Would you like to grow your lawn care business as healthily and quickly as one of the green lawns you care for? Well, the solution lies in how to market a lawn care business and build on the momentum.
To grow your lawn care business successfully, you must advertise and market to new customers. You'll also have to decide how you will continue to offer quality services to a larger customer base. Being ready for business growth involves planning, including having the right lawn care business insurance and having a strong lawn care marketing plan.
Lawn care businesses can become long-term, successful businesses that are owned by the same family for generations. They can also be located in markets which are saturated with competitors. With that in mind, it's important for you to consider several factors when you're marketing a lawn care business:
Advertise Selectively and Showcase Your Lawn Care Business Value
Not all lawn care businesses offer the same quality and value.
Do a quick inventory of what your lawn care business does well. Choose your strengths to advertise. Then do a market survey.
A market survey for lawn care means counting up how many potential customers you have in your service territory—basically, how many lawns are in your area. Among those lawns, what is your best estimate of how many homeowners want lawn care instead of cutting their own grass?
Once you know your target market and your lawn care business strengths, decide how you will advertise to your market customers. Take demographics into consideration, too. If most of your target customers are retirement age, it's unlikely they'll be looking at Instagram for lawn care services.
Tie how you go about marketing your lawn care business to your target community and alter your efforts according to certain personas.
How Can I Advertise My Lawn Care Business Offline and/or In-person?
People can choose a lawn care business for several reasons. Consider the reasons they might switch or start lawn care instead of mowing their lawn themselves. Each of these reasons could lead a new customer to your business. You just need to decide how to reach them at the right time. Here are some reasons why someone might want to hire a lawn care service:
- Tired of mowing and maintaining their own lawn
- Job changes leading to less time for lawn care
- Recently bought a home in your area
- Retirement or illness—no longer able to mow their own lawn
- Dissatisfied with current lawn service due to quality, price, or other reasons
You can reach potential customers through the following in-person or traditional lawn care marketing ideas:
- Lawn care marketing flyers
- Business cards and/or refrigerator magnets
- Home mailers
- Advertising in local directories and coupon books
Can Online Marketing Strategies for a Landscaping Business Work?
Many lawn care businesses have a thriving online presence.
Investigate online home care or neighborhood websites. Most of these sites will allow you to register your professional profile. The sites show your profile to people in your area who search for lawn care quotes. Respond quickly and courteously to business leads that come from these sites.
Encourage your current customers to leave positive online reviews. While it's not ethical to offer discounts or free services for a positive review, you can politely ask satisfied customers to let others know what a good job you do via online and in-person recommendations.
You should also have a professional-looking website. Make sure the website works well on mobile devices and computer screens. The website should give your contact information, services, and pricing. Pictures of completed jobs can help to attract new customers, too.
More than anything, be sure your online business profiles are up to date and have correct contact information. While most lawn care businesses need not worry about extensive blogs or social media marketing, many customers are using social media to locate services, including Facebook's Marketplace and Google business listings.
Can I Team Up with Other Businesses to Market My Lawn Care Business?
Of course! If homes are being built in your area, partnering with the builder is a natural win.
While they may have a preferred landscaping partner, after the trees and shrubs are planted and sod is laid, ongoing lawn care is necessary. You can also consider teaming up with home cleaning services, painting services, roofers, and other subcontracting/home repair services to develop a full-scale lawn care marketing plan, as well as future marketing strategies for your landscaping business.
Consider going in on a home mailer together, or trading business cards with each other to share potential leads and referrals.
How Can I Advertise Business Quality in My Lawn Care Marketing?
Getting quality labor and supplies was a major concern for lawn care businesses, according to Lawn and Landscape's 2018 State of the Business report.
Low-ball competitors were another concern for landscaping businesses and it's hard for a service charging a minimum for lawn care to do much more than "mow and blow." While low-priced competitors may get business in the short-run, if you offer quality service at a reasonable price, you will gain reliable, well-paying customers. Be ready with your lawn care marketing materials and word of mouth to pick up customers with damaged lawns resulting from poor-quality service from "low ball" lawn business competitors.
If you're growing your lawn care business rapidly, getting quality employees is also a concern. You will want to have the right lawn care business insurance in place to protect your business, including employees. Make sure that customers know you have qualified employees, provide top-notch service, and offer quality, insured lawn care service.
Lawn care businesses cited insurance costs of all types as one of their small business challenges in Lawn and Landscape's 2018 report. Getting the right lawn care business insurance that's designed for your industry and needs will help you to move forward and grow your lawn care business.
Achieve Your Lawn Care Business Potential With Good Marketing Techniques
The lawn care and landscaping industry are transforming.
More communities are encouraging water-saving landscaping and regulating the pesticides and fertilizers you can use. Make sure your customers know you're ahead of these trends in your marketing strategies for a landscaping business.
According to Lawn and Landscape's 2018 Annual Report, the mean annual revenue for a landscaping business was $1.1 million in 2017. You can achieve growth for your lawn care business with the right marketing, planning, and emphasis on quality and service.
