I took a local taxi firm who came to me with just a facebook page. We started running google ads which for what you are doing are much better than social media. When people need something they go to google. I just checked and google recieve around 70 searches per month for the keyword 'gardening service ipswich' that is a single phrase so there is demand for this.
I also can tell you that each click was 37p low and 1.11 high, so eventually your clicks will cost that amount. Back to the taxi business we couldn't get our ads high enough because they had no website. I got them to buy a website from me for 300 pounds and told them it was a good investment. Not to mention any joker can put up a facebook page where is the trust 2pm at night are you trusting this taxi firm? NO.
So also the website was SEO'd by myself and it now ranks so high they no longer advertise at all. Until the website was working we did limited ads and the cost per click was dramatically lower going to the relevant pages on their new website. They also show up in the local searches.
For you local searches will be 'gardeners near me' So you need to do your google my business profile.
You will need to do traditional marketing for sure drop cards and leaflets locally but google is great value when you do it right. Good Luck.PM me if you need specific help I don't want to abuse the forum.
Sorry I can't agree with all the advice here
@Calvin Crane . This sounds like the focus of your post is about promoting what you can offer, rather than giving the OP meaningful advice based on his needs.
@Andy ipswich
I would focus on:
1. Doing your market research. Who are your competitors, what do they offer, what do they charge, what can you do that's different/better
2. Develop your costing model, most people want a project rate, to estimate this you need to identify what hourly rate you want to charge to cover your costs and give you the profit you need to make your business viable. Remember you won't be working seven days a week, so base your rate on you say working chargeable hours on a three day week. Work up a budget decide whether once you have your start up costs and your daily rate whether you can make enough profit to have a viable business.
3. Getting some great before and after shots of your work - do it for family and friends to build a portfolio and client references
4. Set up a FB business page - post regular interesting content, images of your work, client reviews, seasonal gardening tips etc I disagree that people don't trust FB pages. It's as easy to put a website (almost) as it is to put a FB page.
6. Get your flyers and cards done and deliver the flyers by hand and pay to get them up in newsagents. Local at placing an ad in your local school newsletters. Set your business up on Google. Encourage clients to leave you reviews. Thank them with a lovely plant.
7. If you are good at what you do, you will build up referrals, Ask clients if you can keep in touch to give you a database of people who are willing to hear from you. You can then send out a newsletter with special offers and seasonal gardening advice.
8. When you have your business up and running you can look at developing your website. Yes people do use Google but they can find you through your Google business listing and reviews, you don't need a website straight away from day one. If you want one you can set up a simple site using Wordpress and use one of its SEO plug ins.
You don't need to pay someone to set up a website for you and you don't need to pay someone for local SEO - it's easy to rank for local searches. If you are going to use someone, talk to someone like @Fiscix who is a long standing member who knows his stuff when it comes to building and optimising websites.
Remember only invest in communications that you will keep up to date. Having out of date content or not posting regularly makes it look like you don't care about communicating with your customers.
