How to Upscale Your Landscaping Business

Editorial Note: This article was brought to you courtesy of Akhil Rajan, Customer Success Specialist at Zuper.

While it takes time and effort to build a team structure, workflow, equipment set, and clientele to start, the ever-increasing demand for lawn care services presents abundant scope to grow your landscaping business. To take your lawn care business to the next level, you need to try something out of the box and evolve your marketing strategies.

10 Landscaping Business Tips to Accelerate Growth

From having a website to deploying field management software, here are the best ideas to upscale your lawn and landscaping business.

1. Establish a Mission Statement

There are many landscaping companies out there. So, think about how to differentiate your company’s core focus for the clients. Once you’ve identified it, add your company’s main goals and values to it and create a mission statement. Use this to devise and support your business strategies.

For example, if your core focus is customer service, use it in the form of a satisfaction guarantee to drive your marketing plans.

2. Build Your Lawn Care Website

With the whole world going digital, you just cannot skimp out on being present online. And the first step is building a terrific website that looks great, functions well, and is informative. Try to optimize it so that it is discoverable on a search engine like Google (SEO).

Don’t forget to add an effective way for the customer to contact you and book an appointment.

3. Devise a Marketing Plan

Each of your marketing activities should be based on solid research and specific goals which are then implemented carefully and evaluated from time to time.

Below are the basic steps to devise a successful marketing plan:

• Set your marketing goals
• Conduct a marketing audit
• Do market research and analyze it well
• Identify your target audience
• Set a marketing budget
• Develop a strategy
• Come up with an implementation schedule
• Evaluate the results using KPIs or parameters

4. Automate with Technology

You can gain a competitive advantage by using landscaping business technologies that add value to the customer. For example, 3D rendered sketches or AR/VR-backed drawings to show the customer a life-like remodeled landscape design. Try using battery-powered lawn care equipment—from string trimmers and pruning saws to mowers—that is not only eco-friendly but also helps you build a good impression with environmentalists and eco-conscious customers.

5. Adopt Field Management Software

Landscaping software is most effective for increasing productivity in the lawn care business. It automates operations like job scheduling, inventory management, and billing, as well as provides features like live tracking. This optimizes resource management and promotes clients’ convenience leading to customer delight.

6. Focus on Human Resources and Company Culture

The employees make the business of a service company as they are the ones in direct contact with the customers. Hence, they should be taken seriously.

Focus on employee welfare and build amazing company culture to attract top talent by offering good working conditions, competitive wages and incentives, sufficient skill development opportunities, attention to safety awareness and safety training plans, and optimal work-life balance.

7. Experiment with Digital Ads

If your lawn care business services a small town, then local newspaper ads can be effective. But with everyone constantly on their phones, promoting your services through digital ads is worth a shot. You should try Google ads, Facebook, and Instagram ads.

Start with a small budget and consistently evaluate the performance of the ads. Once you figure out what works best for you, you can increase the budget and the stakes.

8. Invest in Sandwich Boards

While servicing a property, set up a sandwich board with an attractive design containing your company details and contact info. This will earn you the trust of the neighborhood making you the go-to company for any of their lawn care requirements.

9. Enable ‘Google My Business’

Your free business profile on Google My Business can help you drive customer engagement with local customers across Google Search and Maps. It usually displays on top with your company name, address, contact number, and customer reviews when someone tries to find you on Google. Not only does it make your company highly visible online, but it also improves your local SEO.

10. Focus On ORM

Simply put, Online Reputation Management (ORM) involves managing the search engine results to guard your company's brand reputation from negative exposure online. With the advent of researching new companies online, customer reviews–good or bad–have become a trusted way of influencing one's buying behaviour. So, keep an eye on all the online conversations regarding your brand and reviews. Ensure that you spread the good word and handle negative feedback diligently.

Bottom Line: Hopefully, these landscaping business tips answer the burning question of how to grow a landscaping business. With an efficient mix of traditional and digital marketing tactics and the addition of smart technologies, you can upscale your lawn care business to new heights.

This is a guest post written by Akhil Rajan, Customer Success Specialist at Zuper.