You’ve dreamed of opening another branch location for your green industry business. Maybe the time is now and you’re ready to venture into a new market. Or possibly this is the not-so-distant future.
When you expand geographically, what are the right steps to take from a marketing perspective?
Over the years, I’ve talked to many lawn care, landscaping, and tree service businesses who had lots of questions about future expansion. I've also worked with many of our clients who've taught me a few lessons along the way.
And, I’ve also talked to quite a few that have struggled with getting their new locations off the ground.
Today, I’ll share some insights and steps to take as you consider growing your lawn care, landscaping, and tree service business. While there are many factors to consider, we’ll stick to our wheelhouse, marketing.
1. Research the New Market Thoroughly
Whether your target audience is commercial or residential, you should do some research. Some of the factors to investigate are:
- Population Data: Check the population size, density, and growth trends in the target area. Higher population density could mean more potential customers.
- Homeownership Rates & Values: High rates of homeownership can indicate a strong potential customer base. If residential is your core focus, be sure to factor out multi-family properties that may inflate your population data. Home values may also greatly influence your potential for average customer value.
- Income Levels: Understanding the average income levels will help you gauge the spending power and the potential demand for luxury services such as design-build and full-service maintenance contracts.
- Employment Rates & Industry Projections: High employment rates can indicate a healthy economy, which is a positive sign for lawn care, landscaping, and tree service businesses. You may also be able to collect information about industrial expansion in the area which could, in turn, mean more potential commercial accounts and homeowners you could target as this workforce relocates to the area.
- Competitors: Research existing companies in the area. Note their services, pricing, market share, and customer reviews. Look for services not currently offered by competitors that you can provide or specialties you may want to focus your company’s positioning on.
[RELATED ARTICLE: When Positioning Can Go Wrong - Or the Challenges You'll Face Serving a Niche]
Gathering this information can be difficult but there are free sources such as:
- U.S. Census Bureau and local government economic development agencies
- Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be useful to visually analyze market characteristics.
If data analysis isn't your thing, your business consultant or a market research firm may be extremely helpful.
2. Choose a Physical Location (Wisely)
Unfortunately, Google still heavily weighs proximity to your customers as a significant ranking factor. It’s as if they still think every business is a local shop people drive to…(sigh)
This can become challenging for lawn care, landscaping, and tree service businesses as they search for commercial spaces, particularly when their primary customer is high-end residential.
Industrial spaces are not typically located near residential areas. And if they are, rents may be very high. However, it may be worth considering adding a small office space in these areas if you have a supply or equipment yard in a nearby industrial area.
Image Source: High Prairie Outdoors
We’ve had a landscape design and installation client who had a design study in an affluent shopping district when their operations and supply yard were on a rural farm outside of the city. You could have some of your sales and admin team work out of a small space in the core of your service area where your operations team can be based and where the rents are more affordable.
3. Set Up Your New Google Business Profile (GBP) Correctly
After you have leased or bought a space, it’s time to make it real in the eyes of Google. They have gotten much stricter recently, cracking down on fake locations. While I’m grateful for this, it creates a challenge for lawn care, landscaping, and tree service companies.
In the past, as long as you could receive mail at your location, that was all you needed to complete the GBP verification. However, Google now requires a video of the location in many instances. They want to see this is a legit operation with company signage, workspaces, team members, etc.
So, NO…you can’t just create a location at your friend or team member’s house.
Level Green Landscaping has separate Google Business Profiles for each of their branches.
Claiming this profile is critical to local SEO so don’t take this step lightly. After your location is set up, complete your profile by filling in the following details:
- Business categories
- Service area
- Hours of operation
- Description
- Contact phone number
- Social media profiles
- Website URL (see next section)
[RELATED VIDEO SERIES: SEO for Lawn Care & Landscaping Companies]
4. Update Your Website in the Right Manner
If you are a one-location operation, this is where things start to get tricky. One of the things I had mentioned in the previous section was your website URL in your Google My Business listing. When Google sees you have multiple locations, the best practice is to include a slightly different website URL for each location.
If your core location is going to serve as your headquarters, you can just leave your main website homepage URL as the one listed on this original location’s Google Business Profile.
However, as you add new branch locations, you should create a unique location page for them. Think of it as a variation of your website’s homepage with more locally-relevant information. The URL will change, perhaps YourWebsite.com/City. This is the website URL you want to list in these new branch GBP profiles.
Joshua Tree Experts has a unique location page for each physical location, each linked to their respective Google Business Profiles.
Again, it’s critical to have unique copywriting and useful information on these location pages. You’ll want to add this branch location’s address and unique phone number, but go beyond that.
Include a re-worded list of the services offered, communities serviced from this branch location, local customer testimonials, project images, and your blog articles specifically addressing these locations. Some of this may need to be added later as you gain more customers and create this type of content (more on this later).
There will probably be a lot of areas on your website where you may need to edit page titles, descriptions, and copywriting to mention this new location or at least give a mention to it.
The point is that you want prospective customers to see their area represented well on your website.
5. Invest Heavily in Ads, Direct Mail, & Networking
No one in this new market will likely know who you are. This means you’ll have to be aggressive with marketing efforts.
We often recommend investing heavily in Google Ads and Google Local Service Ads for residential lawn care, landscaping, and tree service businesses. When managed properly, this can get your brand in front of people actively searching for solutions.
[RELATED VIDEO SERIES: Google Ads for Lawn Care & Landscaping Companies]
Direct mail can work well for residential maintenance services when there is an urgent need at a particular time of year. This is a little trickier for landscape design-build as you try to convince a homeowner to drop a ton of money in their backyard because of your mailer.
Grassperson Lawn & Landscape sends repeated direct mailers to targeted areas where they are trying to reach potential customers.
You’ll have to experiment with different mail pieces and campaign frequency. Be sure to measure activities as much as possible to evaluate your ROI. Using direct mail in tandem with digital ads can expose potential customers to your brand on more mediums.
[RELATED READING: 5 Reasons Your Postcards & Mailers Don't Work]
When it comes to commercial landscaping and related services, it’s never too early to get involved in local networking organizations. Referral groups and professional associations may be a great place to build relationships because we know this takes time.
6. Create Location-Specific Content Marketing
As I mentioned in the point above, it’s great to have content that focuses specifically on new geographic locations. It can be a great addition to those location pages but also can be leveraged elsewhere.
If you create geographically-specific content you could distribute this via organic social media and paid ads. If you’re taking advantage of local networking opportunities and getting contact info of potential clients, these hyper-local assets can be very compelling to prospective customers.
Ground Source Landscaping has created hundreds of helpful blog articles that address important topics for specific areas.
Over time, it’s going to be critical to create unique blog articles that are aimed at a) relevant topics and b) geographic terms combined. This doesn’t mean you will need to replicate every blog article for each area but there may be articles useful for finding the best companies in this specific area or fair comparison articles of the major players in the market.
[RELATED READING: 5 Landscaping Content Marketing Strategy Blunders]
7. Generate Customer Reviews & Referrals
Another great addition to those location pages on your website is local testimonials. Adding the clients’ location or business name is another great way to anchor you to this local community.
Since you’ll start with a few clients, you must seize every opportunity to get reviews on your new Google Business profile for this branch location. Stay diligent in your efforts!
[RELATED READING: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly of Online Reviews]
If your team is delighting your new local customers, they’ll have lots to say. Ask them if you could feature them in a testimonial article or case study video detailing their property, project, and customer experience.
[RELATED READING: Making the Case for Case Studies - and How Your Landscaping Company Can Leverage Them for Marketing and Sales]
Monarch Landscape Management has forged great relationships with clients who are enthusiastically willing to be featured in their case study videos and quotes throughout their website.
And if they’re giving you public praise, why not ask them for a referral a few times per year? Create a great customer referral program or incentive and reward them for becoming a raving fan.
[RELATED READING: Customer Referral Programs: Tips & Examples for Landscaping, Lawn Care and Tree Service Companies]
Expanding Your Business Strategically
Expanding your lawn care, landscaping, or tree service business to a new location is a significant step, filled with both exciting opportunities and potential challenges. By taking a methodical approach, you can set a strong foundation for success.
Remember, each new branch is a fresh start that requires dedicated attention and resources. Stay persistent and patient, and leverage the unique strengths and experiences of your core business to navigate this growth journey.
With thoughtful planning and execution, your new branch will not only get off the ground but will flourish, contributing to the overall growth and success of your business. Happy expanding!
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