What If My Marketing Doesn’t Work?

Do this and you won’t have to worry about “what if my marketing doesn’t work”…

This question is about the  fear of putting out door hangers or marketing pieces, blowing the money, and it not working. It is a very valid fear.

This individual says they refuse to work for anyone and they’re determined to make it on their own. I think that’s absolutely fantastic! I think you should do everything necessary and put whatever amount of time, hours, heartache, frustration, and expense you have to commit to this. You should do it to make this happen. It will set you up for a completely different life down the road.

I think you’re going down the right path.

This is a fear that everybody has. I’ve even had it. I’ve lost plenty of money making mistakes. Unfortunately, that’s how we generally learn.

I’m going to give you a piece of advice that you probably won’t like. But, if you follow it, you will be successful. The reason that your marketing won’t work, whether it’s direct mail, door hangers, or whatever the media is,  you’ve got to make sure you’re going after people that can buy your service. Make sure you are in the right market. If these people can buy from you, if they can afford you, if they have a need, for example. The best way for you to figure that out is if you already have tons of competitors in that neighborhood, or in that area. If you have tons of competition right there … and I mean tons … then there’s a need. That’s the perfect market. You don’t look for a market where there aren’t competitors. You look for the market where there’s the most competition, because that means there’s huge need.

It is the message that matters. Of course media plays a part because you want to make sure it gets read and you want to make sure it gets seen. You want to make sure it doesn’t go straight in the trash.  But, the message is the most important part.

This is where the advice comes in that may not be so exciting. How do you perfect your message? If you want to communicate and you want to make this stuff work, then you have to be saying things to your prospective client that resonates with them. What is it that you have to say to make people get off the couch and go to their computer to request an estimate? That’s really what this comes down to. If you think about it in those simple terms, you’ll be able to figure this out.

What would it take to get your prospect to take action? Be really realistic about this. What would it take? Let’s say somebody’s selling you something, not lawn care, because you know lawn care, but something else completely different. What if someone wanted to come to your home and wash your car every week? That’s a luxury that most people might not spend money on. So, what is it that I would have to say to you that would be so convincing that you would spend 35 or 40 bucks a week, or whatever that number is, for me to come to your house and wash your car every week? You’ve got to really think about it in those terms. That type of thinking is what you apply to solving the problem of insuring that your material is going to work.

The way you do this is you go knock on doors. It’s the fastest, easiest way. Just go knock on some doors. Tell yourself that this is a test. You may not sell anything, but you are going to learn an incredible amount just by knocking on doors. You’re not looking to make sales here. Sales are a bonus. What you’re hoping for is to figure out what people object to. When you ask to mow their lawn or take over their pest control, what is the objection that they say? Are they too busy, do they like their existing company, do they maintain it on their own? What are the objections? You’re listening for that.

Then you’re listening to what their frustrations are. They don’t like lawn companies, nobody remembers to close the gate, they accidentally scalped my yard or burned my lawn with chemicals. Listen to their complaints.

Next, listen to their dislikes. Are they looking for a bigger, well known company? Are they looking for a company that has uniforms and painted trucks? These are things you’re not really going to hear, but they’re examples of dislikes. What is it that they dislike about you? What is it they dislike about your competition?

With that, you’re concluding what their fears are. Their fears are that they’re going to overpay. Their fears are that you’re not going to do a good job. Their fears are that they’re going to switch lawn care companies again and you’re going to once again let them down like every other lawn care company has. Their fears are that they don’t know if your people are trustworthy and honest. Their fears are that you’re not really going to show up on the day that you promise. Their fears are on, and on, and on.

So, you’re looking for their objections. What do they dislike about me or my competitors? What are their complaints about companies like me? From that, you conclude their fears. This lets you craft the message. They have a checklist in their mind that are their buying criteria. When you, on your marketing piece, address all these things, so you preempt their objections, you position yourself to win this game.

The question isn’t really, “How do I ensure that I’m not going to make a mistake and waste my money, and my marketing’s not going to work?” The real question is, “How do I minimize it? How do I take the most risk out of this process of marketing?” The way you do that is you make sure you’re going after the right market with tons of competition. Then, you make sure you’re going after that market at the right time of year. Don’t sell me mowing in winter. Don’t sell me fertilization and weed control in winter. Don’t sell me irrigation when I don’t have an irrigation system in my lawn and you’re selling me repair work. You get the idea. Sell it at the right time of year. Sell me something that I can actually buy. Address and preempt my objections, my fears, my frustrations, and then give me a reason to do it.

I’ll add two more. Give me a reason to do it. Why in the world should I take action with you now? Why should I not just wait until next year? Why should I not just wait another month? Remember. It’s a hassle for me to drop my current company and go with you. Why should I work with you now? You’ve got to give me a compelling reason to do it. Just addressing my objections is not enough. You might have to give me something…a bonus, a gift, a freebie, something. Twenty-five dollars free to mow your lawn is not very exciting. You’ve got to get me something to make me move.

I’ll leave with this. On that marketing piece, how do you get me to look at your marketing piece over the other three that are on my door right now? How do you stand out, catch my attention, and get read. Why do I keep your piece, and throw your three competitors in the trash? How do you get me to notice you above every other piece on my door, all the other noise that’s happening in my mailbox and on my door? That’s the stuff you work on.

When you figure that out, then you’ve nailed it and you’ll minimize your risk. You’ll minimize your mistakes. Even the pros screw this up. There is no high-dollar marketing person that you can hire that will get it right all the time. There are so many variables. You will make mistakes. This is a game. You’re not just doing marketing once. You’re doing marketing over years, and years, and years. You’re going to have some screw-ups and there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s part of the game, but the wins build the business. The wins make you rich. The wins give you a great lifestyle.

You’re playing the game to minimize risk and achieve as many wins as possible. The best way to do it is just get out there and start testing in small samples. Try little things. The way you learn the fastest is to go talk to people, hear what they say, and apply that to your marketing. Then, read marketing books. On LawnCareMillionaire, you can download my free ebook. That has the 34 best, most important books that I’ve read. A bunch of those books are about marketing. Read every book on that list and do everything I just said. You will be successful and you will make a minimal number of marketing mistakes. Good luck.