Thinking of advertising mainly for pruning

[climberizer]

I'm thinking of changing my advertising to target people that care about their trees, rather than removals.

most just use "arbor" or "care" in their name an still do do bad work.

But as a large % of work around here is removals, i just dont know.

Was thinking about somthing along the lines of. "If you want your tree killed, call somone else"
"Trees are assets" and all that sort of stuff. i might try some flyers along those lines first.

 

[tomthetreeman]

My biz card reads:

Ornamental and shade tree pruning

Tree preservation

Hazard tree removal

(Among other things)

...Sometimes adding value to a client's property means the removal of trees. It's up to us to educate them about which trees are an asset and which are not.

-Tom

 

[climberizer]

Yeah thats where im heading, want to seperate myself from the pack and also do the kind of work i enjoy. And i'm in a position to give it a shot.

Your exactly right, it's about education

 

[southsoundtree]

don't advertise yourself out of work.

What if you have 15 trees to prune, and one to remove. People might think that you aren't qualified/ insured to do removals.

Specify your tree preservation ethics and your desire to help people to know what to keep and what to remove.

If you are qualified to evaluate, offer eval services and preservation options.

Specify that proper pruning will be performed to ANSI standards (Is that A300, anybody?) for tree health.

If you still get calls for removals, you can explain your specialty niche, offer your credentials/ examples of their work, and ask if they can have their needs/ desires met through pruning. Some people think in black and white--I have a tree problem, no tree, no problem.

I've been thinking of the response to,
"If I have to put more money into pruning it in 5 years, I'll just have it cut down.",
with,
"If you would like a price on me removing your car, I can do that as well. You are going to have to put money into that as well. In my mind there are many factors to consider before removing trees, such as value added to the property (possibly without adding to property tax), shade, privacy, what the view will be like without the tree (will there be brown branches visible from an adjacent conifer that has been shaded by the close proximity of the trees),etc. That is a really attractive tree that compliments your house and will take a long time to replace."

 

[climberizer]

Yeah you are right, if home owner want stump removal and they dont see it in your add they may not call.

Anyone know of any instances where they changed their advertising, and had really good or really bad results.

I'v been doing tree work for some time now, and im in a position where i want 2 or 3 days work.
It's going to be interesting, the first thing i'm going to do is get the website up and going, i doubt it will do much but it wont cost much as my sister can do it.

 

[BostonBull]

[ QUOTE ]

But as a large % of work around here is removals, i just dont know.

[/ QUOTE ]


Where is here?

 

[trevmcrev]

Test & Measure.

Track the source of all your leads.

If you dont know where they come from now you wont really know if something new works or not.

 

[GiantSlayer]

removals are fun, and easy compared to trimming; one doesn't need to do so much thinking (ie: what should I do with this limb?) and one never needs to worry that the customer will be pissed that it was not done to their liking.

 

[theXman]

VERY true.

two of my brothers also have tree services of their own.

both of them do very little trimming anymore, they got so sick and tired of customers that wanted topping and such and not recognizing proper trimming.

My older brother got so frustrated, I think he pretty much ignors calls that come in for trimming, these past 12 yrs or so.

my older brother says, people don't recognize trimming unless the tree was either topped or elevated a lot. Often, if the customer doesn't recognize it, they don't think they got their moneys worth.

i prefer the customer to be home when i trim, so they get to see all the work that went into the trim and where i go in the tree to make the proper cuts and how much comes out of the tree. Then they understand and are happy with the job. If I do it while they are not home, they may come home and say, "what was done with it?".

I do a LOT of education with the customer during the trimming estimate. So if they go with us, they should really know what they are getting.

most removals, i'd rather they are not home and come home to see everything gone and cleaned up.

 

[treehumper]

I tell my clients before the trimming is done that it is like a good haircut, you don't notice the difference immediately but it just looks better.

General pruning is a hard sell in these parts. I did them regularly in Toronto but not much here in North Jersey.

 

[treesandsurf]

[ QUOTE ]
(Is that A300, anybody?)

[/ QUOTE ]


Yes!

jp

 

[southsoundtree]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
(Is that A300, anybody?)

[/ QUOTE ]


Yes!

jp

[/ QUOTE ]

T&S-- thanks for the confirmation. I've been so busy lately that some things seem a bit muddled. I don't want to steer anybody wrong with mis-information, and don't post info that I am not pretty certain to be on the mark.