Target Your Ideal Prospects To Attract 170 New Jobs
If you want to avoid wasting money with your lawn care marketing, you need to discriminate!
What I mean is
Mailing landscaping advertising flyers to every single homeowner in your city can get expensive FAST especially if you live in a densely populated area.
Narrow your focus. Choose your prospects.
And think about this:
Say you deliver landscaping flyers all over town.
Most of your jobs are concentrated in one area, but you get a call from someone on the other side of town who needs someone to mow their lawn.
Is it worth your time to drive to the opposite end of town for one lawn maintenance job?
Probably not.
But your targeting can and probably should go beyond geography.
You can target only your IDEAL prospects to generate only the highest quality leads !
For example:
This Colorado landscaper brought in 170 jobs with a direct mail campaign targeting owners of homes valued at $250,000 or more.
If you dont know who your ideal prospects are, finding them is easy
All you have to do is figure out who your best customers are, and market to more people like them!
Your most profitable clients might be commercial properties. Dont forget them!
Grow Your Customer Base With These Lawn Care Marketing Ideas
You might think marketing a lawn care business is as simple as advertising your business, and customers will come. Thats not always the case. To grow your customer base and get new jobs, you need to market in creative ways that stand out from the competition.
Thats why we created this blog post that has eight awesome lawn service marketing ideas for landscaping companies like yours. With these strategies, youll be able to start attracting more customers!
How Do I Market My New Lawn Care Business
You May Like: How Does Trugreen Work
What Happens During A Typical Day At A Lawn Care Business
The days start very early. Before going to the customers job sites, the equipment needs to be inspected and to make sure it is in proper working order. Typical activities of this type are cleaning the mowers and sharpening the cutting blades. Additionally, all equipment that uses gasoline needs to be filled with a mixture of gasoline and the appropriate amount of oil required. After all the equipment has been checked, the trucks are loaded and the crews are assembled and given the days job orders that have been prepared in advance.The rest of the day is spent working at customers job sites. Naturally, any problems that come up, like truck breakdowns or equipment troubles, need to be dealt with. When the crew return to the office, they should fill out a report of the work completed, making note of any special conditions or requests by the customers. This information is added to the system for billing purposes, and to help in the preparation of future job orders for those customers.At the end of the day, equipment should be cleaned and checked for damage to see if it needs repairs. For some owner/operators, these can be very long work days, until they can hire enough crew to reduce their workload.
Make Your Lawn Care Trucks & Vans Bold
Picture this
Theres a white truck on the side of the road, and it has a trailer hitched to the back. The mowing crew is somewhere down the street completing visits.
You try to see what lawn care business it is, but you cant make the words out. The truck has a small magnet on the door with busy, clashing colors in the background.
Surprisingly enough, this is SUPER common. And its just plain sad.
Think of all the MISSED OPPORTUNITIES that can happen because the lawn trucks didnt have easy-to-read print.
BE BOLD ABOUT IT.
But also make sure your font and colors are easily legible from a distance.
Your lawn care trucks should SHOUT about who your lawn care business is.
Its a good idea to hire a freelance designer to design your lawn care truck wraps.
Pro Tip: Along with wrapping your trucks, really make your trucks stand out by painting them your company color!
On your trucks wraps, make sure to include your:
- Logo
- Company name
- Company colors
Your main goal is to use one bold color that makes you stand out, so anyone can recognize your trucks zipping down the road.
Ive seen companies choose colors like hot pink, highlighter yellow, or neon blue – just so they can stand out.
Even though this process can be costly, its a process that more than pays for itself over time.
Remember, this is your brand, and its going to permanently stick. Do it right the first time.
Read Also: How To Stop Raccoons From Pulling Up Sod
Reach 79% Of Potential Landscaping Customers On Facebook
Facebook marketing is crazy popular, and with good reason.
- 79% of online Americans are on Facebook
- Thats 68% of ALL Americans
- 75% of them go on the site everyday
In other words:
Its a huge opportunity for lawn maintenance advertising.
However:
Many business pages organic reach have declined sharply. For some, its as low as 2 PERCENT.
That means you have to pay up for an ad, like this:
I recommend running Facebook ads at the same time youre mailing your landscape postcards.
In fact:
You can match your Facebook ads special offer and design with that of your direct mail campaign.
Like this:
So your prospects see ONE cohesive marketing message whether they receive your landscaping postcard in the mail OR see your ad on Facebook.
Plus, get this:
So if youre mailing your lawn services postcards to all the homeowners in Nashville, TN, you can then target those same exact people on Facebook in Nashville, too at the SAME time.
Amazing, right?
This coordination of mailing direct mail plus simultaneously showing matching Facebook ads gives your prospects the perception that your landscape marketing is almost everywhere.
Its called Everywhere Small Business. With it, your landscaping business can simultaneously target prospects with:
- Direct mail
- Google ads
- AND Facebook ads.
And YOU dont have to do anything.
Essentially your landscaping marketing will be shown EVERYWHERE your prospects already spend their time, generating the following:
Try Local Newspaper Ads
Local newspapers are another good way to cast a wide net and bring in a lot of general clients.
Ed, who lived in a suburb of about 60,000 people said they worked well for him.
If youre in a small town, newspaper ads can be really effective. Small-town paper readers have a lot of trust. If youre advertising in a larger paper and youre a small business, it can be expensive for you. But if youre in cottage country town, then that local paper probably gets read a lot.
His only complaint was that your success can be harder to track than digital ads.
We werent able to measure the success exactly. We were just busier that year. Its more of a shot in the dark. My advice is that if you think its working, stop doing it for a week or a month. Then youll know if its actually working.
If you service a small town or suburb and want to try advertising in local papers, grab a copy of each and look at the ads they run. Pick which ones appeal to you the most and get in touch with their advertising departments to talk cost, design, and run time.
Don’t Miss: Who Sells Murray Lawn Mowers
Start A Referral Program For Happy Customers
Free advertising is very beneficial as it allows businesses to extend their reach without adding more money to their marketing budget. By rewarding customers who refer other people to a lawn care business, owners benefit from the introduction. They can give their client a money savings offer or complimentary service with every specified number of referrals that they direct to the business.
Quality content keeps customers coming back for more. They share photos, text, and videos they find interesting with people in their inner circle who could benefit from hiring a good lawn care company.
Use A Lawn Care Business Software
Using software like Connecteam lawn care business app will help you automate and grow your lawn care business. How so? It makes it easier to schedule recurring shifts, dispatch jobs, track working hours, enhance communication, make reports digital, and much more. Everything you need to manage daily operations is available at the click of a button on Connecteam:
- Time tracking is efficient as you usually pay your employees by the hour and when your team clocks in and out from their mobile phone, their GPS location is immediately tagged for a more efficient and accurate timesheet and payroll.
- Scheduling is easier to manage and is rich with information like all the job details, location, specific tasks, and even recurring jobs for customers who need their lawn being taken care of on a regular basis.
- Workflows are automated so reporting all the details about the job, including before and after photos can be done while on the go.
- Communication is more streamlined through updates, chat, surveys, and more which is super important when youre not right there with your team at every moment. You need to work as efficiently as possible while delivering amazing customer service, using lawn care business software keeps you on track.
Don’t Miss: Lawn Vacuum Rental Lowes
What To Do When You Have Emails
First off, email is critical for selling to people who are on the fence, so always be sure to keep email address acquisitions a top priority for all leads and clients.
Plan out a series of welcome emails – and then automate your campaign.
The email campaign youre sending to leads should have a healthy mix of:
- Valuable content
- Hard sells
- SPEARs
By continuously practicing healthy email marketing, you can stay in front of your market at all times.
Discuss With An Agent To Know The Best Insurance Policies For You
The fact that you can operate your lawn care and landscaping company as a sole proprietorship business does not meant that you will not have need for basic insurance policy that is expected for a business owner or company.
You can talk to your insurance broker and he or she will be able to guide you on the best and most suitable insurance cover that you should buy for your lawn care and landscaping business especially as it relates to the additional services that you offer.
Well, these are some of the basic insurance cover that you should consider purchasing if you want to start your own lawn care and landscaping business in the United States of America
- General insurance
- Business owners policy group insurance
Recommended Reading: Ecoscraps Slow-release Fertilizer Vs Milorganite
Create Lawn Care Videos
Put together a few short videos that demonstrate easy lawn care tips for potential clients. Post these videos to your website and share them on social media.
Dont worry about using fancy equipment. Most modern cell phones are equipped with a decent enough camera. Outline a list of what tips you want to share in your 3-5 minute videos and start recording.
Letting Somebody Else Find Customers For You
Tip 1: Get listed on traditional online directories . These listing sites can help to drive customers to your site, while you are out mowing lawns. However, it can be difficult to get noticed on the directories that have thousands of listings on them.
Tip 2:Register with expertEasy If youd prefer to mow the lawn and let someone else find your customers, we truely believe this will work for you, expertEasy is a marketplace that specialises in lawn mowing, gardening, landscaping and home improvement. We send customer jobs to you to provide quotes for, and save you having to go out to find jobs on your own to bid on. There are other websites like ours that work a similar way charging for leads. However, usually, those sites send the opportunity for quotes to a greater number of lawn mowing businesses, they charge more per lead and some of them also charge an initial listing fee. We only send jobs to at most three local lawn mowing business, and we have transparent pricing with a satification guarantee.
Also Check: Best Rabbit Repellent For Grass
How To Make Your Business So That Anyone Can Run It
If a competitor or other lawn care professional buys your business, theyll likely have their preferences for how to run it.
However, lawn care doesnt have a high technical barrier to entry. Many prospective buyers might not have a ton of experience in the industry. You can appeal to these buyers by making your business as easy as possible to run.
We touched on this earlier when describing your business as a turnkey operation. The new owner should be able to run your business with minimal fuss from the first day.
Understandably, this idea can feel insulting. You created the business. Its success is the result of your expertise and experience. Unfortunately, your knowledge and skills dont have a dollar amount you can put on the sale price. Instead, youll want to set up your business so your departure has a minimal impact on day-to-day operations.
An experienced management team helps make the new owners life easy. Empower team leaders to make decisions and implement ideas. Of course, this doesnt happen overnight. Turn responsibilities over to your team gradually during the life of your business.
Also, document your processes. Explain the rationale behind your decisions, such as pricing, wages, scheduling, and more. Understanding what hasnt worked in the past is often valuable information for the new owner.
Choose A Memorable Domain Name
Small businesswebsite design goes beyond the actual lookit also includes choosing a memorable domain name. Your domain name is the website address where your customers can find you online to learn more about your services.
Opt for a domain name thats easy to remember and incorporate into other aspects of your advertising ideas. For example, take a look at these two domain names:
- CastlefieldLawnPros.com
- CastlefieldLawnMowingandLandscaping.com
Which one stands out more? The first website is much easier to read, repeat, and memorize. Keep your lawn care website domain name short and sweet.
Don’t Miss: How To Kill Wild Violets In Your Lawn
Facebook Ads And Facebook Like Ads
Some Facebook ads, like Google Ads, are pay-per-click. This means that you only pay for interactions from users on your ads.
There are also Facebook ads where you put in a set amount that is allocated to a specific task, like boosting a post so that more people see it.
Basic Facebook ads either show up in a persons newsfeed or sidebar . They usually feature an image, or video and they always include a headline and a call to action .
The Lawn Doctor creates great Facebook newsfeed ads.
They include a snappy, funny image and catch your attention with a friendly wish for a happy new year.
Although they arent offering anything special, theyve boosted this , which helps them stay top of mind. Just check out the likes and shares on that post!
Step : Get Business Insurance
Just as with licenses and permits, your business needs insurance in order to operate safely and lawfully. Business Insurance protects your companys financial wellbeing in the event of a covered loss.
There are several types of insurance policies created for different types of businesses with different risks. If youre unsure of the types of risks that your business may face, begin with General Liability Insurance. This is the most common coverage that small businesses need, so its a great place to start for your business.
Learn more about General Liability Insurance.
Another notable insurance policy that many businesses need is Workers Compensation Insurance. If your business will have employees, its a good chance that your state will require you to carry Workers’ Compensation Coverage.
Recommended: Learn what business insurance for your Lawn Care Business will cost.
Recommended Reading: Cost Of Trugreen
The Best Lawn Care Social Media Marketing Tool
Facebook is the largest social media platform on the internet.
In fact, two out of every three people in the US are on Facebook.
As a result, Facebook is one of the most powerful lawn care social media marketing tools to reach your clients right now.
Additionally, its incredibly easy and low-cost to get started. Actually, its far cheaper than printing out hundreds of flyers.
Basically, Facebook allows you to target people in your service area to run ads that generate clients – all for as little as $5 a day.
Bottom line: If youre not running ads through this uniquely powerful platform, your business is missing out.
And if you need help creating your own Facebook Ads or organic posts, try downloading our free lawn care social media bundle!
Check Whether You Need A Permit
Check with your town to determine whether you have to get permits or file permission to operate a business.
Most states will require you to register a business, such as a limited liability company , and this cost is worthwhile in the long term. This is designed to protect your personal property and assets in case your business is sued.
You May Like: Scotts Disease Ex Vs Bayer
Review: 4 Best Lawn Care Marketing Ideas
If the above lawn care marketing ideas sound like a lot to keep track of, remember that it is fine to repeat yourself occasionally. Not everyone who follows you on Facebook will also get your email newsletter, or vice-versa. So you are able to repurpose your content and reuse your marketing messages between these platforms at your leisure.
The most important thing is to produce posts and information that will assist your customers and increase the amount of content that your website has. There is a strong correlation between high amounts of worthwhile content and high search engine rankingsbut more importantly, your leads are likely to appreciate helpful, informative blog posts and articles that you produce.
Finally, keep in mind that investing in SEO, however complicated, will help future customers find your lawn care business. SEO also builds trust between you and these clients. When you build trust with your clients, you increase the likelihood they will return and recommend your business to their friends.
