Stick to your guns

Albert Godec calls his marketing strategy “laid back,” and the way Rundo Tree Surgeon reaches out to customers hasn’t changed all that much in the last 20 years. 
    
With a solid customer base of about 3,000 people who would prefer to read a snail-mail newsletter than figure out how to view bills or communications online, the old-fashioned way, has worked just fine for Rundo Tree.

“We make sure to stay in touch and build relationships with our existing customers, and we work with local nurseries and other experts, maintaining good relationships with them,” Godec says, noting that referrals from industry peers is a source of new business.

Godec doesn’t make cold calls. The company doesn’t plaster fliers around neighborhoods. “We use a lot of snail mail,” he says, adding that the marketing program is focused on making renewal easy. “People want to know their problems are going to be handled.”

To reassure customers that Rundo Tree Surgeon is the best company to rescue trees, Godec creates a newsletter one to three times a season – the frequency depends on how busy he is. Content educates clients about tree pests and keeps them up to date on bark beetles, which are a concern in the surrounding mountain communities and ski areas near Colorado Springs. These newsletters serve as a sort of Farmer’s Almanac, informing people about what tree conditions to expect because of weather or other variables.

Godec isn’t ready to shift this paper communication to e-mail just yet. “Just last year we finally started getting requests to get information electronically,” he says, noting his older customer base is more comfortable with the phone and personal contact.

That’s why he maintains his costly advertisement in the Yellow Pages – his No. 1 annual marketing expense at $12,000. “It’s huge,” Godec says. “It seems to get more and more expensive, and I think the results we get from it have been reduced. That’s where we need to make the biggest change in the next few years.”

Godec has maintained the price of his ad for the last two years, but he isn’t sure if the cost-per-customer-acquired is worth the investment. Advertising this ways seems more an obligation than a strategy. “But there is still not a better, more clear-cut alternative,” he says.

“I could spend $5,000 here and $4,000 there and easily spend more than $12,000 and still hit the same number of people,” he adds.

In general, Godec doesn’t hear a lot of noise from competitors, and he doesn’t compete with large, national firms. “We’re all fairly local and we have our own local networks and so forth,” he describes.

Still, moving into the online era, Godec is working on getting the company Web site up and running before the season breaks this spring. He’s hoping this will be one more way for customers to converse with the company. Maintaining a relationship-based focus is important, he says.

That’s why Godec will continue reaching out in small ways that go over big with customers, such as involvement in civic groups and maintaining a good rapport with the city forester’s office.

“They are not out there giving referrals to people, but they certainly aren’t steering people away from us either,” he says.

Ultimately, Godec’s marketing focuses on a more universal mission. “We work to be good community stewards,” he says.

The author is a freelance writer based in Bay Village, Ohio.