Summary: http://www.gopherforum.com We had a great conversation on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum that I wanted to share with you. Feel free to jump on it and offer your views as well. Luna joined up on the forum and wrote Ã?Â?Hello! Just joined here and was looking to get opinions on a couple of truck magnets I designed for my significant others lawn care business. I pretty much handle his marketing/advertising and recently noticed some local business putting out specials/adverts using the down economy angle. My boyfriend is currently/interchangeably displaying one on the back of his tailgate above his website address and opposite his regular business magnet. He just started the business in May 2008 after a layoff and is 30 accounts strong right now just by himself. Weve babystepped everything, pretty much in a methodical/grassroots/DIY level from the beginning. I have attached the magnet layouts. Both can also be seen on the websites Main and Promo/Specials page. IÂ?d love to hear what you think. Steve: Â?I can totally understand his point but you know, to me thats what marketing is all about. Its all about being different. If it can be controversial, even better. You want people to be talking about your marketing and if it isnt different, if it doesnt stand out, then you arenÃ?Â?Ã?Â?t going to get attention. One of the things that I have been amazed with is that it takes soooo much energy to get a business started and running and you have to really be different from the average person to even attempt it. But why do the same people who are the adventurers, the crazy ones, those with enough energy to start a business then decide they have to keep things tame in their marketing? Why do they not want to stand out? What makes people so afraid to stand out? To be different? To gain attention? Especially when that attention can get you more work? Take for instance, Richard Branson, owner of the Virgin empire, such as Virgin airways. Here he is promoting his airline dressed in drag. Guess what. He got media attention and here we are talking about it. If you dont do something different, you can only at best expect the same results everyone else gets. So for all this, I applaud you for being creative! Luna: Thanks for your comments! Regarding the Obama marketing magnet angle, my boyfriend was uncomfortable with it on his truck and removed it about a week ago. I kept the picture of it on the website, however, but with the lead-in tag line above it that says: We currently have about 6-7 solid prepaid accounts. It was a bit hard to do prepays in the beginning due to it not generating regular cash flow. However, the couple of ones that we had in the beginning did help to fund some start-up equipment purchases. Once we established over 20 accounts (and we hit 35 officially this week!), prepays have been a nice chunk of change when the payments comes due. A prepayment on a new account today just helped us purchase a new Echo backpack blower! Anyhow, when my boyfriend goes out on an estimate call and meets with customers he often tells me about the positive feedback he gets regarding our doorhangers and website, most especially. We offer a lot on our promotions and specials page, all things we will honor in a heartbeat, but not as many people take advantage as youd think (so we Ã?Â?Ã?Â?re not losing our butts per se). The general consensus seems to be people do NOTICE our marketing attempts/specials and do respond positively without being prompted. My speculation is that they feel that they seem to be getting more with BladeMaster Mowing versus with the general competition and consider us a more value-added option, if only Ã?Â?Ã?Â?psychologically. Again, thank you so much for your comments! I love this website! Ill keep posting on successes and misses. Steve: Why not prompt them though? For instance, why not come up with a special say spring flowers planted in your yard for $X9.95, but hurry and contact us by XX/XX/XX date. We need to get your order into our supplier to be able to offer you that discounted price. Then a week before the date, send one last reminder email maybe upping the ante. Offer some additional option if they call you by that date. The world goes by pretty fast and I like getting updates on sales when its something I am interested in. I think others do as well. Do you? Luna: I like, and can see, your point about using more direct and active Ã?Â?Ã?Â?prompting with the way you presented that Spring flower special example. I just may try something like that and perhaps show a sample before and after picture pre/post-flowers, tree trimming or mulching via email or postcard to add a nice visual. Thanks for opening me up to the possibilities! So keep all this in mind when you are experimenting with your lawn care business marketing and join in on the discussions at the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum.
