BEST OF THE WEB: Hang in There

Ryan Holt is trying door hangers for the first time this year and he hopes that, in return for his effort, opportunity knocks.
 
However, the owner of Driftwood Lawn Care in Rising Sun, Md. wonders what type of results he should expect and how he’ll know whether or not his marketing campaign was, in fact, a success. Landscape contractors contributing to Lawn & Landscape’s Online Message Board were eager to contribute opinions and recently posted their thoughts on the effectiveness of door hangers as an industry marketing tool.
 
Holt purchased 3,000 door hangers for just less than $200 from an online Web site. The door hangers were pretty basic, he describes, adding they were white with green and black lettering. Regardless of their minimalist and simplistic design, Holt believes the door hangers will prove to be more effective than fliers or mailers.
 
“I get mailers all of the time and I barely look at them as I am throwing them away,” Holt says. “But if I have to pull a door hanger off I am definitely going to read it.”
 
In his initial advertising push this spring, Holt distributed about 800 door hangers and received five calls and two e-mails in response. Industry colleagues have told him to expect a 2- to 3-percent return from door hangers and he recognizes that this recent less than 1 percent return could be interpreted as a disappointment at this juncture. “But they were all serious customers with nice size jobs (for example, a new-yard install, a paver patio and maintenance work),” Holt says. “I wish I would have done this before because the cost is much better than advertising in the local newspaper. Door hangers seem to be a no-brainer, for me, at least.”
 
Contractor Nicholas Esposito disagrees and posts he believes in the power of advertising in his local newspaper and says distributing door hangers is a waste of a contractor’s time. “Put some bucks into a good old advertisement and a good giveaway,” says Esposito, the owner of Mohegan Country Gardens in Mohegan Lake, N.Y., “As you approach your sales call, give away a pen or something they can take away with them. Have some good folders with your price quotes to hand over to prospective clients and your callback ratio will go higher.”
 
Andrew Aksar, president of Outdoor Finishes in Walkersville, Md., suggests additional responses will come in time and adds the business leads door hangers generate are worth the work. “Door hangers can be time consuming for a small company,” he explains. “But they sure beat a $6,000 Yellow Pages ad, where 50 percent of the calls the ad generates are from tire kickers.”
 
To distribute the door hangers, Aksar has one worker drive and two workers hanging – with this system the trio can cover more than 2,000 homes in about six hours. The return rate varies, Aksar says, and he has no real explanation for why one wave resulted in a number of sales leads and another turned up nothing. “We have hung door hangers were the phone was ringing before we even departed the neighborhood,” he posts. “And then back in August 2006, we hung about 2,000 door hangers and didn’t get one phone call. But this doesn’t mean they didn’t hang onto the hanger and won’t be calling us in the future.”
 
Many contractors posted comments about the long shelf life door hangers have with potential new clients. While they may not solicit job leads immediately following distribution, they may at some time in the future. “I got a call the other day from a hanger from three years ago,” posts Kelly Tohill, the owner of Atlanta-based Tohill Landscape Management. “I sold them a maintenance package. Door hangers work. It’s what I have built my business on.”
 
Contractor Daniel Bailey posts he has been disappointed with the results from his Yellow Pages ad and is turning to door hangers as his marketing push this year. “They seem to work much better,” says Bailey, owner of Bailey’s Lawn and Landscape in Middletown, Del. “The tricky part, though, is getting them out at the right time.”
 
Door hangers should generate a return rate of sales leads of between 1 and 2 percent, with around a 35-percent close rate on those inquiries, posts Rob Shauger, owner of Deerfield, N.Y.-based Advanced Applications. However, he adds results vary depending on geographic markets.
 
Kory Ballard, owner of Perficut Lawn & Landscape in Des Moines, Iowa, has distributed door hangers on a large scale – more than 25,000 – for a number of years and prefers them over mailers. “I like the fact that they will need to remove a door hanger from their door and at some point look at it,” he posts. “Even if they’re not in the market for your service, they’ll see your name.
 
“We find door hangers to be very inexpensive and we seem to get great results,” he adds. “Like with any advertising program, you need to be consistent. We usually distribute the door hangers a few days a week with a couple of part-time employees. For best results, we have them in uniforms and they deliver in the evenings and on Saturdays.” While he hasn’t tracked exact return-rate figures, Ballard says after distributing on a Saturday he always notices an influx of calls the following Monday.
 
Chad Stern posts that he likes door hangers as a marketing tool, especially custom-designed hangers, which he believes are worth the extra $100 to $200 since they stand out among the more unprofessional ones customers may typically receive. “When I go to do an estimate at a new house I usually try to leave door hangers at all of the surrounding houses,” says Stern, owner, Mowing & More, Chevy Chase, Md.
 
While door hangers sound like an intriguing advertising method, many contractors, especially those who push snow in the winter, say they don’t have the manpower to cover new neighborhoods and distribute hangers.
 
Without accounting for street-to-street transportation, Warren Turner, owner of Turner’s Landscape in Sacramento, Calif,. posts he can install two hangers per minute. “If I’m really going fast, then maybe three per minute,” he says. “It depends on the house setting and if you walk on lawns or around them and use the walkways.”
 
Jerry Naiser, president of Tree Masters in Austin, Texas, hires an outside company to distribute his company’s door hangers. The company charges 16 cents per door and runs eight walkers, each who can hang 90 pieces per hour. “Last year we put out 100,000 hangers and picked up 700 customers,” he says.