| Sample Newsletters |
To view samples of Swingle Tree & Landscape's "Tree Lines" newsletters, click the following links:
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DENVER - As a means of generating estimates and business each year, Swingle Tree & Landscape, Denver, Colo., mails about 20,000 newsletters two times a year to current and prospective customers.
"There’s a blended purpose for the newsletter," said Tom Tolkacz, owner of Swingle Tree & Landscape. "It is a reminder that we’re out there, and that if our customers do have needs, they can let us know."
The message is sent to active customers - people who have authorized Swingle Tree & Landscape to complete services now or in the upcoming months - and also to everyone the company has done an estimate for within the last 24 months, said Tolkacz.
The company sends out fall and early spring newsletters, named "Tree Lines," with the fall newsletter as its primary marketing campaign for the season. "Its purpose in the fall is to drive some estimate requests or to drive phone calls where we have clients that are already buying from us and might call for prices on aeration or other timely services," explained Tolkacz.
The spring newsletter is folded in with contract renewals to promote the company while letting customers know it’s time to renew services. However, the contract renewals will be replaced with continuing service agreements services this year - a step Tolkacz has highlighted and will drive home in the newsletter and other company correspondence (see A Transition To Continuing Service Agreements below).
Tolkacz sends out the fall newsletters and any spring newsletters not folded in with contracts as flat mailers. "It costs more money, but I believe it stands out almost as if it was a magazine," he explained, noting that the six-page, full-color newsletters are printed on glossy paper stock.
PLANNING. Tolkacz starts planning early for upcoming newsletters. The first step is meeting with an independent freelancer who helps in pulling together the newsletter from a design, content and production standpoint. "He and I will go over format, page layout, article placement, content and photo selection. Then he’ll lay it out on paper and take the final copy to printer," he said.
Tolkacz's first meeting for the company’s fall newsletter, which will mail about the week of Sept. 9, was held just two weeks ago in mid-June. "In our first meeting we primarily do a lot of brainstorming on topics to cover. We go through our photo inventory and think about what photos we have that we’ll be able to write articles around or photos that will fit the articles we’re thinking about writing," he said.
The initial newsletter meeting also included discussion about the cover shots not only for the upcoming fall issue but also cover shots for the spring issue. "We’re sort of building an inventory of photos 12 to 24 months out," Tolkacz explained.
"We’re starting our process in June for a September newsletter," he continued. "By the time I’m delivering my fall newsletter, I’m starting on my spring newsletter." Tolkacz said that schedule is necessary to make sure the spring newsletter gets out to customers in January in time for contract renewals and proposals. "We need to have our ideas in place for that newsletter no later than October 1," he noted.
About a week or two after the brainstorming session, Tolkacz and his freelancer will meet again to review notes and establish a schedule that sets deadlines for first draft, second draft, delivery to printer and delivery to the Post Office. Tolkacz explained that these strict deadlines are put in place to make sure they meet the anticipated mail date. "We usually try to get it to the Post Office on a Wednesday so it’s in people’s hands over the weekend," he said.
CONTENT DECISIONS. Tolkacz chooses content of the newsletters based on several factors, including weather-related events that can affect a landscape, programs or process changes in how to do businesses with the company (such as its change to continuing service agreements), new service offerings, awards presented to the company (such as its recent naming as Christmas Décor’s Western Franchise of the Year), community or philanthropic projects and employee success stories.
In planning articles about landscaping issues, Tolkacz said the early planning of the newsletter can create a few minor challenges. "It’s a little tough because you’re writing your content so early you don’t really know what summer is going to bring. We could have drought by the time I get ready to print," he said. But a solution is to write articles about what happened last season, such as his area’s difficult fall and winter season. He explained that some of the fall "Tree Lines" content may focus on how plants reacted to last year’s seasons and show the recovery processes of some plants.
BENEFITS. Tolkacz considers "Tree Lines" to be an advertorial piece, meaning that the company is advertising its services and encouraging any special offers available but is also educating its customers through editorial content.
"The newsletter generates estimates, and it generates business. That’s the primary benefit," Tolkacz said. "The second benefit is that people read it - they look forward to it. It shows that we care about certain things in the community."
The author is Internet Editor of Lawn & Landscape Online.
| A Transition To Continuing Service Agreements |
With an annual renewal rate of about 75 to 80 percent, and even higher on some individual services, Tolkacz has decided to change Swingle Tree & Landscape’s renewal contract method to continuing service agreements. According to Tolkacz, traditional lawn care companies have mostly used continuing service agreements. These agreements mean that once a customer buys a lawn care program from a company, the company sends a renewal letter stating it will be out to do the same program the following spring. It is then up to the customer to notify the company if they do not want the service next year. Conversely, Tolkacz said tree care companies have historically used contract renewals, which require sending a proposal that the customer must respond affirmatively to if the company is to perform work for that customer. Originally, Tolkacz said Swingle Tree & Landscape sold itself on the fact that it was different from its competition because it used contract renewals. However, a recent customer survey asking clients which method they would prefer and Swingle Tree & Landscape’s high renewal rate have prompted the change. "When they’re renewing at that high of a rate, it’s pretty apparent that we don’t have to go through that process of having them say ‘yes’ every year," he explained about his decision. "So instead of having to say, ‘Yes,’ if they don’t want us to do what we propose, they just have to call up and say, ‘no.’" Tolkacz realizes this is a major change for the company. Therefore, he has been proactive in announcing the change and educating his customers. "When people authorized us last year, we announced that they were now authorizing us for a continuing service agreement." He is hopeful of a smooth transition, but he realizes there will be some adjustments, including not charging customers for services they did not want but neglected to cancel. He said crediting for unwanted services is an uncommon occurrence for most companies offering continuing service agreements because technically, the company is authorized to complete and charge for any service not cancelled by a customer. "Our feeling is the amount of credits that we will be giving will be high in the first year," Tolkacz explained. "We’re not going to try to push people real hard for that revenue if they say, ‘Hey, I didn’t want this service.’" Tolkacz is working hard to educate customers via the company’s newsletter and other methods to notify them about the change in renewal practices. These efforts are aimed at limiting the amount of customers who say they don’t want a service when a crew comes to their property to work. "That’s a big problem, and we don’t like being in that position," he noted. "So we’re going to work real hard and try to make sure that people aren’t in that position and that our employees and technicians aren’t in that position because it’s not comfortable." - Scott Hunsberger |