Marketing

[jca57jd]

Hey guys. I have spent the past few days working on marketing for my company. My company, Alden & Son Construction does all sorts of landscaping and small grading jobs. However, I just graduated college and am now in the full time position finding myself really low on work. Being that it is wintertime, I am primarily wanting to market bushhoging and brush clearing. I do not own a mulcher but I did just recently by a heavy-duty rotary cutter for my skid loader. I have done work around my house with this unit, and it easily cuts anything from 4" to 5" and smaller and does a reasonable job on grinding it up. Yesterday I made this craigslist add with high hopes of receiving a few jobs.
Bush hoging and mulching
I just recently had a professional logo designed for my company and will post a picture of it to this thread. I am also in the process of getting my logo put on my truck and equipment and getting some signs made up to put on jobs that I do. Today I went to 2 local papers and talked to them about putting adds in there papers. The one problem that arose to me was the fact that most of there papers end up at houses in neighbor hoods. Most of these homeowners are not going to need any kind of mowing services although some of them may own some land some were.

What would you experienced mulchers recommend for me to do as far as marketing goes in order to get some work for this machine? Many, Many thanks for any opinions and advice!

I also attached a picture of the mower that I purchased. LOL keep in mind I am aware that this mower is no were as profitable as a mulcher like most of you have.

Thanks again guys,
John

 

[Carykong]

Ya getting any work?

 

[yellowdogsvc]

John,

Here's a few observations as a potential customer...

I would proofread my ad. Look for spelling errors in the title, spelling errors in body, and grammatical, and usage errors in your ad. This could help keep the potential customer interested in calling you. If your ad is clean and error-free, it could set you apart from the competition by showing that you are detail oriented.
Try bullet points and moving your phone number further up into the body of the ad.

Contact local real estate agents and let them know you can clean up overgrown properties they may have for sale. Work for your neighbors and ask them to spread the word. Word of mouth is a powerful advertising tool.

Signage on lots that you do mow especially if there is traffic that goes by. Pass out cards at the local dealers and vendors you use and remind them that if someone calls looking to rent and doesn't or can't rent, you would appreciate them passing out your name.

Good luck.

 

[APSmulching]

I tried a Craigslist add and didn't have any good responses. I don't think people tend to use Craigslist for services in my area, maybe it's different in yours. In a bad economy there are not many people worried about land clearing or brush cutting. They are putting gas in their cars, food on the table and heating their homes. The only contractors that are doing well are the ones that did tree work after the storms we had in the northeast. As for me, I'm praying that we get a new president that doesn't choke out small business. If this is the change he promised, he can keep it.

 

[Depmandog]

In addition to what you are doing, I would make up flyers with "pull-off" tabs that has your phone number; and place them the post office, local cafe, etc

I live in a small town at the edge of a large metro area, and this type of advertising seems to work well around here.

We also have a couple of free papers that serve a fairly large geographical (rural) area, you might consider advertising here.

But, the best advertising is word of mouth.

 

[nwterex]

The First thing I See is a way to DIE Running a Mower with out a Door is a Disaster Waiting to Happen I've been running a Deck mower picked up a rock that hit a tree and bounced back If it hadn't been for the door I might have had a really bad headache LOL or worse. And you definatly wouldn't want to lift it off the ground to mulch a big Tree Just Saying.

 

[RDrancher]

I get a few leads from craigslist each month but it's a real PITA. Competitors flag you, people using their smartphones flag you for using photobucket photos, people on the "flagging help" forum flag you just because they want to mess with you when you ask for help. You get my drift. I'm hoping craigslist is on its way out.

Start making a presence on the web everywhere you can. There are lots of places that you can advertise for free. Some of them have upgrades for more dough, but you don't have to upgrade to be seen. Keep all of your ads similar and keep the info on your website similar to those ads and in awhile your website will start showing up in searches along with those ads.

googleplaces.com
thumbtack.com (owned by google)
ebayclassifieds.com
backpage.com
manta.com
merchantbook.com
local.yahoo.com
hotfrog.com

Check out darrenslaughter.com and subscribe to his newsletter and read every single one of his past articles.

I have no affiliation with any of the above sites, but they all work well enough to keep a few leads going. Good luck to you!

 

[weldermike]

Try to advertise on the local diner placemats, I always read them top to bottom.

 

[APSmulching]

Have you had any response to the Craigslist add?

 

[Luremaker]

... I just recently had a professional logo designed for my company and will post a picture of it to this thread. I am also in the process of getting my logo put on my truck and equipment and getting some signs made up to put on jobs that I do....

Thanks again guys,
John

Fire your graphic artist. You need a logo that people can actually read in a half a second or less... never use a font that people have to struggle just to read. Think about big successful businesses and the type faces they use. Most use big sans serif type faces, no funny script type faces needed. Use a typeface that projects big powerful skid steer mower and what it can do. Spend a little time and search logos on google images. Look for successful brands and see what I mean.

I also recommend you set up a web site as soon as soon as possible with your own domain name and put it on every ad, flyer, business card, truck, trailer skid steer etc you own. What ever you do do not use a gmail /hotmail email address as they are for the fly-by-night operators.