I get asked – I’m a Landscaper for residential and commercial properties. Can digital marketing help me sell the projects I want?
With summer winding down, landscaping season in the Greater Toronto Area is set to take a break until the spring. For many landscapers, who don’t switch over to a winter service (snow removal for example), its time to think about your business and work on booking your projects for 2022.
While word of mouth referrals are good they are unpredictable, so you must have a process for finding new business to augment your word of mouth growth opportunities. This is where your website and digital marketing strategy can make all the difference.
Before you spend any money on marketing your landscaping business be sure to make sure you get the most out of your marketing spend by asking some questions about your business.
Before you market ask:
- What types of customers do you want to reach?
- What is the optimum size of projects/budgets you want?
- What geographical area do you want to focus on?
Focusing on these questions will help you focus your offer, and your job satisfaction and profitability will be optimized. Since none of us can be everything to everyone, this planning step is crucial.
Once you have answered these critical questions, you can consider the best marketing approach to reach your target prospects and include what you are looking for in your marketing message. Equally important, you will also know when a project is not what you are looking for so, you can move past this undesirable work quickly (regret on the job or refer to someone who wants this work).
For a regionally focused landscaping business, focusing your marketing on being found in local search for the geographic area you want to work in, will help your marketing dollars have the greatest impact. On your website you can create a dedicated page for each geographic area you want to be found in (Toronto, Etobicoke, North York etc.). Once these pages are in place, you can then employ search engine optimization (SEO) and Google Pay Per Click (PPC) best practices.
Since you are a landscaper, you may want to hire a digital marketing specialist for this role since getting it wrong can cost a lot of money and getting it right can change everything about your business.
Whether someone reads a post you shared on social media, is referred to you by a happy customer or finds you with a Google search, they are likely going to do further research online for your website and reviews about your work. They are also going to look at your competitors which is why your website, and your reviews must reflect well on your business. You should try to get 1-2 reviews per month and keep them coming on a steady basis (not all at once) for best results.
So, an inexpensive website design will bring in bargain seeking customers which is perfect, if they fall into your target group. If you want to be able to win the larger jobs, your website, your company reviews and other online activities must reflect you offer larger project services, and since you can 100% control what your website illustrates your website is where you will start.
Your website can tell visitors what services you’re good at and prefer to offer. It can also communicate to people, who are not in your target prospect group, to look elsewhere. Ultimately, your website must show visitors that you can be trusted to provide the services they need at a reasonable price.
Contact me today for more information on how SEO and PPC marketing can benefit your landscaping business.
Rob Dunford is a Marketing Consultant in the Great Toronto Area with over 25 years of experience in building and implementing marketing plans for small business.