Hit ‘em where they ain't

One of the smallest men ever to play Major League Baseball, “Wee Willie” Keeler, racked up 2,947 career hits and secured himself a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He did this using one of the shortest bats in baseball history. His secret? His ability to “place” his hits – to direct the ball with a crack of his bat to where there was no one nearby to field it. We can learn from Wee Willie when it comes to marketing our companies.

Consider the way most landscapers market their businesses. For each of these tactics, the questions remain the same: Is it effective? Does it increase sales? Is it money well spent?

Based on the industry research I’ve read and my experience as a consultant, landscapers spend approximately 1.6 percent of their total sales on marketing. Let’s say your company’s annual sales are $500,000. This would mean you would spend about $8,000 a year on marketing. But would you be maximizing the potential of this $8,000, or would you just be breaking even on it? Or, worse still, would you really just be throwing it away? This is where Wee Willie’s advice can teach us about how to market our companies effectively.

Say you have a choice between buying a billboard or placing an ad in an arts program. The former will trumpet your company’s message to all those who pass by, while the latter, which will cost you just as much, will reach only those who attend the event. Though it would seem you’d be far wiser to pay for the billboard than the program ad, this is not necessarily so. Where is the billboard located? Is it clearly visible from the road? Are there competing billboards nearby? If there are, there’s a good chance they’ll cancel each other out and leave no lasting impression on those driving by.

Now think about the arts program. It’s fair to say that most people who support the arts have a decent bit of discretionary income to spend on cultural outings or, if your ad succeeds, their lawns. See if you can get the organization to guarantee that you’ll be the only landscaper featured. You want to be able to communicate your message clearly, succinctly and without distraction. You want to advertise where your customers are and your competition isn’t. Here are some vehicles for doing that:

Sponsor a small business award. A business owner friend sponsors a small business award every year. His is always the only company of his type at the ceremony and he has the coveted opportunity to address several hundred local business people – all of whom are themselves potential customers and are connected to several hundreds of other potential customers. The uptick in business he receives from this event far outweighs the cost of sponsorship.

Hire an ice cream truck and place a magnetic sign on the side with your company’s name. Ride with the vendor through neighborhoods where your clients live. Give out free ice cream, along with your business cards, and chat people up. You’ll get the neighborhood talking about you. Time it right and you might even get some local news coverage out of it.

Chair a benefit dinner. This is a great way to get your name out while giving back to the community. After all, whom do you prefer to do business with – the company that cares solely about maximizing its profits or the one that contributes a portion of its profits to do some good in the world?

Be different. My last suggestion is to find a distinctive way to position your name where you’re certain your customers, current and future, will see it. My landscaping company is headquartered along one of the busiest highways in the Dayton, Ohio, area. We erected a billboard on the property – the only billboard nearby – where thousands of cars pass by it every day. To keep our message fresh, we change the sign every four months. With free highway frontage, there’s no way we could pass up this opportunity and for us it’s proven wonderfully effective.