EDITORIAL: Effective Marketing Strategies

How’s your marketing plan working for you this season? Are you tweaking it monthly? Are you satisfied with your company’s exposure? Are you scheduling a dedicated meeting to plan for next year?

Based on the current economic doldrums, marketing, follow-up – returning prospects phone calls and showing up for appointments – and customer service are essential to any business. Truth is, many lawn and landscape professionals don’t have a marketing plan. They don’t have a plan from one year to the next. Nor, do they have a written plan that shows their business growing from $1 to $4 million.

Marketing seems easy. Simply put, it’s telling people – potential customers – what you do over and over. It takes many forms including face-to-face, the written word, advertising, public relations, Web coverage and phone calls.

Easy, right? Not necessarily. Businesses have to work at marketing. 

Contractors have to share their message with people and lots of them. You just can’t wait for the phone to start ringing. And, you can’t just tell them once, you have to tell them over and over. According to the market research firm Yankelovich Inc. the average American sees or hears up to 5,000 marketing messages per day. Where is your message in all of that buzz?

Caught up in day-to-day business decisions, contractors procrastinate on writing a marketing plan for a variety of reasons.
 
 •You can’t decide where to begin. Marking isn’t easy. In fact, it can be downright
  overwhelming. There are so many ideas and concepts to consider, and you
  want to make sure you’re doing it right to avoid wasting money.
 
 •You aren’t sure how to put the pieces together. Should you first focus on cold
  calls? Door-to-door sales? Or, first finish your Web site? Not knowing where to
  begin can lead to paralysis.
 
 •You can’t stay motivated. Even when you know exactly what you need to do,
  often you just don’t do it. With no one looking over your shoulder, it’s easy to
  avoid putting a marketing plan in place. Then, lack of immediate results leads
  to discouragement.
 
If any of these obstacles have stopped you in your tracks, you’re not alone. Small business owners have so much on their plates – sales, HR, taxes, insurance, hiring, firing, equipment purchasing and so on – that planning is often put on the back burner.

But consider the current economic climate, increased competition and client fickleness and you’ll understand why a marketing plan is essential. Spend the time and energy to create a plan and then commit your plan to a marketing calendar. Finally, allocate the resources to implement your plan. Once you’ve taken these steps, your marketing plan will become part of your daily routine.