How should I spend my advertising money?

[JC]

My small landscape/remodeling biz had only 2 part time employees last year, so we're very small right now but hoping to expand. I hope to spend about $1200/month on advertising starting in the spring. I'm in Metro Detroit and about 20 minutes from Ann Arbor as well, so my area is packed with potential customers. Any advice on how I should spend my advertising money would be greatly appreciated, and please feel free to ask any questions. Thanks!

[Freelancier]

What we think is effective may not work for you. But what I've seen around here for landscaping, painting, tree pruning is this: someone leaves a note in the mailbox saying that "one of my neighbors" is using their service and would like a chance to win our business by coming and giving a free estimate. Better than the idiots who throw baggies with a note and a rock on my driveway... those never get looked at. Basically, start in any neighborhood you've already got a customer and blast it with flyers (don't forget the pool area for those subdivisions with pools). Unless you hire someone else to do it, you probably won't have to spend $1200 this way, but it's at least got the advantage of using your neighbors as references even if they don't know it.

[JC]

What we think is effective may not work for you. But what I've seen around here for landscaping, painting, tree pruning is this: someone leaves a note in the mailbox saying that "one of my neighbors" is using their service and would like a chance to win our business by coming and giving a free estimate. Better than the idiots who throw baggies with a note and a rock on my driveway... those never get looked at. Basically, start in any neighborhood you've already got a customer and blast it with flyers (don't forget the pool area for those subdivisions with pools). Unless you hire someone else to do it, you probably won't have to spend $1200 this way, but it's at least got the advantage of using your neighbors as references even if they don't know it.

Thanks Freelancier, I think that's a great idea. I've done flyers before, and would attach my biz card to them and went door to door and got pretty good response from that. I'll remember this year to take some with your suggested message to drop off to surrounding neighbors after jobs.

[RR151]

Posh,

Sounds like an exciting time for you. $1,200 is a very good amount as an advertising budget. One thing you should do is to measure your marketing efforts.

With Freelancier's idea by the way great idea!

Just make sure your literature has a way to identify where the lead came from. Call us at (phone Number) and ask for "The Spring Clean-up Quote." My example might not be what you want to use but it gives the idea.

You need all advertising to have the "Ask For Trigger" or as I have been told it's a "Self Identifier."

Just a thought, RR

[MKarp]

With that kind of budget, you might want to run targeted campaigns on Google Adwords and Facebook for your local area. At least run a couple to test it out.

In this post (http://topdogsocialmedia.com/how-to-improve-facebook-organic-reach/) on Facebook organic reach, one guy said he spent $20 to advertise a new product in his local area, and ended up bringing in $6000. I'd say it's worth a shot.

He talks about it in #4.

[JC]

Posh,

Sounds like an exciting time for you. $1,200 is a very good amount as an advertising budget. One thing you should do is to measure your marketing efforts.

With Freelancier's idea by the way great idea!

Just make sure your literature has a way to identify where the lead came from. Call us at (phone Number) and ask for "The Spring Clean-up Quote." My example might not be what you want to use but it gives the idea.

You need all advertising to have the "Ask For Trigger" or as I have been told it's a "Self Identifier."

Just a thought, RR

Thanks for the tip, I'll make sure I do that!

[JC]

With that kind of budget, you might want to run targeted campaigns on Google Adwords and Facebook for your local area. At least run a couple to test it out.

In this post (http://topdogsocialmedia.com/how-to-improve-facebook-organic-reach/) on Facebook organic reach, one guy said he spent $20 to advertise a new product in his local area, and ended up bringing in $6000. I'd say it's worth a shot.

He talks about it in #4.

Thanks, I'm not familiar with Adwords but will check it out!

[vweconsulting]

With that kind of budget, you might want to run targeted campaigns on Google Adwords and Facebook for your local area. At least run a couple to test it out.

In this post (http://topdogsocialmedia.com/how-to-improve-facebook-organic-reach/) on Facebook organic reach, one guy said he spent $20 to advertise a new product in his local area, and ended up bringing in $6000. I'd say it's worth a shot.

He talks about it in #4.

Awesome article! Thanks for the share. I will be implementing many of those strategies going forward. #1 was best, I had no clue.

[KristineS]

Thanks, I'm not familiar with Adwords but will check it out!

Adwords can be beneficial, just make sure you watch it carefully. Budgets can spiral out of control quite quickly.

Another option would be social media. Create a Facebook page and Twitter feed for your business. You might also look into Pinterest if you do any kind of special or custom yard design. Create boards for different ideas and show people what you could do for them. The trick here is to follow strategically. You want to follow people who are your potential customers and in your target market. Random followers do you no good, so be selective.

[fastball]

What we think is effective may not work for you. But what I've seen around here for landscaping, painting, tree pruning is this: someone leaves a note in the mailbox saying that "one of my neighbors" is using their service and would like a chance to win our business by coming and giving a free estimate. Better than the idiots who throw baggies with a note and a rock on my driveway... those never get looked at. Basically, start in any neighborhood you've already got a customer and blast it with flyers (don't forget the pool area for those subdivisions with pools). Unless you hire someone else to do it, you probably won't have to spend $1200 this way, but it's at least got the advantage of using your neighbors as references even if they don't know it.

I would be careful about leaving anything inside of someone's mailbox, it;s my understanding that is illegal. I think door hangers or send out radius mailings to the 50 closest homes after you do a job, make sure there is a call to action with a strong offer.

[turboguy]

Posh, since we are in the same industry but with very different businesses and since I have seen this topic discussed many times on another site that is specific to our industry (the one I told you about), I will add a few suggestions. The most effective advertising for a Lawn Care guy is good signs on your trucks and trailers. Over the long haul this is actually pretty cheap since it is highly effective and sort of a one time cost. When someone needs lawn work and see your truck every week at a neighbors house with a nice, well cared for lawn, you are the one they will call. Also it is more efficient to have your customers grouped. The door hangers can also be effective.

The other highly efficient advertising media is of course a good web site. I don't know if you have one or not but it is important to have one. If you have any money left over adwords might be a good choice to spend that but I have no personal experience. I think I would stay away from yellow pages, newspaper ads and most likely radio. If I had to pick one of the three it would be radio. You might also think about contacting your local radio station and offering to do some call in talk shows on lawn care and landscaping. They might bite on the idea and it would be free advertising.

[chrismarklee]

It depends where your customer base is located. I do Income Tax for locals I buy pay for click ads on Facebook. People are on social media all the time

[Linc1618]

With that kind of budget, you can look into the US post office, post card mailings as one tactic to your overall marketing strategy. Your business will need to be seen at least 6 times before people will trust you enough to try your service. Use different tactics, so you appear to be "everywhere in your local market" Test and measure your results for each idea above in this wonderful forum thread. Jab, Jab, Right Hook (http://howentrepreneur.com/download-jab-jab-jab-right-hook-by-gary-pdf-ebook/) is a great book to read about social media tactics. You can go here to get more information about post card mailings. (https://www.usps.com/business/every-door-direct-mail.htm) Test some online and offline marketing tactics. You do not need to spend that much each month unless you want to. Test with small amounts of money to see if it gets you new customers. If it does, then scale it up. Try blogging too. It can be your address on the web. You can write about your expertise, and show pictures of your work. Blogs stay up for life. Do the work once and benefit for life. You should know in 30 days whether your campaign works or not 80% will not, 20% will( the 80/20 rule). Decide how far out from your business in a circle drawn around your location, you want to travel, then pick those zip codes. Post card design fees and whatever the US Post office charges per mailing (like $600 ish) will be your monthly costs. Welcome to marketing :) test, measure, tweak, scale it up and monetize. Let me know if you need more ideas and help.

[KristenMozian]

Some thoughts:
1. Make sure you're optimized for local search - Google Places (Google+ for SEO) and Yelp. Work on getting reviews and ratings. You may use some of your budget to hire a company to help you here.
2. If not already in place, implement a customer retention and referral campaign. This could include flyers, etc.
3. Play the long game and work on increasing your email list. Why? Email is a great way to generate sales repeatedly. You could use budget here to work with a copywriter to develop lead magnet content for subscribers and for email content that is of high value. Keep the content super local and give information out that can be difficult to find (e.g. plants/flowers that work best in your climate, etc.)
4. Try out advertorials or native advertising in local news outlets.

[turboguy]

One of the most effective advertising methods for a lawn care guy is really top grade signs on your trucks and trailers. Let's say someone moves into the area and sees the good job you are doing across the street and you have nice signs on your trucks you are going to be the one they call. Another plus with this form of advertising is that it will bring in customers that are close to your existing customers. Keeping customers grouped of course can help your profitability and cut your wasted time.

A decent web site will pay for itself if you don't have one already. In a major metro area there is more competition and it is tougher but it will pay off. Spending some time creating a good facebook page for your business will also help. I haven't done ad words but many seem to find them worthwhile.

Door hangers will be another good option. There is a company that specializes in advertising material for the lawn care industry. The have a lot of very attractive door hangers and other material for an LCO. I don't remember their name and if it comes back to me I will post that but you can probably find them with an internet search. The material you would get from them would be much better than what you would get from a local printer who doesn't have the experience and the graphics that someone specializing in your industry does.

I would suggest staying away from Yellow page ads and newspaper ads.

[RogerMudd009]

JC,

Would love to hear an update about what you decided to do and the results you've gotten.