Advertising: What works, what doesn't?

[TomSawyer]

Advertising is expensive! What seems to bring the customers in for you guys out there. I am in the Yellow pages, newspapers, and I post flyers. So far the newspapers have done the best, but I want to hear your opinions.

Thanks

 

[TDunk]

The newspaper does OK for me, but nothing to brag about. I have an add on those paper dinner place matts at resturants. There again they do OK. Around here we have a lumberjack comp. and i'm going to place an add in there flyer and see what happens. The best form of advertising is word of mouth. The second best is wearing my "Dunkle's Tree" shirts when i go out. People have come up to me while shopping/eating wondering if i could go look at a tree because they saw what i wearing.

 

[Treetom]

Word of mouth is the best.

TomSawyer: When a potential client calls I always ask how they were referred to me. More often than not, it's my little two-line "Clippings" ad on the back page of the local newspaper that catches their attention. Even when I've had up to a quarter-page ad in the Yellow Pages, this ad gets about the same amount of responses. It's not cheap, but I can pull the ad whenever I want, like in the slow winter months. Yellow Pages run at least a 12-month contract, so you're still paying even when you're not working as much. I run the Clippings ad 3-4 days, on the days with the most circulation. The second line of the add contains my web address, which links the two media. At the web site there's a lot more detail for those who are interested, and it's is a lot cheaper than a Yellow Page ad. (treetom.net) I need to spruce this up a little when I get time. There's also a local Buyer's Guide weekly that gets me a few jobs, cheap is the key word here. I had four or five restaurant placemat ads at one time which got me a few jobs, but a little more money gets me in the newspaper with a much better response. A significant amount of people see my truck signs, where the web address and phone number are included. (I used to trout fish up on the Betsy near Benzonia, nice country up there.)

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Nice site, Tom. Clean, well laid out. Not bad at all!

 

[Treetom]

Thanks BlueRidge. It gets the point across.

 

[TomSawyer]

Yeah Tom, that is a great site. Tell us about your crane, what is its capacity, how often do you use it, what do you charge, etc. I'm far enough away to not be a competitor, so you can let some of your secrets go!

 

[gr8scott72]

I just got a stump job from a magnet business card that I left on the gas pump when I filled up.

 

[mckeetree]

One of my climbers wrote our number on the ladies restroom wall in Red Lobster and we have gotten about ten jobs from it.

 

[gr8scott72]

One of my climbers wrote our number on the ladies restroom wall in Red Lobster and we have gotten about ten jobs from it.

Now that's funny.

So, where did you see our name? lol

 

[custom8726]

TomSawyer: When a potential client calls I always ask how they were referred to me. More often than not, it's my little two-line "Clippings" ad on the back page of the local newspaper that catches their attention. Even when I've had up to a quarter-page ad in the Yellow Pages, this ad gets about the same amount of responses. It's not cheap, but I can pull the ad whenever I want, like in the slow winter months. Yellow Pages run at least a 12-month contract, so you're still paying even when you're not working as much. I run the Clippings ad 3-4 days, on the days with the most circulation. The second line of the add contains my web address, which links the two media. At the web site there's a lot more detail for those who are interested, and it's is a lot cheaper than a Yellow Page ad. (treetom.net) I need to spruce this up a little when I get time. There's also a local Buyer's Guide weekly that gets me a few jobs, cheap is the key word here. I had four or five restaurant placemat ads at one time which got me a few jobs, but a little more money gets me in the newspaper with a much better response. A significant amount of people see my truck signs, where the web address and phone number are included. (I used to trout fish up on the Betsy near Benzonia, nice country up there.)

Nice web page!! I like the customer testamonials the best. Probably speled that wrong but you get the point. Back on topic, Like others have said word of mouth is best. I find the phone calls from the yellow pages or news paper are people shoping around and if you are not the low bidder you do not get the job most of the time. If you have a good location a yard sign works well often.

 

[PTS]

Advertising is one of those things that you love to hate. Without it your in trouble but with it your broke. The best advise that I could offer is educate your customers. A name in the phone book is a must however take this as an example. Around harvest and planting time I run radio ads about farmers fence lines trees rubbing their equipment etc. They are stuck in their tractors with nothing to do but drive and listen to the radio. So I talk about the one thing they are noticing right now. Picks up a ton of work. Once the leaves are all on I will run radio spots about crown cleans. Talk to the people about taking a walk around their trees and look up inside. Are you seeing dead limbs. If so call us. They won't see diseases and they won't see rubbing limbs but they will be able to notice a limb without leaves so keep it simple. Then that night when they are home and out in the yard and they look up and see the dead limbs they will say I have to call them. They aren't going to call your competitor because they don't know if they do that type of work but they will call you because you told them about this little problem and they know you can fix it because you told them you can. I like to pick noticeable issues throughout the year that I am seeing in the area explain it briefly and tell them if they are seeing it to call us. Sometimes the issues may be holes in leave. Around here our hack berry and oaks get tatters thanks to the farmers. There is no cure for that however according to Iowa State University Forestry division it a leading cause of death to those two species if heavily tattered for 7 plus years. Now I can't necessarily do anything about their problem but it does put me in contact a customer that cares about the health care of their trees and allows me to discuss options of longevity with them. Once you have taken care of them and they see you know what you are doing they won't call anyone else. If they are a numbers person only looking for the best price, you don't want them anyway. You want the loyal repeat customers.

 

[Treetom]

Bathroom walls?! Whatever works.

PTS. You know your market. What kind of money are we talking about for radio spots? TomSawyer, often these discussions get way off the topic, so I suggest maybe starting another post for guys with cranes, maybe some pics or vids. But since you asked: National crane, 65 ft boom, 8-ton capacity, mounted on a '73 International Loadstar. I used to park it, boom extended vertically in a lot right next to U.S. 31, two lanes of traffic in both directions could see my company name. MDOT put an end to that after a couple months, but the response was tremendous. I have a video that will give you some idea of the crane's capacity. There, now I'm off topic. :monkey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpU7PlHy_X0

 

[TomSawyer]

Sweet, dude!

I want a crane now. Why did you use the crane on that job though? We would have just chunked that biatch down piece by piece. Was the drop zone small? It was hard to tell by the video. How much does the crane cost you to run for a day, including operator?

 

[PTS]

That Video Scares me for a lot of reasons!!!!

 

[Treetom]

The "drop" zone was a house on the north of the tree, a garage to the east. Small area between primary electrical and crane for setting the limbs down. There was a lot of 2-man bucket work before we did the crane part. It would have been possible to rope the tree down, block the big stuff, then pull the trunk over. That would have been a lot of cutting and blocking in a small area. The crane moved things along faster. I use the crane in the manner seen in the video maybe 3-4 times a year, for topping out and lifting the trunk away from property. If I can chunk that biatch, as you say, I often will. As can be seen in this video, a lot of room for chunking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-56hpQdwOeM

The disadvantage is having to cut a large yard tree into chunks that the loader can lift, lots of metal in that first 8Ft of trunk. Cranes have their advantages, you can get a lot of tree down fast, if you have room to work. Then you need a crew and the equipment that can keep up with the work flow. There is a niche for crane work. I don't think I'd invest in another one. If I scheduled a lot of big trees and needed a crane, I'd just hire another tree service to run their's for a day or two. Crane and operator around here for a day is around $1000.00/day. PTS: In the vid (1999) there was no PPE, the guy climbing out of the bucket did have a lanyard, though. Since then I've been pretty fussy about PPE, thanks to AS. Although I still like to spike them trees. But that's another topic. Oh yeah, adverstising is expensive, you just gotta find what works best for you.

 

[PTS]

Glad to hear that PPE's are now in use.

 

[custom8726]

That Video Scares me for a lot of reasons!!!!

I have to agree, but as you stated that was 99 so hopefully things have improved since then as far as PPE and technique.

 

[Treetom]

Back on topic, sorta.

I mentioned early in this thread that the Clippings ad in the local newspaper got me a pretty good response. Recently, I've noticed that another guy named Tom is running an ad that ends up right below mine. I've been at this business for more than 25 years and have built a reputable, respectable and compentent business as Tom's Tree Service. I'm wondering how many potential and previous clients are going to call this guy, remembering the excellent work I did for them, but giving this Tom credit, thinking that since his name is Tom and he does tree work, he must own Tom's Tree Service. I don't want another Tom (or ####, or Harry, or anyone) piggybacking off my repuatation and hard work. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

 

[TomSawyer]

Two Toms, same paper. That sucks. I own Tom Sawyer's tree service out of Manton, and I think I am far enough away that we aren't competitors. Otherwise that would make 3 Toms! I hope that other guy isn't a lowballer.

 

[Bigus Termitius]

I mentioned early in this thread that the Clippings ad in the local newspaper got me a pretty good response. Recently, I've noticed that another guy named Tom is running an ad that ends up right below mine. I've been at this business for more than 25 years and have built a reputable, respectable and compentent business as Tom's Tree Service. I'm wondering how many potential and previous clients are going to call this guy, remembering the excellent work I did for them, but giving this Tom credit, thinking that since his name is Tom and he does tree work, he must own Tom's Tree Service. I don't want another Tom (or ####, or Harry, or anyone) piggybacking off my repuatation and hard work. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Yeah, add on "Proud to be celebrating 25 years serving greater Muskegon"

.....or something to that effect.