A gourmet marketing recipe

Let’s get right to the point: Marketing is an area that does not get enough love from us business owners. In this article, I am going to break down the top marketing tactics I used to 10x our family landscape company. As you read through this, you may get overwhelmed and turn the page. I get it: We were there once, and for decades our family business stayed between $1 to $1.5 million. But in 2016, everything changed when we started putting more effort into the pillar of marketing, and last year we generated more than $17 million in revenue. If you want to grow, follow these steps:

1. Google Profile Page (historically “Google My Business”)

To start, make sure you are listed in Google, and additionally, “Google Verified.” This can be done very easily and costs nothing. If you already have a profile, great. Now it’s time to ensure everything is updated and current: phone number, website, address, hours and a description of what you do. Continue to add high-quality video and photos to this page at a minimum of once per week.

1b. Customer Reviews:

Ideally on Google Profile: Do some research on your local competition. Take note of how many reviews they have on Google. Your goal is to go out and get enough so you have 2x more than anyone in your service area. This will dramatically increase your leads, and it’s one of the easiest ways to boost visibility on a Google search. A few ideas for gathering reviews: call every client after you complete a job and request a review or have QR codes that take people to the review site on trucks and phones. Text messaging can also be a successful tactic. Either way, you now have a mission.

2. Community Beautification Events

Use your expertise, knowledge and resources to beautify your community. We focus on places that are in need of improvement: the local school where we built veggie-garden boxes for students to grow food, a homeless shelter that needed a playground for the kids and the local park that was run-down in need of a boost. Make sure to capture the projects with photos and videos; you can also invite local press like the newspaper or television out to help spread the word. We call it the “ripple effect,” as the more people that see us doing this, the more people will give back themselves.

3. Professional Photography and Video

What we do in our industry makes for great content, so all we need is to document the cool stuff and get it online. The best way to do this is to partner with a professional photographer. Getting professionally created videos is a huge plus, too! I would recommend focusing on quantity in the beginning and to steer away from big ticket long-form videos. It’s better to have 15 reels that are 10-15 seconds long, than one three-minute video you post once. It’s okay to mix in a few iPhone photos, but it shouldn’t all be low quality; your work is professional, as is your team, so bite the bullet and get the professional grade.

4. Social Media, specifically Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook & TikTok:

Clients and employees are researching your company before they ever call you. This usually includes a quick sweep of their favorite social media platform. If the last picture on your business page was two years ago of you and your dog on a jobsite, that's the first impression they get. And that’s even if you have a business page. I am still amazed at how many businesses don’t have dedicated social media accounts. You may feel like you don’t have time for it, but just like you hire employees and subcontractors, there are people to help you with that, too. You must invest to grow, and this one is non-negotiable. Get your business profile going on at least four socials and set a goal to update it at least three times per week.

5. Use the Data You Have, Go Get Those Leads:

This winter, it’s time to go back through all those bids you have given out, all those happy clients you have served and all those people who helped you get here. We are often frustrated waiting for the phone to ring, and we forget we are sitting on a goldmine of data. Here is a simple way to approach it: take the last two years of projects/properties you have either performed or bid on, (even those you lost) and give those people a call — not an email, a phone call. I don’t have enough room to give you a full script here, but I’m sure you can think of something to say. Your goal is to get a referral from those you worked with and hopefully another opportunity for those you didn’t.

6. Branding

Trucks, uniforms, swag, signs — brand everything. Get all of your trucks, trailers and equipment looking consistent with the same logo. Set up your employees with uniforms and provide them with swag they can wear on the weekends; even give them extra for their family to sport! Ensure your trucks are clean, neat and tidy. We drive around moving billboards all day, and I can't believe how some landscapers represent their image publicly. It’s time to show the community you are serious and get your branding into alignment. This will help you stand out in a crowded space and make your name more recognizable in the future.

Raise the bar is a monthly column by Justin White, CEO of K&D Landscaping, written to help improve professionalism in the green industry. He can be reached at justin@kndlandscaping.com.