One of the most important things any business owner can do right now is to keep their head up, remain optimistic, and keep pushing towards their goals. As I’ve said again and again on this blog, the news media wants us all to believe things are headed for Hell in a handbasket.
Yes, the financial picture is pretty bleak and yes, people are losing their jobs and yes, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to grow your business.
BUT, that doesn’t mean it’s time to throw in the towel.
When times get tough, it means you’ve got to get tougher. You’ve got to identify those areas where you can control the outcome and focus on those things. Not everyone’s going to purchase your services. Not everyone’s going to pay your prices. However, there are still people out there that WILL purchase your services and WILL gladly pay the prices you’re charging. It’s your job to go find them!
I had a meeting with an associate today and he asked me to review one of his marketing pieces. And true to form, like almost 99% of all small businesses, the piece was a menu-board style marketing piece. It had their company name up top, a few words about what they did, and then it listed the services they offered. Unfortunately, it was pretty blah.
Now, if you know me, then you know how much I had branding style or menu-board style marketing, mostly because it’s a HUGE waste of money. Sure, you’ll get some business as a result of it, but only a very small percentage of what you could if you used true direct response style marketing.
In fact, even if you only changed one small thing about the piece and added some type of low risk offer, you’d increase the response 10 fold. You see, people are lazy and even though they may have a need for the products or services you’re offering, unless you give them a reason to pull their lazy behinds off the couch, they won’t act.
So, in EVERY PIECE of marketing you put out, be sure to include some type of low risk offer that will motivate them to pick up the phone and call RIGHT NOW!
In my quest to create powerfully effective marketing systems, one of the tricks I’ve learned is to get as far ahead of the game as I possibly can. And I don’t mean getting ahead of new trends or ideas or techniques. Yes, that’s important too, but what I’m talking about is getting ahead of the logistics of your marketing systems.
In other words, as we sit here today on Monday, October 20th, we have a little over a month until Thanksgiving and two months until Christmas. I’ve talked many times about the importance of using Holidays to market your business and these two holidays are perfect for creating some type of offer or campaign. But, to do so means you’ve got to get started RIGHT NOW making it happen. Get ahead of the calendar right now so you’re not scrambling around at the last minute trying to throw something together.
Even better, why not sit down sometime this week and plan out all of your marketing activities over the next 3 months. That way, you’ll know EXACTLY what needs to be done so you’ll have plenty of time to get things planned and implemented.
In fact, one of the things I’ll be doing very soon is sitting down and coming up with EVERY marketing campaign I’ll do in 2009. Of course I’ll probably come up with new products or services throughout the year, but for existing programs, products, or services I’ll have everything planned out well in advance. That way, I’ll know EXACTLY what I need to do, when I need to do it, and how it needs to be carried out.
So, if you ever find yourself struggling to get your marketing done, part of the problem could be the fact you’re waiting until the very last minute to get started on things. Why not try getting ahead of the game by scheduling out your activities well in advance of when you actually have to implement them? I promise you’ll find yourself much more relaxed about it and your campaigns will undoubtedly go much better than expected.
Okay, okay. The title of this post might be just a bit mis-leading, because in today’s competitive marketplace, without a website your business is TOAST. The problem is, most business ONLY GET a website, and that’s it.
While a website can be a HUGE advantage when it comes to marketing your business, without a complete web MARKETING PLAN in place, your website is little more than an online brochure. And when that’s all your website is, you might as well save your money or invest it in some other way to market your lawn care business.
What you need is a WEB MARKETING PLATFORM. Here’s what your web marketing platform should include:
A direct response website that captures the attention of your prospects, offers something of value, and then captures their contact information in exchange
An automated follow-up marketing system so that once someone leaves their contact information you’re able to continually market to them on auto-pilot
A traffic generating system that drives truckloads of qualified, interested prospects to your direct response website. This system should include:
Some paid marketing via Google AdWords, banner ads, or ezine ads
Some search engine optimization that drives FREE traffic to your site
An on-going educational system that continually reaches out to the prospects that don’t respond initially and provides them with additional information, education about your products and/or services, and gives them opportunities to purchase these
A consolidated effort with all of your offline market efforts, allowing you to maximize the effectiveness of ALL your marketing efforts
Look, if all you’re getting is a website that’s just going to sit there, here’s a little piece of advice: SAVE YOUR MONEY. Yes, you might get a few leads here and there, but not enough to make any real difference.
To truly maximize your online marketing dollars, get yourself a true Web Marketing Platform and watch your business skyrocket as result!
While this little tidbit of advice holds true in any economic climate, it’s especially true in today’s topsey-turvey marketplace. If you want to maximize your marketing dollars and grow your business as quickly and effectively as possible then you need to narrow your focus and market ONLY to those prospects that meet a certain criteria.
This goes back to a concept adopted from the real estate market and something I’ve talked about many, many times. The process of creating a farm.
A ‘farm’ is basically a highly targeted list of prospects you create either through your own efforts or by purchasing a list from a reliable source. The list should be big enough to make a significant impact on the growth of your business, but small enough that you can communicate with EVERY NAME on the list many times throughout the year.
You see, most lawn care or landscaping businesses make the mistake of sending postcards to a list of 5-15K name twice a year. Once in the Spring and once in the Fall. While these are great times to advertise, doing it only twice a year is almost a waste because while you will attract some business, it’s not as much as you could if you’d scaled back your list size to 1,500 names and mailed to them every month throughout the year.
So, as you’re looking to grow your business amidst all the news of bank failures, foreclosed homes, and tightening credit markets, focus on using your ‘bullets’ more efficiently. Scale back your list, target your efforts very carefully, and sit back and watch your business grow while everyone else struggles.
As you’re looking to increase your knowledge and understanding of what GOOD marketing is, it’s important to look outside the green industry to other areas. When you become myopic in your thinking and think the only place you’ll be able to find good marketing is within the lawn care or landscaping industry, it should set off an alarm in your head that you’re in SERIOUS trouble.
Here’s a clip from a keynote address by Michael Port. He’s the author of ‘Book Yourself Solid’. It’s a fantastic resource on how you can become the dominant player in your marketplace and I highly encourage you do add it to your library.
As you’re watching this clip, think about how you can apply the principles to your individual lawn care or landscaping business. Yes, it will require a bit of thinking, but step outside the box. Think about how you can apply what he’s saying to make your business remarkable.
