Did it ever occur to you that landscape design marketing was something that was essential to your business as are a good aesthetic sense and a knowledge of horticulture? Chances are, if you are someone who puts a lot of time and love into their work, you’ve never really thought about why you need to think about marketing. Shouldn’t your work speak for itself? Shouldn’t people be able to look at your design and figure out why your work is the best? The problem is, the answer is a most emphatic “NO!” With plenty of friends in the business and with an eye towards helping them make money, I’ve seen a lot when it comes to this business, and one of the first things I noticed is how few people are making the most out of their marketing opportunities.
When you are thinking of landscape design marketing, you’ll find that the first and foremost thing that you need to do is think about how people are going to find your work. Think about your web presence. More and more people are searching online for all of their landscaping needs, and because of this, you’ll find that if you aren’t online, plenty of people will never find you. If you’ve never put together a website before, and aren’t sure what makes a good one, it’s time to talk to a website designer. If this is your business page, you don’t want to leave it to amateurs; hey, you wouldn’t let a kid with a weed whacker remodel your lawn, right?
One of the nicest things I ever saw a landscaping firm do was send a thank you note to my neighbor after she had her lawn professionally landscaped. It was a very charming gesture, and they happened to include a cute little flower magnet as well, which just happened to have their name and number printed on it. If I think about it, I can still see her magnet on the refrigerator, and you can bet that when she wants to recommend landscaping to someone that she’ll just read off the name and number on the magnet. Have you done anything to make yourself that accessible to newer customers and older ones?
If you are interested in landscape design marketing, take some time to get some pictures of what you have done. Take some pictures immediately after you finish your work and ask the people you did it for if you can use it in a brochure or on a website. You’ll find that nothing attracts people like pictures of what their lawn could look like, so make sure that you can give them an idea. Remember that you should always explain what you have done and why; this is when a good website will come in handy.
Take some time to really think about what you can do when it comes to getting customers to your site. Don’t be one of more than 75% of landscaping companies that don’t have a marketing plan; this is the way to to go, so make sure that you get started!