Landscaping planning season is upon us and your services are in higher demand than ever. Because of the pandemic, more people seem to have extra time and are using that time to work on their homes and gardens. This is great news for landscapers, but it does have a small downside. Like any thriving industry, competition is fierce. If you want to stand out, you need to know how to market your business.
Now is the prime time to learn how to ramp up marketing efforts for your landscaping business. You’ve got sales and growth goals in mind, and a client base to service – but how will you retain these customers? And how will you reach new customers?
Landscaping goes beyond improving the appearance of land – it’s a business. And in today’s business environment, people go online to search for services. Your landscaping or lawn care business needs a strong online presence that attracts your potential customers to the landscaping services you offer.
DynaScape ran a hands-on workshop led by Chad Diller, Director of Client Success at Landscape Leadership, a sales and marketing agency with its roots in the landscaping industry. This workshop included strategic tips on how to make the most of every marketing dollar you spend. It covered hot topics, like how to generate traffic for your website, how to find new leads, and how to ultimately turn those leads into sales.
Chad Diller is the marketing guru for lawn care, landscaping, tree care, and pest control. He is part of the creative and strategic processes for all of the accounts at Landscape Leadership. He helps their clients uncover and define strategic objectives to grow and improve specific areas of their business through a long-term strategy. In this workshop, he shared proven, fundamental best practices and real-life examples that will help your business truly stand out.
“There’s nothing more fulfilling than to see an eyesore of a property become the most gorgeous spot on the block,” says Chad. “Helping companies market green industry services is truly a gift. There’s always something to learn.”
If you’re looking to improve your business’ lead generation, company branding and sales procedures, this workshop can give you all the tips. Let’s look at some other tips to increase revenue in your landscaping business.
1. Sell your knowledge
What you know as a landscaper is valuable. People are willing to pay for that knowledge, especially if they are from the DIY crowd. Since these types of people probably won’t buy your full service anyway, you can still add additional revenue and open up channels by selling education on matters such as proper gardening, lawn maintenance best practices, and even some simple DIY projects.
Seminars, webinars, webcasts, and live streaming are great ways to attract landscaping enthusiasts and potential customers. While there will definitely be some people who won’t buy your extended services, some who think they can do it themselves may realize through your seminar that it’s better to call in the pros.
At the end of these seminars is the time for the sales pitch to win some customers. If anything, it’s great marketing for your business, but you may also pick up customers who realize they don’t have the time, or even the knowledge that you do, to complete the jobs properly.
2. Start to cover more ground
Expansion seems like an obvious way to grow your business, but many businesses don’t consider it. If it’s possible to expand beyond the current area you serve, it’s a massive opportunity to grow. By covering a larger territory, you will have more opportunities to provide service. For landscape maintenance companies, this can be challenging as it could extend them too far for simple jobs. So, routing, timing, and crew sizes would play a factor in whether or not you can expand.
For landscaping companies who provide project work that is long-term in nature, this is a great way to find more business and stake claim to a larger area. It would require your crews to travel a little further each day, but supplies and equipment could be stored at rental units to save on transportation time, or left on-site if possible. Scope out to see if there are competitors in that market. This can give you an early advantage to move in before someone else sets up shop.
3. Become a year-round landscaper
We have mentioned before that in the off-season, landscapers work. Some landscape companies in warmer climates can continue to work all year, others in northern parts of the world have to contend with snow in the winter. That can put an end to lawn maintenance, but it doesn’t have to be the end of their crews working. Landscapers who have an off-season can develop services for those winter months. For example:
Snow removal: Adding detachable plows to trucks already owned by the business turns them into plows that can be used for residential driveways or commercial parking lots. Your crews can even use shovels or smaller snow machines to clear sidewalks.
Leaf removal: Selling leaf removal as part of a year-long maintenance package could be an easy sell for customers who have a lot of trees and don’t want to worry about who is going to bag the leaves when they fall.
Holiday lights and decorations: Put your design skills to the test and install displays for customers. Be the one to offer to climb to the peaks of the house to set up lights and string them over a yard for a festive experience.
By doing off-season work, keep yourself top of mind when the peak season rolls around, as potential customers will be thinking of you all year.
4. Shrink the service you offer
Despite just listing multiple additions to your business, there is also a way to grow by shrinking your business offerings. Many businesses start out wanting to offer every service they can because they don’t want to miss out on profits. However, shrinking the number of services you offer can make you more profitable if you focus on the profitable services.
For example, don’t install pools because you don’t own the proper equipment and renting is expensive, or take on only certain size maintenance contracts because the returns are higher, despite the time spent doing the job being relatively the same.
By focusing on the work with the highest profit margins, you can target your marketing efforts towards those services. Become known as the company that specializes in that specific service so that you’re the company everyone is seeking out.
Testimonial from our joint customer
“Landscape Leadership’s unique process fundamentally changed our marketing approach and made it much more client-focused. We thought we knew what we were doing, but we really didn’t. Chad and I really get along…and that certainly helps. But, what really makes Landscape Leadership unique is that they understand the landscape industry. They know what we do and why we do it. They see things through our eyes. Thus, they can help us convey a clear and concise message that really resonates with our customers. This year was the biggest ever and I expect next year to be even better!” – Krisjan Berzins, President & CEO, Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape
Grow your landscaping business today
For an immersive session on how to optimize and better your landscaping business, watch the webinar now with Chad Diller and learn more about how to grow your business.