Business advertising

[Dagmar]

I've had good responses from short pieces placed in local newspapers and county magazines. You have to get them written up properly and submitted in the right way though - usually via an agent. The cost is much less than an advert and a good agent will be able to get the story in a whole range of papers etc. in the areas that you want. That and personal reccommendtion is what I use. I have never paid for an advert with anyone!

[madclimber]

Ive been concentraiting on the internet, been thinking about using flyers but feel its like a cowboy image

[ArbjobsNick]

Before selling my contracting company we spent the last year analysing all our new job leads 5% came from Yellow pages 30% from local village newsletters 20% unknown and 45% came from referals. The profit we made from yellow pages advertising just about covered the cost of the advert!

 

Your trucks are one of the best adverts going we had ours signed in bright colours green and yellow with just one transit one 4x4 and one VW caddy customers commented that we were everywhere, we we were actually just more high profile.

 

Websites are a good way to promote the services you offer and teach your clients about good arboriculture they will not get you more business. Use them in conjunction with normal advertising choosing an easy web site name http://www.northeastcheshiretreeservices.co.uk is just too long for folk to remember. Use the initials from your business http://www.NECTS.co.uk is a lot easier.

[ArbjobsNick]

Another idea we implimented was to use existing customers to reach new ones. Try sending a quaterly newsletter to your customers. We used to include information about high status jobs or trees we had worked on or a picture and description of a tree its genus (a lot of people don't realise how many types of oak there are) its historical uses and folklore its latin name and where it origonated (I don't mean the local garden centre!)

 

Fungi what is armallaria how to recognise it.

 

You can tell customers about your staff training Johnny B just qualified in Aeiral Rescue (we hope he won't need it!)

 

Oh the list is endless but the result is that people like to have some thing to talk about and invariably they will go to work the pub or a party over the next few weeks and start quoting what you have taught them "I say old boy did you know how many types of oak there are?" well they were all a bit posh in Oxford!

 

Tell them about your "new" website!! or how you did in the last climbing comp.

 

Try it, for a very low cost form of marketing we found that we got a definate increase in referals after sending out a newsletters and another bonus is that we didn't loose as many existing clients to competitiors as they remembered exactly who they had used last time.

 

This doesn't have to be too grand just a sheet of A4 set up in publisher and printed in colour, it should take you an evening.

[ArbjobsNick]

Ive been concentraiting on the internet, been thinking about using flyers but feel its like a cowboy image

 

Nice flyers with your web address on them and proffesional affiliations won't do your image any harm. Cheap sugar paper with badly drawn trees and a mobile number might.

 

We found http://www.azimuthprint.co.uk based near Bristol very cheap and quick for flyers.

[bill]

steve, what size ad have you gone for? im going in yp on the next issue. the guy i sub for pays for a full time leafleter, gets the work but cost 300 a week. you have to have the money to make the money.

[Steve Bullman]

quarter column i believe they called it

[ArbjobsNick]

I've just had my say regarding advertising what is the general consensus, what do you guys find works?

 

Do you guys win enough work to justify the cost of advertising with yellow pages?

 

NB: By win I mean invoice not just quote on. It may seem you get a lot of enquires but do you get the jobs and are you quoting cheap to fill your diary or quoting a good rate? These are the questions you need to ask yourself.

 

Do many of you guys monitor where your new jobs actually come from? We used to have a space for this question on our job sheets, as I have said before it's a real eye opener regarding what you spend your advertising budget on.

[RPA]

A mate has been advertising in yellow pages with his groundwork etc and got sweet fa from it.

 

I have been attending business start up training for the last few weeks and we have just covered promotion etc. Cant explain it all here but the jist is identifying who will use you service and target them in a way so as 90% of your budget is not being wasted on people who will never use you. Eg how many of your local paper readers even have a tree? How many readers of a local country life mothly mag will have a tree?

Wording is also vital. Word any advertising in the customers language so as to appeal to them. Technical phrasing will put then off. Also if your company name is not snappy or memorable use a catch phrase that will appeal to them, be memorable and promote quality etc.

 

I started to do the business course because I thought it was a way of 'earning points' towards getting some grant money. To be honest I have learned **** loads and would recomend them to anyone. It is being ran by our local enterprise agency and would imagine similar courses will be available anywhere (and its free )

[ArbjobsNick]

I think some sort of "Tree Care advice" flyer would be a good idea to promote a business.

 

Not blatently selling your services but offering basic advice for folk with trees like "Don't damage the bark" "Don't park or dig under the trees canopy" "Mulch not Grass under canopy if possible" "Don't lay paving or decking under your tree" "if possible leave leaves to rot back in to soil" something along these lines a flyer for folk to keep not bin.

 

and at the bottom your logo and this advice was brought to you by http://www.your businessname.co.uk

 

I am sure this more subtle approach would work well.