Methods of Advertising

[cole1980]

What do you do for advertising?

[Scott]

reply

word of mouth, signs on truck/trailer, t-shirts, free papers(thrifty nickel), local paper, flyers in parking lots, direct mailings, door hangers, and smoke signals..

sorry for being so brief<img src=icon_smile_cool.gif border=0 align=middle>
These are in order of what got me the most business.

[Skiter]

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SMOKE SIGNALS, I WOULD OF NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT, MAYBE I WILL GIVE IT A TRY!

[rkbrown]

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Smoke signals...hmmm...might be good, unless, of course, it is from the Cheech and Chong Mowing Service (I'd like to see the shape of those stripes) <img src=icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>.

Word of mouth is always the best. Some neighbor of one of your customers sees you on a lawn and asks you for a bid, etc. Scott has given you a very good list. The only thing that I might add to it would be:

1. Join the local Chamber of Commerce and go to their monthly luncheons to make contacts.
2. Yellow pages...good for some, not for others. I am exploring this now. I live in a small town just outside of Houston and we have our own smaller yellow pages. We also have 2 small weekly newspapers in our town. A business card sized ad is about $50 and will run for one month

Rob
Taybritt Lawn and Landscape Services

[GrassMaster]

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Hello Forum Members:

I Know I've Said this Before Somewhere about Newspaper Advertising but My Own Experience is...

When Placing an Ad, I Tried Everything & I wasted a Lot of Good Money over a Couple of Years of Newspaper Advertising. I Placed about Everykind of ad Possible, Small, Large & More!

We had a Very Dry Year my Second Year & I Needed Work, I was Running ads in the Local Paper every Thursday & Sunday. Sometimes all Week Long. Sunday was of Course the Best!

I Kept Changing the Wording of the Ads, Well I got Tired of it. So I placed that Simple 3 Liner Big Bold Faced Print & I Noticed I was Getting Plenty of Calls. By the Middle of my Third Year, I did the Same with my Yellow Page ad T00!

This is What I found to Work the Best for Me! Keep it Simple & You Get the Same Results as if you had a Large ad.
<center>
<b>Lawn Service
GrassMaster
555-5555</b>
</center>
Just those 3 Lines, All Bold Faced & Letters as Large as the Paper would Allow in the Classifieds. It was Easy to read & it was to the Point!

Note: I had the Paper Make the Phone Number Bigger to be the Width of the "Lawn Service" Wording. LOL, Don't Forget the Majority of Your Customers Eyes are not in that Good of Shape Anyway, So the Larger the Print the Better?

Giving a List of Your Services, Does You Very Little Good From What I Experienced. What if You Miss one, or if it's Worded Different from What the Customer Thinks?

In Most Cases they Think you can do it all Anyway, Your Main Objective is to Get the Most Calls for the Dollar, Right? Everytime You Get Your Name Outhere & You Talk to Others, Even if they Don't Use You, You Are Still Getting Your Name Outhere & That's What You are Paying For? Right? Yes it is! <img src=icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>

<b>Have a Nice Day!
GrassMaster - Admin -Click to PM Me or E-Mail Me!
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[indmowing]

reply

Very well said Grassmaster. While local paper advertising is the main source of advertising for contractors in Australia and generates a great deal of work, you need to keep it simple. This will of course save you money and really there is no need to waste space and money on listing your services as in general everyone does the same thing. Our business does not actually run a line ad but instead a block ad in our papers and it simply says "lawns & more" as the header (you wouldn't believe the variety of work we get from that description, from house demolition to landscaping or even house cleaning). We then have a bold symble for the rest of the ad, when you turn the page the first thing you see is our advertisement! We then of course have the phone number

Another ad we tested and did quite well with was simply
<center><b><font face='Arial Black'><font size=5>MOWING</font id=size5></font id='Arial Black'></b>
<i><font size=2>Same</font id=size2></i> <b><font size=3>Phone #</font id=size3></b> <i><font size=2>Day</font id=size2></i></center>

Once again this was a block ad however the same could aply for a line ad (just have the MOWING or your one simple word take up two lines.

The trick is to keep it simple and stand out from the croud!

Independent Lawn Mowing Contractors
Working together to benefit all.
www.indmowing.com.au
Email info@indmowing.com.au