Deadly Lawn Care Marketing Mistake #3

If you’ll remember correctly, a few days ago we talked about small business marketing mistake #2 which is confusing ‘branding’ with marketing. While working to build a brand or image can be a very important part of an overall marketing plan, ONLY focusing on that is deadly.

The third mistake that many lawn care or landscaping businesses make when it comes to marketing is asking your marketing materials to do too much. Now initially that might sound a little odd, but let me explain.

You see, marketing should be a step-by-step process whereby you first attract the attention of qualified prospects, have them identify themselves, educate them on your product or service, and then finally convert them to paying customers. It should be baby steps from A through Z.

Most marketing material that I see tries to move their prospects immediately from A to Z in one giant leap. That’s very difficult to do. Now granted, in some cases that’s going to happen, but the majority of the time people need to be guided from step A to step B to step C and so on.

So what exactly does this mean as it relates to your marketing materials? An example would be a newspaper ad that blares out a sales message about ‘Great Services’ and ‘Low Prices’ and then just has operating hours and a phone number.

Or a yellow pages ad that talks about what a great business you have and then again only gives a phone number, as if the prospect is supposed to call to schedule an appointment from that.  But why would they?  What reason do they have for calling?  Unless they already know you’re the best ‘man’ for the job, it ain’t gonna happen like that.

Now, does that kind of thing happen where a prospect sees an ad and calls to schedule an appointment? Absolutely. However, it’s a very inefficient way to market your product or service.

Okay, so how can you avoid making this mistake? Well, instead of putting up an ad hoping they call in to schedule an appointment, tell them to call a recorded message line for some free information about your business or the services you offer. Give them additional information to help them decide in their own mind that you’re the best company for the job.

Or instead of expecting them to just pick up the phone and call for the first appointment, offer them some valuable, no obligation incentive to try out your service first.  Make it easy for them to try it out without committing their first born child to you.

Whatever you do however, don’t expect your prospects to immediately jump from A to Z. While some people will be okay with that, the large majority would feel more comfortable and would be much more responsive to a step-by-step process.

Bookmark Me!