As we begin a new year, it’s a great time for companies to start thinking about how they’d like to grow and expand their business. Lawn care companies are no exception. If you want to attract and keep customers in the upcoming year, now is the time to start planning your strategy for standing out from the competition.
It’s not enough to just be great at taking care of lawns, although that’s definitely a key component of being a successful lawn care company. You also have to find ways of spreading the word about your business and attracting customers that will keep coming back to you for their lawn care needs.
In this article, you’ll find lawn care promotion ideas and tips for attracting new customers to your business and keeping the customers you already have. These tips often overlap, so keeping up with tasks that help you bring in new customers can also help you keep established customers coming back to your company.
Get Active Online
It used to be that having a website was the only online presence you needed, but now that’s not enough on its own to make you stand out. You’ll benefit tremendously from having a dynamic, up-to-date website as well as a social media presence. Just being online doesn’t help much if you don’t keep things updated. An outdated website or social media where no one has posted in months isn’t going to keep established customers engaged, attract new customers or help you to implement lawn care promotion ideas.
You don’t need to go crazy trying to get thousands of likes on your online profiles. Just come up with a regular posting schedule, share updates about your business, and encourage your satisfied customers to leave reviews. Here are some ideas to work toward:
- Social media like Twitter, Facebook, and/or Instagram that’s updated regularly.
- A clear, easy-to-use contact form on your website.
- Photos of your work and descriptions of the services you offer.
- Customer reviews on Google, Yelp, and your social media platforms.
- A way to sign up for and schedule services, as well as to redeem offer codes.
Offer Incentives
What is the benefit for someone to hire your business to take care of their yard? Great lawn care should be the most obvious asset, but usually that’s not enough on its own to make potential customers pick you over the competition. One way to get new customers to choose you is to offer incentives for signing up with your company. These lawn care promotion ideas could include:
- Freebies – free estimate, free first mow, free flower pots, free landscape audit, etc.
- Percent discounts – 10% to 50% off on certain projects or the first month of service.
- Money-saving offers – buy one service get another free, new customer sign-up bonus, seasonal offers, etc.
Don’t forget to make at least part of these offers available to established customers as well as new customers. You don’t want people who’ve been loyal to your company to feel left out of the discounts and incentives.
Use Postcards
Having an online presence makes it easy for potential customers looking for lawn care service to find you. It also helps you keep in touch with established customers. But it’s not all that useful for reaching people who haven’t thought about hiring you. One way to reach those people is through targeted mailings.
Tools like Zillow can help you figure out which neighborhoods or houses fit your target customer profile. You could also drive around and make note of areas that look like they could benefit from your services and seem affluent enough to afford professional lawn care. Then start mailing postcards to homes in those locations.
Don’t give up if you don’t see instant results. Sometimes it takes two or three mailings to the same address before you’ll get a response. Postcards can be worth it, though, to get your name out there and spread awareness about your services, website, and any special offers you have going on at the time.
Continue Communication
Now that you’ve attracted customers, the goal is to keep them coming back to your company whenever they need lawn care. Keeping your website updated, sharing blog posts, and updating social media will help you keep in touch with the customers who connect with you online. Take advantage of this connection to maintain communication with your customers and remind them you’re there if/when they need you.
- Continue to offer freebies and/or discounts for loyal customers.
- Share quality content in blog posts, newsletters, and social media posts that customers can use to help keep their yards looking good.
- Post reminders about seasonal lawn care and what services you offer.
- Keep customers up-to-date on services you’re adding and other news related to your company.
The more you keep in touch with customers and continue to offer quality content, the more likely they’ll be to keep coming back to you for service. Also, make sure that the communication goes both ways. You’ll want to listen to customer feedback carefully and take it into account as you adjust your plans for the new year.
Emphasize Customer Care
Good online communication is a big part of taking care of your customers, but it’s not the only part. Here are some of the ways you can go above-and-beyond in customer care:
- If it makes sense for how you’ve structured your business, appoint a crew leader for each of your lawn-care teams to act as the first point of contact for customers. Select someone well-spoken and knowledgeable who will remember customer names. That’ll lend a personal touch to customer interactions with your business.
- Be proactive about helping your customers. Stay up-to-date with new trends in lawn care. Take the time to investigate if you notice a problem, such as if patches of a customer’s lawn are dying. Customers will be impressed if you know your stuff and take action to keep their lawns healthy.
- Thank your customers for choosing you. Send thank-you notes to repeat customers at the end of the lawn care season, and talk to them in-person when possible.
One last from lawn care promotion ideas you can do to take good care of your customers is to use high-quality lawn care equipment. Using quality, well-maintained lawn mowers, trimmers, and other equipment will result in a heather and nicer-looking yard for your customers.
If you’re looking for quality equipment and service, Richardson Saw & Lawnmower is here to help. We carry a wide variety of professional-quality equipment for all your lawn care needs. You can check out what we offer online or stop in and see us at our location on South Central Expressway in Richardson, Texas.
