Advertise Lawn Care

Thinking about making extra money mowing lawns? Gain traction for your business by advertising your services. You need to draw attention, gain and retain customers, and get word of mouth working for you to expand your business. Be a cut above the rest by utilizing some of the following steps and growing your business with successful advertising.

Steps

Using Traditional Advertising

  1. Make an Make-a-Flyer. Creating an eye-catching advertisement is key to success. You want potential clients to be drawn to your business for a variety of reasons. Be thorough and include all pertinent details.
    • What services you offer is critical. If you are willing to weed-eat, edge, spread mulch, or do something else related to lawn maintenance, you could possibly make a lot more money.
    • Include all contact information. Your name, company name, email, and phone number are bare minimums.
    • Pricing will be the focus for most potential customers. Include your pricing information based on the criteria you select. Whether it is one price for all yards, priced by square foot, or based on appraisal, be sure to be very specific.
    • Cover the most possible area. Ensuring every potential customer sees your advertisement is crucial. Put your flyers in a variety of locations.
      • Stuff mailboxes.[1] You may encounter a person on the day they feel their weakest, and most unable to juggle all their responsibilities. They might just pay you to lessen the load.
      • Car windows are a perfect spot for flyers. Pick up the windshield wiper, pop down your flyer so the driver sees it, and put the wiper down. You can cover a diverse audience easily because you don’t know the car owners!
      • Bulletin boards are a great location. Try laundry mats, libraries, local businesses, grocery stores, the post office, anywhere that will let you put your ad up.
      • Put them on doorsteps. Better yet, knock on doors and deliver them by hand. Face to face meetings may benefit your efforts since they'll get to see you personally.
  2. Put Create-an-Advertisement in the local newspaper. This is a cheap but effective way to get your name out there. It does, however, come with a small fee. Most newspaper companies charge by the word, so choose words carefully. Minimize the number of words/letters for price, but don't exclude so much as to make the ad ineffective. At the very least, include the name of your business name, the logo, the type of services offered, contact information, and your website, if applicable.
  3. Sponsor a local school, sports team, or athlete. School and sport affiliations run deep. Having your sign along the baseline or the outfield fence reaches a new segment of the market, and shows support for the local community. Someone may just want to support a business with similar interests or alma mater.
  4. Use a local or homeowner association (HOA) newsletter. Targeting a localized audience may help you reach and cover an entire area more thoroughly. Let the familiarity of a known newsletter be your trusted voice.
  5. Place Make-a-Yard-Sign.[2] Start off with a simple sign placed in a freshly mowed lawn to display your great work. Since the eyes viewing these ads are moving, the lawn signs may need to be more visually appealing than other ads. An expanded, colored logo would be a great modification, but at the very least the company name and contact information needs to be included. As you expand, perhaps you'd be willing to offer a free cut in exchange for ad placement in other yards.
  6. Try a Write-a-Radio-Ad or television advertisement. You will want to focus on ad length, style, and content. Tailor it to the local market you'd like to target. Make it informative and memorable.
    • Include a catchy slogan or jingle that's simple and positive, Make your lawn look sharp by dawn, trust your business to "Lawns by John".
    • Sell your services as a distinctive solution to a problem. Is your Bermuda grass growing too fast? Does it touch your knees? Call "Lion Lawns" to tame your grass.[3]
    • Get a testimonial from a satisfied customer. I used "A+ Lawn Care" and my grass has never been better!

Advertising Online

  1. Create a Advertise-on-Facebook. There are multiple ways to advertise on Facebook.[4] Choose the method right for you, and let the power of social media do your work. You may want to use other forms of social media like Effectively-Advertise-Your-Business-on-Twitter-for-Free or Instagram to canvas the market.[5] Make the ad effective by including a picture of an eye-catching, vibrant lawn and offers to help others get the lawn they desire. For text-based ads on Twitter, aim for the most key words and hash-tags you can fit into the allotted character count.
  2. Make a Make-a-Free-Website. Choose from a wide range of page builders and web hosts to add legitimacy to your e-business. You will also need a Choose-the-Right-Domain-Name to keep people returning and to attract more customers. Make your website focused, friendly on the eyes, easy to use, and quick to load in order to maximize effectiveness.[6]
    • Not all domain names are available. Do a quick Check-If-a-Domain-Name-Is-Available before getting your heart set on a name.[7]
    • You may need to learn a little web coding to get your site looking perfect.[8] Don't be intimidated, however, most changes are pretty straightforward and simplistic.
    • Take a few photos of your work and proudly display them on your site. A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words.
    • Reciprocate with other, like-minded vendors in your area. For instance, offer a discount if someone is willing to buy a package deal to your lawn service and a partner florist.
  3. Advertise-on-Google-with-Google-Adwords. Everyone uses search engines. Putting a little ad placement on Google, Yahoo, or Bing, for instance, could lead to exponential growth. Create a great ad by including a unique value you can provide, something that prompts a potential customer to act, a way to catch the eye, and a great URL.[9]
    • Your neighbors will envy your lush, green, lawn – This is value unique to normal lawns.
    • Get a visit within 24-hours! – Visitors know they’ll get your services fast if they click.
    • Trustworthy, Local Lawn Care – Stand out from competitors who just offer “lawn care.”
    • www.lawns.com/Green-Lawn-of-Envy – Much better than a page titled “services”.

Advertising Unconventionally

  1. Go guerrilla![10] Try a variety of methods to create a buzz. You want to cause discussion, to keep people thinking about your business. An added benefit is the frequently lower capital investment needed to get your message to the public. Go direct to your customers with a few different options to maximize your results.
    • Segway advertising would be an odd way to draw attention. It’s just a matter of putting the ads on segways, and having a blast by driving them around downtown or at a mall. Wave at people, use the novelty of the segways to draw them into a discussion about your lawn care service.
    • Urinals and bathroom stalls are perfect for captive audiences. Their attention is guaranteed! For urinals, place them on the wall at about eye-level. For stalls just use the back of the door where you’d usually read the graffiti or nothing at all. Finding a way to tie-in the activity to your lawn care could be an unusual way to amuse and be memorable.
    • Wrap your car![11] Car billboards are mobile marketing that goes beyond the typical bumper stickers. Supplement the typical car or truck signage with an eye-catching car wrap.
  2. Draw attention by going viral. Many have become famous and successful because of e-popularity, and viral marketing can extend beyond the internet. After something takes off, word of mouth and texts often propagate the message further. A great example of such a phenomenon is the Subservient Chicken campaign.[12]
    • Make a ridiculous video and post it to Youtube or Vine. Shares and forwards will flood the market, making you a brand name.
    • Create a Make-a-Meme that combines a funny or clever phrase with your company's logo or image.[13] Meme generators are a great way to produce something funny in a minimal amount of time.
    • Stage a Organize-a-Flash-Mob! The flash mob itself will create a buzz, get recorded and posted online, be talked about. All you have to do is get your advertising in the same area to gain attention.[14]
    • Getting a bunch of people to sing or dance has been successful numerous times.[15]
    • Freeze mobs are pretty clever and attention-getting. Stage one near a large, public area with poorly manicured grass to draw attention.[16]
    • Use a professional organization to book a flash mob for your grand opening.[17] Make a bang and get your company name known.
  3. Try some stealth advertising by putting your ads where they may be not normally exist. Conventional flyer locations reaches a specific market, but being sure to get your advertisements in other hands is difficult. Putting your flyers inside another product is a surprise for the reader, and a possible new set of eyes on your business.
    • Check out magazines at grocery stores are a great spot to slip in an ad. While waiting in line, grab a handful of flyers and put one each in several magazines.
    • Doctor and dentist offices are very target-rich environments. They usually have a variety of books, magazines, journals, and assorted periodicals that would be perfect locations to stash your flyers.
    • Newspapers work perfectly for this technique. Sunday newspapers with their tons of ads works even better. Simply slide the flyers in amongst the coupons and assorted extras.
    • Library books related to your business are an unconventional target, but they might be a great location. Find books about seeding, watering, mulching, anything related to lawn care, and put in a flyer. The creativity could be appreciated by a potential customer.

Tips

  • Make sure to inform your parents of your plans. They will probably want to know where you are going, particularly if you are going to random houses.

Warnings

  • Be careful where you put your flyers. It may be illegal to put flyers on mailboxes, power poles, or other prime locations. Research local laws before spamming advertising everywhere.

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Sources and Citations