The Cure for Your Boring Green Industry Content Marketing

There’s no shortage of content from lawn care, landscaping, and tree care companies these days.

Green industry companies are answering common customer questions on their websites. They’re publishing blog articles. They’re sharing project photos and tips on social media. They’re creating short-form videos.

A lot of this content is useful. Some of it is necessary.

But, necessary information isn't necessarily differentiating information.

AI has accelerated the problem, but it didn't create it. Marketing agencies have been pumping out commodity content for years.

Green industry brands have mimicked competitors.

Social calendars have been filled simply because someone decided three posts needed to go out this week.

Are you guilty of this?

After looking at hundreds of lawn care, tree service, and landscaping websites over the years and seeing a steady stream of industry content in my social feeds, I notice it. I’m guessing you do, too.

There’s a sameness to a lot of it.

The cure isn't necessarily creating better-looking content. It's having something worth saying.

Informational Content Is the Foundation, Not the Finish Line

I want to be clear: There’s nothing wrong with informational content.

Your prospects have questions. Answer them.

Tell them how your services work. Explain what things cost. Help them understand their options. Show them what to expect. Address the questions your salespeople answer over and over again.

Image Source:  Turf Pride Lawn Care

That content can attract search traffic, educate prospects, build trust, and make the sales process easier. We’ve created a lot of it for our clients over the years, and we’ll continue to.

But if you want to elevate your brand beyond everyone else publishing the same basic information, you need to add another layer.

Perspective.

Your company has spent years, maybe decades, actually doing this work.

You've seen what happens five years after the landscape is installed. You've treated thousands of lawns. You've watched trees survive and fail. You've dealt with demanding property managers and homeowners with unrealistic expectations.

You’ve made mistakes. You've changed your mind about things. You've discovered what works better in the real world than it does on paper.

That's expertise your competitors (and A.I.) can't simply copy.

Your content shouldn't just prove that you know things. It should reveal what you believe about the things you know.

Put Your Content Ideas Through This 3-Part Test

How do you know when you've uncovered something worth talking about?

Image Source: Mid-South Irrigation & Landscape

Try this 3-part test:

1. Could another knowledgeable professional reasonably disagree with it?

If every professional in your industry would respond with, "Well, obviously," you may just be stating a fact.

2. Can you explain why you believe it based on actual experience?

This is what separates genuine perspective from manufacturing a controversial opinion to get attention.

3. Would a customer or prospect genuinely care about your take?

There are plenty of things green industry professionals can debate that customers couldn't care less about. Good marketing still needs to connect your expertise to something your audience values.

If you can answer yes to all three questions, you probably have something worth creating.

You don't need to be controversial. You need to have something to say.

What Does Great Green Industry Content Marketing Actually Sound Like?

Consider a lawn care company that believes some competitors are more concerned with completing production rounds than whether conditions are actually ideal for the customer's lawn.

Image Source:  Green Valley Lawn Care

Maybe their team has watched other companies apply treatments with snow still on the ground or spray while rain is pouring down, puddling on a lawn.

That's an opinion worth exploring. 

Don't just create another lawn care marketing asset explaining what fertilizer does. Instead, talk about:

"The timing and conditions of your lawn treatments matter more than getting all of your 19 lawn care visits completed in a year."

(Exaggeration for emphasis)

A tree care company might have a different perspective to share:

"Sometimes we recommend removing perfectly healthy trees."

Why?

Maybe it's the species, location, mature size, structural concerns, or what the homeowner ultimately wants to accomplish with the property. An experienced arborist can explain the factors that make removal the responsible recommendation even when a homeowner sees a tree that appears perfectly fine.

And that makes great tree service marketing content vs. the more typical, "Why your trees need regular pruning" article or video. 

Landscape designers have these opinions, too.

A homeowner may arrive with a wish list containing a patio, outdoor kitchen, fire feature, pavilion, pool, and more.

Image Source:  Precision Landscape

An experienced designer may say, "Don't put all of your outdoor living wants into phase one."

They've seen what happens when homeowners over-feature a backyard instead of developing a thoughtful master plan that leaves room for priorities to evolve. And this type of content drives better results in your landscape design marketing strategy. 

Commercial landscaping marketing offers the same opportunities.

Image Source:  Level Green Landscaping

Instead of another article about how landscaping creates a positive first impression, tell property managers:

"Stop spending so much time comparing proposals and not enough time asking how your landscape company plans to staff and manage your educational campus."

Those are points of view.

And they don't have to become 1,000-word articles.

They can become a 30-second video. A LinkedIn post. An Instagram Reel. An email. A longer YouTube video. Or several of those things.

Stop Looking for Topics. Start Having Better Conversations.

One of the biggest mistakes in content planning is starting with:

"What should we post about this month?"

Try starting with better questions instead.

Image Source:  Outback Landscape

Ask your people:

• What do customers routinely ask for that you sometimes recommend against?

• What does our industry commonly do that you disagree with?

• What have you changed your mind about after years of doing this?

• What looks great initially but causes problems five years later?

• What do customers consistently misunderstand?

• What do you know now that you wish you knew ten years ago?

• What would you recommend if this were your own property?

Your best ideas may already be floating around your company every day. Nobody has stopped long enough to recognize them as content.

Someone Needs to Recognize the Good Stuff

Whoever is responsible for your content marketing needs enough industry knowledge and curiosity to recognize these moments.

If you're handling your marketing internally, train yourself and your team to listen for them.

Image Source:  Seacoast Tree Care

If you're working with outside marketing help, those people shouldn't just show up with a content calendar and ask you to approve this month's topics.

(If they don't have practical green industry experience, they're probably just asking A.I. anyway...)

They need to understand your world well enough to hear a passing comment from an owner, arborist, designer, lawn care manager, or salesperson and think:

"Wait. There's something there..."

This is something our Account Managers at Landscape Leadership® regularly experience. Ordinary conversations with our clients generate ideas because our team understands the green industry well enough to recognize when a client has said something worth exploring.

And that's becoming increasingly important.

Your competitors can target the same keywords. They can cover the same topics. They can use the same AI tools. They can create similar-looking social posts and videos.

What they can't replicate is the experience that shaped how your people think.

Stop editing the most interesting parts of that expertise out of your content.

Enough is Enough!

If you've grown frustrated with your agency's content strategy because it's not helping you to stand out, it's time for a change.

And if you've always wanted to create this kind of content but don't know how, there's hope. 

We'd love to talk to you about how you can create valuable messaging out of normal conversations. 

The opinions, experiences, and expertise that can set your brand apart are probably already inside your company. You just need the right people and process to uncover them and turn them into content worth paying attention to.

At Landscape Leadership, that's exactly what we help lawn care, landscaping, and tree care companies do. Subscribe to our blog for more insights on how to do this!

And if you're ready for a marketing strategy that includes content like this, request a consultation.