SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is about all the ways you can improve your website to…
Do Lawn Signs Really Work As A Form of Good Pet Sitter Marketing?
One of the things I love most about our pet sitting industry is the varied way pet sitters run, operate and market their businesses.
Success comes in all shapes and sizes.
For example, some pet sitters find great success using Craigslist to hire staff, while others do not.
Some have had clients find them through pet directories, or had a Google Adwords campaign pay off, while others lost money though those forms of advertising.
I was recently speaking with pet sitter Rachel Muhammad, of See Spot Run, LLC, who mentioned that she successfully uses lawn signs to market her pet sitting business.
It makes sense Rachel was influenced by the real estate industry for this method. According to the National Association of Realtors, 48% of homes that are for sale by owner successfully use yard signs to market and promote the sale of their home.
I was intrigued by this form of promotion and wanted to hear more. Here is our Q&A session on the topic:
7 Questions About Lawn Sign Marketing
Q: How long have you been using the lawn signs?
– See Spot Run has been using lawn signs/ bandit signs since April of 2013. We place them (with the client’s permission) on the client’s lawn closest to the street and additionally around town in key areas (of course obeying code enforcement).
Q: How do you approach clients with your request to place them on their lawn?
– It depends on the client! Sometimes, during a meet and greet (especially if the new client heard of See Spot Run by seeing a bandit sign), I’ll ask “Would you mind if I placed a professional lawn sign on your yard? We’d like to be able to reach your community with our services and it helps.” Other times, I’ll wait until after the client has used our services at least once to ask.
Q: How have clients responded to your request?
– Clients typically don’t mind at all; I’ve never had a client that I’ve asked tell me “no.” When I visit their homes after they have agreed to the signs, the sign has still be in the yard in the same place! It excites me every time!
Q: What kind of response from potential clients have you received from these lawn signs?
– People love them! When they know that we provide a dependable service, they want to help out.
Q: How did you get the idea to market with these signs?
– My husband owns a real estate investing company (simply put, the guys that “flip” homes) so I got the idea through being exposed to the real estate industry through him. Real estate investors will sometimes market with similar signs that may say something like, “we buy homes.”
Q: Has there been any negative response or issue with this form of marketing?
– Not with clients that agree to their use on their private property. When I first put them out around town, I didn’t know as much about local code enforcement and they graciously explained code as it pertains to signs to me. People will take them up sometimes for no reason even if they are in code because you can’t monitor the location of every sign (we have put out a total of about 150 so far) once you put it out on the roads. They are working well for us here in Tallahassee though and are our biggest source of leads!
Q: Where did you get them printed and how much did they cost?
I got them printed at supercheapsigns.com. They have great customer service! They prefer bulk orders, so the price per sign goes down the more you buy. I bought 100 signs for about $100. Yard stakes to mount them can be an additional $80-$100.
Over to You
What do you think of this form of marketing? Would it work for you? Have you tried it? What form of marketing works the best for you?
photo credit: waltarrrrr via photopin cc
Related Posts
This Post Has 10 Comments
Comments are closed.
I’m curious how long she leaves a sign in a client’s yard? Roofers, painters, etc generally take the signs away shortly after the job is completed rather than leaving them up indefinitely. Would be great too if Rachel could share a photo of her sign.
Hey Charry – I have added a photo in the post of her actual lawn sign. And I believe she leaves them there “indefinitely.” She mentioned that once they are placed, a client usually lets it stay there for a while.
That is great they work for her. I have had clients request them to be put in their yard to only be told by their HOA’s to take them down or they are removed by their HOA’s. 🙁 I used lawn signs since I started in 2008 but with our strict HOA’s in my area it doesn’t work out so well… 🙁
Ahh, of course, those pesky HOAs! Side Note, mine recently told me to take down a plant that was hanging nicely from my balcony. Apparently, no plants can hang.
The idea is nice, especially if someone sees you walking dogs back to the house or something and then the sign is there they have the info they need to look into your business more. However I wonder about people that are out of town and you are basically advertising to potential home burglars that this person is not home at the moment and/or travels often. Same problem I see with having advertising on a car. I like the ideas but I’m just not sure about the safety of it at the moment. Anyone else have input on that?
Hi Jennifer. Thanks for stopping by. You bring up a popular subject. Personally, I do not believe things of this nature increase the chances of a home invasion, but others may disagree. From my understanding, these lawn signs are placed and left on an indefinite basis (not just if the owner is away) so a burglar would have no knowledge of schedule. Plus, whether a pet owner or not, isn’t there an overall general implication that a house is more often unoccupied during the day because both spouses are working?
Thank you for the response! I like the idea of being a little more vague on the sign. I was considering getting a sign for my car since I have often found companies through that method, but I had heard other pet sitters talk about the security concerns I mentioned. Hopefully signs like these would actually tell potential burglars, hey there might be a big scary dog in this house. Stay away! haha
Yea, I think that like anything in life and business, you’ll get input for all sides of the coin. As you noted, car signs have worked extremely well for some, while others choose to remain “anonymous.” I say try and test what may work for you and go from there!
That is a good question. Actually, as soon as I stated that I had never had anyone turned me down with these, I had a client say that she was uncomfortable with it for that very reason. The solution that she and I came up with is adding “rider signs” (small signs added on top of yard signs) on top of the sign saying “I had a
great experience with” or “Ask me why my pets love…” On the rider signs. And yes, Josh, I also see from your perspective in that most people aren’t home from 8 to 5 all day. And, with some of our clients it’s not so much that they are even out of town, as it is that we are giving their dog a mid-day walk. This is just one example of how a client has actually helped me out with my plans for business! 🙂
Another great way to advertise your pet sitting/walking business is to be listed on the major pet sitting service websites. It’s very convenient for a potential client to find out more about you and your services. Many websites even give prospective clients access to background checks.