5 Proven Marketing Strategies for Landscapers

The landscaping industry continues to grow, with an estimated growth rate of 6.6% and a demonstrable growth in demand—according to Jobber, "31% of landscaping businesses say local demand has grown as people spend more time at home." To capitalize on all of this business, your company needs to stand out from an increasingly competitive crowd. In this landscape business marketing guide, we'll discuss ensuring your marketing strategy has the right target audience and timeline. Then we'll look at some of the most effective channels for landscaping businesses. 

Cultivate a Strong Foundation for Your Marketing Strategy 

Before you start your next marketing campaign, it's essential to focus on the idea of a marketing strategy rather than marketing tactics. With a strategy, you create a defined audience, a series of objectives, and logically aligned plans for achieving those goals across different marketing channels. Conversely, tactics are the small tricks and tweaks you can make along the way. While tactics are helpful, an organized strategy is invaluable. Follow these steps to start your 2023 lawncare business marketing strategy: 

Identify Your Target Audience 

A target audience is the consumers you identify as most profitable and most likely to purchase your services. As a landscaping business, you might target all homeowners in your geographic area. Alternatively, you might only target upscale homeowners likely to want a complete landscape installation. If you've been in business for over a year, you likely have a lot of insight into what sort of clients you want to prioritize. Once you've identified this target audience, you can focus on the types of messages and media that are most likely to get their attention. 

Define Your Goals 

Identify the measurable objectives you want to achieve over a quarter or a year. Some goals to consider could be: 

• Creating X leads (or X more leads than the previous year) 
• Generating $X in sales 
• Having X subscribers to your newsletter or X followers to your social media channel

Your goals can be directly increasing sales or just increasing traffic and engagement. The important part about setting goals is that it allows you to measure the progress of your various tactics and campaigns with more purpose. 

Ensure Marketing Is Year-Round 

Landscaping is a seasonal business with clear peak and off-peak periods. However, your marketing efforts must continue all year to keep your business top of mind and thriving. It's important always to have leads in your pipeline and a reliable way to forecast likely sales in the coming months.  

Some ways to keep your marketing engine running all year long are to: 

• Have off-peak services, such as holiday lights or tree services 
• Use the slow periods to build up marketing materials that you'll publish during the busy peak season 
• Encouraging your target market to choose a managed lawncare and landscaping plan 

5 Marketing Strategies for Landscapers 

Once the target audience and objectives are laid out, you can look at the channels you'll use. Landscaping businesses can see great results with the following five platforms. 

1. Reach Researching Property Owners Through Pay-Per-Click Ads

With pay-per-click (PPC) ads, you don't have to organically climb to the top of search engine results. Instead, you can create an ad campaign where your website shows up in the sponsored results at the top of the page when users search for one of your keywords. For example, if someone searches for 'lawn aeration in La Crosse' or 'lawn mowing near me,' you can immediately show up at the top of the page — while you still build up your organic presence in the background. 

2. Focus on Your Service Areas Social Media

Three of the most popular channels for small businesses are: 

• Facebook: Use this platform to focus on a general audience in your geographic area. Ask for reviews, engage with users, and share details about your ongoing promotions. 
• Instagram: This platform is highly visual and used by younger markets. Post before and after pictures of your landscaping services. 
• TikTok: Video-heavy and geared toward younger demographics, this is the perfect platform for short how-tos, FAQ content, and engaging video snippets. 

Posting consistently is an excellent way to build your presence on these channels. You can also pay for social media ads to gain traction immediately in your preferred markets.  

3. Promote Your Company on the Radio

You can reach a vast audience within a geographic area that receives the radio station you advertise on. While radio ads may be one of the most traditional forms of advertising, it's still very influential. People driving to work, working out at the gym, and completing their work listen to traditional and streaming radio. With some research, you can zero in on the channels your target market prefers. 

4. Make a Good First Impression with Event Marketing

Tradeshows and non-profit event sponsorships can help you spread brand awareness, so new audiences become familiar with your home. Live events let you meet prospective customers personally, share your business cards, and more. 

5. Become the Go-To Landscaper with Email Marketing

First, build your email list by offering visitors helpful resources in exchange for their email addresses. Seasonal grass care guides, for example, can establish your expertise and be resources homeowners are willing to share their contact details for. Then you can outreach to prospective clients with promotional emails, seasonal guides and reminders, and other marketing content. Best of all, email marketing is just as cost-efficient as effective; the ROI for email marketing is $36 for every dollar you spend. 

Stay on Top of These Strategies with Help from Mid-West Family 

Marketing strategies for landscapers are our specialty at Mid-West Family La Crosse. We help local businesses create strong multi-channel marketing strategies, and we can manage the different arms so you can focus on your landscaping business. Contact us today to start building the right marketing approach for your business in 2023.