flyers

[Leone Lawn]

is 1 to 2 percent the average for a flyer and if so then if i pass out 10000 flyers will i get 100 to 200 customers? also to all those people starting out i cold called about 100 people yesterday and i got 8 hits meaning i got some kinda work from them thats 8%!!!

[The Mowerdude]

We've been doing flyer campaigns for years and we've always experienced a 1-2% return as a MINIMUM. In actuality, our results have been closer to what you got yesterday with 8%. And by the way, I gotta say: "You go, man ) That's the way to build it.

The only down side to the flyer efforts is that there is no magic to it. It's nothing more than a numbers game and it involves a lot of work. For us, the most we ever put out in one season was around 7500. We had as a goal 10,000 but we never made it because we were getting enough calls that we didn't have the time to put out anymore. It really is time consuming and with all the walking (I refuse to put them on mailboxes) my arthritis was killing me.

It's also a little difficult to hire somebody to help. Our helpers didn't understand our sense of urgency and would skip houses, skip entire streets and then throw all of the their flyers into the first convenient dumpster. I got a call from an irate homeowner. She had over 100 of my flyers on her front portch alone. Not exactly the results I was hoping for but at least, after going over there to pick them up, we parted friends. The employee and I did NOT part friends.

We have found also that, for mowing, the later in the year we do them, the smaller the percentage of those responding. Here we shoot for the month of March to get our mowing flyers out and we notice the calls really slowing down around the middle of April. By the begining of May, it's obvious that most folks have their services lined up but still, we get a few calls all the way into August as so many of the newbies and scrubs start dropping the ball and the customers become fed up with them.

One year we did a really intense effort to drum up some fall aeration work by putting out our aeration flyers in July. It was too early. We put out around 4000 and did not even get one call. So timing is obviously very important.

I wish you success with you efforts. Keep me posted. I'm curious to see how you do.

[Leone Lawn]

well thanks for being interested in my post. By the way im 16 just so u know so u can get a perspective of me. i have 18 accounts right now all averaging 21 dollars per yard. i wonder what time i should pass out flyers because i dont want to waste my money and only get a couple calls. I do leaves in the fall and cold calling really works for that. i got 10 out of 100 calls. half the people wernt home. i hope to get about 100 customers and 1 or 2 commercial.

[Lance]

me and my guy passed out flyers mon and tues(not all day...) probably 500-750 flyers i had about 12 callsso far and picked up 4 new yards rest were for hedges or landscaping. but 4 new for wkly maint. dont always have to think of wasting money passin out flyers.. as far as my newspaper ad if its 50 a month if i get a yard that makes me 50 or more off of the ad well i think of every other yard as profit from the ad.. and the first yard supports the ad. same for flyers if i pay 50 worth of flyers a week and pick up a couple yards my advertising efforts are paid for of course flyers are different because there is labor involved but if you are solo and have nothing to do why not. get business u didnt have in the first place...once u get to a certain point and you have advertising on your trailer/truck and its parked in front of a nice yard then you dont have to pass anything out anymore. same with more happy customers. more u have the more u get around.

[cls]

Door hangers placed by homeschoolers so you don't have to worry about the sewer routine. 1500 brought 9 accounts in my main trading area.

[The Mowerdude]

That's actually less than 1% we've been talking about but still, I wouldn't turn it down. And if they turn out to be good many season customers, it's well worth the effort. Really, it's hard to lose at these flyers. You just need to go for it.

I'm guessing though that you got more calls than that but 9 came to fruition?

[Lance]

i picked up 5 yards today from flyers been passi out about 500-700 a day on monday and tues. this week and last

ive gotten alot of calls for hedges those for sure pay for the time spent... and the wkly maint accts are just the icing on the cake

[turfmarketing]

As with any form of mass-marketing, quanity is important. But so is QUALITY. 10,000 bad flyers are still bad. They don't get more effective just because there are more of them.

You're better-off using your budget to produce better quality flyers and producing less. Sometime, produce 1/2 the way you normally do, and produce the other 1/2 with some nicer graphics, full-color, better copy, better paper etc. Distribute them in different neighborhoods and track the response rate. QUALITY ALWAYS MAKES A DIFFERENCE.

[AltaLawnCare]

I've thought about post cards, mailed out.

But I don't know how to target specific locations, or neghborhoods.

[turfmarketing]

AltaLawnCare

Send me an email and I'll tell you how to easily build a targeted mailing list. I'd post it here, but I'm not allowed to post any sort of advertisement.

turfmarketing@turfmarketing.com

[AltaLawnCare]

Thanks, TM

You got mail.