Listen to this lawn care door hanger critique to optimize your marketing and get more customers.
I am critiquing this door hanger, and giving feedback. Originally there was a phone number at the top left, in the center there was a logo, and at the right there was a web address. Down below it said “call today”. It had a phone number, it said “visit us” and it had a web address. I’ve removed the identifying information, and I’m critiquing this door hanger for an individual. You can listen to my feedback. This is in no specific order and I’m not going from notes. I’m just going to go down through here and give some pointers.
On this door hanger there’s no door hanger hole and I personally think that is ideal. I don’t believe you want a door hanger hole, so I think that’s good. In certain markets you may feel that you need one, but generally I don’t see most door hanger companies using the hole to hang the door hanger on the doorknob. That’s good that gives you more space. In your email you mentioned that on the other side of this door hanger you were going to use some pretty pictures and some imagery. My suggestion would be that you use some imagery on both sides, and also that both sides have some compelling information.
Whether the door hanger has a hole, or you rubber band it to the door, what you don’t know is which direction this will hang on the door or which side will face out. You can imagine that the individual grabs the mail off their door and they walk it to their trashcan in the kitchen. You don’t know which direction your door hanger will be facing as they’re holding that and walking your door hanger to the trash. For that reason I recommend that your door hanger has a headline and something compelling at the top on both sides.
My first thought on this is at the top you have a phone number, your logo, your web address, and so it could be that that’s the first thing I see. But, nothing about that communicates to me what’s in it for me. So, you have just a couple minutes to catch my attention. Your main hope with this piece is that I am in need of lawn care, and when I see this I think to myself, “Well, lawn care’s exactly what I’ve been looking for. I’ll call these guys.” You’re banking on lawn care, and the words “landscape” and “lawn care” to resonate with me because I have immediate need. But, that’s the only way you’d grab me at this moment with this piece.
My suggestion would be that at the top, you have some type of a headline that grabs my attention, and states a benefit to me. That headline could be what you’re going to do for me, what problem you’re going to solve, or some type of promotional benefit of what I’m going to get. Such as, if I sign up for lawn service, I’m going to get a free iPod shuffle or something along those lines to catch my attention. But, you’ve only got a couple seconds to do it, and it needs to be at the top. I’d recommend that same statement to be on both sides because you don’t know which side I’ll be looking at as I walk your door hanger into the house to the trashcan. That’s point number one.
You need to think about what your client’s number one, two, and three wants are, what their top one, two or three fears are, and you need to answer those in the headline. Give them some reason that they should contact you versus anyone else. If I’m your competitor and my door hanger’s on the door with yours, why is yours going to get their attention over mine? You need to have some type of headline that pulls them in, gets them to read, and continue reading this door hanger.
If for your services you have lawn maintenance, landscapes, snow removal, and then you have some additional services down here. I think that is important to call out the specific services that you offer. You don’t have a price on here, anything like that and I think that’s perfectly okay. What you’re doing here is you’re calling out the key services so that if I have a need, I see these and I think, “Oh this might be for me”, and I continue reading. Good job with that. I would continue that. You might try a slightly different design. Let me come back to that, let me mention design.
If you’re going to print ten thousand of these and you’re going to distribute them, you’re going to have some cost. I would recommend spending one or two hundred dollars, or some amount of money, and get somebody to quickly put together the design for you. I know you’re running out of time here, but it could make all the difference in your results. By spending a couple hundred dollars you could potentially double your response rate. I would absolutely have somebody help you with the design of this. The cost could be all over the board. They could lay it out in Photoshop or Illustrator or professional software and they could get it laid out in font. They could use all the same font types and they could make it look really nice for you and bring in some imagery and your logo and make it look like you’re a large operation.
This is not doing justice in appearance to your business. In terms of what you actually are as a business, this doesn’t look nearly as professional as you are or nearly as professional as your website. Your website looks really professional, but this doesn’t communicate that same message. I would recommend having a designer try to bring that same level of look and feel and professionalism to this, so that when I see this I get immediate confidence that this is a professional company. I would spend the money on that. I’ll just focus on copy from here on out.
The reason I said all that is, within that design I would probably somehow bullet point or call out the services here. It’s maybe not the first focus point. The first focus point, the biggest copy, the thing that my eye falls on, should be the headline. Then this would be another focus point, but not the primary one, somewhere on here where all the services that you offer are grouped together. That would be one thing I’d do.
The direction you’re going with an interesting fact, that’s a good one. Your thought process, in my opinion, is good. I hope you don’t take offense to anything I say here in terms of critiquing this. I would go a different direction based on what I’ve learned. I don’t know your market, so it may be different. My hunch is that you’re not trying to convince the guy that doesn’t have his lawn mowed to suddenly start hiring a company to mow his law, or provide whatever service you’re trying to sell. Rather, your buyer is most likely someone that already has lawn care company, has already decide that it’s worth spending the money, and doesn’t need to be convinced; they’re your easiest sell. I would market to them.
For example, if I was competing against you in your market and you gave me 20 home owners that don’t buy lawn care and haven’t in the last three years, or you gave me a list of 20 home owners that buy lawn care and have been buying lawn care for the last 5 years, I would only market to those people and I’d ignore the 20 that don’t buy lawn care. There are a small number of them that will convert and most that do convert may not stay with it long term. I don’t even want to focus my energy on them. You don’t know who those individuals are when you’re putting out your door hangers, so you need to at least craft your message to your most likely buyer and your most likely buyer already has a lawn service.
The direction here is good. An alternative would be to speak directly to that individual that has lawn service now. What is their concern going to be? Their concern is going to be that my gates are not being closed, that the last lawn care company that I had, the one that I’m looking to replace, doesn’t show up consistently, that the company I have now when there are weather delays or problems they don’t tell me what they’re doing or when I can expect them. They just show up, they don’t answer their phone when I call, I never get my invoicing on time, it’s always a different individual at my home and the work is never consistent. You could go down the list of the complaints you’ve heard from your potential clients about the companies they’ve been working with and that’s why they’re calling you. Answer those objections here.
What you’re doing with the interesting fact, great idea, but how could you tell me some of the benefits that I’m going to get. Bullet pointed lists work well on this stuff; it’s easy to read. It’s easier to read a bullet point list and it’s easier for the mind to quickly sort it out then it is to have to read several paragraphs. It might be that you bullet point out some differences and why we’re your best solution.
That’s another point. I would use more of “you” in this. This is about “you” as in the client. When you’re talking, make sure you’re using a lot of words like “you” instead of words like, “we”, “our”, “us”. Try to shift the writing just a little bit so you’re focused on the person that’s reading it, because it’s about them. You might make your headline something like, “You will receive this”, “you will get this”. Something, again, about them, that’ll be part of the headline. Then, make your bullet points, again, something about them. “You will experience this.” “You will get this if you use our company.” List out the ways you’re different than everyone they’ve used in the past. Tell them what the services are that you offer, and then give them a reason to take action with you.
“Spring is right around the corner. We are now booking our lawn mowing accounts for the year. So call today.” My critique here would be yes, you’re reminding them that spring is right around the corner. Again, I hope you don’t think I’m being too harsh. Where I’m going with this is I don’t know if “Spring is right around the corner” is necessary to say. They know it. The reason I say that is, one thing I’ve learned, and I don’t necessarily do a good job at this, is I’ve heard that great writing is about editing out every unnecessary word. I tend to be a wordy person and so I don’t think I’m necessarily good at that. I’m thinking that maybe this doesn’t help sell anything. I would probably edit those words out and focus on just power words and bigger things that you need to communicate because you have limited space.
Where I felt like you were going, “We are now booking our lawn mowing accounts for the year.” You could go a couple directions with this. One, maybe you are trying to say that “We serve your neighborhood and I’ve got one crew available. We can accept 14 more accounts in your market, in your area, in your zip code, in your city, and then we’re filled up for the year.” Maybe there is some angle like that where you can tell me, “You need to respond right away if you want to do business with our company.” At the top you lay out in the headline the benefits of why I should use you. In the middle, you tell me what you can do for me and why my experience with you is going to be different. Why are you better than all your competitors? Then, at the bottom give me a reason to take action immediately. One could be that it’s limited, in some way there’s a limitation. If I don’t take immediate action I’ll miss out, there’s scarcity. That could be that we only have one crew in your market and there are only this many slots left on that crew and we won’t have availability until next year.
Then can you give me something? If I sign up and I become your client, could I get something from you? You have to imagine what those things might be that you could give away, that you’re comfortable giving away. I don’t tend to like things like $5 off, or the second mowing free. People do that and I think it works, but I think you can come up with something little bit more powerful. What is an account worth to you? What could you potentially give them that would be of value to them? You want to work maybe those two things in. Can you create some scarcity? They need to call you right now or they’re going to miss out. Then, what do they get if they call you over the other door hanger?
If I’m looking at these two door hangers and they both look about the same, the companies feel about the same and appear to be pretty good, then why is it that you’re going to get the call over the other one? What can you give them to get them to call you? Maybe it’s as simple as promising you answer the phone and you’ll get them an estimate the day of. That’s pretty difficult to do in spring. Think about that and those points.
I would put your headline and such at the top. At the bottom, that’s where I think our logo, your name, phone number and email address or web address is most important. I would make the top a headline versus your logo and your name. Again, it’s all about them. They don’t really care who you are until after they start working with you and like you. Right now your logo means nothing to them. My logo at CitiTurf means nothing to anybody, nobody cares. What they care about is what they’re going to get and how they’re going to benefit. I make it all about them at the top and then have your stuff more towards the bottom.
Continuing on with your second piece, just a different version. I again, would say that make sure you use both sides. You have room to put copy on both sides of this piece. On both sides you want to have your headline, and on both sides you want to have your web address, your phone number, potentially your logo. Then you could vary the copy in the middle. I’m picturing a headline at the top, phone number, web address, things of that sort at the bottom on both sides, and then the middle could change.
I would like to see, in my opinion, some imagery on both sides. It doesn’t have to be a lot, maybe a nice use of color, things of that sort. I’ve violated what I’m about to say with success, but I tend to prefer black copy not white reverse copy. Not a black door hanger with white copy. It tends to be a little more difficult to read.
Continuing on here. The nice thing about this is that lawn maintenance, landscapes, snow removal, are right at the top. I immediately know what you do. That’s important. Your headline should probably include lawn care or something like that in it, that way I immediately know what you do as I’m walking your piece to the trash. It might make me pause and think, “Actually, I’m looking for a lawn care company. Maybe I should read this.”
A couple things I’d like to see you do on this…105% lawn mowing guarantee, what does that mean to me? What does it mean exactly? It would be nice if you made that guarantee a bit more powerful and said, “It’s 105% money back guarantee!” meaning that if you are dissatisfied with our service and for any reason we can’t make it right, then we will pay you back the full amount of that service that you paid us for, plus 5%. Maybe even with your picture next to it to make it a bit more of a powerful guarantee.
GT Lawns loves cutting grass and it shows. I would say on this one, this is more about you then it is about me. How could you re-position this line to make this to my benefit? Right there you’re talking about yourself, 33 years, that’s okay in my mind because you’re building credibility. Again, this “still having fun” is a little bit about you. Not that it’s bad, it’s just how could you maybe reword this to make it about me and what I get out of this? I get to work with a company that has 33 years of experience, I get to work with a company that has a strong reputation taking care of high profile properties in my local market. What are those big benefits that you can communicate to me and word in such a way that it’s about me and not so much about you? That’s definitely something I’ve learned over time, is make it about them.
I think that talking about your people, your training is valuable. I think that it’s worth mentioning that. I think sometimes we have to be a little more clear on what that means to them. For example, why do I care that you train your people? That’s definitely something I’ve learned. We spend all our time in this business so a lot of times when we picture what we’re saying … for example, we have a visual picture that goes with the words we’re saying such as, where was it, “detail is in the people”. You have a mental picture in your mind of what that means because you’ve been doing this business for so long. But, Mrs. Smith hasn’t the faintest idea what you’re doing and actually thinks what you’re doing is very easy and doesn’t put value into how hard what you do is. The “detail is in the people” might mean nothing to her. Who knows what that picture in her head will be.
Sometimes when you say something like “we train our people”, it’s not so much “we train”, it needs to be repositioned as a statement of benefit, such as “we background check our people” . I would not say it this way but, “We background check our people to protect your family” or something along that line. Background check is the word you want to use but what does that mean to me? What that means to me is that you’re not going to put anybody on my property that you haven’t checked out and you’re not 100% certain that I do not have any concerns about them being around my home, my belongings, or my family.
When it comes to training, what does that mean to me? That means that you’re going to actually close my gates, that I’m going to get a consistently well mowed lawn every single week, there’s not going to be route marks, there’s not going to be debris left in the yard, that the edging is going to be good. What does that training mean to me? You’ve got to almost paint the picture of what that means. State that as a benefit.
When it comes to services, I even like to state the service as a benefit. You can say lawn care, but maybe you want to say something along the line of “beautiful weed free healthy lawn” or “we make your flowers brilliant”, I don’t know, that’s not a good word. How could you state even flower installation in a different way? How could you state flower installation in a different way? Let me add this…you do lawn care, what’s the result of lawn care? You’ll end up with a well manicured, healthy lawn. What’s the benefit of snow removal? It will ensure you can get out of your driveway and eliminate the risk that you slip and fall. Or, however you want to say that. Tell me what the benefit is. You can work the benefit and the word snow removal into one sentence and outline what you can do for me.
I would go back through this, work on some headlines, work on maybe restating some of these services into bullet points. Then I would also think about why you are better than all of your competitors and tell me what those reasons are. Why should I do business with you? Just lay it out for me and then give me a reason. Here you’re making an attempt, our schedule fills up in April, you’re making an attempt to tell me that I better hurry up or you’re going to be full in April. You’re creating some scarcity and reasons for me to take action. Maybe you could define that just a little bit better and make it a little bit more clear to me why your schedule filling up in April matters. Such as, my example I used earlier, you have one truck in my neighborhood this year or you’ve got 14 spots available, do I want one? Historically they’re filled by April 17 every year, or something like that. Tell me why I should take action.
I hope that helps. Thanks a lot.
