So, now that summer’s rapidly heading towards its end, have you already started on your fall marketing campaigns yet?

If not, you’d better get a move on it if you want to keep growing your business!

Here are a couple of quick steps to take to maximize your marketing efforts this fall:

1. Farm your list. If you haven’t already created a list of highly targeted prospects in the neighborhoods or areas you want to get more clients in, then now’s a great time to start.  If you do have this list, congratulations and now’s the time to keep nurturing them.Just like a farmer does with his crops you’ve got to slowly feed your prospects information and offers so they can get to know you, like you, and trust you.
2. Come up with a couple of exciting packages to offer prospects. Remember, your offers are what helps prospects make the leap from prospect to customer so make sure they’re valuable, relatively low risk, and easy to accept.If they have to take too much risk, chances are you won’t get the response you need.  And if you make it too difficult to respond, people’s laziness will take over and you’ll never hear from them.
3. Communicate with them MULTIPLE times. Yes, I know it’s expensive to send out direct mail or flyers or however else you contact your prospects, but when you contact them more than once you’ll see your response rates double.That’s right, DOUBLE.

   People are natural procrastinators so even though they fully intend to take you up on your offer life gets in the way.  As a result, you need to touch them a couple times to remind them and motivate them to take action.

Remember, your business isn’t going to grow itself. Especially in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace so you’ve got to ALWAYS be in marketing mode and looking for ways to get new clients, sell to your existing clients more frequently, and increase the transaction size of each sale.

Focus on those three things this fall and watch your business continue to grow!

So, did you get your taxes filed in time?  Hopefully your experience wasn’t like mine where I was scrambling around on Tuesday trying to pull together all the necessary information in order to get things wrapped up.  Fortunately, I did get it all done though and was able to rest easy yesterday.  Well, at least as far as knowing my taxes where done!

Okay, since I’m sure you’re out running around getting things kicked off for a killer growing season, I want to offer just one piece of advice that will DRAMATICALLY bump up the response rates for any piece of marketing you produce.

You see, in every single piece of marketing you put out, and I do mean EVERY SINGLE PIECE, you should include some type of offer.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a simple flyer, a sales letter, a postcard, a billboard, a radio spot, or a sign on the side of your truck.  Heck, even your business card should include some type of an offer.

What the heck do I mean by that?

Well, in most of the marketing materials I review the only thing being accomplished is to get a name out there.  This is also known as ‘branding’.

In most cases, the business owner has simply listed the company name, contact information, and in some cases the available services.  That’s it.

Now I already know what you’re thinking.  You’re thinking, “sure, but that’s what everyone else does, right?”

Yes, that’s true, but are you really content being average like everyone else?  Or would you rather build a business that absolutely dominates and obliterates any and all competition?

That’s what I thought.

And to make that happen, it’s absolutely CRITICAL that you include some type of offer in every single marketing piece you send out.  In other words you’ve got to give your prospects and customers a reason to contact you, either through your website or by picking up the phone.

Here are just a few ideas for offers that these businesses could have included, which I believe will dramatically improve their results:

•    Get your 1st service visit FREE!
•    Get 10% off when you call us by Friday.
•    Call now and we’ll give you a FREE flower bed cleanup and mulch.
•    Claim your FREE consumer guide, ‘5 Secrets To a Beautiful, Lush, Weed-Free Lawn’, just for calling.
•    Refer 2 friends and everyone receives 15% off their next invoice.

Again, these are just examples of offers you could make.  The key is to simply MAKE THEM.  If you’re not including some type of offer, you’re honestly just wasting money.

So, before you send anything out or sign off on any marketing contracts, give your pieces one more check to make sure you’ve included some type of an offer.  If you do, I guarantee you’ll see your marketing dollars generate a much higher ROI.

I hate to break it to you, but unless you have an unlimited budget the target market for your lawn care or landscaping services is NOT everyone living within your geographic area!  And believe it or not, it’s not everyone with property, grass, and the need to have it cut, maintained, or beautified!

You see, the very FIRST step to maximizing your marketing efforts (and in turn your ability to grow your business) is deciding who is and who is NOT your target market.  Unfortunately, most business owners make the mistake of thinking that everyone is their target prospect.  As a result, they end up wasting way more marketing dollars then they should by throwing them at totally unqualified and improperly targeted prospects.

To help clarify what I mean by this let’s walk through a quick example of how you should go about selecting your target market.

First, identify the characteristics of your ideal client.  What do they ‘look’ like? For residential clients, where do they live?  Do they have kids?  What are their hobbies?  Do they belong to certain groups or organizations?  What kind of magazines do they subscribe to?

For commercial clients, what type of property is it?  Is it a large corporation or a smaller mom and pop type organization?  What they industry is it in?

If you have trouble figuring out what best describes your ‘ideal client’, you might consider starting with your existing client roster.  In many cases, you’re already servicing your ‘ideal client’ and didn’t even realize it, so take some time to figure out what your clients have in common.  Also, do you enjoy working with them and if so, why?  What makes them special?

Once you’ve identified what makes up your ‘ideal client’, verify that you can acquire or find a group of these prospects cheaply and easily.  If it turns out there’s no way you target a large enough group of these prospects then you probably need to rethink your target market.

Places you could find a large number of these target prospects include list companies, groups or organizations, neighborhood associations, or possibly even similar but non-competitive businesses.  Acquiring a list of these prospects or at the very least knowing how you can target them is a critical step in effectively marketing your business.

Once you know how and where to contact this group of target prospects, then next step is to put together a coordinated series of marketing campaigns that systematically reaches out to them to deliver your sales message and compelling offer.

If you’re unable to target your market effectively, you’ll find that your sales messsage and offer don’t produce the returns you would expect.   Also, when you’re able to target your market it’s MUCH easier to create a sales message that connects with your prospects and the offers you present will have a much greater effect.

So, if you find yourself struggling to effectively market your business, it may be a sign that you need to go back to square one and first figure out who you’re targeting as potential clients!

While it would be patently dishonest for me to completely dismiss what’s going on around us right now, I also wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t talk about the multitude of opportunities that are waiting for those smart, savvy business owners willing to take focused, strategic action right now in order to grow their business.

You see, while most of your competition is most likely paralyzed by what’s going on around them, with  a little bit of clarity and an action plan, you stand to solidify your position as the ‘best of the best’ in your marketplace so that when things do begin the upward swing you’ll have established yourself as the clear market leader.

I know I’ve talked about some of these marketing principles quite a bit lately, but it’s because they’re so important.  Now more than ever.

Let’s start from the very beginning.  The MOST IMPORTANT thing you could be doing right now to keep your business profitable and growing is marketing.  Yes, I’m telling you that you need to invest some money in marketing.

As I’ve said numerous times before, customers are truly the lifeline of any business and without a steady stream of new prospects, your business will shrivel up and die.  As such, it’s absolutely CRITICAL that you find ways to get your marketing message out there that allows you to:

• Reach as many targeted prospects as quickly and easily as possible
• Acquire new prospects and customers profitably, at the very least, at break even

Fortunately, there are numerous ways you can accomplish both of these objectives.  Here’s a list of 5 simple steps you can take RIGHT NOW to reach targeted prospects quickly and acquire new customers profitably:

1. Target neighborhoods you’re already working in and get your name in front of them early and often. This could be through the signs on your trucks, going door to door introducing yourself and presenting a killer offer, or even distributing flyers or door hangers.  If your budget permits, you could even mix in some direct mail.  In any case, focus your resources on a handful of SELECT neighborhoods that have the potential to really help your business grow.
2. Maximize your signage by including some type of offer on them. Most companies simply put their company name, logo, phone number, website, and the services they offer.  Sure, these things are important, but it doesn’t give potential prospects any reason to call RIGHT NOW.
   So instead of boring them to death with a menu of your services, make them an offer like “First Visit FREE With 6 Month Commitment” or “Receive $54.78 Worth of Services Absolutely FREE.  Call (704) 555-6666 to Learn More.”  Now instead of listing your services and hoping they call, you’ve given them a VERY SPECIFIC reason to take action right now.
3. Seek out other businesses that already service your ideal customer and create joint marketing campaigns. These could take the form of an endorsed mailing, which basically means they send a mailing to their customer list making them some type of killer offer for YOUR services.  It could also be a joint promotion where you both mail to your customer lists and again, make some type of killer offer.
4. Help your existing customers become ‘Referral Champions’. These are definitely your valuable asset and if you can figure out how to turn them into your unpaid sales force, your business will be humming along in no time.Unfortunately it’s easier said than done.  Creating a referral program takes some thought, effort, and creativity, but once you get it figured out you’ll be on the fast track to market domination in no time.
   Some things to keep in mind when creating your referral program include:

• Let your customers know right up front that you expect them to provide referrals
• Create systems specifically designed for helping stimulate referrals
• Make it easy for your customers to refer you by providing materials and incentives
• Be ‘referable’. In other words, your service MUST be good enough that people want to refer you to others.

5. Jump online and start grabbing the qualified prospects looking for your business RIGHT NOW. Listen, in case you haven’t noticed the Internet is becoming the way we research and communicate.  As a result, thousands of qualified prospects are searching online each and every day for someone to help solve their lawn care or landscaping problems.  If you’re not there when they start looking, you’re missing out on a HUGE opportunity to grow your business on the cheap.

While there’s quite a bit you could learn about marketing your business online, the most important thing to keep in mind is that if you’re not at least online, there’s no way you can be found.  At the very least, get your business listed on Google and Yahoo! Local Search.  They’re easy to set up, don’t cost a thing, and at the very least they allow people to find you online.

Now, I hope these suggestions prove helpful for you. I could go on and on about recommendations I have to help you really grow your business during these crazy times, but these 5 are a good start.

If you’d like to know more, leave a comment below and let me know what specific questions you have. I’ll gather up all the responses I get and send out my replies in a special email early next week.

In the meantime, stay focused on making your business as lean, mean, and efficient as possible and you’ll enjoy a profitable 2009 in spite of what everyone else thinks should happen!