Landscape Startup

If you’ve been paying for advertising you should be tracking

• How much the ads cost.
• How many people they were possibly viewed by.
• How many people actually read, watched or listened to them.
• How many people too an action such as calling your company, mailed something in, signed up for a mailing list, etc.
• How many new clients you signed up.

I started my business by accident after posting “Landscape design student needs your home for portfolio development” on a local yahoo group I belong to. Back then the group had about 2000 members. Delivery of the messages is by individual email, a daily digest of all messages, or viewed online. The group is moderated and members must be approved before being able to join and post messages. They allow local business postings several times a year. Within one week of my post, I had received over 30 calls and had lined up enough work to give 2 weeks notice to my boss.

The first mailer I ever used was Money Mailer . Their local office representative called me up after hearing a presentation I gave to a real estate office about how to cheaply make a house for sell stand out with selective pruning, edging, annuals, and mulch. I bartered services for a coupon mailing. While I did gain several new clients and have retained them year after year I would be hesitant to actually go out and regularly spend hundreds of dollars for each and every mailing. The last mailer I did brought in more calls for advertising sales reps than calls seeking a landscaper.

My new year’s resolution for 2007 is to do everything different than my competition. Already, I’ve been seeing doorhangers popping up and discarded flyers floating amongst the leaves. I know the big fertiziler and weed control companies will start their TV ads late in the winter. Soon, mailers will start showing up with promises of a free first application and free evaluations. Contract renewals are going out soon for existing customers. I have to do a little digging to see what else the competition is doing, but I’m sure there’s not much more.

By April of 2007 I would like to have 100 customers signed up for a monthly fertilizing and pesticide program. I currently have a customer list of about 30 people that I do a variety of things for, but none are actually signed up for any standardized service. I have a budget of about $500 which means my customer acquisition cost is only $5. Take a look at Netflix.com. They pay affiliates a minimun of $9 for every person who signs up for their service. Mass mailings are too expensive. Read my earlier post about the landscaper going out of business and you’ll see I can’t buy even a single account. I can print up a number of postcards, my laser printer is full of toner, email is free, and so are many online groups.

My plan for signing up 100 new customers by the spring rush.

• Send out a thank you email to all existing customers and alert them to my plans for next year.
• Join as many local online groups as possible. Many allow new members to introduce themselves.
• Call up landscapers who don’t have pesticide licenses and work out an affiliate deal with them to take care of their fertilizing and pesticide applications.
• Start writing an email gardening newsletter and heavily focus on local needs and resources.
• Offer free gardening classes just like a Tupperware party with someone hosting and bringing several friends over. Trust me, this beats giving free estimates.
• Film educational gardening clips using local people and host them on youtube.com. Include links to the most recent one in every email signature.
• Forget the website, almost no one visits the current one. Get listed in free local directories instead.
• Say hi to every neighbor of existing and new clients. Pesticide laws require neighbor notification. Why not knock on their door and say hi?
• Offer a travel savings discount to your customers if they help you get more work on their block.
• Say something new and always include a call to action. Everyone already knows landscapers cut lawns, mulch, top soil, prune, snow removal, bored yet, insect control, fertilize, retaining walls, mickey mouse, landscape design, irrigation, ponds, pavers, oy this is too much and this is only half of it!

More ideas soon. In the meantime, click on the “comments” link and leave your favorite way to advertise.

Posted on October 17th, 2006 under Advertising • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback