Most lawn care companies have traditionally marketed their services in the same manner for many years. However, the advent of the internet and social media has revolutionized marketing strategies, offering numerous cost-effective opportunities to promote your business. In this article, we will present you with some excellent ideas to achieve precisely that. This compilation comprises proven techniques that will guide you towards attaining success!
Why you need to create a detailed marketing plan for your lawn care business
A significant number of small business owners are unaware of the significance of creating an annual marketing plan. Similar to a map, an annual marketing plan serves as a guide, directing both you and your business towards accomplishing your goals and KPIs.
Before we delve into our guide on developing a lawn care marketing strategy, let’s address one aspect first. What exactly is marketing and what sets it apart from advertising?
When considering marketing as a whole, it can be likened to a pie, where advertising represents only a single portion. Marketing entails comprehending and forecasting the requirements of customers, whereas advertising focuses on conveying a business’s solutions to those needs.
How to create a lawn care marketing plan
In order to develop a comprehensive marketing plan for your lawn care and landscaping business, it is important to be aware of the following information:
Review your business goals
Knowing what your goals are for the next one to three years as a landscaping business can assist you in determining your marketing objectives and establishing your key performance indicators (KPIs) for the year.
It is always recommended to develop goals using the SMART format, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
This is also a suitable occasion to establish your marketing budget. Once you have determined your objectives, you can begin to gauge the quantity of marketing materials required to achieve them. By dividing your goals into milestones, you can ascertain the amount and type of marketing strategies needed to attain them.
Do a SWOT analysis
SWOT analyses are used by businesses to assess their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, determining areas in need of improvement or areas that can be emphasized.
Your landscaping company’s strengths are what make it stand out and provide value to potential customers. These may include the unique services you offer that set you apart from others in the industry. Weaknesses refer to areas where improvements can be made, such as having a limited range of services or a small team. Opportunities are chances for growth in your landscaping business, such as serving a newly constructed residential development. Threats are obstacles that can hinder your company’s growth, like emerging competitors in your area or new regulations affecting certain services.
Define your buyer personas
A buyer persona encompasses characteristics such as age, gender, location, objectives, behaviors, preferences, income, issues, and additional details, serving as a made-up depiction of your optimal customer.
In order to solve this, you should ponder the following questions:
- What does my ideal customer do for a living?
- How much do they earn?
- What makes my ideal customer excited to get up in the morning?
- Where does my ideal customer get their news?
- Where does my ideal customer go to unwind?
The reason why buyer personas are important is that marketing strategies cannot be applied uniformly. Each individual requires a distinct approach and platform.
Strategies we recommend
Sell Value (Not Features)
What are the reasons behind people purchasing lawn care services?
Interestingly enough, the reason is not that their grass is tall. Surprisingly, people do not make purchases solely based on logic.
When potential clients evaluate their lawn, their final decisions are influenced by their feelings. By focusing your marketing efforts on this aspect, you can start attracting more customers at an earlier stage.
Every homeowner requires their lawn to be mowed, and they compensate you for performing this task because…
- You make it look way better.
- You give them more time to enjoy the things they love.
- They don’t have to buy and maintain their own equipment.
By conveying the value to your potential clients, you are providing a distinct visualization. This assists them in envisioning the experience of engaging your services and enables them to comprehend the benefits you provide.
The Best Lawn Care Social Media Marketing Tool
Facebook is the biggest social media platform available on the internet.
In the US, it is a fact that two-thirds of the population are on Facebook.
Right now, Facebook is one of the most powerful lawn care social media marketing tools to reach your clients.
In addition, starting is extremely effortless and economical, in fact, much less costly than printing numerous flyers.
Facebook enables you to run ads aimed at individuals in your service area, generating clients by spending as low as $5 per day.
If your business is not utilizing this exceptionally powerful platform to run ads, you are missing out on its benefits.
Grow Your Lawn Care Business for FREE Using Email Marketing
Email marketing is an excellent strategy due to its cost-effectiveness in promoting and expanding your lawn care business.
Email marketing has the potential to provide you exceptionally high returns for the time invested.
Why is it that email marketing is so successful?
Even when they are automated, every email should feel personal.
To create an effective framework for your email campaign, follow these straightforward steps:
Step 1: Find New Leads
If your goal is to sell more work through emails, you will need to gather email addresses.
The most effective method to achieve this is through the passive collection of emails.
A lead magnet, which is a gift that can be downloaded after providing an email address, can be hosted within a Facebook Ad. Furthermore, lead magnets can also be hosted within your blog.
Your lead magnet, also known as your downloadable gift, has the potential to be a variety of things, ranging from a guide on watering schedules to instructions for winterization procedures. In essence, your lead magnet can encompass any subject where your clients may require your expert advice.
The objective is to make your lead magnets accessible to your potential clients by placing them on platforms where they are likely to discover them.
Lead magnets offer multiple benefits for you in addition to acquiring email addresses.
By demonstrating your expertise in lawn and landscape, you provide evidence to your clients that you are trustworthy. Additionally, this showcases the value you offer even before they become your clients.
Step 2: What to Do When You Have Emails
It is important to prioritize acquiring email addresses from leads and clients as email is crucial for selling to individuals who are undecided.
Create a strategic sequence of “welcome” emails, and subsequently implement an automated system for your campaign.
When you send an email campaign to leads, it is important to have a well-balanced combination of:
- Valuable content (like a guide or blog)
- Hard sells (that convert your leads into clients)
- SPEARs (short, personal, expecting a response – directs them to call a specific person)
By consistently engaging in effective email marketing strategies, you can ensure constant visibility in front of your target audience.
Become a True Digital Marketing Expert for Your Lawn Care Business
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising can be an effective approach for targeting a particular market segment.
Both Google and Bing provide options for PPC Ads to target your potential customers across various search engines.
PPC Ads have the advantage of charging you only when someone clicks on your ad, ensuring you are not overcharged. Furthermore, you have the option to specify a daily or maximum budget; however, caution is necessary to avoid squandering money.
For lawn care owners who would like to expand their business at a faster pace, it is advisable to consider employing a third-party AdWords Specialist to handle the management of your advertisements.
If you have the money and are in a high-competition market, it might be a highly profitable choice for you, although it may require a significant amount of time and experimentation to catch up.
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