Landscaping business

[bf1986]

I run a landscaping business in a large rural town. Everything from garden maintenance through to driveways, patios, fencing and also tree surgery. I price to do the best job, not the cheapest. Our best customers are 50+.

Business has been good, but I feel I might be missing opportunities. We've advertised in Phonebook and Yellow pages, but I've found that when I arrive on site, I'm one of 5 other companies who has been asked to tender - so I've stopped with that.

We don't have any social media.

We have a website that usually lands first page and sometimes number one, but some products ie tree surgery, we are no where to be seen. We do advertise in local papers at £400/m.

I'm now looking at Adwords, SEO, Facebook ppc and local radio. I have a modest budget being a smaller outfit - say £1k/month less the £400 already being spent.

There is competition out there but I feel if I can narrow my leads to a certain demographic and actually get to see the potential customer (on site at their home/premises) I stand a good chance of selling my services well - unless of course there's 5 others already been.

Not sure where to head so I'd appreciate the advice.

 

[Ashley_Price]

Okay, so three things spring to mind:

1/ Leaflet the road. While you are working for one customer, near the start of the job, do you pop leaflets or business cards into the houses in the rest of the street? "We're are currently working at a property in your road. Speak to us if you would like a quote on XYZ. Just call and we'll be happy to pop along and see you."

2/ Current job/next job. While you are on site doing a particular job, do you take time to walk round the rest of the site and see if there are any other jobs that need doing, or something that could be improved? You could then say to the customer "While we're here, we see that XYZ needs doing. We could add it to the current job for only £XX more."

3/ Ad boards. Like double glazing firms, etc., do you have an ad board that the customer would be happy to display outside the front of their property while you are working there and for a couple of weeks after you have finished?

 

[Nochexman]

Our best customers are 50+.

Have you identified the areas where your over 50's are over represented? Target these areas as per Ashley's advice above.

 

[billmccallum1957]

Apart from the good advice from @Ashley_Price, do you ask current/past customers how they got your details?

Finding out what your demographic uses is the best way to go.

 

[AllUpHere]

How many employees do you have? You shouldn't need a budget of a grand a month unless you have a few teams out full time.

 

[Paul Thomas]

Get a Facebook page ASAP.

 

[bf1986]

Get a Facebook page ASAP.

Set it up last night. Boosting posts for 45+ yo’s but not choosing any interest. For £1 a day I’ll reach up 300 people apparently. Bargain for at the very least increasing exposure / familiarity.

Any tips?

 

[bf1986]

Okay, so three things spring to mind:

1/ Leaflet the road. While you are working for one customer, near the start of the job, do you pop leaflets or business cards into the houses in the rest of the street? "We're are currently working at a property in your road. Speak to us if you would like a quote on XYZ. Just call and we'll be happy to pop along and see you."

2/ Current job/next job. While you are on site doing a particular job, do you take time to walk round the rest of the site and see if there are any other jobs that need doing, or something that could be improved? You could then say to the customer "While we're here, we see that XYZ needs doing. We could add it to the current job for only £XX more."

3/ Ad boards. Like double glazing firms, etc., do you have an ad board that the customer would be happy to display outside the front of their property while you are working there and for a couple of weeks after you have finished?

I don’t do any of the above. I have been told to do the “working in your area” thing though and considered a board. Quite often we’ll arrive after the “street” has gone to work and leave before they are home. They’ll see the new fence or driveway, but they won’t ask the neighbour who did it.

I’d struggle with the “when we are here” as I’m not the sales type, I suppose I should.

Apart from the good advice from @Ashley_Price, do you ask current/past customers how they got your details?

Finding out what your demographic uses is the best way to go.

9 our of 10 find us in local papers, I have always asked, every customer. We don’t advertise much elsewhere though so it kinda makes sense.

If local papers are the one that works - we are at the back in the “Services” section. Should we be trying a different approach?

How many employees do you have? You shouldn't need a budget of a grand a month unless you have a few teams out full time.

5 men including myself. We get through the workload quicker than the average, that’s how I make my money.

Thanks so far by the way, much obliged.

 

[billmccallum1957]

If 90% of your business in generated from newspapers, then increasing your newspaper coverage would make sense, rather than gamble on something that might not work.

Increasing spend might incentivise newspapers to provide advertorial space.

 

[Paul Thomas]

Set it up last night. Boosting posts for 45+ yo’s but not choosing any interest. For £1 a day I’ll reach up 300 people apparently. Bargain for at the very least increasing exposure / familiarity.

Any tips?

Stick to boosting for the time being and aim to get likes on your page and as many reviews as possible.

FB are changing what people see on their timelines. Friends and family will be favoured over business posts unless the business posts encourage "meaningful engagement".

Try and post content that get people chatting in your comments - but be careful because they are also going to start penalising "engagment bait" such as "tag your ugly sister" type stuff. The key will be to get honest engagement.

Also, if you are brave enough post live videos, They are engagement magnets and will likely get you on peoples timelines.

 

[bf1986]

Stick to boosting for the time being and aim to get likes on your page and as many reviews as possible.

FB are changing what people see on their timelines. Friends and family will be favoured over business posts unless the business posts encourage "meaningful engagement".

Try and post content that get people chatting in your comments - but be careful because they are also going to start penalising "engagment bait" such as "tag your ugly sister" type stuff. The key will be to get honest engagement.

Also, if you are brave enough post live videos, They are engagement magnets and will likely get you on peoples timelines.

Excellent. Thanks for that. I am not a facebook user so its all new to me.

I am intending on running a newsletter for our regulars and anyone else interested so perhaps I'll post that up too as it'll have helpful tips etc on there. Not so fussed on the hard sell 20% offer stuff, its not my style and it is not the business model either.

 

[bf1986]

If 90% of your business in generated from newspapers, then increasing your newspaper coverage would make sense, rather than gamble on something that might not work.

Increasing spend might incentivise newspapers to provide advertorial space.

Excuse my ignorance, but what is advertorial space?

In what way would you increase it? It is a small (think small business card) size listing half a dozen of our services - tailored a little to season - with company name/logo at top and phone number/ website at bottom.

 

[pelparc]

If almost all of your work comes from newspaper adds, have you had a very very good look at your website? You say you come top for most searches yet you hardly get any work from it. Take a good look at its usability as a human and not a search bot. Does it look up to date, have images of work you have done, show that you know what you are doing. It needs to be very believable.
Personally i wouldn't waste any time or money on Facebook, i would think the chances of actually being displayed on someones page at a time when they are interested to have work done is very remote. have a page and keep it fresh with regular updates and leave it at that.

 

[billmccallum1957]

Excuse my ignorance, but what is advertorial space?

In what way would you increase it? It is a small (think small business card) size listing half a dozen of our services - tailored a little to season - with company name/logo at top and phone number/ website at bottom.

http://www.earningguys.com/advertisement/advertorial/

I cant comment on HOW to increase, as I don't know what you have in terms of number of publications used/available.

 

[Ashley_Price]

They’ll see the new fence or driveway, but they won’t ask the neighbour who did it.

I’d struggle with the “when we are here” as I’m not the sales type, I suppose I should.

You don't have to do any actual selling. Just get some leaflets designed which say "We have been working at another property in your road. If you would like a new fence, landscape gardening... do not hesitate to contact us."

 

[Chris Ashdown]

One of the best adverts you have is your van, have it wrapped in a bright colour and with a big message all over it stating who you are, where you are and what you do. not just a tiny logo on one panel

Have all your staff wearing a simple uniform be it green trousers and sweatshirts or similar with the company name on the back in large letters

Every place you work at has lots of people seeing your van and staff and mentally judging you for potential work in the future, Dyno-rod are the perfect example

 

[bf1986]

If almost all of your work comes from newspaper adds, have you had a very very good look at your website? You say you come top for most searches yet you hardly get any work from it. Take a good look at its usability as a human and not a search bot. Does it look up to date, have images of work you have done, show that you know what you are doing. It needs to be very believable.
Personally i wouldn't waste any time or money on Facebook, i would think the chances of actually being displayed on someones page at a time when they are interested to have work done is very remote. have a page and keep it fresh with regular updates and leave it at that.

I’m actually takin pricing on new website design and getting it professionally SEO’d. I’ve registered on Fiverr to get pricing there

My website is fairly good and easy to navigate however it’s seriously out of date. Last updated in 2010..

You don't have to do any actual selling. Just get some leaflets designed which say "We have been working at another property in your road. If you would like a new fence, landscape gardening... do not hesitate to contact us."

My apologies, the salesman part meant selling myself to the customer we are all ready work. Tried it last night with a customer we are going to soon and she has changed spec slightly reducing time / cost needed. I suggested tidying up elsewhere to use the time I have allocated.. “ it’s not up to me to pad your day out”..

One of the best adverts you have is your van, have it wrapped in a bright colour and with a big message all over it stating who you are, where you are and what you do. not just a tiny logo on one panel

Have all your staff wearing a simple uniform be it green trousers and sweatshirts or similar with the company name on the back in large letters

Every place you work at has lots of people seeing your van and staff and mentally judging you for potential work in the future, Dyno-rod are the perfect example

All vans have full livery which is clear and easy to read. The logo/ company name is the length of side of van. Myself and all men wear matching uniform. The logo printed on left breast. Nothing on back of clothing as I just think it’s bloody tacky. Appreciate the suggestion though.

 

[VD Media]

getting it professionally SEO’d. I’ve registered on Fiverr to get pricing there

I would totally avoid Fiverr and the like for SEO. They use the worst kind of backlinks you could ever get, and will only risk a penalty. $5 for backlinks? You have to think how could they possibly profit if they were of any real value? I would do proper research into this before you buy any kind of SEO. Seriously.

 

[Paul Carmen]

I would totally avoid Fiverr and the like for SEO. They use the worst kind of backlinks you could ever get, and will only risk a penalty. $5 for backlinks? You have to think how could they possibly profit if they were of any real value? I would do proper research into this before you buy any kind of SEO. Seriously.

Fiverr can be good, there are some serious companies that do proper research & offer their services on the platform, as it has a big captive audience. However as VD Media says, be careful, many of the sellers are from the other side of the world & charge $5 because that's a days pay & there's little comeback if you're based in India!

You should look for a UK company if you do use the site, one with lots of good reviews, they also wont be charging $5, the proper companies charge hundreds for each service, as they would if you went to their website.

Not having seen your site it's hard to say what your approach should be; you may have great content. I'm guessing it's not a responsive site, so doesn't work well on mobile? Well over half of all searches start on mobile & Google indexes websites based on how your site appears on a mobile view.

You probably need a technical audit & some decent advice to recommend the best way forward, as a site from 2010 is likely to need a responsive rebuild at the very least.

 

[Createanddirect]

Hi,
I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this as I haven't got the chance to read all post at this moment. Have you thought about filming your work and uploading to Youtube and Facebook. Video is the most desirable content at the moment if you want to implement digital marketing to your strategy and I think you will reach an even bigger audience in this way.

 

[bf1986]

Good evening.

So what about Wordpress and doing my website by myself? I worry I’ll affect my natural listing.


I have done google adwords, it’s cost £80 for a week. A few clicks. No phone calls.

I’ve started a Facebook page and been boosting posts. Reaching 400 organic and 400 paid on average when paying £1 for a 24hr. No phone calls.

I have also spoken to local press to look at other options versus being at the back of the paper in “Services” section. They can do me an ad towards front of paper for £75+ vat per week or I can have the front “lug” (cover page) for £100+ vat per week - both business card size. Thoughts on this please.

Still toying with radio ad idea, it’s looking like anything upwards of £360+vat per month and that’s for a run of Mon- Fri 10second ads played 4 times a day between 6am and 7pm.

 

[Paul Carmen]

It will affect your natural listing in search engines, ideally for the better! However, if you don't make the right technical SEO choices while setting up a new site and your content doesn't target what customers search for it could be worse!

If you rank in Google now, your URLs need to stay the same, or you have to redirect them to the new equivalent page. You also need to have good onsite technical SEO (page titles, meta descriptions, h & alt tags, sitemap etc.), plus content that targets what your ideal local customers search for & is better than your competitors. You then need to build a fast site with a compelling design that funnels customers towards an action; e.g. phoning you or completing a form.

You also ideally want to track customers on your site & how they contact you, that way you know what is happening with the customers visiting from your marketing campaigns.

With regards to your current paid campaigns, without looking at your data, onsite analytics & conversion tracking we'd be guessing.

I'd also ensure your demographic & geographic targeting for Facebook targeting made sense for your business. You also need to do this for PPC, plus ensure the keywords you've chosen for your AdWords campaigns are relevant & that you're setting these up with negative keywords to stop irrelevant searches triggering & costing you money.

If you have no onsite tracking, or don't know what I'm talking about regards targeting, then you are effectively wasting your money & should get a certified PPC expert to help you.

Its impossible to comment on whether you could update the site with WordPress yourself, or how much improvement can be made without looking at your current site, then understanding your skills & whether you have the time to research & do this yourself.

My thoughts on paper/radio ads are they may work, you won't know until you've tried them. Are you going to have a compelling offer & be able to track how well they perform?

In summary, regardless of one off or occasional marketing bursts, a heck of a lot of people start their research online now, usually on their mobile. Fixing this & getting local & geographic targeted traffic to the site means you're always visible.

 

[AllUpHere]

Forget websites, newspaper adverts, and all promotional marketing and take a step (or 5) back. As I say a lot on this forum, you are putting the cart before the horse, that's why some things you try don't get results. You need to work on your marketing strategy, before you do any more advertising. It's obvious from your posts that its your underlying strategy that's the problem, not the promotional tactics you use.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Forget the advertising staff selling the small ads, all papers sell a full or half page story about your company who, what, where etc that people read more as a story rather than a advert, The cost is shared buy suppliers to your company from machine companies to printers each taking a small advert on the bottom of the page for about £50-70 and each advert reduces your cost, you just give the paper a list of your suppliers and the paper contacts them

Also write a interesting item and sent to the business section, you know the thing like just won a large contract, have just won a award

Also most counties have a monthly magazine for the posh set where you can advertise to the more affluent of the county who I guess are more likely to have landscaping

You could also write a weekly/monthly column in the local paper about what to do in the garden this month sort of thing

 

[Nochexman]

I don’t do any of the above. I have been told to do the “working in your area” thing though and considered a board. Quite often we’ll arrive after the “street” has gone to work and leave before they are home. They’ll see the new fence or driveway, but they won’t ask the neighbour who did it.

I’d struggle with the “when we are here” as I’m not the sales type, I suppose I should.

AllUpHere is right, of course, but if your communication is not working - and frankly all the online stuff above is just distracting for you - you need to focus on your point of sale.

When you do a job you need to leave your brand behind after you've left to show that "you did this good job". Ask your customers if they would be willing to have a tasteful sign left behind on their fence indicating that you did this job. Offer them a discount on their next job; offer them a bonus if someone in the same street pays for your services. Word of mouth is king. Its sales promotion and it works.

 

[Paul Carmen]

As the last two posters have said, it sounds like you really need initial help with the strategy planning. Otherwise it's just a scatter gun approach that may luck into delivering what you need, but is far more likely to not work & frustrate you. Many marketing campaigns & lead generation processes fail, more often than not its the execution/offer & not the route/platform that is the issue.

If you have a plan then that's a starting point, if not then create one, work through the following type scenarios:-

1. Identify your customers (age groups, locations, demographic, affluence etc)
2. Identify the core services you want to promote, these should be profitable for you & something you can deliver/scale if your lead generation really takes off
3. Research where your customers look for these services & what they look for (is it online & if so what do they type in search engines, is it local magazines/papers & if so which ones, is it word of mouth near where you complete projects etc.)
4. What's your USP; e.g the hook to get them interested (do you do something great that the competition doesn't, are you better on start/project completion times, price etc.)
5. Is your current marketing working (from what you've said no, but it may be that your site doesn't rank or can't be used on mobile, your PPC/Facebook campaigns aren't targeted correctly, or compelling versus the competition, have you spoken to people locally where you complete jobs & asked your customers about your business/services)
6. You can then work out what to do & how to do it, using the right marketing medium (or a combination of a few to track & test what works)

If your struggling with this, feel free to PM me & we can have a no obligation chat.