As a largely seasonal business, landscapers are motivated to capture market share and secure as many contracts as quickly as possible. As the old saying goes, "the early bird gets the worm."
So how do successful landscapers "rake" in the cash?
It all comes down to planning and executing marketing campaigns.
More About Planning
In every industry, there are business owners who develop budgets and marketing strategies based on research and data, and those who do not. Usually, those who spend more time planning and implementing a campaign, experience better results and a greater ROI.
If you have an existing customer database, it is well worth the time and effort to run a simple analysis of your existing customers. What is their average age, income level, and home value? Where are they located? Do you have multiple customers located within the same neighborhood?
All of these questions will help you build a "customer profile" and potentially improve your efforts in targeting propsects whom are more likely to convert into customers in the future.
One of the biggest mistakes that landscapers make is to assume they know and understand their customers. And more troubling, they use these assumptions to target the wrong propsects with the wrong offers.
For example, I worked with a landscaper in Georgia who proudly serviced an affluent customer base. From gated communities to upper middle-class homes, he was focused on big money contracts.
What he didn't realize was that he wasting marketing dollars and hurting his brand with his marketing efforts.
To save time and get his offers into as many most homes as possible, he was distributing super-cheap ads, stuffed into a "coupon pack" mailing, which also featured ads from about a dozen competitors.
Here is the problem: His target audience didn't respond well to coupon packs, and they were not motivated by small discount coupons.
What his clients REALLY wanted was an impeccable service that would provide them with the greenest lawn and flawless landscaping.
So, after using the free online mapping tool with demographic filters (home ownership, income level, presence of children), he decided to skip the coupon packs and mail beautiful postcards directly to ideal prospects.
He used Every Door Direct Mail®.
After the USPS delivered his EDDM postcards, he noticed a vast improvement in the quality (and quantity) of leads that came through.
His postcards featured "before and after" images of high-income homes that retained his services, and sales copy that was targeted specifically to his market.
A much better approach that improved his return on investment and projected the right image for his business.
And the same strategy has worked for landscapers and contractors across the country.
Chris Kennedy, owner of Kennedy Landscape (Richmond, VA) turned an investment of $3K into $120K in sales. He also used the Every Door Direct Mail® service.
"As soon as the mailers hit, we started getting phone calls left and right," said the small business owner. "When it's all said and done, we'll do around $120,000 in sales from our $3,000 investment into direct mail marketing. It's a huge win for us in this competitive market."
With Spring right around the corner, now is the time to plan and implement your own marketing strategy. One thing you can count on is that your competitors are thinking about ways to gain their own market share.
Don't miss an opportunity to "rake" in the cash when it only takes a few minutes of your time during the off-season.
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