Most lawn care companies have been marketing their services the same way they have for years. But marketing has changed. With the internet and social media, there are so many new ways to market your business in a cost-effective manner. Today, we’ll give you some great ideas on how to do just that. This list is full of tried and true methods that will lead you on the path towards success!
Many small business owners fail to realize the importance of putting together an annual marketing plan. An annual marketing plan will guide you and your business the same way that a map does, pointing you in the right direction towards achieving your goals and KPIs.
But before we get started on our guide to creating a lawn care marketing strategy, let’s get one thing out of the way. What is marketing anyway? And how is it different from advertising?
Think of marketing as a pie, with advertising as just one slice of the pie. Marketing involves understanding and predicting customer’s needs, while advertising is about communicating a business’s answers to those needs.
If you want tips on how to advertise a lawn care business, take a look at our article on lawn care advertising ideas.
Here’s what you need to know to create a detailed marketing plan for your lawn care and landscaping business:
What do you want to accomplish as a landscaping business in the next one to three years? Knowing this can help you figure out your marketing goals and set your KPIs for the year.
As always, we recommend developing goals using the SMART format. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
This is also a good time to set your marketing budget. When you can identify your goals, you can start to see how much marketing materials you’ll need to accomplish your goals. By breaking up your goals into milestones, you can identify how much and what kind of marketing strategies need to be done to hit them.
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Businesses use SWOT analyses to evaluate which areas of their business should be improved upon and which areas can be further highlighted.
Your strengths are the things that make your landscaping company unique, basically the value you offer your potential customers. Your weaknesses are the areas which you can improve on. This can range from having a limited roster of services to having a small team. Opportunities are changes you can make to grow your landscaping business. An opportunity for a landscaping business could be something like a newly built residential development that you can serve. Finally, threats are the obstacles that can get in the way of your business’s growth, from emerging competitors in your area to new regulations on certain services.
A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer, covering things like a buyer’s age, gender, residence, goals, habits, preferences, income, problems, and more.
To figure this out consider asking yourself the following questions:
Buyer personas are important because marketing strategies don’t operate on a one-size-fits-all basis. Each person will need a different approach and platform.
What do you want to achieve with your marketing efforts? In most cases, businesses ramp up their marketing efforts to increase revenue. But you can also have other goals that are more specific to your brand.
To determine your marketing goals, revisit the SMART framework.
Once you’ve got your buyer personas and marketing goals down, you can begin to decide on your marketing channels.
You have tons of options here, from traditional channels like outdoor display ads, flyers, business cards, and direct mail marketing, to digital channels like social media marketing, email marketing, search marketing, and affiliate programs.
With the foundations for creating an effective plan set, consider the following marketing tips to further boost your efforts:
Having a strong online presence can positively impact your chance of generating more revenue. Websites boost credibility, increase one’s chances of getting leads, and is an excellent digital marketing tool.
In the list, we also talk about some of the important elements that make up a good website, including high-quality photos, testimonials, detailed pages on each of your lawn care services, and pricing details. For reference to pricing lawn mowing and lawn care services, visit our guide here.
Pro tip: A memorable domain name can go a long way. Keep it short and simple, but make sure it isn’t generic so that it stands out as well.
There are dozens of landscaping and lawn care maintenance contractors out there. How do you make sure that customers choose your business out of everyone else?
It isn’t enough to just list your landscaping services in your lawn care marketing materials. Everyone does that.
You need to have a unique selling proposition (also referred to as a USP). This is what makes your landscaping business have an advantage over your competition. Your USP should be something that your business does well and that your customers want. Because what use is pushing a service that nobody needs anyway?
In our guide on how to grow a small business, we highlight the importance of getting involved in community efforts. This is an essential step for those in the lawn care industry as well.
Consider joining your local chamber of commerce. This can help your digital marketing efforts as you can get featured on their business listings. You can also try reaching out to groups like building owners and managers associations, homeowners associations, and real estate groups. These are all great opportunities to meet with potential lawn care customers, both for commercial and residential projects.
Facebook clocked in roughly 2.89 billion monthly active users in 2021, while Instagram sees about one billion active monthly users. And approximately 4.48 billion people are said to use social media worldwide. That’s over half the world’s population!
With that being said, not having a strong social media presence is almost like a death sentence for a brand. And social media marketing is so much more than just starting a page and putting your logo on your profile picture. You need consistent, engaging, and relevant content that speaks to your potential customers.
If you want to make the most out of your social media platforms, hire a professional social media manager.
Despite the rise of social media and digital marketing, business cards remain as essential as ever.
A business card is more than just a place to put your business info, it offers a peek into the kind of company you own. In fact, according to one study, over 70 percent of people will form an opinion about a company from its business card alone.
So make sure to commission a professionally-designed business card with information that positively represents your business.
Want to achieve lawn care marketing success? Consider video marketing. Thanks to YouTube and TikTok, more and more brands are realizing the power of video to captivate and entertain audiences.
But what kinds of lawn care videos can your lawn maintenance company do? Here are some examples to consider:
Search marketing involves utilizing search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click or pay-per-lead ads to boost one’s presence on search engines like Google. Search marketing falls under the larger umbrella of digital marketing.
With SEO, you optimize the content on your website to build authority and to allow search engines to find your site more easily in a sea of other similar sites. With paid search marketing, you place ads on search engines and pay Google whenever a viewer clicks on your ad or when an ad turns into a lead.
For small businesses, email marketing can be a highly effective way to grow your business.
One of the simplest ways to go about this is to maintain a weekly or monthly email newsletter.
You can invite people to sign up for your email list by offering a discount or running a promotion. You can also advertise your email list on your social media channels and your website.
With an email newsletter, you have an instant audience to send targeted ads and information to. You can also offer up “exclusive content” through your newsletter, from loyalty discounts to special raffles.
Word-of-mouth marketing is defined as “when a consumer’s interest in a company’s product or service is reflected in their daily dialogues”. In a nutshell, this type of marketing is when your current customers sell your business for you.
But how can you take advantage of word-of-mouth?
One of the easiest ways to do so is by collecting customer reviews. Request your clients to fill out survey forms and seek permission to post their testimonials on your website and social media pages. You can also allow customers to leave reviews on your Facebook page and Google business profile. Positive reviews will help you establish credibility and build up a reputation of trustworthiness.
Want to take your word-of-mouth marketing another step further? Try offering your customers a referral discount. How does this work?
After doing business with your customers, you can offer them a referral code which they can share with friends and family. When new people sign up for your services with the code, you’ll know which of your previous customers referred you. You can then offer a gift check or a discount on the next service to your customer.
Not only does a referral program get you more clients, it also creates happy customers!
We hope these 10 marketing ideas have provided some inspiration on how to better market your lawn care company to your customers.
Remember, the key is planning ahead. Always start with a detailed marketing plan outlining all of the ways you can market your business effectively. So that when someone lands on your website or calls for an estimate, they are already sold on what sets you apart from other companies in town!
A good marketing strategy can help inform potential clients of your services, engage current customers to keep patronizing your business, and differentiate your lawn care business from the competition.
If you want to maintain good relations with existing customers, you should continue to stay in touch, whether that means keeping up an email newsletter, engaging your community online, or even sending out personalized messages and promotions on special occasions.
You can advertise your services all year round, especially if you live in a location with good weather all year round. However, if you experience seasonal changes, it’s always a good idea to start advertising your services a few weeks before your spring promos start.
Start using the best lawn care marketing tools with Method:Field Services!
Image credit: Anna Shvets via Pexels
Sarah is a Content Writer on Method's Marketing team. Her goal is to share strategies that inspire, strengthen, and help small businesses succeed. When she isn’t researching the latest business topics and trends, you can find her reading in the park or working on her short stories.
