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Now that 2012 is wrapping up I am looking at my marketing techniques. I hand out full-page color flyers and have a yard sign. Since the people in my neighborhood could have gotten a flyer AND seen my yard sign, it's hard to tell how many customers I got from each method. But I can tell about what percentage of the people I handed flyers to contacted me (either from reading the flyer and/or seeing my sign). I had around an 18% response rate, which is very high! I think it is because a lot of people know me around the neighborhood, I am not just a lawn care business from "that direction". In my case, WORD OF MOUTH helped a lot, too! :thumbsup:

So how good were your responses in 2012 and what forms of marketing did you use?

yes 2012 is coming to a close. It was my first year in business. I also used full color flyers. My new customers liked my flyers. They talked about it because on my flyer, it says "English speaking employees". haha!! I also got new customers from word of mouth, newspaper, and referrals from my Uncle who owns spring green. I kept track of how the customer heard of me by simply asking them. My flyers were the winner. newspaper adds costed me a $100 a month. but heres the thing with newspaper adds. They dont do a whole lot but take my money. Only a couple people called from the add. Also the people who called from the add lived in bad hoods that i refuse to deal with. This year my goal is to start a web site to market new customers. Also alot more flyers in the areas i want to be in. My first year was a good one.

AmericanTurf said:

yes 2012 is coming to a close. It was my first year in business. I also used full color flyers. My new customers liked my flyers. They talked about it because on my flyer, it says "English speaking employees". haha!! I also got new customers from word of mouth, newspaper, and referrals from my Uncle who owns spring green. I kept track of how the customer heard of me by simply asking them. My flyers were the winner. newspaper adds costed me a $100 a month. but heres the thing with newspaper adds. They dont do a whole lot but take my money. Only a couple people called from the add. Also the people who called from the add lived in bad hoods that i refuse to deal with. This year my goal is to start a web site to market new customers. Also alot more flyers in the areas i want to be in. My first year was a good one.

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English-speaking emplyees! haha! :laughing: It sounds like your first year was a good one! It sounds like you had some nice flyers that worked out for you! Thanks for giving us some info on your marketing methods! :smile:

I use flyers, business cards, newspaper ads, website, word of mouth and using my van driving around town with sign writing on it.

My new venture on marketing and advertising is social media.
Facebook and twitter (especially FB) seems to be bringing more custom.

Social media is now what brings "younger" customers as this is how they do things.
FB may have sales pages for your area where you can advertise your business.
You can make it up with pics and keep updating everyday.
Im thinking of my customers 10-15years in the future rather than customers of today.

Also google ads campaign. The way these work is you make a website and everytime somebody clicks on your business you get charged as you are at the top of the list.
But there is also options where you only get charged by somebody that lives in a certain postcode (zipcode?).
So basically you get charged by somebody 10 miles but somebody clicks on from 500 miles away you wont get charged as business between the 2 is probably not going to happen.