Customers in need of landscaping services often have several options, making it imperative for your business to stand out from competitors. This is where a solid marketing and sales strategy can help.
Our guide will cover the basics of landscaping marketing and sales and share strategies to help your landscaping business grow its clientele.
What is landscape marketing and sales?
Landscape marketing helps landscapers raise awareness about their existing services to residential and commercial customers. Landscapers aim to improve the appearance of outdoor spaces and offer services like lawn mowing and trimming, tree and shrub planting, gardening, weed control, mulching, and more.
Sales for a landscaping business involves getting more customers. Some best sales practices include quickly communicating with leads, understanding their needs, and providing a quote upfront. Customers often have a specific design or aesthetic in mind for their outdoor spaces, making two-way communication a crucial part of sales for landscapers.
The benefits of landscape marketing and sales
When done right, landscape marketing and sales can help your company differentiate itself from others, establish credibility, and educate the public to attract more customers.
Customers seek out landscaping businesses that will understand their vision or can offer guidance on outdoor design and aesthetics. They also desire a company that can execute the project within a set budget. As a result, landscape marketing and sales can prove to customers that you are the right fit for them from a financial and design perspective.
6 landscape marketing and sales strategies
1. Build an online presence
Eighty-six percent of people rely on the internet to research local businesses, which is why having a consistent presence online is crucial for your landscaping company.
When building an online presence, focus on these main pages and websites:
- A personal website
- Facebook Business
- Google Business Profile
- Yelp for Business
- Angi
- Other social media sites like Instagram
On these pages, make sure to include your contact information, any value propositions, and images to showcase your work. Also, keep seasonality in mind when updating your website copy. You want to make sure your online pages are updated to reflect current offers, services, and business hours.
2. Solicit customer reviews to build credibility
When researching a landscaping company online, customers read reviews to help them decide who to give their business to. Seventy-two percent of customers say they won’t take action until they read a review first.
Good customer reviews help your landscaping company build its reputation and land more clients. But before you ask for reviews, ensure your customers are happy with the service. You can assess a customer’s satisfaction post-service by sending them customer satisfaction surveys. Then, you can follow up with those who gave positive feedback by asking for a review.
You should share reviews on your website and business profiles.
3. Leverage local digital ads
At least 68 percent of online experiences begin with a search engine. Often, these searches include queries like “landscaping services near me” or something similar. You can take advantage of these relevant keywords by purchasing Google Local Services Ads.
The first few results on this page show what Google Ads could look like to a potential customer:
4. Offer multiple communication channels and MMS
Offering multiple communication options makes it easier for customers to reach out to you in a way that suits their needs. Plus, you might need a combination of channels to close a sale.
For example, after an initial customer inquiry, you could follow up with them via text, and send more information like a quote via email. Business texting gives you a higher chance of a response, as the average response rate for texting is 45 percent, compared to email at six percent.
With landscaping, it’s a good practice to use communication channels that support photos or videos to help you visualize your customers’ landscaping wants or needs. MMS is an example of a communication channel that supports back-and-forth multimedia messages.
5. Establish a referral program
A staggering 82 percent of small businesses claim that referrals are their main source of new business. One way to encourage referrals is to set up a referral program.
For example, you can offer existing customers 50 percent off their next service if they successfully refer a friend or family member. Referrals are less expensive than other forms of lead generation, and referred customers tend to have a 37 percent higher retention rate than those acquired through other means.
6. Target offline customers with print ads
Remember to target your offline customers when brainstorming new marketing strategies. Forms of offline advertising can include print ads like coupons, mailers, or magazine features.
Or, you can gift customers tchotchkes like magnets with your business information after a service. Customers can keep these trinkets with your contact info on hand the next time they need to schedule a service.
The bottom line
Using even one of these marketing and sales strategies should help your landscaping business reel in new business with minimal effort. You can check out more of our home service articles on our blog.
