Yeah, speaking from experience: in our area, people pick up the phone book for a tree service. Mostly the Real Yellow Pages...we have a (2) page ad and we pay for it to be listed FIRST in the listings (first thing a customer comes to when they look up "Tree Service" in the phonebook). Not cheap at all...around $2,500.00 a month, but we get 90% of all our calls off of it. Typical spring/summer call volume per day is between 10 to 12 calls/day. If you are just starting out, run newspaper ads. Doorhangers don't work around here...people just toss them in the garbage...same thing with flyers. I'm sure it differs from area to area. Harder to pay for ad in winter months, but money is saved up from busy season to pay for the ad in the slower months!
What to do??
- Thread starter rangerdanger
- Start date
Further note...city ordinance around here will not allow for door hangers or flyers because it is considered soliciting...our wonderful city council at work! The only time they will grant permission for flyers or door hangers is in a storm/emergency situation. My advice is to start out in your local newspaper and then work up from there...that's what I did.
southsoundtree
Been here much more than a while
- Location
- Olympia, WA
All of the above is good information.
I'll second the Craigslist--free advertising. The important thing is to stand out from the crowd. Make sure that people know that you're performing professional work. Blinky explained to me about putting pictures in your ads, not just the four available standard images. I use photobucket.com to "host" the uploaded pictures from my camera. Then I "cut" and "paste" an "html tag" (or something like that) into the text of the CL ad. You can see us doing lots of different things that people wish that they could have in the Yellow Pages. Check it out on the Olympia, WA Craigslist for ideas. Lexington seems to have a good amount of CL use. FREE! You can have a CL account that makes it easy to have multiple ads that you can repost weekly.
Suggestive advertising on CL is good (e.g. during the winter, "Now is the time for fruit tree pruning", in the fall "Now is the time to prepare your trees for the winter storms", etc).
Neighborhood stores, coffee shops, restaurants, any place with a bulletin board for a good flyer explaining your services and how you excel. Color photo(s). FREE. Again, make sure people understand that you are a family-run, PROFESSIONAL tree care and removal service that they will be happy to have hired. FREE.
Always ask how satisfied your customer is at the end of the job. When they are done telling you that you did a great job, ask them if you can give them a few business cards, explaining that your philosophy is earning a long-term customer base by excelling, and word-of-mouth advertising is important, and you'll be glad to give their friends or co-workers a free estimate. NEXT to FREE.
If you get a few days off (you said you still had a week of work lined up) get all your maintenance done, post flyers, get a free website going. Many are available and relatively easy to use, as they are template based.
Wash your rigs and part them in a busy area. Your truck lettering needs to be easy to read and easy to remember--a website can help. www.rangerdangertreecare.com is easy to remember than a phone number to a driver. Sit and read a book or do paperwork in the rig during peak travel hours.
Professional lettering on the rig is probably more of an good investment than Yellow Pages, though YP often has an online directory component in addition to the printed book.
Cold call old customers to remind them that you're still around...free estimates to any of their family, friends, etc...did they get through the winter without damage, or might they need anything looked at...
Call all the vets in the area to explain that you perform Cat in a tree rescue Service. www.catinatreerescue.com directory. FREE. Also, fire departments, humane society.
Who would they want to do their treework, their kitty's rescuer!! I might get a cat call once every few weeks from advertising on CL. A quarter to a third become tree customers or repeat cat rescue customers.
I'll second the Craigslist--free advertising. The important thing is to stand out from the crowd. Make sure that people know that you're performing professional work. Blinky explained to me about putting pictures in your ads, not just the four available standard images. I use photobucket.com to "host" the uploaded pictures from my camera. Then I "cut" and "paste" an "html tag" (or something like that) into the text of the CL ad. You can see us doing lots of different things that people wish that they could have in the Yellow Pages. Check it out on the Olympia, WA Craigslist for ideas. Lexington seems to have a good amount of CL use. FREE! You can have a CL account that makes it easy to have multiple ads that you can repost weekly.
Suggestive advertising on CL is good (e.g. during the winter, "Now is the time for fruit tree pruning", in the fall "Now is the time to prepare your trees for the winter storms", etc).
Neighborhood stores, coffee shops, restaurants, any place with a bulletin board for a good flyer explaining your services and how you excel. Color photo(s). FREE. Again, make sure people understand that you are a family-run, PROFESSIONAL tree care and removal service that they will be happy to have hired. FREE.
Always ask how satisfied your customer is at the end of the job. When they are done telling you that you did a great job, ask them if you can give them a few business cards, explaining that your philosophy is earning a long-term customer base by excelling, and word-of-mouth advertising is important, and you'll be glad to give their friends or co-workers a free estimate. NEXT to FREE.
If you get a few days off (you said you still had a week of work lined up) get all your maintenance done, post flyers, get a free website going. Many are available and relatively easy to use, as they are template based.
Wash your rigs and part them in a busy area. Your truck lettering needs to be easy to read and easy to remember--a website can help. www.rangerdangertreecare.com is easy to remember than a phone number to a driver. Sit and read a book or do paperwork in the rig during peak travel hours.
Professional lettering on the rig is probably more of an good investment than Yellow Pages, though YP often has an online directory component in addition to the printed book.
Cold call old customers to remind them that you're still around...free estimates to any of their family, friends, etc...did they get through the winter without damage, or might they need anything looked at...
Call all the vets in the area to explain that you perform Cat in a tree rescue Service. www.catinatreerescue.com directory. FREE. Also, fire departments, humane society.
Who would they want to do their treework, their kitty's rescuer!! I might get a cat call once every few weeks from advertising on CL. A quarter to a third become tree customers or repeat cat rescue customers.
southsoundtree
Been here much more than a while
- Location
- Olympia, WA
Kentucky is in the bible belt, right? If you're church-goers, maybe do some volunteer work for the church. Seems like a lot of people get work this way (I'm not a church-goer myself).
Adopt a tree in a city park, maybe.
Adopt a tree in a city park, maybe.
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Fruit tree holding on by a thread, client wants to get another year out of it. Thoughts?- Started by climbingmonkey24
- Replies: 21
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