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What do you all think a few key things are to making a good lawn care flyer to get your company rolling for the year?

Short, sweet, easy to read, to the point

jakesteel22 said:

What do you all think a few key things are to making a good lawn care flyer to get your company rolling for the year?

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How about Company name, your name, E mail address, contact phone number, hours of operation, what work you do and a price.
Personally I'd do business cards, there cheaper and you can carry them with you at all times cause you never know when they could be handy. I'm always having someone ask for a business card. IMO flyers are a one shot deal and costly even if done at home if your figure the cost of ink and paper for the printer plus your time. You can order a 1000 cards from Vista Print cheaper.

Big sign on the side of your truck & a bigger one on each side of your trailer.
On the back your name & contact details, on the side the work you do.
Bert used to leave a stack of fridge magnets on the bottom of his steel backed sign which people used to take.
If you want to spend a little more build a web page, make it smart phone friendly then pop a sq code box in the bottom right corner of every sign then ( lazy) Joe Public can flash you as they drive past and see who your are what you do, where you do it & how much you charge.
Do not put any details that will identify the actual location of your home or shop because thieves have i-phones as well ( usually some one elses ).
So write every things as you would to a friend, ( because people like dealing with friends ) first names , mobile phone numbers , email addresses , face book page web page url.
Put your lawn care tips there.
Unless some one is looking for the exact information in your flyer exactly when it arrives in the letterbox most people just get annoyed about the rubbish they have to clear out of their letterboxes so you will end up agrivating the very people you are trying to sell your services to.

As for your customers, that is different.
By all means write up a small ground care brouchure that is specific to the type of lawn & plants they have.
While this sound like a lot of work, it is not as much as it seems once set up as all you will be doing is pulling 15 relevant parragraphs together & printing them out

I agree with Ric and exotion.

The flyers that I have set up in my trailer park simply lists the services that I offer, my price for mowing, hours, and phone number/email.

My business cards, which I get from vistaprint, just have my name, email and phone number on it.

Both the flyers and the cards have my company name (obviously) and slogan on them.

X-man said:

I agree with Ric and exotion.

The flyers that I have set up in my trailer park simply lists the services that I offer, my price for mowing, hours, and phone number/email.

My business cards, which I get from vistaprint, just have my name, email and phone number on it.

Both the flyers and the cards have my company name (obviously) and slogan on them.

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Don't get the generic grassy background had a customer show me 8 lawn care business cards looked exactly the same

exotion said:

Don't get the generic grassy background had a customer show me 8 lawn care business cards looked exactly the same

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I don't use a background. Just plain white.

My flyers have a small clipart of a lawn mower on them but that's it.

Ric said:

How about Company name, your name, E mail address, contact phone number, hours of operation, what work you do and a price.
Personally I'd do business cards, there cheaper and you can carry them with you at all times cause you never know when they could be handy. I'm always having someone ask for a business card. IMO flyers are a one shot deal and costly even if done at home if your figure the cost of ink and paper for the printer plus your time. You can order a 1000 cards from Vista Print cheaper.

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I agree with this except I like Got Print. Decals on truck & trailer is a good idea as well.

Mikel1 said:

I agree with this except I like Got Print. Decals on truck & trailer is a good idea as well.

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Magnetic signs work good as well and there cheap enough.

Ric said:

Magnetic signs work good as well and there cheap enough.

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Yep, just make sure vehicle will accept it. Done a set of magnetics for a guy's car and they wouldn't "stick" to the door. We now ask when someone wants to order them if a magnet will "stick" to the door.
I seen last year a guy that had printed out a piece of cardstock with name & phone number on it, laminate it. He taped it to his truck, it was a lawn service.

Mikel1 said:

Yep, just make sure vehicle will accept it. Done a set of magnetics for a guy's car and they wouldn't "stick" to the door. We now ask when someone wants to order them if a magnet will "stick" to the door.
I seen last year a guy that had printed out a piece of cardstock with name & phone number on it, laminate it. He taped it to his truck, it was a lawn service.

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There are a lot of different ways to advertise for cheap, you don't have to spend a fortune. 250 free business cards from Vista print is pretty cheap along with CL can get you any number of clients.

Ric said:

There are a lot of different ways to advertise for cheap, you don't have to spend a fortune. 250 free business cards from Vista print is pretty cheap along with CL can get you any number of clients.

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I only get low ballers on CL.

Lawnboy18 said:

I only get low ballers on CL.

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Then walk away, I've had great success on cl

Lawnboy18 said:

I only get low ballers on CL.

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When I first started I had pretty good luck on CL, when you're starting you have to take what you can get and weed them out at a later date. After a time and you build a reputation word of mouth will be your best advertisement. I've been in business now for almost ten years and haven't advertised for at least seven years and haven't had the magnetic signs on the truck since I got the new F 150 in Sept 2013 and I get all the work I can handle. You'll be the one who makes or breaks the business not ads.

Ric said:

When I first started I had pretty good luck on CL, when you're starting you have to take what you can get and weed them out at a later date. After a time and you build a reputation word of mouth will be your best advertisement. I've been in business now for almost ten years and haven't advertised for at least seven years and haven't had the magnetic signs on the truck since I got the new F 150 in Sept 2013 and I get all the work I can handle. You'll be the one who makes or breaks the business not ads.

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Yep, word of mouth got me so many clients. It is the best advertisement. I have some clients just come out of there car and walk up to me in the backyard to get my services.

I do have truck magnets to let everyone know I am a company that isn't hidding. I also got sitckers on all of my equipment.

I did the same in the begining. Got the crappy houses and all of that. I still have a few, because they refered me to many others. We all have a few yards we don't like.

I haven't used CL so I can't say much about the low baller thing

I've been having word of mouth go around like crazy lately, so I'm starting to get more customers. Last year I had a 35% increase from the year before, I'm expecting a bigger increase this year. This is going to be my fourth year.

I don't even do much advertising. Couple fliers here and there, and some business cards and that's it. For the most part it's just been word of mouth.

X-man said:

I haven't used CL so I can't say much about the low baller thing

I've been having word of mouth go around like crazy lately, so I'm starting to get more customers. Last year I had a 35% increase from the year before, I'm expecting a bigger increase this year. This is going to be my fourth year.

I don't even do much advertising. Couple fliers here and there, and some business cards and that's it. For the most part it's just been word of mouth.

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The lowballer thing isn't just present on CL it's in a lot of the flyers that are being put out also that's the reason I just trash the things when theY show up on my door. I think the thing that bugs me the most is that the people who use flyers are 9 times out 10 breaking the law by using mail boxes and leaving them in neighborhoods that are clearly marked as NO SOLICITATION PERMITTED. If they show up in the subdivision I'm working and I find them a couple will go to the HOA office and the rest go in the trash.

Well in Canada we can put door flyers without going to jail...

Anyways, yes I do see the lowballers on flyers also.

Ric said:

The lowballer thing isn't just present on CL it's in a lot of the flyers that are being put out also that's the reason I just trash the things when theY show up on my door. I think the thing that bugs me the most is that the people who use flyers are 9 times out 10 breaking the law by using mail boxes and leaving them in neighborhoods that are clearly marked as NO SOLICITATION PERMITTED. If they show up in the subdivision I'm working and I find them a couple will go to the HOA office and the rest go in the trash.

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I only put my flyers on bulletin boards. I don't go around and post them on doors/mailboxes.

I've had a few lowballers through flyers myself. I was just saying that I don't know about the lowballers on CL because I don't use it.

Lawnboy18 said:

Well in Canada we can put door flyers without going to jail...

Anyways, yes I do see the lowballers on flyers also.

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You can mail boxes here if done correctly. Using flyers isn't the problem. It's some of the people who use them and the way they use them that's the problem. I figure if an individual enters an area that has NO solicitations signs posted at every entrance and uses mailboxes the way some do isn't someone that's real respectful of someones privacy and property and I sure wouldn't want them mowing my lawn.

Ric said:

You can mail boxes here if done correctly. Using flyers isn't the problem. It's some of the people who use them and the way they use them that's the problem. I figure if an individual enters an area that has NO solicitations signs posted at every entrance and uses mailboxes the way some do isn't someone that's real respectful of someones privacy and property and I sure wouldn't want them mowing my lawn.

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Well then lots of people including me would be unliked by you. I put my door flyers and if there is a no sollicitation sign, I don't put one.

Lawnboy18 said:

Well then lots of people including me would be unliked by you. I put my door flyers and if there is a no sollicitation sign, I don't put one.

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I actually agree with Ric. If someone put a flyer on my door (or mailbox) when there are signs that prohibit it, I wouldn't want them mowing my lawn either.

X-man said:

I actually agree with Ric. If someone put a flyer on my door (or mailbox) when there are signs that prohibit it, I wouldn't want them mowing my lawn either.

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Once again, I am mixed up. You are both right on that and I respect those signs! I never put a door flyer when it clearly says people don't want them.