Landscaping businesses used to thrive on word-of-mouth advertising and a few strategically posted flyers. However, if you want to market your landscaping business so it flourishes in the age of the internet, you need to be digitally savvy.
Today’s customers go online to find landscaping companies that are local, reliable and competitively priced. Here are a few tips to market your landscaping business and make sure it stands out in the digital space.
4 Ways to Digitally Market Your Landscaping Business
Find your target audience online
It takes time to figure out where your customers live online. Does your landscaping company target business properties? Try targeting property managers via LinkedIn. Is your clientele residential and in their 20’s and 30’s? You might reach them better on Facebook.
Conduct informal surveys among your clients to find out what sites they use regularly and start advertising in those digital spaces.
Watch what you spend
Spending more money on digital advertising doesn’t mean you’ll get better results. It’s best to test the waters on several sites before investing heavily into an online advertising campaign. Diversify your ad budget until you find out what generates the most traffic for your company.
When you do spend, make sure you’re getting what you pay for. Each site you advertise on should provide you with metrics to see how well your ads perform. Important metrics include impressions, click-through rate and cost per lead.
Manage your reviews
How often do you turn to Yelp or Angie’s List to make decisions? Your customers do too. In fact, these sites are often your first impression for potential clients. Find out which sites your customers use and make sure your business is well represented.
If you’re a new landscaping business, you may not have any reviews posted online. Rectify that by encouraging your current clients to write online reviews on what they like about your service. You can incentivize the reviews by offering clients discounts on future visits.
Already have some reviews up? Make sure to thank clients who reviewed you positively and respond to those who had questions or complaints. Most sites will allow you to flag inappropriate reviews.
The medium matters
Customers don’t want to read a lot of text, so your ad needs to be visual. Consider whether you want to design the ad yourself or hire an external designer. Designing your ad yourself will cost you time while opting for a contractor will cost more money. Decide which is more precious to your business.
You’ll also need to decide if your ad campaign is static or video. How do you choose? It depends on where your advertising.
If you’re advertising on a site that people read—like a local newspaper website—then a banner ad or graphic is perfect. Consider creating a small graphic reminding readers that summer barbecue season is fast approaching, then link it to your site. It is a simple yet effective way to generate interest in your lawn services.
What if you’re trying to reach people on social media? Video ads are another effective way to go. Shoot a 15–30 second targeted video ad about a topic—spring planting, perhaps. Run the spot on YouTube channels or inserted into local Facebook feeds to give your business some credibility.