Like every business, locating and connecting with prospective customers is the key to success. By growing your customer base, you can quickly increase revenue, gain market share, and protect yourself from the risks of losing one or more key contracts.
In other words, growing your customer base is always healthy.
The Customer Acquisition Challenge
In most parts of the country, landscaping and lawn care services are abundant. At time it seems as though new competitors enter the market every week. While this is often the case, most of them don't last and aren't much cause for concern.
However, the competition is enough to sidetrack many landscaping business owners into chasing after the wrong customers, undervaluing their services, and focusing "quick fixes" instead of long-term strategies for growth that generate short-term benefits as well.
Be The Expert, Land More Work
To identify the right customers, you must first know who you are as a company. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are your most profitable services? What is your USPS (Unique Selling Proposition)?
Before you do anything else, you should answer these questions. The answers to these questions should drive your actions and marketing moving forward.
For example, if you specialize in hardscaping, make "hardscaping" the central focus of all of your efforts. As you secure new hardscaping customers, and deliver excellent results to them, you will have an easy time upselling with additional services (ie: yard maintenance, aeration, mulching, etc).
Many landscapers send out flyers and postcards that contain endless lists of services. By doing so, they inadvertently eliminate the ability for prospective customers to view them as local subject matter experts. Ultimately, this results in poor sales and a lack of differentiation amongst fierce competition.
Your goal should be to sell your most profitable services as often as possible. From there, you can develop upsell programs and offers that resonante with your specific customer demographic.
Reach the Right Customers
Your marketing and sales efforts are only worthwhile if they are being presented to the right audience. Think about it... would you mail lawn care postcards to areas where most folks live in apartment complexes? Hopefully not.
Generally speaking, you want to build a customer profile. To do so, analyze your existing customer database. Where do most of your customers live? What services do they most often purchase? Why did they select your business? How did they hear about you? What is the average spend and lifetime value of each customer.
Put this invaluable data to work for you.
Once you identify the key customer profile elements (ie: age, income level, geographic location, etc), you should use that data to target the right new customer prospects with future marketing campaigns.
You can also use this customer profile to drive your communication voice and offers. If you service upper-middle class homeowners, your messaging should appeal to them and feature content (images, sales copy, offers) that will resonante with them. If the average age of your customer is 35 to 55, show images of similar aged people in your marketing efforts. If they don't respond to coupons, find out what they want -- which might be as simple as the "greenest lawn" or hassle-free convenience and landscape maintenance.
Remember that every word, image, and offer that you choose will impact your response rates and bottom line. These decisions translate into huge gains or losses, which is why identifying and connecting with the right customer demographic is critical to your success.
Direct Marketing that Works
When it comes to reaching homeowners, and generating sales leads, direct mail is king for landscapers. Simply put, no other form of advertising delivers your physical offer directly into the hands' of prospective customers (targeted homeowners).
For this reason, the USPS® Every Door Direct Mail® program has become the "go to" source for affordable direct mail marketing.
With EDDM® from the USPS®, you can search for new customers by Zip Code or postal carrier route (neighborhoods) using a powerful online mapping tool.
Further, you can review your market using demographic filters such as age, income level, home ownership, and more. This extremely helpful tool can literally tell you where the best customer prospects live, and it provides you with instant home counts.
Even better, EDDM® delivers to every targeted mailbox. You DO NOT need a mailing permit, mailing list, or any prior direct mail experience. You don't even have to wait in line at the Post Office as you can launch your campaign online (printing, postage, and delivery is included).
How EDDM® Works:
- Target specific postal routes or entire ZIP Codes
- Apply demographic filters (age, income, etc)
- Choose a full-color postcard or flyer product
- Choose a FREE design template or artwork option
- Schedule your mail delivery
- Submit your order online
Get Results with Direct Mail
"As soon as the mailers hit, we started getting phone calls. We'll do around $120,000 in sales from our $3,000 investment into direct mail marketing." - Chris K. | Kennedy Landscaping
"The service was a 10 out of 10. Reliable and easy to work with!" - Christopher H. | Restoration Lawn Services
"I enjoyed the easy mailing process and experience. I would recommend this service to other businesses." - Samuel B. | Patriot Lawn & Landscape
Tips for Successful Landscaping Direct Mail Offers
Most importantly, your direct mail flyers and postcards need to have one central call to action (CTA). If you want prospects to pick up the phone and call you for an estimate, clearly state "Call Now for FREE Estimate!". Always tell the prospect what their next step should be.
Here are the additional key parts of an effective direct response postcard format:
Headline
Your headline must capture attention and clearly communicate a simple message. The inclusion of benefits (ie: fast-acting, powerful, etc) can make your headline more compelling.
Subheadline
Your subheadline should support your headline with additional information and function as a catalyst for the recipient to learn more.
Limited/Exclusive Offer
A limited time or exclusive offer will make the recipient feel special and encourage them to make a purchasing-decision more quickly. In nearly all cases, direct mail postcards will benefit tremendously from the inclusion of a strong offer.
Testimonial
Always include at least one testimonial from a "real" satisfied consumer or customer. Where
possible, include an image of the person featured in the testimonial that is similar to your target
demographic.
Image/Product Shot
Images communicate concepts and information at the speed of light. It is critical that you include high-quality photos or product shots that look professional, add value to your postcard. In most cases, an actual product shot or image(s) of people that correlate to your message, are recommended.
List of Benefits
Always clearly list the features or benefits of your product or service. Check marks usually out perform bullet points, and provide a functional way of displaying concise information. All important benefits or features should be listed to maximize performance.
Contact Information
For obvious reason, providing your contact information is critical to your success. You can work the preferred contact method into your CTA in most cases.
Stop Waiting, Start Selling! 3 Easy Ways to Get Started
- Find a FREE Design Template
- Find Customers w/ Online Mapping Tool
- Or, Call (800) 481-1656