paying for marketing

[Mitchell]

I should throw a disclaimer out: like most tree business I know, I did not get into the tree biz to get rich but rather because I really enjoy it.

I was wondering if anyone has changed there business name or made other changes like hiring ad companies to do there marketing. I get most of my work from referrals so marketing may not have the same implications to me as others. I'm questioning if going to the next level of business requires professional advertising.

After reading some effective advertising web pages, doing a job for a sign maker and experimenting with wording of ads; it seems fairly obvious that people respond much better to certain styles of advertising.

I paid to have a flier made early in my start up. I don't even have a copy of it anymore. I never did deliver it as it felt cheesy and "shisterish". The theme of the flier was trying to tap into peoples emotion [with fear apparently, being the best one]. The flier had a big picture of a tree on a house with a caption explaining what had happened. A large headline read "don't wait for this to happen to you simple maintenance now prevents big expenses." It also had a time expired coupon to present for savings on services. Basically the same stuff you see in regular marketing. They also suggested changing my business name which i never did.

Word of mouth aside, after a couple years I'm thinking that polished crap actually is the most effective form of marketing. Are people conditioned to it?. What are your thoughts?

 

[DoubleDTree]

Marketing

In my experience marketing is essential to take business to the next level. Usually one of the best forms of marketing is online marketing. Small hand out forms are productive too, but it all depends on your clientel and your target market.
Good Luck to you,
p.s. If you would like an example of my webpage Ill gladly show you.

 

[Mitchell]

thanks for the offer

In my experience marketing is essential to take business to the next level. Usually one of the best forms of marketing is online marketing. Small hand out forms are productive too, but it all depends on your clientel and your target market.
Good Luck to you,
p.s. If you would like an example of my webpage Ill gladly show you.

cheers, I would be glad to see your webpage. My marketing experience is sadley lacking. What do you mean by online? i have tried craigs list under skilled trades and have 0 calls. I was wondering how much banner add might be at one of those sights. I figured that would generate some calls; wetehr its a good bang for the buck is the only question. I would like to trade in my lower end clients for higher end ones. I suppose that is all about demographics...

scott

 

[DoubleDTree]

Take a look

http://www.doubledtree.com/

 

[Mitchell]

looks good

Good web page. Did you do it yourself or have some one craft it up for you? What kind of money do you have to invest into a web page like that? How does your web page help you with marketing? Anyrate thanks for sharing.

 

[alanarbor]

Skilled marketing is essential for business growth. Keep in mind, if something makes you uncomfortable with a marketing piece that someone creates for you, say so! They work for you, and you want a message that is compatible with your ethics and the market you want to target.

People do buy on emotion, but trying to create a fear of trees does not drive tree care, it drives tree removal. (One time service)

Tap into what people love about trees, and how you can help them express that love by doing the right thing. Make sure your message is consistant, create a brand for yourself.

Plaster your name everywhere you can get it. People need to see your name about 20 times, before they will start to remember it.

 

[Mitchell]

deference

I was wondering; do you guys as tree care providers stick to what you are good at, and let others do what they are good at. In so far as marketing goes anyways. I wonder if folks here have had proffesional marketers seriously change their business or clientel.
Do you folks that run small operations do most of the leg and brain work yourself?

 

[lxt]

I was wondering; do you guys as tree care providers stick to what you are good at, and let others do what they are good at. In so far as marketing goes anyways. I wonder if folks here have had proffesional marketers seriously change their business or clientel.
Do you folks that run small operations do most of the leg and brain work yourself?

I tried the professionals & the return was no better than when I did it myself, it will take up time but pro marketing is expensive, most of the time they incorporated most if not all my ideas anyhow(so much for creative professional marketing). I actually marketing my biz a challenge, trying to find out what moves people is neat.

I use a catch phrase for my biz(lots of co. do) its amazing how many people recognize a phrase & will hire you off that, but bottom line word of mouth, being fair & honest get you more than anything!!!

LXT................

 

[BonsaiJedi]

Whne looking to hire a marketer, I think a lot of it comes down to knowing what you want to do. I work with tree comapnies from all over the country, from the big guys to the one-man-shows so I see a huge variation of marketing types. Some folks see a yellow pages ad as their annual marketing budget, others run recurring newspaper ads, others do direct mail. We have one client who made up his own newspaper and sent them out to 1000's of people. In our biz only a few can afford the TV/radio route but tons of guys have websites these days which in my opinion is the most cost effective means of reaching clients.

If you want to go the yellow pages/print ad route you can simply do design yourself or have a graphic designer assist with the layout cheaper than a marketer. If you want a website you can just hire a cheap web design guy. Remember, a marketer will help you with everything from your brand ID to your logo to your "message" (are you "Affordable Tree Care" or are you "Premium Tree Care"...stuff like that) to which method of media is best suited to your company's position and they charge accordingly.
Think about what your company's market poisition is, who your target cliental is, and what means would best reach them and go from there.

 

[stumpjumper83]

To other fellow tree companies, what would guaranted business be worth to you. If I offered you $20,000 of business on an anual basis, what would you be willing to pay for it? I currently do mainly removals by myself and sub out the ones that are too difficult or too ineffieient for a climber to do. I'm thinking of subing out all my tree work and just doing the bidding and customer relations. Basically in january you would pay me x # of $ for the assurance of 20,000 of work by the following december. I would bid the tree job at a certain price, then call you and ask if you want the job, you say yes and the money is yours. Your equipment, your labor, your insurance. All I do is find the work. Of course if you screw the customer over, you get no more calls. what do you all think?

 

[OLD CHIPMONK]

Advertising

Our small company is located in an area with about 46 ( forty six) tree cutters. We have always had great success with the " Yellow Pages ".
The local " Pennysaver " was excellent in both spring and fall . We would
always receive about 50-70 calls per week through the Yellow Pages & a
lesser amount with the Pennysaver. The best advertising is through friends
& word of mouth. Build up a good customer base & treat them as your friends!
We hope you find this helpful...

 

[Mitchell]

Great Feedback

Thanks for the interest and information.
Stumpjumper I have a lady that found me through my pennysaver add that does a little bit of what you are talking about. She does cold calls and charges me 5 bucks a contact. Not the greatest but I have received a few jobs through that method. I have also ended up doing charity work as the seniors [most likely to respond to cold calling] had no money and were just lonely!
I also give other tree companies 10% of the gross for jobs they send me that they cant handle, are to small, or are to far out of their way. You might have more success by selling jobs that way as opposed to charging for potential work down the road.

Yellow pages. I have yet to run a yellow page add. The sales reps work on commision and the moment they figure out I do not want a 5 million dollar add they become difficult to get a hold of.... ha ha fricken sales reps they all seem to have the same personality traits.
Old Chipmonk are your adds teh basic text one liners or are they picture adds. My market has over 50 adds in the yellow pages as well and I wondered if it would help at all to have a listing short of a add.

 

[Michael Savage]

I should throw a disclaimer out: like most tree business I know, I did not get into the tree biz to get rich but rather because I really enjoy it.

I was wondering if anyone has changed there business name or made other changes like hiring ad companies to do there marketing. I get most of my work from referrals so marketing may not have the same implications to me as others. I'm questioning if going to the next level of business requires professional advertising.

After reading some effective advertising web pages, doing a job for a sign maker and experimenting with wording of ads; it seems fairly obvious that people respond much better to certain styles of advertising.

I paid to have a flier made early in my start up. I don't even have a copy of it anymore. I never did deliver it as it felt cheesy and "shisterish". The theme of the flier was trying to tap into peoples emotion [with fear apparently, being the best one]. The flier had a big picture of a tree on a house with a caption explaining what had happened. A large headline read "don't wait for this to happen to you simple maintenance now prevents big expenses." It also had a time expired coupon to present for savings on services. Basically the same stuff you see in regular marketing. They also suggested changing my business name which i never did.

Word of mouth aside, after a couple years I'm thinking that polished crap actually is the most effective form of marketing. Are people conditioned to it?. What are your thoughts?

I am familiar with the marketing campaign you mentioned here and my thoughts were the same as alanarbor, these type of scare campaign strike a chord with many people, and I dont doubt turn a quick buck with some. That being said the quick buck is made at the expense of the public's perception of trees and in turn a greater inclination for removal at the slightest hiccup on the part of the tree, this is immeasurably damaging to the industry, and in turn those of us who make a living in the industry. You only ever remove a tree once. whereas if you deliver PHC and tree care services you are a much more financialy viable entity in the long term and are effectively creating a self sustaining economy and also preserving whats left of our urban forest, a valuable community asset..

Skilled marketing is essential for business growth. Keep in mind, if something makes you uncomfortable with a marketing piece that someone creates for you, say so! They work for you, and you want a message that is compatible with your ethics and the market you want to target.

People do buy on emotion, but trying to create a fear of trees does not drive tree care, it drives tree removal. (One time service)

Tap into what people love about trees, and how you can help them express that love by doing the right thing. Make sure your message is consistant, create a brand for yourself.

Plaster your name everywhere you can get it. People need to see your name about 20 times, before they will start to remember it.

And another point to remember, for every good thing you do 3 people hear about it, but for every bad thing you do 10 people hear about it.. Word of mouth referral are based on reputation and client interaction with the would be referrer, so as somone said earlier, be honest do good work and look after people as best you can, and in doing so you minimize the 'bad' things or at least the perception of them and maximize the 'good' things..

-Mike
-End Rant =)