Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Gary hit it right on - of the things you mentioned - none of the above. Door hangers, as he suggested, are quite effective for the cost. Secondly, network/referral marketing is highly effective in the lawn care business. This doesn't take much budget - except for the time you have to put into it. Which, by the way, you have $5000 AND your time available for the budget. Another effective technique for lawn care is signage - on the trucks parked in front of the properties as your are dong them and also (with customer permission) on lawns that you do for the first time. Like, "This lawn beautified by Smitty's Lawn Service." To entice them to allow the sign to be in the lawn for a week or two, you may offer a discount if you need to. In many cases, you probably won't need to.

I hope this helps.

Wayde

Referral marketing with your customers fall into three categories:

1. Passive referral - where you provide them with a post card (and maybe an incentive) and hope someday they come up with someone


2. Semi-passive referral - where you ask, do you know anyone who might need lawn service? The key here is the non-specific anyone which in most cases, will result in a thoughtful, "No." Asking for "anyone or someone" is too big. It requires you to think of everyone to find someone


3. Active - where you explain to a satisfied customer that you are glad he's happy because that's important to you to have happy customers. Then you ask him if it would be alright if you asked him a question. You tell him that your business is based on referrals and ask if it would be OK if from time to time you asked him for a referral. When he says yes, you ask him if now is a good time to start. Then you explain that your best clients are just like him, who have problems with......Then you ask if he knows two or three people who have these similar problems that you might be able to talk to. Then let the customer talk.

The last method is highly successful at extracting referrals from present customers. It's all in what and how you ask.

Wayde

I too was going to say referrals and yard signs. It sounds like you are already doing this.

Another thought would be a postcard mailing to homes in the same neighborhoods you are already in. If you can include a photo of a currrent customers yard and a testimonial that would be great. I think the photo and tesimonial are key so that they can connect with your current client. Even better, you can drive the neighborhood and look for lawans that need help. You can get reasonably priced postcards at www.vistaprint.com

Hope this helps.

mike

Maybe if the owner of the company made an advertisement showing he cares might get people to trust. You have to win trust before they let you touch their lawns....I've heard of too many people go through many lawn services and tell how badly they get their lawn treated. Also it would be good to tell us if ya'll offer services to plant trees or brushes or the like cause maybe if you offer planting something in their lawn with a 25% discount one time offer they might let you have a go at it. Also You could show a difference in how much they'll spend a year with you as much less to your competitors . That is also what they're looking at as times are getting worse and gas is getting bad. Think on it.

You could focus on people who are having problems maintaining their yards. As you drive around, note which yards need some "professional attention". Then offer these people something unusual: a free visit, free consultation, buy one service get one free, a yard makeover, etc.

Let's prioritize. First, the 60 new sales. My suggestion is to invent a new product (or two)-- late season lawn revitalization... or Periodized Lawn Care or some such thing. The concept is new customers this time of year need something to: a) keep their lawns beautiful late in the year for maximum enjoyment and b) prepare their lawns now so that they're beautiful and lush for next year (you can't expect to have a good lawn in '09 if you don't treat it now).

Then, call on customers you've had in the past. If the product is framed right, you can call on current customers to sell them to the new product in adition to what they have now. Create door hangers to find new customers. Whatever it takes.

After the season's over and the fire's out, do some reading and make some mental distinctions between promotion, marketing and sales. Then, use your budget to plan to do effective branding, promotion, and selling. Those are linked but separate activities. They all need attention, and if your plan is in high gear and working from the beginning of the year next year, a glitch (like a new sales goal popping up seemingly from nowhere) will be easy to handle.

You know, I like Jay's notion of leaving an offer at the door of crappy looking yards, but... maybe those people don't really care in the first place?

A twist: When you spot a nicely tended landscape, leave a piece of collateral that says something like, "We noticed your yard is gorgeous!" And encourage the homeowner to contact you to learn how to keep it looking that way without harming kids, pets, whatever.

Seems to me that someone who's already demonstrating a willingness to spend time and money on their lawn are worth a shot!

Shelley ;]

Your question about which is the best medium for you - none of the ones you've tried so far I'd have to say. With only $5000 to spend, mass tactics like TV and Radio aren't going to get you far. The esteemed braintrust here has already alluded to targeting homeowners who are likely more interested in your services and I whole-heartly agree.

Instead of going out mass and hope someone is interested, target your message to those who have a greater likelihood of paying attention.

And use online tactics too. Start a "Ask Mr. Lawn" blog and give expert advice on lawncare, specific to the climate in your region. Start going to job sites with a video camera and post video "Ask Mr. Lawn" clips on You Tube. Give lawncare tips on your website and add bookmarking tools to the page like Digg and Deli.co.us. At every opportunity use your URL as the call to action, directing people to this great advice. Start an eNewsletter and encourage new and existing customers to subscribe.

The net result of doing all this is: a whole bunch of people keenly interested in lawn care listening, subscribing and following you online. Which translates into very targeted prospective customers.

Will all this get your 60 customers by the end of summer? No, but you'll have a better chance of getting more than 60 next summer if you carefully manage and nurture "Mr. Lawn" into a growing concern.

Best of luck.