Landscape Management, November 2016

A fter 30 years of serving the same client demographic upper middle class residential Dave Freeman owner of DC Freeman based in Millburn N J says he felt stuck in a certain niche With referrals being what he calls his bread and butter Freeman was challenged to find a way to climb into a higher socioeconomic bracket to generate better referrals Having had a few truly wealthy clients in the mix over the years Freeman knew thats where he could get the best bang for his buck in terms of both how much he can charge and the level to which he can take his creativity He decided to target his marketing straight to these clients instead of sending out the same old mailers and coupons he had in the past So Freeman sought out a professional graphic designer to create a high end trifold brochure that communicated his companys message and was also great eye candy he says My average job probably checks in at about 15000 to 25000 but I was shooting for four to five 50000 plus jobs with this effort Freeman says Of course a high quality marketing piece was no small investment The designer charged 5000 to 6000 per brainstorming and production round and there were a total of three rounds At that price it was imperative that the investment was worthwhile Freeman says After creating the promotional piece Freeman worked with a mailing list company to distribute it He chose a radius around his work area and mailed his pamphlet to 10000 owners of homes worth 5 million dollars or more He wanted to start the campaign when people are dreaming of the end of winter he says Ultimately the direct mailers went out in March April and June He hit the same list several times because you never know who is bringing in the mail each month In the end Freeman got 30 calls and five jobs from the mailing and two of those clients have already recommended him to a friend He says its a good start The key Freeman says was being prepared for the meetings he landed I used the mailings to get my foot in the door but it was showing up to the meetings well prepared that really seemed to engender the confidence for these people to hire me Freeman says While listening is always my No 1 endeavor in initial meetings I really spent some time figuring out what I wanted to project in return This is something Id not always thought about to the extent I should have To communicate the message he really wanted to Freeman says he The owner of DC Freeman got the jobs he wanted by targeting high end clients with a new marketing piece spent a lot of time thinking about infomercials and how they use psychology to sell an audience that they know so well His advice to others looking to work up to higher end clientele is to consider what motivates people in their area He says it all comes down to targeting the demographic and truly knowing your client This really seems to be pushing me in the direction Id like to go Freeman adds Its not magic Like any other new endeavor its going to take time But it has certainly paid off From the calls hes gotten so far Freeman says hes recognized that he needs to tweak some of the verbiage in his mailer and he plans to do that in the upcoming off season He adds You can bet Ill be sending out another round of pamphlets next spring Payton is a freelance writer from Philadelphia business insider Photo DC Freeman Case study Problem solver How one business owner landed larger higher profile jobs with direct mail by Casey PaytoN BUSINESS BREAKDOWN company DC Freeman Headquarters Millburn N J employees Seven to eight revenue 750000 to 850000 service mix 70 design build installation 30 specialized maintenance no mowing client mix 90 residential Moving on up NoveMber 2016 LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET 55