Marketing & Sales Insight for the Lawn & Landscape Industry

“They had no clue how much a patio/lawn program costs.”

“We don’t even do [insert service]!”

“Ugh! They’re not even the decision-maker!”

Sound familiar? Do you ever get the feeling that your lawn care or landscaping prospects are clueless tire-kickers that just eat up all of your precious time?

Maybe the problem isn’t your prospect. Maybe your website does a lousy job of disqualifying bad-fit leads.

I've written an awful lot about the principles of positioning on this blog over the years. That's because I want you to be different from every other landscaper or lawn care operator out there. I want you to be in demand and make the money you deserve for working your asses off.

Creating a unique identity and carving out a position in the marketplace (and your prospects' minds) isn't easy. In fact, it takes a lot of courage and sacrifice, which is why most companies don't go down this road and instead settle for being Just Another Landscaper.

My wife and I were friends for an excruciating period of time until I got the first date. 

When it did happen, I did not want to disappoint her. 

✅ Dancing in the cold to our favorite songs at the park. 

✅ Checking off her bucket list item of “flying a plane” with a flight lesson. 

✅ Poetry.

✅ Candlelit dinner.

This hopeless romantic pulled out all of the stops. No way was I letting this one get away. And the romantic gestures continued. If we ever meet, ask me to tell you the story of how I eventually proposed to her. 

When it comes to how you treat your new lawn care or landscaping customers, it may be good to take a lesson from this.

If you scour the interwebs searching for information on how best to raise your prices you'll find plenty already written. I thought I'd share my insight and hopefully add to what you've already learned about raising prices.

As usual, my take isn't always in lockstep with other experts and commentators in the lawn and landscape industry so hopefully I'll open your mind to some other ways to think about your pricing.

(Here's a teaser video with 1 example of each of the 10 tips mentioned below. Read on for 30 more tips.)

Over the past two years I’ve spent a lot of time scouring YouTube and the Internet. I’ve wanted to get a really good sense of what kind of marketing tips are out there for lawn and landscape companies.

I’ve made a few general observations…

• The large majority of content addressing marketing for landscapers is geared towards entrepreneurs and businesses under $2 million in annual revenue. 
• Most of the people offering these tips are either A) well-intentioned small business owners sharing their personal advice or, B) landscaping marketing agencies that specialize in small businesses.
• And lastly, most of the popular "influencers" make money by producing videos (ads on YouTube, product endorsements, selling software, franchises, or courses for startup businesses).

None of these things are bad. However, these landscaping marketing strategies may not apply for companies with an annual revenue of over $2M or for companies pursuing aggressive growth goals. These tips are aimed at the bulk of the landscape industry, small startup businesses.

Just like you don’t want to be Just Another Landscaper, I don’t want this to be just another article about marketing for landscapers. These are not basic tips. They are specifically for companies that plan on surpassing $2M in annual revenue (or are well past it already).

Videos are one of the most impactful marketing and recruiting assets in the green industry.

They can make your landscaping or lawn care company appear to be on a whole other level than your competitors.

The right video can make job seekers excited about a rewarding career with your organization. 

Or, if the videos aren’t great...they can have a very unfortunate effect.

Prospective customers can raise their critical eyebrows and wonder why you would ever create a video so cringe-worthy. 

Job seekers can be unimpressed and turned off. 

In the mind of that ideal prospect or job recruit, you’ve suddenly lost all credibility. 

Maybe you are remembering some examples right now. Maybe they’re on your website….ouch…