Guerilla Marketing - Ep.20

Hey everyone, you're listening to landscape businesscourse.com podcast. I'm excited to bring it to you today. It's episode 20 20th episode here on the podcast and I'm looking forward to many, many more to come. So if you haven't already, make sure you do get on the webinar landscapebusinesscourse.com I'm making a Saturday webinar on January 7th and that's for the several people who haven't been able to get on the Thursday webinar because you're working can't make it to that time. So it's Saturday 9:00am Pacific Time. Last Love to see you there. We talk about all about how I've built my business and totally free, give you all as much content as I can. If you bring your URL, your website URL, I'll actually go on it during the webinar live and you can see me critique your website to help you get a better SEO. So that's a lot of fun and I'll show you how I've done RSEO and stuff. But anyways, let's go ahead and talk about guerrilla marketing now. I have different opinions on guerilla marketing. Some of them I do like, some of them I don't like. I'm not going to get into that. For instance, I don't like sometimes when lawn care companies will take their little flaggy flyer things and post them at like every single stop sign and intersection in a city and with their just with their name and their phone number. I don't like that. I think it comes across super promotional. And we talk about the three different types of marketing. You got your educational, your conversational, and your promotional. And that just comes off very promotional. And it also attracts the type of buyers that are not looking for premium product with premium pricing. And when we talk about premium pricing, that means having higher margins. And that's the kind of business we're trying to create. So when I talk about guerrilla marketing, I don't like to use that term, but I did. And so what I mean by that is essentially really just types of marketing that are different than traditional in our industry. Traditional is newspaper postcards, even Google AdWords, Facebook ads, even like more digital stuff. Even that stuff. It's traditional. Most people do it, it's accessible to everybody and it doesn't take a whole lot of work. For instance, I can set up a Google Adwords campaign within an hour, a good one with good pictures, some good copy, and pay money for it to be distributed. And I'm not saying anything is that bad. I'm not dissing any of those. I'm just saying that there's a different option. And that is this option really, this guerrilla marketing Met is really number one, something we've used and that's what I'm gonna talk about today. But it's also great if you're just starting out or if you're just starting to grow your business and wanting to scale it up and get serious about it. It's a great way to do it without spending thousands of dollars or creating massive campaigns that cost so much money for printing off thousands of postcards or reaching millions of people via Facebook and Google AdWords. So this is a different approach. I'm not saying the other approaches are bad. It's just different. And it's something wor big time in December and January in my business. And so I hope it helps you and I hope it allows you to grow your business to some extent. So what is it? First of all, I'll explain exactly what we're doing right now with our business. The first time I've really done this at scale, where I've done this a bunch. A couple years ago I did this for a few properties and it kind of worked. I did this. And so now we're just essentially just blowing it up. We're going to do a whole bunch and see what happens. We're going to throw it up there, see if it sticks. I'm going to definitely report back to you guys and tell you exact numbers as, as far as traction, response rate, all that stuff. So this is what we're doing. It sounds crazy, but here it goes. What we're doing essentially is we are going and doing blind commercial estimates. And what I mean by blind is that they haven't asked for an estimate.

They haven't received our marketing material and called us or anything like that. They are essentially just there. And so kind of our hot zone or our wheelhouse of what we're really trying to focus on is apartment complexes and multifamily dwellings. But we can also talk about commercial properties that are larger, hotels, large gas stations, stuff that's larger. And so the reason it needs to be large is just because volume and scale for the lower percentage of callback and feedback that you're gonna get from these estimates. But this is what I'm gonna explain it now. Okay, so right now what we're trying to do is we are essentially going and creating estimates and 12 month contracts for the landscape maintenance for these massive retirement homes. Apartment complexes, commercial buildings and all of this stuff. And then what we're doing is we're going out, we're creating this estimate, then we are sending that to the office. The office is creating a contract which obviously isn't enforced, but it is possibly going to be the lure that gets that company to the property management company to sign us. And if you listen to the last episode, you know that the property management company is who you're going after, not the owner of the apartment complex or anything like that. So what we're going to do then is we're going to then take that estimate, print it off, put it inside of our introduction packet, which is talks about our company before and after pictures, shows were bonded, insured and all that good stuff. And it's a nice like cardboard packet. Then we're going to put the estimates inside of there. Then we are going to take make homemade cookies, oatmeal raisin cookie or oatmeal chocolate cookies. And we are going to make those freshly, then take them to the office with those estimates and the introduction packet and give them to the office staff of the property management company.

Some of these apartment complexes are so big that they do have their own office staff on site. So we will go there, we will take them cookies, we'll take them introduction packet. We will also get their email to follow up with them via email. Like, so we're doing like huge amounts of resources going after these blind estimates. And the reason I would call this guerrilla marketing is because usually people would say, well, you won't want to invest that much resources into an estimate or a lead that isn't even asking for your service. And I get it, but guess what? If I can do like right now we're doing like 10 to 20 of these things a day. If I can get a hundred, a hundred, 100 to 200 of these massive contracts finished in the next month or two between me and one of the other guys I'm training to do this. These blind estimates, if we can get 100 or 200 of them and 10% of them get back to us and 5% of them, except we've made probably 100,000 extra or more in the business in the next, just the next year, and let alone then the properties that that management company then refers us to, or they also manage and we didn't give them an estimate for, but they need service like, so the compounding effects there. And it's kind of a crazy thing. We're going to see if it works. And I'll Definitely get you back to you. But if you're a course member, if you are registered and paid for the course and you're a student of landscape business course, if you go to your modules and go to the other tips section, the module and go into the templates part. I've already put our template that we are using right now and what it is is a modified version of the estimate form that you've already got for when you go to estimates and you fill out and send to the office right now I've put on there what we are doing. So it essentially takes all the different categories and you can change those categories out. You can put in the types of services that are most common in area. For instance, like for us we start off with the general mowing and then we circle. If we think they need weekly or bi weekly, then we, we have like if they need leaf cleanup, then we have monthly weeding cost. And then essentially what our office does is compile all those numbers. They know our rate matrix based upon our standardized pricing list, which you also have if you're part of the course. And then they shoot back a contract to these people, they can create a contract for these, these companies and these properties and give them a monthly cost for a 12 month contract. And so we're gonna see if it works. And like I said, if you are part of the course, you got the document. I'm gonna be making a video and actually showing you how we fill that form out and then how you can create your monthly price. And based upon the monthly, on that monthly price thing, you can also. This is the thing, this is the problem. Most people say, well why would you create an estimate? Cause you don't know exactly what they want, obviously. Yes, you don't know exactly what they want and you can't tailor the estimate exactly to what they need, but you can at least get their attention. So you wanted to give them a dollar figure because this is the thing with these property management companies. You got to think of them from their end like they don't want to go out and have to try to find bids. So if they come early spring, February and they know that they got to go out and get new contracts for their landscaping, it's a pain for them, it's an extra expense, it's more time. So why wouldn't they, why wouldn't they at least entertain a contract or an estimate that's already been given to them? And so you say, well, we can't personalize it. We don't know if they Want aeration, we don't want type, we don't know what type of fertilization they want. Well, guess what? On the estimate we send to them, we have the monthly price for their mowing, their trimming annually, annual trimming in the winter for all their trees, and then their fault, their cleanup, and then like for leaves and weeding. But then they have a la carte items, things like pressure washing, gutter, clean out, aeration, fertilization packages. And they can just choose if they want those or not. And we already give them those prices. So if you are a course member, do keep your eyes out for a video that will come up in the next week or so explaining exactly how to fill out that form and everything. But for anyone out there, you can do this. And it's all about just being like. Most businesses aren't willing to put in the grind and the time and going out and meeting people they have never met before and giving cookies to people they've never who are strangers. But if you've listened to the last episode and you realize how important it is to get to know these property management companies and get your foot in the door with these larger contracts, you'll also realize the fact that if you can get 1 in 10 of the contracts, you estimate out. Like I can do 10 of these estimates in four hours. Driving around locally, going to these apartment complexes, driving around, getting a really good idea. And if you're doing standardized pricing, that's what such an advantage is, you can create these estimates quickly and precisely and have still a super amount of accuracy. Like I have someone else I'm training to do this with for these estimates, like these blind estimates and our estimates. Even though he's not super experienced at doing estimates.

His numbers are coming super close to mine. And the reason for that is because of standardized pricing. And that's why it's so important. And that's why we stress about it so much in the courses, creating these standardized pricing lists so that regardless of who's doing the estimates, it's gonna be like very close every single time.

This is scalable, this is repeatable, and this is what you want to be doing, creating these systems, creating these procedures in your business. And so that's why we stress so much about creating standardized pricing lists. And now we're talking about creating these estimates in a standard form and so your office can quickly get these numbers. Like I can do 10 and 12 of these in four hours, right? I call it a day. But like I have other stuff I gotta do my day so like four hours, if I can spend that, I can get 10 to 12 of these things done. And guess what? If one of those, if one of those people accept, I guarantee you that time is well spent. Like perhaps it takes me four hours to do the estimate, another four hours for the office to put together all the contracts, let's say some money for the cookies and for the introduction packets and paper and all that good stuff. So let's say I have three hours of time and $20 in, in just money for cookies and all the other paper and all that good stuff. Like all of that into per estimate, right? Well guess what? If I can get one of those estimates to accept out of the 10 or 12 I do each day, you're gonna have a huge amount of success. Like that's huge. Because that one contract could be a twenty, thirty thousand dollar maintenance contract that you're gonna make ten, fifteen grand on in net throughout the course of one year, let alone five and ten years once you build a relationship with them, let alone the other property that management company is going to give to you once you prove that you're a great contractor and a great company and provide value. So I really think this is going to be, it's definitely going to be a learning experience and that's why I want to share with you all out there. I'm going to tell you how it works. And if you are in the course, make sure to get that template, make sure to make it your own. And if you're out there and even if you're not part of the course, like regardless, if you have a business and you're doing landscaping, lawn care, don't be afraid to do something that's different. Don't be afraid to be the guy that starts cold calling. Don't be afraid to be the guy that goes door to door, does door hangers or begins to put those little stands in your hardscaping jobs like we've recently started to do with your sign. Like it's just a lawn sign. It's probably like 24 inches wide, a few inches tall, I mean a couple feet tall, like nice size. And just the yard sign goes in our lawn, it just says, has a big picture of our logo, says Landscaping Services provided by Augusta Lawn Care Services with our big logo and our phone number and like, like, don't be afraid to do these things that are different than everyone else in your area. Don't be afraid to go get video reviews from your customers. Don't be afraid to put them on your website. Don't be afraid to make YouTube videos about your hardscaping. Do before and after and show the behind the scenes of your business. I guarantee you that that's what's gonna get the attention of the customers that you're looking to get. And it's gon to get these larger contracts. It's gonna allow you to get the high profit margin high like the premium priced product, the premium priced customer, the ones that are willing to pay for the value that you are giving and that's what's gonna get their attention. Doing something that's different, doing the same old same o. If you go and you go, you go onto Google and you look for local lawn care sites, sorry, local lawn care companies and 50 of them show up in the right hand side at Google Adwords. And then you go onto Facebook and they're all advertising there like you gotta do something that's different. I guarantee you a lot of people are a lot of lawn care companies in your area. The larger ones are already advertising on Google Adwords. Why try to compete with them? Go out and do something that's different. I'm not saying not to do Google AdWords. I'm not saying to not do Facebook ads. What I'm saying is you gotta be different. You got to get outside of your comfort zone and be willing to do what everyone else is not willing to do. Be in the places that everyone else is not already at. Be it the places that are not already crowded and everyone else is jostling for position and trying to increase their cost per click in order to beat someone else. Go out there and do what other people aren't willing to do. You're gonna get the highest return on investment, you're gonna get the highest return on time and you're gonna be able to get the customers you've always been wanting to get. That's it for today. This is Mike Andes, landscapebusinesscourse.com Check it out. This has been great. It's an episode one. No, it's been episode 20 on the landscapebusinesscourse.com pod.