Today’s marketing efforts have come a long way. But “old-school” methods like tree service postcards and mailers still hold an important place. These are what we’d consider part of a grassroots effort (aka: boots-to-the-ground) that can be really instrumental in growing a tree service business.
Of course, as with any marketing effort, there are some good strategies and some not-so-good ones. If you want to be successful and get tree service customers, it’s important that you focus on those best practices that will breed success.
Simply throwing together a postcard or a mailer that never actually gets read is a complete waste of time and money.
For that reason, we’re talking about some of our best tips for tree service mailers and postcards. You want your investment to pay off.
1. Use a Simple Layout
One area where tree service postcards or mailers can go seriously wrong is in the layout. When a mailer or a postcard is visually “busy” it’s unappealing and may never get read.
You want to think about a layout that is simple but eye-catching. The goal is obviously to get the prospect’s attention (and you really only have a limited amount of time). This sense of urgency to capture attention quickly is what might lead some to over-do it. But remember that less is often more in capturing people’s attention.
The color scheme should match your brand and the imagery and words should be aesthetically appealing.
2. Make the Emphasis on the Customer’s Concerns (Not How Great YOU Are)
Nothing turns people off with tree service postcards and mailers more quickly than a whole lot of boasting and bragging. You aren’t writing a love letter to yourself (or your tree service business)!
Instead, you should be thinking about how to appeal to prospects’ actual wants and needs. The language on your postcard or mailer should be all about THEM. Focusing on the customer’s worries or concerns will grab their attention.
Then, you can talk about how you’re able to solve them.
Obviously, you have limited space and we’ve already mentioned that “less is more.” Remember that the postcard or mailer is just an opening act. The goal is for it to lead them to want to find out more. We’ll talk about that next.
3. Have Your Tree Service Mailers and Postcards Lead to a Trackable Landing Page (or a Phone Number)
As we just said above, the mailer or postcard should be the opening act.
These items should encourage prospects to want to find out more about you. So, it’s important that it pushes people to a trackable landing page or a phone number where you can keep track of incoming leads.
Knowing where your leads are coming from is really important in evaluating the overall success of any marketing effort….so you definitely want to make sure this data is trackable.
Once the prospect gets to the landing page or phone number, they’ll also have the opportunity to find out more about your company.
4. Invest in Professional Photography
In general, professional photography is really important to growing a tree service business. You want to use professional photos on your website and other marketing materials, including tree service postcards and mailers.
It just sets a tone of professionalism for your business that self-taken photos won’t.
Another consideration with photography is whether or not to use stock photos. If you’re brand new, there might not have been an opportunity to build a portfolio of professional photos. Stock photos are at least professional (and better than poor-quality, personally taken photos). But there is something very insincere about stock photos.
People ultimately want to see actual team members from your company…or actual jobs that you’ve done. There’s something much more authentic about this and it helps to build trust and brand loyalty.
If you’re a Joshua Tree Experts franchise owner, note that we do have plenty of professionally taken Joshua Tree photos.
5. Incorporate Social Proof of Reviews
Social proof is really important to people. They want to see that other people, like them, have already used your tree service and been happy with the results.
Therefore, using actual quotes from clients is a great way to build trust with something as simple as tree service mailers or postcards.
6. Have a Great Sales Process for Following Up
Even if you’ve created really great tree service mailers or postcards, this shouldn’t be the end of your sales effort! That’s why it’s important to also have a great sales process that involves following up.
After all, think about the own mailers that you receive. If something catches your eye, you might take a quick read. But even if you liked what you read or saw, life happens and you get busy.
That’s why when you are growing a tree service business, it has to be an ongoing effort. Successful marketing is not once-and-done but instead something that is ongoing.
Oftentimes mailers and postcards also introduce people to a company or brand they weren’t familiar with before. It “plants a seed.” That’s important, even if they aren’t in the market for tree service work at the time. When the time does come that they need tree work, the hope is that the seed you planted will start to germinate.
But to continue with that analogy, just like a planted seed will die if it’s not nurtured and cared for with proper watering, the seed you plant with tree service mailers or postcards might fizzle out if you aren’t investing in any follow-up.
If too much time passes from the time prospects receive your mailers and the time they need services, they simply might forget.
Get Tree Service Customers with a Multi-Layer Approach
At the end of the day, tree service mailers or postcards are just one layer to a multi-layered marketing approach.
But they’re an important one!
All of your marketing efforts ultimately work together to help you reach prospects.
Oftentimes, prospective clients are likely to encounter more than one of your marketing efforts (if you’re taking that multi-layered approach) and that’s important both in building brand loyalty and trust!
We also believe that efforts like these are critical to building a brand and growing a tree service business particularly when you are new. You want to get your name out there.
These are part of a long-time effort meaning the people that you’re connecting with might not hire you immediately, but the more they come to recognize your name and get to know you, the more likely they will be to hire you when they do need tree work. They’ll already have a name they know and trust.
Hopefully these have given you a good starting point for your postcards and mailers, but remember that if you are a Joshua Tree Experts franchise owner, we are always here to help. We have seen efforts like these work and we can impart the knowledge that we’ve learned to help you succeed, too.
Are you ready to grow a successful business from strong roots? Joshua Tree Experts has the proven systems and processes in place to help. Request a meeting and begin your journey today.
