Passed out nearly 500 business cards and 500 flyers and could find a single client other than a friend

[boloyo]

So I made visually appealing flyers and business cards that I spent a long time working on, have been working on a website, I put my contact information on those flyers and haven’t gotten a single call back from the flyers. I am trying to advertise for my snow plowing service in which I am charging a very very very fair price at only $30 per visit to plow the average driveway. Compared to many people charging $60 per visit. I spent nearly $20k for all the equipment (truck and plow). How can I advertise better?

 

[lost_soul]

@boloyo The next time your area has a good snow coming in (like actively snowing, that's when people think about plowing) do a sponsored ad on Facebook.

 

[fiiish]

@lost_soul Go to the local city fb pages ie not the official city pages but they neighborhood ones and post when there’s a big snow. There was someone who literally posted “going to be in x neighborhood at this time, have extra time. Dm and you can Venmo me”.

 

[rzimiscool]

@lost_soul I'd even throw an offer on that the first time for a couple customers is free just to get a client base started

 

[streakygopher]

@rzimiscool I would not go that far.

 

[marysim]

@streakygopher Me either lol

When I need work I can always get it on Craigslist. Just offer yourself up. Trust me people will call. Costs $5

 

[newmove]

@streakygopher Find the oldest residents in your neighborhood and next time it snows, call the local news and tell them you're doing their driveway and sidewalk/steps for free. No one needs to know it's your first gig. Everyone feels good, and you get free exposure and experience. I'm sure that's happened more than a hundred times.

 

[streakygopher]

@newmove That is a totally different plan, and I like it.

 

[rzimiscool]

@streakygopher Touché, I understand that perspective, I've just had better luck with that. Setting up a contract with the first (insert job) being free. Depending on the actual running cost of the service. Like in tree care when a neighbor asks of I can do something real quick ill do it. If it in fact quick, then I can also give some input on what else may be beneficial to their yard and trees

 

[streakygopher]

@rzimiscool A neighbor asking a quick favor and bringing all your stuff to a random home is a totally different story. If you were working in your own community with people you have known for years, that would change the story.

 

[rzimiscool]

@streakygopher For sure, knowing peeps definitely influences that

 

[zailan3]

@rzimiscool Don’t do this. Offer the 5th one free. Otherwise you just get people who get a free one or two then ever contact you again.

 

[newmove]

@rzimiscool I would do some freebies for a couple of local businesses, maybe a retirement community, a popular bar/restaurant and any homeowner over 70 years old.

 

[snowy446]

@rzimiscool Only if they sign up for the rest of the winter

 

[colin44]

@boloyo I've heard flyers aren't very effective overall for the amount you need to distribute. I've seen it said a lot by sweaty business owners you get maybe 1 lead per every 100-200 flyers on average. So with 500, you might have just gotten unlucky. Is it already snowy in your area right now? Maybe you'll get more calls when more snow falls.

Yard signs are much more effective from my own experience. I did gutter cleaning this fall and literally only put out like 8 signs at highway exits and I'm booked out for the rest of December, couple thousand bucks profit between my current 9-5. Could've easily scaled it up a lot more if I wanted to. Go on to UZmarketing's website, they're one of the cheapest for yard signs and good quality, you can design it easily with simple templates on the site. "SNOW REMOVAL" big letters, phone number big letters, maybe your low starting price at the bottom "Free estimates as low as $30!" or whatever.

Also, you need to focus more on online marketing. Most people search for services online like "snow removal near me". Make a Google My Business page and when you start completing jobs, nicely ask for reviews. That way you'll start showing up on Google when people search for that service online. You can research here or YouTube ways to optimize your Google business page.

You can post a quick Craigslist ad for $5 for the whole month. I got my first lead from that and turns out he's a property manager and will hopefully be giving me lots of future work. Nextdoor can be a great neighborhood app to post on depending on your area. Make a Facebook page for your business. Join local city/town Facebook groups and post there but be careful to follow rules and not spam. Try to contribute to the communities and post educational things. Type a quick prompt into chatGPT for ideas how to make quick social media posts.

Also try to get your customers on some sort of recurring subscription service at a small discounted price. Just keep going! You got this

.

 

[louizteinluk]

@colin44 Don't forget the Nextdoor app too.

 

[colin44]

@louizteinluk Yep! I mentioned that in there already. Although it's funny, I haven't had any success with Nextdoor.

Either I'm not in the right neighborhood or I just don't know what to post. I don't want to just constantly spam my services, and the other businesses/individuals I see doing so don't seem to get much or any interaction anyways. I'm not sure what else to really post in there. Haven't seen any lost pets lately, and I'm not a general handyman. That's half of what I see in my feed there.

 

[louizteinluk]

@colin44 Bummer, I've hired a couple people off the app and had great transactions.

 

[colin44]

@louizteinluk Any tips on how to do well on there? Do you think it's more about the area, or what you post?

 

[louizteinluk]

@colin44 It must be the area, they had very simple ads