Green Pro Marketing, Author at Green Pro Marketing

Nov 10 2015

Websites for landscape companies: are they worth it?

It surprises me a little that, in 2015, we still find people asking “is it important for a landscape company to have a website?” It’s also amusing that we get these questions via a) email or b) an online forum. Still, it’s clearly a question mark for a lot of folks so we’ll dive right in.

What a website does for your landscape company

We should start by talking about what your landscape company’s website can or should do for you. That can be broken down into broad categories: help people find your business, help people learn about your business (and why they should hire you), and make it easy for people to buy from you. Let’s go one by one.

Help people find your business

Many years ago, the phone book was the easiest way for people to find a service provider for whatever they needed. Businesses were listed alphabetically, which is why there are older businesses with names like AA Landscapes, AAA Landscapes, AA-AAA-AA Landscapes, and so on. Times have changed.

Today, people are just as likely to drop the yellow pages in the recycling bin as they are to open it up. Your prospects are much more likely to search online. You can list your company with a variety of online directories, but that puts you right back in the phone book scenario – better hope your company isn’t called Zee’s Lawn and Landscape.

A better way to be found is with a website optimized for the terms your prospects are searching on. For example, a company based in Cleveland would want their website to come up high on the search results for “lawn care Cleveland” or “Cleveland landscaping”. A website lets you be found by people looking for what it is you offer, where you are. It’s called Search Engine Optimization, and there are resources where you can learn all about it, or you can hire a pro.

Help people learn about your business

Once someone finds you, how can you encourage them to buy from you? If you just have a phone number listed, those prospects will call you and the job of selling yourself is 100% on you, right at that moment. How much can you convey about yourself and your company in 90 seconds on the phone?

When a prospect arrives at a well-designed website, they get a chance to learn about your company. They can see what type of work you do, learn a bit about you (the About page on lawn and landscape websites sees a ton of traffic), and get an idea of what sort of professional you are. Then when they contact you, they’re often already very interested in having you do the work. It’s like having a sales assistant working for you 24/7.

Make it easy for people to hire you

A gorgeous website doesn’t help anyone if the potential client says “yep, looks nice” and clicks the back button without contacting you. Your contact info should always be easy to find, and your pages should includ

e calls to action to get them to reach out to you for a quote. Depending on what you do and how you handle new clients, a website can do everything from encourage people to call or email to letting them book a consultation right there. You don’t get that from a flyer.

When shouldn’t you have a website?

I still believe that every lawn and landscape business should have a website. That said, not every business benefits from a highly optimized, sales-focused website. If you’re a solo operator who’s not looking to grow, or you’re almost running at capacity, think long and hard about this: do you want an influx of new leads? Or are your current channels working? If you don’t have a website you should start one today to claim your domain name and start building credibility with Google. Once you’ve done the basics, though, your goals and abilities will help you decide what to do next.

Ready to create a website that will drive leads and sales for your lawn and landscape business? Contact us today to schedule a consultation and find out what’s best for you.

Oct 27 2015

Should your landscape business accept credit cards?

Credit cards have become a popular form of payment for almost all consumer transactions. A survey conducted a couple of years ago by WePay shows that “…on a regular basis, 58% of small businesses are asked by their customers to accept credit cards.” If you’ve been in business for any length of time the odds are good that you’re among that 58% of small businesses. The question is, if you don’t currently accept credit cards – should you?

The Case for Accepting Credit Cards

First, let’s explore why homeowners might want to use credit cards to pay for their lawn service or for a landscape job. They’re all pretty simple:

convenience – in the survey we mentioned above, 64% of consumers indicated that they write fewer than three checks a month. Between credit cards and online bill pay, a lot of homeowners never get the checkbook out nowadays. They don’t want to have to dig it out of the back of a desk drawer for one transaction.
financing – A homeowner may not have $5,000 sitting in her account to do that front walk, but she knows she can pay it off within three months or less.
reward points – if every $X is a worth a mile on their United card, or they get 1% cash back, why wouldn’t they want to use that card as much as possible?

For the sake of this discussion, these points can really be boiled down to one reason homeowners choose to pay with credit cards: because they want to. The value, then, in accepting credit cards is that you’re not throwing up a barrier that keeps them from buying from you.

If the customer doesn’t want to be bothered with writing a check, they’ll find a way not to have to, and that may well mean hiring someone else. If they’re using the card to finance the purchase, what are your options if you don’t take credit cards? Finance them yourself? Tell them “call me in three months when you have the money”? Similarly, if the homeowner knows they’ll get 20,000 miles if they hire your competitor and 0 miles if they hire you, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage.

Every business is a sales business. Don’t chase away sales. Forbes magazine asked why more small businesses don’t accept credit cards, and this is a great quote from the article:

The benefits of accepting credit and debit cards far outweigh the cost. The various studies show that when people are given more payment options (beyond cash); they are more likely to make impulse purchases, join loyalty programs, and spend more per purchase – and that can only help your business to grow.

Should You Charge a “Convenience Fee” for Credit Cards?

The biggest objection I hear with regards to accepting credit cards is that “I don’t want to/can’t afford to give away 3% of my revenue every year!” Some lawn and landscape business owners then decide that they’ll recoup that money by charging a convenience fee for credit card customers. I don’t think it’s a great idea, and here’s why.

I mentioned above that putting up a barrier between the prospect and the sale is never a good idea, and that is exactly what a convenience fee does. In sales and marketing we call it a “friction point”, something that can slow a sale down to the point that it could even kill the deal. It’s 2015, that homeowner is paying for almost everything with plastic. They’re not going to see that 5% “convenience fee” and think of the small local business owner, they’re going to think about United Airlines and all the fees and surcharges that get added on to what started out as a great ticket price.

Make it EASY for the customer to buy from you. Bake that credit card transaction fee into your pricing so that you know you’re covered, no matter how they choose to pay, and tell them with a smile that you’ll take payment however they want to give it.

The bottom line is that your landscape business relies on a steady flow of happy customers to succeed. In any market you’re overcoming worries about pricing and competitors and lead time to starting the job. Make it as easy as possible for the customer to buy – from you.

Not sure how to easily accept credit card payments from your customers? We can integrate payment portals right into your landscape company’s website design. Not only is it simple for customers to pay and for you to be paid, every time they make a payment they’ll be able to see all the services you offer. It’s one more way Green Pro Marketing helps your business grow, You should contact us today to learn more!

Oct 22 2015

How to suck at social media

There are a lot of landscape pros killing it out there on social media. Their posts are tight, they’re engaging, and they make potential clients want to learn more about that amazing brand. That’s what you want social media to do. Social media lets brands connect with people as real, actual human beings, which can shorten the sales cycle and lead to deeper relationships, which means more loyalty and higher customer value. Awesome, right?

But then there are other companies who just don’t seem to get it. We’re not going to name names, but here are some ways to be so bad at social media that you’re inadvertently driving clients away.

"Tell me you didn't post that!" — “Tell me you didn’t post that!”

Post the exact same thing across every platform

I get it, you’re busy. It can be hard coming up with something original for every post, so it may seem like the best bet is to use the same post on Facebook, and Twitter, and LinkedIn, and Houzz, and so on. You know what the problem is with that? A lot of your customers, or potential customers, may follow you on multiple social media networks. If I see the same thing coming from you on Twitter and Facebook, I’m going to unfollow you on at least one network, or maybe both. Why take that risk? Even if you’re linking to the same content (blog post, magazine article) at least change up what you’re saying about it. No one likes to feel like you’re just phoning it in.

Sell to us like it’s President’s Day weekend and you’re a used car dealer

Think about why you go on Facebook. Are you going on Facebook to chat with your friends, read news articles, and slack off a bit? Or are you logging in hoping to see so many calls to buy something that even the Draft Kings/Fan Duel people say “whoa, dude, ease up on all the ads”? Exactly. Here’s a great example of what NOT to do:

Not only are they posting the same sales message over and over, they’re re-sharing the sales message. Crazy! And go figure, this is the last post on their wall:

I’m not saying it’s cause and effect, but I’m not NOT saying it either. Don’t let this be you.

Post random stuff that has nothing to do with your business

I’ve seen lawn and landscape companies that use their company Facebook page like a bizarre clearinghouse for bizarre articles and links. A potential client is liking your page, and therefore opting in to receiving your updates, because they are interested in your landscape company. Posting video game news (seriously, I’ve seen a landscape company do this on their Facebook page) will only serve to confuse and frustrate your readers.

Your posts are “me me me me” all the time.

Social media can be a great place to occasionally share news about a new hire or a project you recently completed that you’re proud of, but with the exception of your mom – most readers just aren’t that into you. If you can share articles, videos, and links that are relevant to your business and interesting, your clients will read them, enjoy them, and SHARE them. Sharing is the Holy Grail here.

What will clients share? Well, I found that a lot of folks will share links that talk about plant pests and diseases. They share tips on simple projects they can do, and how to improve their home’s value. Remember that like Toby Keith says above, your clients are saying “I want to talk about ME.”

Not having a strategy

Not having a social media strategy is hands down the best way to fail at social media. If you plan out what you want to share, where, and when, you’ll always have something relevant and exciting for your clients.

Need help with your lawn or landscape company’s social media strategy? We can help you two ways:

we can manage your landscape company’s social media for you. We’ll come up with a strategy to include content, platforms, and posting frequency and then we’ll handle everything for you. It’s like having an in-house social media manager at a fraction of the cost.
if you want to handle the execution of your company’s social media strategy yourself, but you want help developing and maintaining that strategy – we do that too. We’ll work with you to develop the campaign and have regular meetings to discuss what’s working and how we can tweak the program.

Whichever works for you, contact us today to get started. We’ll make you look good.

Oct 15 2015

How would Facebook Home Services impact your landscape business?

Last week, Bloomberg Business breathlessly announced “Facebook Plunges Into Home Repair Matchmaking Service!” The reality is a little more nuanced, but is still a huge deal given the 936 million people who use Facebook daily. Facebook has partnered with Pro.com, and users will be able to use Facebook Messenger to find a contractor, get a price, and quickly book the appointment. So while there’s not a “Facebook Home Services” (yet), it’s a powerful partnership.

What the online home services market looks like

The market for home improvement services is estimated at $300 billion a year, and you’d better believe investors and venture capitalists want a piece of the pie. There has been a lot of money thrown at companies like Lawn Guru, Lawn Love, and Plowz and Mowz, companies that provide an app so the customer can tap the screen a few times and their lawn is magically mowed. No contact with a pesky salesperson needed.

There are also platforms like Pro.com, Amazon Home Services, and Porch.com that are looking to cash in on contractors. These sites offer homeowners a wider variety of services to choose from than the lawncare apps. Think this is irrelevant to your company because you do design-build or landscape enhancements? Think again. While Amazon Home Services doesn’t let homeowners buy a complex project with one click, they can get the process started – and they’re a part of the transaction from that point on.

Why Facebook Home Services and their kin should have you worried

The bottom line is that all of these home services companies rely on volume to make their money. How does a large company sell in volume? By driving prices lower. There are two ways these companies do this.

Setting the price to the contractor

Curious to see how these services worked, I went through the application process for one of the mowing apps. When I finally got a call from their rep about the next step, she informed me what they paid their contractors: a flat $15 per hour. If you busted tail and showed initiative, they’d kick you another buck or two.

So these folks want a qualified, insured contractor with all the necessary equipment to work for $15 per hour. Would you? Could you?

Taking their cut off the top

Amazon Home Services is an example of one of these companies that doesn’t want to get in so deep that they’re dictating your price. They just want a little off the top. How much? Here’s how it’s broken down as of today:

recurring service (ie, mowing): 10%
custom service (like design-build landscape): 15%
pre-packaged services: 20% (!)

So how well do you know your numbers? If you give up 15% on a planting job, do you still make money?

What’s worrying about an Amazon Home Services model is that Amazon’s understanding of how to sell more is to squeeze the vendor to drop pricing. I got an email a while back letting me know that if multiple contractors are bidding on a job, Amazon will let you know what the lowest bid was (they’re assuming that’s who won) so you can lower your prices next time and get the job! Dropping your price for a mowing from $30 to $20 could really hurt you. That just means Amazon makes a buck less, and they don’t have your costs. Who really wins by winning a job like that?

How you can win by not playing the game

The best way to set your own pricing and not have to pay an exorbitant finder’s fee is to avoid the online matchmaker app system altogether. They don’t have your best interests at heart, and they’re really not bringing value to you or the client. Here’s what they think of contractors, from the Seattle Times:

“It’s an industry that totally lacks transparency and trust,” said Pro.com CEO Matt Williams. “You have no idea how much it should cost, you have no idea if the guy doing it is going to be safe and trusted. … We make it super simple.”

In other words, “only hire through us or those guys are gonna screw ya.” Does that sound like a business you want to partner with?

The reason why lawn and landscape contractors turn to lead companies and online home services companies is simple: the phone isn’t ringing enough. If you can improve your marketing and your brand’s positioning, here’s what you get:

better control of the type of leads you get
more qualified leads (one click ordering = a lot of tire kickers)
you control the warranty and quality control process
you keep your money

At Green Pro Marketing, we use our years of experience working in and for the landscape industry to help lawn and landscape entrepreneurs like YOU grow your business. If you’re ready to grow your business the smart way, contact us today.

Oct 06 2015

Increase your plant knowledge in 20 minutes a day

A lot of landscapers only know a handful of plants, and you can see it in their jobs. “Wow, you used those six plants AGAIN, Danny?” Don’t be that guy. Cookie cutter landscapes suck.

Learn Your Plants

When I moved from Arizona to Virginia in 2005 and started my new job as THE landscape designer for an awesome landscape design-build firm, I had a problem. It had been almost a decade since I’d done landscape design on the East Coast. Sago palms and barrel cacti weren’t going to fly here. To keep my job I had to get up to speed, quick. [Read more…]