Advertising

[Felder]

Can someone tell me what form of advertising have you found to be the best.

[Scott]

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Word of mouth by far. It's free. Always offer your customers a bone if they refer you to another client that last longer than say 3-6 months. After that time has elapsed give them something, free cut, free tree/bush trimming, gift certificate for two to a buffet? etc...

I tried the "thrifty nickel" and other forms of free papers and they seem to get the, umm, how can I say this? The cheapskates.

The local paper: seems to me not too many people read this anymore. I can access my local paper on the net. The last time I ran an ad for a month and I got only two one time cleanups. It definitely paid for itself.

Signs on your vehicle are always good and fairly inexpensive. Don't forget to drive across town whenever you need a coke.

Flyers haven't done too well for me but my brother in-law has had good results with them. For a hundred flyers he has gotten four customers, not bad since he printed them himself in black and white.

[Felder]

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Thanks for the info. This is a great forum.
Sincerely,
Felder Charbonnet
Biloxi, Ms

[Bryan]

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I added almost 30 accounts in three months with the local papers.

Yes you do get some cheap skates, but you just have to hold your ground.

Remember, when it comes to the paper you can always bring you're price down a bit when haggling. So strart a bit higher.

Green is good !!

[Maddog]

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I agree with Scott. Your work and word of mouth has brought me the best business. The signs on my truck were second. The newspaper cost too much for the return I got in accounts. The work I got from advertising in the paper paid for the ad but not too much more. If you do advertise in the paper you can cut your costs by only advertising in the Sunday paper and possibly the day of the week that your local news paper puts out the fliers for the grocery stores.

[Phil Nilsson]

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I tend to lean toward commercial work because over the long haul that's where the big dollars are ... big contracts, big labor requirements ... plenty of soldiers on the ground making money for you in an atmosphere which does not require the micro mgmt of residential. It's very difficult to build a large residentially oriented bizz because of quality control issues. Spend some of those advertising dollars with an eye toward inching your way into commercial. You're selling time ... the more you sell the more you'll make ... all other things being equal. You can sell more time in commercial ... simple as that.

Phil Nilsson
Nilsson Associates Consultants
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