Advertising Disaster

C

Cameron

Location
NJ
I've been trying different types of advertising this year. I had pulled my full page ad out of the Yellow pages to only have a one line listing.

I decided to to a 5 month run in a coupon magazine for some different exposure. Only promblem was I sent the coupon out to the areas I work hoping to gain new clients. All I ended up doing is work that I would have sold via a referral or previous customer for a dicounted price cause they would break out the coupon at the end of the estimate.
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Just want to say people are ruthless with coupons. I had all the fine print. Present coupon time of estimate, Not to be used on previously completed work, and so on

Had one woman send it with her check 45 days late, before the coupon was even out on my first add run when we did the work.

Had a subcontractor I work for do the same thing. Not like he gave the coupon to the people to use. P.s he was 30 days past due paying too.

Let me just say the list goes on an on. I will never do a coupon mailer again.
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I had very bad luck with this form of advertisement. A lot of running around doing estimates for people who only want the bottom dollar price and then want to use the coupon. Waste of time and money.
 
thanks for sharing that.

I never thought about past customers using it so much and how ruthless people could try to be with them.

I just figured it would get me cheap unloyal customers if I ever did a mailing like that, which I have worked hard not to have.
 
My bright idea behind this was I had hired a new sales rep. here and wanted to make sure I had the volume of calls to support three guys doing sales. I of course was taking the referrals and previous customers while giving them leads to follow up on and generate work.
 
Thanks for that. I have seen some of the hack companies post flyers under peoples windshield wipers at packer games with coupons on it. Apparently it is a not so good thing. Thanks for sharing.

P.S. I am not calling you a hack because you did the same coupon thing...just wanted to make sure you knew that.
 
I find myself reluctant to post business related things on here, especially cause I have friends here that work for other companies/competitors. But I was so frustrated with this I had to let it out.

I didn't even need to advertise this year, but since I have certain amount of money allocated to advertising, I figured why not? I've seen a couple of my competitors in this magazine and even a master certified arborist in there that is my friend, plus is a Buzz regular (don't want to do any name dropping) I could have even had called him to see how was his experience. It could have saved me some coin.

I paid $1500 a month to do about 100,000 homes. So there's 7500$ thrown dowm the toliet plus the thousands lost on discounted work. Even the potential of lost future clients cause I wouldn't except the coupon because of the stipulations I had on the coupon. Read the fine print people.

It's comical cause in the magazine is another company with a guy flushing a stump with helmet only and no other PPE. I'm not trying to be the saftey police here, but I thought my picture was much more professional.
 
So what would be some key points to make a flyer/coupon ad work in the future?

This is something I'm planning on trying this season. YP pages are just to expensive in my parts and for the price of 1 month of ads in the local paper(1 paper a week) I can send out a postcard to ever home in the area.

Word of mouth worked well this season, but I need to find new clients to get more word of mouth.

P.S. Not a hack, just a new biz trying to get some exposure to new clients. I'm a CA and have all the proper licenses.
 
I made the mistake of taking the easy way out. I should be concentrating on sending mailers to all my previous clients of ten years. People who know the work we do and are loyal to us. That will be my focus.

I think as a new business it's better to get yourself out there and network to get clients. Hand business cards out like crazy. Believe or not yard signs seem to be one of our bestforms of advertising. They usually all over he place. I think people seem to think I see him working this area a lot, so why not give him a call.

Advertising to people who have no idea who you are or what your about is really tough market to gain clients. Like most who have said here its usually tire kickers and shoppers for the low ball #.

BTW, Here is our ad
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[ QUOTE ]
Coupons attract once off buyers who only value the lowest price.

Your target market should be the opposite.

[/ QUOTE ]

Indeed. I realized this when I started my business. I tried it one time in 2002 and never looked back.
 
really nice ad!

man, I'm so sorry to hear how much $ it costs you to do that and the headaches it brought.

that really stinks
 
So what has worked for you guys in the early years? I'm sure you didn't just get a ph#,name and hope for the phone to ring.

Trying to learn from the vets so I don't keep wasting money on crap marketing.
 
I know what i did at first was give cards out like crazy... i taught a few classes for free to just average people, i also went to almost every local meetings whether it was for invasives, trees or just landscaping of any sort... after awhile it became word of mouth. now though i am thinking of doing some marketing to take the next step.
 
I did that too. 12' x 30' size billboard, same time as the coupon magazine but for 6 months. That we are done with at the end of year too, disapointed as well. Didn't seem to generate calls from it, but everyone I seem to know saw it and said it look great.
 
Network, network, with (high end)landscrapers join there associations, go to maintenance company functions, volunteer, meet and greet all your city foresters, teach,
not dollar expensive but time expensive but it pays in the long run
 
THe most important thing with any marketing is to Test & Measure.
Every call we take at the end we ask "by the way, can i just ask how you first found or heard of us?"

Record this data. Know where your leads come from. Match it up against actual sales. Makes for informed decisions around where to increase or decrease you marketing spend.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Network, network, with (high end)landscrapers join there associations, go to maintenance company functions, volunteer, meet and greet all your city foresters, teach,
not dollar expensive but time expensive but it pays in the long run

[/ QUOTE ]

Definitely agree!!!! This has been the most rewarding of any form of advert....Build those relationships that will bring return for years.
Also, keeping in touch with your existing and previous clients....newsletters, phone calls, direct mail....etc.

All other forms we've tried in the past 2 years we've found to be quite dissapointing.
 
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