here have a wife that wants to stay at home and work from home but the lawn care business doesn't generate enough profits. Well there is no reason they couldn't put together a lawn care business phone answering service. Where business owners could have their calls forwarded and the phone could be answered 'hello lawn service.' Or something like that.

Heck if someone wanted to start it I would promote it on here and my shows for FREE to get it started!

So please someone take this idea and run with it!

What's your take on something like this?

[F3Nelson]

I gotta say I think its a pretty good idea. It would be like the phone answering companies, but it could be much more personal, not just the standard canned answers from your avg companies.

My question would be how much would smaller companies pay for such a service, cuz the big boys will have their own receptionist.

[Steve]

Well to get this started, what would it be worth to you to not miss a potential new customer calling?

How many calls do you miss a week? How many of them are from potential new customers?

Do you call them back? Do they ever say they found someone else already?

[landonkade]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (F3Nelson @ Mar. 02 2008,8:07)]Anyone ever have any luck placing newspaper ads for lawn service?

i have a ad in the newspaper as of right now for the lawn service business. But i dont have a copier, so i took a pic with the camera, and its to bright. I have a program to fix the bringhtness not sure on how to work the program just quit yet.


anyone with help i can send the pic to, and could adjust it and post it?

[Steve]

Yea just post it.

[StartALawnCareBusiness]

Hey guys, sorry for being so vacant lately. Sometimes personal matters get in the way and you have to put everything else on hold.

Back to the newspaper question: I think newspaper ads are still a very viable form of advertising. Wording and placement are key. If you give free estimates (and who doesn't?) definately put "FREE ESTIMATES" in your ad. Also, if you do just one area of town, say so in your ad. This will focus your calls to a centralized geographic location.

I never liked the results I got from ads in the "services offered" section of the paper.

If your paper runs a "Business Classified" section, consider placing your ad there. It will cost more as you will probably have to run your ad for a month at a time. The cost might be as high as $250 depending on the number of subscribers.

I have always found the Business Classified section far superior to any other form of print advertising.

Once you place your ad, keep good records of the type of customers and revenue generated by the ads. If it works for you, keep at it.

Keith