It can be hard for someone who is just starting their lawn care business to get enough customers to be profitable. So how do you get customers? We’ll show you how to find local lawn care jobs via traditional marketing and some unconventional methods.
Traditional marketing includes print, broadcast, direct mail, and telephone, but you now should be making the most of digital media, too.
Here are 4 ways of marketing your lawn care business to land local customers right in your neighborhood:
1. Word of mouth
Word of mouth is arguably the most powerful way to build your customer base. Happy customers will be loyal to your business.
To create loyal customers, build a relationship by consistently providing them with value. If you save them time or money, make their yard look better than ever before. Or if you relieve your customers of the stress of worrying about their property, they’re going to want you to keep coming back and will recommend your services to others.
Think about a time when you received a product or service that was so outstanding, you just had to share it with everyone you knew. That is considered free marketing.
Whether it’s a public review on a website like Yelp or Google, or just a neighbor sharing with another neighbor the reason the front lawn looks so good, word of mouth referrals are invaluable.
You also can offer incentives to your customers when they refer new clients to you.
For example, you can offer $5 off for every customer referred to you by someone else. This small investment will pay for itself when you have a steady stream of customers.
People are much more likely to tell their friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors about a great service they received if they are going to be compensated for it.
2. Leads
In simple terms, a lead is an individual with an interest in what you are selling. There are websites and platforms (including some of our competitors) that sell leads to lawn care businesses that need customers. Many companies promise to help grow your business by giving you the best leads when it comes to lawn care or landscaping.
Because a lead is not a guaranteed customer, paying for those leads can quickly add up, especially if the homeowner is just window shopping or if you are not able to quickly sell the customer on your business.
You usually pay per lead, or you can pay a flat rate to have a membership to the lead website. Most of the time you will receive the lead’s contact information and then negotiate deals directly with the would-be customer.
How Lawn Love is different: Lawn Love lets you to pick up whatever jobs you want, fill out your schedule, and you’re good to go.
3. Lead-based services
Different than leads in the form of potential customers, all-in-one lawn care apps (lead-based services) give you leads in addition to a business software platform. Once you are vetted and screened by the company, you’ll have access to the jobs and customers on their platform.
This is how Lawn Love operates.
Lawn Love and LawnStarter make your job easy. We take care of the payments, paperwork, scheduling, routing, and customer service, so all you have to do is show up and do the service!
Pricing is transparent so you can see what you’re going to be paid before you pick up a job. These customers are already converted to actual jobs that are up for grabs, meaning no further conversion of selling efforts is needed on your part.
How it works: Lawn Love’s advanced job clustering and routing algorithms help build much denser routes, allowing you to do up to twice as many jobs per day while slashing your fuel expenses and idle time.
4. Social media
Many businesses don’t utilize social media very well. If you have a website, and you’ve established your social media business profiles then you’re on the right track.
Social media can be extremely intimidating if you aren’t familiar with it. You probably love the concept of building a loyal online community and getting new clients from social media, yet you want to make smart business decisions without wasting time or money.
Social media does require a significant amount of time and effort. You should post updates regularly to stay relevant. Social media won’t really help you if you aren’t using it skilfully.
Your social media profile should be an extension of your website. Start with the basics. At minimum, your website should include your company name, contact information, place of business, services offered, pictures of your work, and most importantly — share your positive reviews!
Posts with pictures get a higher reach and engagement than posts with just text. This gives potential customers a chance to see what your company is really like.
The two most popular social media platforms for business are Facebook and Instagram.
You can join local Facebook groups or use the Facebook marketplace to establish a community presence. You can think of these platforms as an open exchange where users can buy and sell products or services.
There are tons of groups for every community, in all areas of the world. Do a search for your city, and you’ll find Facebook groups that allow people to post and advertise their services.
A buy and sell group is like a regular Facebook group except it lets members list their services for sale. This way, people who you aren’t friends with, or who haven’t seen your page are able to see your services as well. This gives you a way to engage with potential customers on a 1:1 basis and foster strong relationships with them.
You can even go as far as paying for ads on social media. This is a slightly more advanced tactic than just creating a profile and posting content. You can create and run ad campaigns using simple self-serve tools, and track their performance with easy-to-read reports.
Yet another benefit of Lawn Love for lawn care companies
Lawn Love takes care of the marketing for you, so we wrap up a lot of these individual channels in one convenient package!
Apply to be a Lawn Love pro. The process is super easy. With just a few clicks and a background check, you’ll be claiming more lawn jobs in your area and making more money with less headache on the business side of things like billing and collections.
Main Photo Credit: Good Focused | Canva Pro | License
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