Running a lawn care business can be hard work. You’re busy managing the day-to-day operations and finding new leads can seem like an extra challenge you don’t have time to tackle (especially during the busy season). But acquiring and converting leads is crucial to any successful business – without them, how will you continue to grow? Luckily, there are some simple steps you can take to get more leads for your business. Read on to find out the top 10 ways to boost lead generation and grow your lawn care, lawn maintenance or landscaping business!
1. Go after customers in the “whitespace”
First, a definition: Whitespace describes the ways your business can increase revenue through your existing customer base by identifying areas where you can expand through upsells or cross-sells. For example, a customer who has contracted for fertilizing services but not aeration and seeding. If you use CRM software to help run your business, you can use maps and reports to identify customers to target for upsells. You can then reach out to them with the right message through various channels – phone calls, emails, texts, or even social media. Having a well-structured approach to reaching whitespace customers can help you increase sales and build relationships with previously untouched prospects.
2. Update all of your business’s social media pages – Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, etc. — with strong keywords
Your social bios are being crawled for SEO keywords just like your website is. Including the right terms will make it more likely that you’ll show up near the top of relevant search results.
3. Create a social media calendar, and then post consistently
Social media is all about engagement, and engagement happens when you regularly post content that potential customers want to interact with because they find it interesting, helpful, or entertaining. Ideally, you should be posting five times a week. Having an organized schedule will help you keep things on track. So what kind of content sticks with your potential audience? Here are a few ideas.
- People love to see how-to videos. Post instructional videos of your team in action and explain what they’re doing – filling beds, nurturing plants, fertilizing, and caring for grass. It’s interesting to potential customers and shows your expertise.
- “Get to know us” posts. Introduce your team with photos and short bios. Tell your business’s origin story. Anything that will make your company more relatable and will encourage customers to learn more.
- Change your content to match the seasons. Obviously, spring and summer are prime times for lawn and landscape companies, so you can spend those months focusing on the many things you do to keep your customers’ yards looking beautiful. But even in the off-season, there’s plenty to talk about, such as preparing yards for winter, holiday decorating, etc.
- Got great reviews? These testimonials also make great social posts.
- Encourage happy customers to share photos of their beautiful lawns.
- Push engagement by asking questions (What’s your favorite summer tradition? How do you make the most of your yard? Show us your favorite flowers!).
4. Consider influencer marketing
Do you have a client or customer with a large social media following or any local celebrities that might be willing to work with you? Offer them free services to post about you! We recommend embarking on a three to six-month partnership, which should include several posts that link back to your website. You could do stories, in-feed posts, and even a few reels on Facebook and Instagram; they could even offer your customers an exclusive discount code. If this works, consider a long-term partnership – something customers love to see as it builds trust.
5. Optimize your website
It’s not enough just to slap up a decent-enough-looking web page and cross your fingers that people will see it. Your webpage is like a digital storefront – on your home page, your contact information should be easy to find, your list of services should be front and center and there should be clear calls-to-action and easy ways to buy. Your website should also be SEO optimized with strong keywords throughout. Are your photos out of date or generic? Time to update them. Make your site easy to navigate and most importantly, make it easy for visitors to contact and connect with you.
6. Do you have a Google Business Profile (GBP)? If you don’t – get one ASAP
If you do, make sure it’s updated and optimized. Your GBP is like a mini-website for your business on Google, and it’s an increasingly important gateway to your website that can help you generate leads. Without a GBP profile, you could be missing out on 55% of traffic that comes from searches with local intent. It includes information like your business name, contact information, address, phone number, services offered, and customer reviews. When your profile is fully optimized, you’ll get seven times more clicks than your competitors and those clicks are 50% more likely to end with a purchase or lead. Find out more about how to optimize your GBP here.
7. When was the last time you refreshed your after-service emails?
If you haven’t considered them in a while, now’s the time to take a look. Be sure you’re upselling based on conditions. It’s a good idea to include a referral link so that your customers can share your brand (and their positive reviews!) with their social media followers.
8. Make sure you have consistent branding across everything you do
This includes not only your marketing efforts but everything across your business, from branded apparel to truck decals to business forms to lawn signs. The benefit of a consistent, strong brand image is that it makes your company instantly recognizable to potential customers. By the time they’re ready to sign up for services, you’re already top of mind.
9. Is your data clean?
If you have an outdated mailing list or your customer data includes duplicate or erroneous listings, you could be wasting time marketing to the wrong people (or not reaching the people you’re trying to reach at all!). Your data should be “cleaned” regularly to avoid these pitfalls. Standardizing customer data entry using a CRM management tool can be a big help with this.
10. Make sure you have plenty of current, candid online reviews
It’s impossible to overstate the importance of customer reviews when it comes to attracting new business: 98% of customers check out online reviews when making a purchase decision. For service businesses like lawn care, lawn maintenance, and landscaping, reviews are even more important. A good number of recent reviews show that your business is trustworthy and reliable.
Plus, reviews can help your business show up in search engine results! There are plenty of ways to ensure you can get reviews from your happy customers, but the most important thing is to ASK. Train your technicians to ask for reviews upon completion of service; send follow-up emails to customers to ask them to leave reviews; be sure to include links in your communications to customers to make it as easy as possible for them to leave reviews. You can also use a program like ReviewBot to automate the review process and gather even more positive reviews!
Getting leads is the first step in creating and maintaining a successful lawn care business. New leads allow you to reach potential customers that you may never have been able to connect with before. With a solid lead generation strategy in place, your business will be well on its way to growth! So make sure to invest time and resources into creating a lead-generating system that works best for you and your business. You won’t regret it.
Looking for the best lawn care software that shows up to work 24/7? RealGreen has the tools you need to succeed. Schedule a free demo today to find out how we can help you turn those leads into sustainable, scalable growth!
