Day 1 of advertisement

[alpine692003]

Welp, Sunday was our 1st day of advertisement.

Newspaper ad was effective and will be running 4 times a month.
I had 2 other friends and my partner and I to go door to door and hang door hangers. Took us 3hrs to do approximately 400 door hangers. We handed out business cards when we saw a few people and a few people came outside as well.

How are some of you guys doing? I plan on going tmrw as well!

[RRS]

Hey alpine, isn't the mowing season a little far off? It's got to be cold up there, or maybe your're advertising something else. I was just wondering.


-Casey

[Kerry]

I will be advertising in a new area this year. I am using the newspaper in that area but I will be using direct mail as well.
This area has a lot of gated communities and thats the only way in.
I have been doing mostly commercial but this year I am going to try and get into these gated residentials.

[alpine692003]

RRS : I'm beginning to think that as well..

When do you start advertising for door hangers? I think I might just leave my newspaper ads in the newspaper for now.

When should one start advertising for door hangers?

lol..

[alpine692003]

Then again I thought to myself, it's never too late to advertise.

I will be going every week to hang door hangers with my friends and I for the next several weeks and months.

I want to beat the competition and get my name out there!

[nick11380]

Apine: When does your mowing season start in Canada?

I live near Green Bay, WI (Home of the Green Bay Packers).
And my mowing season doesn't start until the first week in May.

I wouldn't start advertising for lawn mowing or spring yard clean up before the middle of March. Last year I started advertising in the middle of march. But didn't get any calls until the middle of April for yard clean up. And no one called for lawn mowing until may.
I'm thinking about doing door hangers this year in addition to news paper. I would think the middle of april would be a good time for door hangers in my area because thats when people start thinking about doing yard work.

[alpine692003]

It starts around March / April.

I just thought that if I started to advertise now, it's being ahead of the game lol.

I think I'll just be doing another 200 door hangers today and I will stop until early March and I will finish off my last 400 and get 5000 more.

[nick11380]

Alpine: Are you saying the lawns in your area are ready to be cut in march/april?

The lawns in my area aren't ready to be cut until the first week in may. I would think your season would start a little later since your further north. Unless you have better weather earlier in your area.

If your season starts earlier, advertise earlier. But if you still have snow on the ground people aren't thinking about spring/summer work. If you still have a lot of winter left like I do. You might be able to get more people interested in your sevices if you offer snow shoveling/blowing in big letters and your spring/summer services listed smaller. The same people who would hire you for snow shoveling would most likely be the same people who would hire you for spring/summer work.

[Seascape]

Lat year when march 1 rolled around there was 18" pf snpw sitting on the graond. Funny thing is though we were cutting some of our larger application sites in the 3rd week of march. Ive seen them cut on march 1 and ive seen them cut on april 10. Its all aweather issue. Im suspicious that this year will be a late start because winter just set in for real her about 3 weeks ago. I think its going to linger around well into march this year. But i have no scientific data to back it, just a hunch. I hope im wrong. As far as advertising i run a 2" match box ad 52 weeks per year. I also place a 5" ad depending on weather. Its $500 per month so i try to run it more precisely. Usually it goes in between march 1 and march 15. Flyers are more precise. I start looking for weather breaks at the end of february. I monitor the local weather foreasts daily waiting for a nice prediction. As soon as a i see more than 3 40 degree days in a row predicted i get geared. As soon as i see a 50 degree day forecasted i start hitting areas that i want to increase my production. As soon as i see a 60 degree day thats going to fall on a weekend i go full bore. 8 guys w/ 500 flyers each and a map w/ highlighted areas to hit. I do this about 3 times over a 1 month period. The last 2 years have been far less but this is how i built it. I did something simialr to this last fall in an attemp to boost fall sales but on a slightly smaller scale. Ill repeat it again this fall. But my experience is the first 3 nice weekends are crucial for flyers. I dont plan anything personal those 3 weeks. Im available to take a call mon-sun until its over. Thats your cream for residential work. around here any how. It also been the case that once i see that first 40 degree day forecasted the next thing i know im sitting in my truck its june and i have no idea how im going to get everything done.


mike

[J&F Lawn Care]

how much does a newspaper ad usually cost?

[Seascape]

I run in suburban papers. I dont bother w/ the cols dispatch. I get more quality calls targeting papers. I run 4 differant papers to 4 diffearnt upscale cities in central ohio. All out of 1 office. You should have something similar where your at. The small matchbox ad costs $20 per week per paper. I have another 1 actually that i run in conjuntion w/ the matchbox that runs an additional $42 per week per paper. The 5" ad runs in the "landscape" portion of the classifieds vs the "lawn care" section that i run my smaller ads. The 5" runs $550 for all 4 papers per month. So about #100 per week for the 5". The 5" draws 1k jobs and up. I think i got a $500 mulch job out of it once but other than that its been very very very good to me. It runs april through november,,give or take. April ,may, and june publications run all 3 ads at once. Total publications is 240k per week.


mike

[BravesFan]

My suburban block ad (1 by 1 1/2in.) is $85 a week. My newspaper classified is $45 weekly.

Going to step up the ads soon.

Dennis

[nick11380]

Ads in my cities daily paper costs $35.00 a month.
Ads in the weekly bargain bulletin cost $65.00 for 3 months.
These ads are in the papers service directory section.

[dave_n_mulberry]

you guys are lucky. The Lakeland Ledger to put a two line add in the services section 90 day min run 204.00 a month, 195.00 a month for six months and $185.00 a month on a 12 month deal. expensive. Our Local Mulberry Mullet wrapper , the Mulberry Press, a weekly is $45.00 a week with a two month min charge.

[alpine692003]

I will be putting a $150 ad in my local free newspaper!

4 runs every sunday at around $35 an ad.

I just placed an ad in my newspaper for $67 a month, 4 runs and I just landed 1 residential account, a $150 cleanup,mow job!

i was happy with that!