One of the many challenges of managing a landscaping business is making sure that you have a consistent supply of customers coming through your doors. When you know how much work is coming in for the week, you can easily plan how many workers you need along with how much money you’re going to make.
Sadly, the demand for landscaping work can sometimes be unpredictable, making earning a steady income difficult. Sometimes, drought or bad weather sets in, which slows down work.
Also, during times of crisis, there may be less demand for reliable paving contractors. Budgeting your monthly expenses, therefore, can be tough if you are not sure where and when your next project will come from.
As a landscaping business owner, you need to think of ways to get more customers to survive and succeed. Here are five tips you should keep in mind:
01. Brand Your Stuff
You don’t need to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a pricey billboard just like what major fast food establishments are doing to promote their products. If you want to promote your business and attract more customers, start with branding the staff you own and use.
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Put the name of your business on landscaping equipment, fleet truck and even crew t-shirts. Your goal is to imprint your name on the minds of potential customers. If people see your truck with your business name on it, they’ll know that your business exists and may contact you if they need any landscaping help.
02. Get Involved in Your Community
As a professional landscaper, you have the expertise, resources and tools to make the community where you belong better for everyone. So, volunteer your time, talent and energy into making your community better.
You could, for instance, contribute landscaping materials for a local park project or spruce up the property of a local non-profit organization. Your potential customers are more likely to remember the name of the business when you get more involved in community projects.
03. Create a Professional-Looking Website
Your landscaping business needs a website. If you don’t have one, get an experienced marketing agency that not only works with retail clients, like you, but also does white label SEO for other agencies. This capability means the marketing firm has an excellent team to handle your web design and the expertise to optimize it to boost your online visibility.
If you currently have a website, make sure that it has a lead form. Having this element on your site will enable your business to gather leads with e-mails and phone numbers – information you’re likely to miss out on if you depend on inbound phone calls for new landscaping clients.
Here’s another tip for you: don’t make your prospective customers dig for information. Make sure that your business website has all the information a potential client might want to find on the home page.
This involves showing a high-quality picture of yourself or your brand logo, the areas you service (putting a map is recommended), your hours of operation and a list of services you provide. You could also add review ratings from trusted sites, testimonials from clients and photos of completed projects on your page.
These website best practices will help you attract more customers and even place you ahead of your competition.
04. Advertise on Social Media
Don’t just stop at websites. Go the extra mile by leveraging Instagram and Facebook advertising. Digital advertisements can serve as an excellent opportunity to reach the right customers. One of the main benefits of using these social networking platforms is the ability to advertise to a highly targeted audience based on factors, such as demographics, interests and location.
So, don’t just use Facebook and Instagram for personal purposes. Use these social media websites to promote the services of your landscaping business and advertise to prospective customers.
05. Give Existing Clients the Extra Treatment
Customer advocacy is a marketing strategy that determines and leverages a company’s most enthusiastic clients to drive new business. This entails recognizing your biggest fans (or producing more of them) and growing your relationship with them to drive referrals.
The objective here is to turn a good service (preferably one that you already offer) into a service that truly impresses your customers.
This isn’t difficult to pull off. You could start small by responding to e-mails and direct messages in less than 20 minutes during business days. Another suggestion is to surprise your customers by sending complimentary flowers or a handwritten thank-you note to show your gratitude and appreciation. This type of treatment can help drive referrals.
When you do obtain a referral from your customer, thank them and give them a discount on weed removal or a gift, such as a t-shirt. This helps positively reinforce the behavior you want.
Attracting customers to your landscaping business can be a difficult hurdle to overcome, especially when you’re just starting. Take note of these five strategies to draw more customers and grow your business.
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