Let’s face it. A quick online search with the name of your town and the word “landscaping” will probably bring up more results than you had expected. If you own a landscaping business, this will undoubtedly cause headaches. How do you make yourself stand out among the competition as one of many landscaping contractors in the town?
Let’s have a look at five landscaping company marketing strategies that will improve your odds of turning a profit come crunch time.
Start Now
Unlike small businesses that have their headquarters in office buildings and remain unaffected by weather, landscaping services vary depending on the season. Maximizing profit and forging business relationships with potential clients before the change in seasons is critical to the survival of your business.
The best way to ensure that your peak seasons are spent making money instead of foraging for it, is to start planning your advertising campaigns right now. Inform potential clients of upcoming promotions through your company website. On your website there should be outstanding client testimonials, pictures of your work and an offer for a snow removal quote. The more promotion you do now, the less you will need to worry about marketing your services during peak time: resulting in more time for you to keep clients happy.
Diversify
Try to maintain a diverse client base. It means advertising and distributing both your landscaping company marketing media and your services to both commercial and residential customers. The vast majority of residential clients are one-time customers and they don’t want the hassle of doing fall or spring cleanup and are willing to dish out the paper to have someone else do it for them. The better part of your client base will likely comprise of one-time customers. On the contrary, commercial clients almost always hire a landscaping company to maintain the appearance of their grounds throughout the peak season, and will usually pay the same company for snow removal in the off-season.
The Human Element
Many landscaping company owners fail to appreciate the power of the human element in the landscaping business. The quality of your work and the sincerity of your smile can say a lot more about your company than your company name on a billboard. Foster relationships with potential clients by presenting yourself as friendly, professional and passionate about your landscaping business. If a home or business owner is fond of you as an individual and can relate your professionalism to a company name, you will stand out from the competition simply by relating to the client personally and making a stellar personal first impression.
Appear Legitimate in Your Advertising Media
One of the biggest mistakes that landscaping company owners make is investing in low-cost marketing media without giving any consideration to how that will speak to their legitimacy as an enterprise. There is a big difference between cheap and cost-effective marketing. A free domain and poorly designed website can make your landscaping company seem unprofessional. A pay-by-the-month website that won’t load in under three seconds or doesn’t have some part of your portfolio on the homepage, will quickly lose visitors. Consider these things carefully as you choose the marketing media that will render your business image legitimate and professional.
Vehicle PR
Vehicle advertising seems to work well for landscaping company marketing purposes. Using anything from car or truck magnets to decals, bumper stickers, car wraps or even handwritten content with the business name, phone number and current promotions can bring a lot of information to potential clients who simply don’t have the time to look for a landscaping company. Additionally, in the sense that you go to your customer and not the other way around, neighbors and neighboring businesses who appreciate the quality of work can jot down your phone number from across the street. And with luck, and timely execution, you may even earn yourself a referral, simply by being a walking example!
For more tips to grow your landscaping company, take a look at the articles below!
