Lawn care and landscaping companies spend a lot of time evaluating marketing agencies…looking at services, pricing, and examples of past work.
What often gets overlooked is a much simpler (and more powerful) question…
Who will actually run our day-to-day marketing?
Your “account manager”…it’s likely one of the most impactful variables when you choose a green industry marketing agency.
And just as important, what kind of practical experience do they bring with them?
That’s why today, we’re pulling back the curtain and having a frank conversation with three of Landscape Leadership®’s account managers.
At first glance, many marketing agencies can feel interchangeable. They offer similar services, use similar language, and present similar-looking results during the sales process.
It’s only after a few months of working together that the differences start to become more obvious.
You begin to notice it in conversations, in the types of ideas being suggested, and in how well your marketing reflects the reality of your green industry business.
Sometimes it feels like a natural extension of your team. Other times, it feels like you’re constantly translating.
It’s the make-or-break factor of your marketing engagement.
This article is the first in a three-part series based on that discussion. Be sure to subscribe to get the next articles delivered to your inbox.
Experience in the Field Changes How You Approach Marketing
When someone has spent time working in the green industry, it tends to show up in small but important ways.
James Conley, one of our account managers, spent about ten years working in landscaping, starting on install crews and eventually moving into operations and sales.
When James talks about marketing, he doesn’t start with tactics or platforms. He starts with the customers of our clients.
“You remember the questions that you hear from clients and prospects a hundred times a day…”
That kind of memory is useful. It shapes how you think about content, messaging, and what actually matters to someone considering hiring your company.
Image Source: Village Gardener
Most homeowners aren’t looking for clever marketing. They’re trying to get comfortable making a costly decision. They have a handful of questions and concerns, and they’re looking for someone who can address them clearly. James described the goal this way:
“If we can help position our clients where we're answering those questions before the guys ever get there… that’s huge.”
When marketing does that well, it changes the tone of the entire sales process.
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Conversations start further along.
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There’s less back-and-forth on basic concerns.
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Trust builds earlier.
That doesn’t come from guessing what customers might be thinking. It usually comes from having been in those conversations before.
Great marketing is intimately connected to sales. It enhances the customer experience and makes sales easier to close.
Sales Experience Brings a Different Perspective on Leads
It’s easy to focus on lead volume when you’re evaluating marketing. More calls, more form submissions, more activity…It all sounds like progress.
But anyone who has spent time in sales knows that not all leads are equal. More doesn’t always mean better.
When someone has sold landscape services before, they tend to think differently about what marketing should do.
They’re not just asking how to generate interest; they’re thinking about how to attract the right kind of customer, and how to set expectations before that first conversation even happens.
Image Source: Seacoast Tree Care
That perspective influences many decisions behind the scenes. It affects which services get emphasized, what kinds of content get created, and how information is presented on a website.
I touched on this during the episode:
“That practical experience really impacts our client relationships… and helps create some really great content.”
In practice, that often means focusing on clarity over creativity.
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Answering common questions.
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Addressing concerns directly.
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Giving people enough information to feel confident reaching out.
Operational Experience Helps Marketing Stay Connected to Reality
Marketing works best when it reflects what’s actually happening in your business.
That might sound obvious, but it’s where things can start to drift if the people managing your marketing don’t have a clear understanding of operations.
Drew Holler, another account manager on the Landscape Leadership® team, spent nearly a decade working his way through the landscaping industry, including time in operations.
One of the things Drew pointed out is how quickly conditions can change in this industry, sometimes within a single season.
“If you have technicians in the field that are seeing something happening… those are opportunities…”
Those opportunities might be tied to a pest issue, a disease outbreak, or even a shift in demand for a specific service.
Recognizing them is one thing. Translating them into clear, useful marketing is another.
Drew explained that part of the process as well:
“Sort out the jargon… make it digestible for a customer… if customers understand what's happening… they're a lot more likely to move forward.”
That translation step is easy to underestimate. What makes perfect sense internally doesn’t always make sense to a homeowner. Bridging that gap is where much marketing either succeeds or falls short.
Broader Green Industry Experience Helps You Avoid Costly Assumptions
Even within the green industry, there’s a lot of variation from one market to another.
Climate, geography, and even language can change how services are perceived and how customers search for them. What works well in one region may not translate directly to another.
Kyle Larson has years of experience working with green industry companies across dozens of different markets.
Kyle talked about how those differences show up in practice:
“For example, lawn care isn't based on months… It's based on… geography.”
He also mentioned that even the terms people use can vary by region, and those differences can affect how well marketing performs.
That kind of nuance is difficult to pick up without having worked across multiple markets. It’s also easy to overlook if an agency relies heavily on standardized approaches.
Where This Becomes a Problem: One-Size-Fits-All Marketing
One of the risks when hiring a marketing agency is ending up in a system that treats every client more or less the same.
That can show up in a few different ways:
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Pre-built packages that don’t change much from company to company
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Templated campaigns that get reused with minor adjustments
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Strategies that aren’t closely tied to your specific goals or constraints
At a glance, that approach can feel efficient. But over time, it tends to limit how much your marketing can actually improve. As I explained in our conversation:
“We don't do canned programs… we shape the next engagement based on our client's specific needs.”
Image Source: Grassperson Lawn & Landscape
That kind of flexibility usually depends on having a marketing partner who understands the industry well enough to make informed adjustments, not just follow a preset plan.
Questions Worth Asking Before You Hire a Marketing Agency
If there’s one takeaway from this part of the conversation, it’s this:
Take the time to understand the team you’ll actually be working with.
Not just their role, but their background. Ask about their practical experience in the green industry.
Almost everyone has “worked for a landscaper for a summer”. That’s not going to cut it.
Ask how they approach strategy. Ask how they adapt to different situations. A few simple questions can go a long way, such as:
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What experience do you have working IN or with landscape companies?
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How do you decide what kind of content or campaigns to prioritize?
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How do you adjust strategy when conditions change during the year?
You don’t need perfect answers. But the responses should give you a sense of whether they understand your business beyond the surface level.
Everyone with a “green industry focus” doesn’t have deep, practical experience. And that’s going to impact your results and your business relationship.
Looking Ahead
This is just one part of a larger conversation about how marketing agency account managers impact your experience and results.
In the next articles, we’ll look more closely at how the structure of an agency and the way account managers handle relationships and communication. This will dramatically affect your experience over time.
Those factors tend to matter just as much as strategy, and they’re often even harder to evaluate upfront.
If you found this helpful, we share similar insights regularly with green industry professionals who want to make more informed marketing decisions.
Join over 5,000 others who subscribe to our blog for practical ideas and observations from the field.
And if you’d like to talk through your own situation, you’re always welcome to request a consultation. We’re happy to take a look at what you’re currently doing and offer an outside perspective on where things could improve.
