Topics: Search Engine Optimization (Seo) Social Media Content Marketing Web Development Advertising Email Marketing Videos

Using Written Content & Video to Answer FAQs for Your Lawn Care or Landscaping Business

Picture of Chad Diller Author: Chad Diller

Prospective customers have a lot of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Are you the expert they can conveniently turn to?

Stressful upset desperate handsome curly man in brown sweetshirt working using laptop and having headacheYour prospective landscaping and lawn care customers want easy-to-find, meaningful answers. However, back-and-forth, repetitive conversations aren’t always easy or convenient (for all parties).

There should be a way to remove friction from the FAQ process.

Good news…there is. Properly leveraging written content and video can answer FAQs which can mean growing your landscaping or lawn care business with happier, ideal-fit customers.

Today, I’m going to show you how other landscaping and lawn care companies have been doing this more easily and effectively.

Why Answering FAQs is Critical for Lawn & Landscaping Companies

Answering FAQs in an in-depth, meaningful manner can accomplish the following things:

  • Establishing your brand as a clear thought leader in your market
  • Preventing prospects/customers from getting answers from your competitors (and then taking their business elsewhere)
  • Pre-qualifying prospective customers for budget, timeline, etc.
  • Saving you and your prospects/customers time and money
  • Setting proper expectations
  • Preventing common complaints

FAQs are a big deal. Merely just listing a dozen questions and answers on an FAQ page on your website isn’t enough.

Even if you covet the opportunity to talk to prospects and customers, let’s be realistic: They may not want to chat and likely just want a quick answer.

 

Addressing FAQ With Written Content

Some of you may have a FAQ page on your landscaping or lawn care website. I get to look at hundreds of websites in the green industry each year. Most times, these answers are short and sweet. That can work for simple questions, but short answers won’t always satisfy your customers. Where will they get a deeper understanding?

People are unlikely to scour your website. For many, this is not the first place they’ll look. They often go to a search engine. Your FAQ answers should be found at the top of the search results.

Blogging for Landscaping & Lawn Care FAQs

Grassperson blog-1If you haven’t read the book, “They Ask, You Answer” by Marcus Sheridan, put it at the top of your reading list. Marcus concisely outlines his “Big 5” that answers FAQs and divides them into:

  • Cost of ____
  • Problems & Solutions for ____
  • Versus & Comparisons of ____
  • The Best ____
  • Reviews of ____

If you do a great job at creating a killer landscaping or lawn care website, you should have hundreds of in-depth articles on your blog. These articles could have an excellent chance of ranking at the top of search results.

 

[RELATED READING: The Number of Pages on Your Website Matters! Here’s Why]

(Above is an example of some of the articles on the Grassperson blog.)

 

Link out to these articles throughout your website. Here are a few examples.

If you have a FAQ page or other helpful resources, link out to articles in the short answers.

Master Lawn FAQ
(Above is an example of Master Lawn's FAQs on their lawn care services page. Clicking a question will expand the results and even provide additional links to blog posts on relevant topics.)

There may be other places on your website where it makes sense to tease FAQ answers. For instance, if someone is on your lawn care services page, additional article cards could really help them find deeper answers to lawn-related FAQs.

Master Lawn Related Article CardsAbove is an example of related articles listed and shown visually lower on Master Lawn's lawn care services page.)

Answering FAQ with Email Marketing

I hate the term “email blast”. Who wants to be blasted? Yet, many landscaping and lawn care companies use email campaigns to barrage contacts with promos. There could be a time for that, but overdoing it will result in a lot of unsubscribes.

11-Newsletters-email-marketing copy
Here’s a novel idea. What about actually creating fun, concise emails that tease answers to FAQs. You could briefly summarize the main points or even link out to deeper blog articles.

RainMaster email FAQ example(Above is an example of 1 out of the 5 tips this RainMaster Lawn Systems email featured. That's enough of a teaser ;)

 

[RELATED READING: The 7 Deadly Sins of Email Marketing - Is Your Lawn or Landscaping Company Guilty of These?]

Leveraging Social Media for FAQs

Create a social media strategy based on giving thoughtful insight away on a regular basis. You can post new and previous blog articles to your social profiles when they’re seasonally relevant.

(Above is an example of a blog post shared on Oasis Turf & Tree's Facebook page.)

[RELATED PODCAST: Thoughtful vs. Thoughtless Content & How to Leverage It]

 

Video Content for Landscaping & Lawn Care FAQs

I started my recommendations for written content for a few reasons:

  • Search engines can understand written content more easily than video
  • Written content often goes into more detail
  • Not everyone likes to or is in a setting where they can watch video
  • Video takes a lot of resources to produce (time and/or money)

Don’t get me wrong. I love video. It’s my preferred means to learn something from figuring out an Excel formula to working on my car.

Here at Landscape Leadership, we always recommend our clients create a library of written content before stepping into video, particularly if they don’t have a large budget and ample time to invest.

We often produce initial videos in the first couple of years to tell their brand story, recruit team members, or give an overview of services. By the time we get to years 2-4, they have a good library of written content. Then it makes sense to create video counterparts for FAQs.

 

[RELATED READING: 14 Examples of Landscaping & Lawn Care Videos for Marketing and Recruting]

 

When you do step into a video strategy, keep in mind there are multiple ways to leverage these assets.

Adding Videos to Blog Articles

We first start by identifying blog articles that would benefit from a short video counterpart and add the video near the top.

This way, if someone isn’t interested in scrolling and spending seven minutes reading, they can spend a few minutes watching a FAQ video instead. Many still go on to read the rest of the article.

Natural Green video in blog post (Above is an example of how Natural Green uses video within blog content.)

 

Social Media Videos

FAQ videos also make for great social media content. Viewers can immediately see how long the video is. They’re likely to watch a short, captivating, high-quality video.

Oasis Turf & Tree Facebook video FAQ(Above is an example of a FAQ video on Oasis Turf & Tree's Facebook page.)

Platforms such as Facebook and YouTube often allow for a curated video gallery. You may be surprised how much time people spend watching these.
Oasis Turf & Tree - YouTube videos

(Above is an example of some of the videos on the Oasis Turf & Tree YouTube channel.)

Important Note: Learn the best practices for naming your videos, writing descriptions, adding tags, and great thumbnail images. If you do this correctly, you stand a better chance of people finding and watching your videos.

Videos in Email Marketing

Unfortunately, videos can’t play within emails. However, there are some clever workarounds.

One option is to create an image with a play icon on it. People will instinctively click this. The image should be hyperlinked to the place where they can easily find your video such as a blog post (with the video at the top) or another page on your website.

I recommend sending people to your website vs. a social platform to view videos. Your website should provide a clear way for them to fill out a form or call you there.

Natural Green - video thumbnail in email(Above is an example of the beginning of a Natural Green email where we inserted a video thumbnail. The video thumbnail image and the button below took recipients to a landing page.)

Another option would be to create a GIF (graphics interchange format) file. This is a lower-resolution, short clip of a video. It will autoplay in most email clients but be aware it may not in some rare cases. It’s a fun way to add a short video to an email. Just make sure there is a call-to-action button or links so they can easily convert into a lead.

Kingstowne email

Kingstowne - email - customer landscape design GIF (Above is an example of the beginning of an email from Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape where we included a GIF to auto-play in the email.)

There are many tools to create GIFs, but my go-to is ezgif.com

FAQ Videos on Landing Pages

It’s all about context! In the Natural Green email example above, I shared how you can include a thumbnail that redirects to a landing page. If you have a great 2-minute video explaining the process and showing the results, why not put this on a relevant landing page? 

Natural Green - landing page with video
Some ads or email campaigns may have very specific topics such as these. Reuse your FAQ videos for these pages. You can even create a version with an alternate ending that encourages them to fill out the form or call you.

Create a FAQ Video Library

There are obvious places on your website where certain videos should be added. Under these videos, add a button that suggests visitors watch more videos. This button will send them to your video library.

Joshua Tree Experts video in blog post
(Above is an example of how Joshua Tree Experts inserts videos near the top of blog posts. The button underneath will direct a reader to their video gallery.)

You can also create menu choices on your website that guide visitors to your video library.

Yellowstone Landscape website menu with videos(Above is an example of how Yellowstone Landscape provides easy navigation inks to their video gallery.)

On your video gallery page, create interesting thumbnail images with engaging titles.

Joshua Tree Experts video gallery(Above is an example of the Joshua Tree Experts video gallery with interesting thumbnail images.)

 

Becoming a Thoughtful Resource for Landscaping & Lawn Care Customers

Be helpful and answer their questions. Use written content and video to slowly become the go-to resource in your market.

Create content that attracts your ideal customers—people that are informed and have proper expectations save everyone time and money.

If you’d like to learn how to answer FAQs and remove friction from your business and from your customer’s experience, schedule a meeting with us to learn more. Want more examples of how to do this? Check out how our clients do this on their websites.

Ebook: 25 Website Must Haves

Picture of Chad Diller

About Chad Diller

Chad is the President of Landscape Leadership. Prior to joining our team he served as a marketing manager for one of the Top 150 Companies in the Green Industry. In addition to his vast marketing experience, he also has held certifications such as an ISA Certified Arborist and Landscape Industry Certified Technician. He currently resides in beautiful Lancaster County, PA.

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