As you work to grow your lawn care business or landscaping business, one of the most dangerous blunders you could ever make is relying on one single method of marketing your business.  No matter how well you’ve got your systems down, when you rely on one single method of marketing and growing your business you’re setting yourself up for disaster.

You see, when you rely on just one method, what happens to your business if something were to happen to that method?  Where would your business be without it’s steady flow of new leads and prospects?

So what does this mean for your business?  It basically means you need to diversify your marketing so you’re getting new prospects and customers from a variety of different sources.

A good list of marketing metods and resources includes:

• Direct mail (sales letters, postcards, etc.)
• Flyers or doorhangers
• Signs (truck signs, yard signs, etc.)
• Existing customers (word of mouth referrals)
• Yellow pages
• Newspaper ads
• Magazine ads
• Ads in community newsletters
• Tele-marketing
• Online marketing which could include:
  •  Organic searches
  • Paid searches (Google AdWords)
  • Email marketing
  • Ezine advertising
  • Banner Ads
  • Text link ads

In these troubled economic times, you definitely want to be have as many lines in the water as possible to ensure you’re able to add enough prospects to your sales funnel.  That way, if any one method were to become ineffective you’d be able to continue growing your business.

I wanted to share with you today about quite possibly the biggest opportunity you have to really set yourself apart from your competition and snag an unfair share of your marketplace.

You see, way too many businesses assume that their prospects make decisions based on minimal information AND that they’re not at all interested in reading. They assume that if someone is interested in taking the next step, whatever that may be, that they will take the next logical step without much coaxing, prodding, or convincing.

Unfortunately, not even close.

While providing your prospects with a minimal amount of information might work if you were selling ultra low ticket items like diet sodas, tasteless hamburgers, or t-shirts, because you’re selling something that more expensive and ‘riskier’ so to speak, it requires providing your prospects AS MUCH information as possible to help them make the best decision possible..

You see, your customer’s have all sorts of questions that should be answered up front in your marketing, in one-way or another.

Questions like:

How do I know your product or service will do what you say it does?

Why should I believe what you’re telling me?

How long will it take for me to start seeing the results of your service?

How can I be sure you’ll come through if things don’t work out as promised?

Why shouldn’t I just go with the cheaper option?  If your price seems low, why is it so low? If it seems high, why is it so high?

Now, I could continue on, but hopefully you get the picture.

Okay, so here’s the quiz.

Do you know the top ten questions that are running through your prospects mind about your products or services?

If so, are you answering those questions in your advertising?  Or are you waiting, hoping, and praying either they will ask, giving you an opportunity to explain, or they won’t ask so you won’t have to come up with an answer?

Basically, if you’re serious about really growing your business and making some big time profits, you MUST educate your prospects upfront about your products and services. There’s absolutely no getting around it.

Now, what exactly does that mean?

It means you’ve got to make a commitment to getting your whole story down on paper. And in that story, you’ve got to address all the concerns racing around the minds of your prospects and customers.

I know it sounds simple, but unfortunately, there’s a catch.

You see, you have to tell you whole story or answer ALL of your prospects questions in a way that holds their attention.  You can’t simply start writing and expect things to fall into place.

You’ve got to either learn how to write benefit driven copy, or you could hire a professional copywriter.  You then decide how you can best communicate that story in a way that is effective & cost efficient. You’ve got to account for all the different ways you can get prospects into your sales funnel and what information, or pieces of the story you need to share at the various points in the process.

For now though, just make a commitment to thinking about your customer’s buying process. What are they thinking about when they have a problem YOU can solve? What’s running through their minds when they need what you’ve got?

If you want to make your marketing truly exceptional and powerful, you’re going to answer those questions. There’s no way around it!

So to summarize, forget your fear of telling your prospects too much with your marketing. Instead, concentrate on communicating all of the facts, in a way that captivates their interest & attention. Once you have that, you qualify for their desire & action!

Without a doubt, most marketing and advertising is hollow. Your competitors included. Don’t get caught in the same trap.  Instead, educate your customers and clarify the reasons why they’d have to be an absolute fool to do business with anyone but you.

Considering how rapidly the landscape is changing, it’s no wonder so many people are dazed and confused when it comes to marketing their lawn care or landscaping business.  It’s easy to get ‘analysis paralysis’ and end up either spinning your wheels or not doing anything at all.

So, to help cut through some of the clutter, I want to hear from you.  What’re your biggest marketing questions?  What’re your biggest obstacles to effectively marketing your business?

Are you trying to get more traffic to your website?  What about what to do with the traffic once it comes to your site?

Are tired of the same old, boring, ‘generic’ postcards, but aren’t sure what else you could send out that would generate positive results?

Whatever your questions, leave them in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer each one of them.  Don’t worry, you don’t have to login to post your comments, but it’ll definitely help me do a better job of following up to make sure your questions were answered.

So, post your comments below about marketing your lawn care or landscaping business.

I hope you had a great weekend.  I have a quick note today that could be very valuable for a few LCO’s that are looking to get a huge bump in traffic and links to their website.   And the best part is, it won’t cost a thing.

First, a little background info.  I belong to an email list by a guy named Peter Shankman.  He’s a big-wig public relations (PR) guy that runs a list called Help A Reporter Out (HARO).  It basically gives reporters an opportunity to send shout outs for sources for their stories.

Peter publishes this list 3 times a day and it’s usually a bunch of story topics that reporters or authors need help with.  The name and contact info of the reporters  are listed along with the topic of the story they’re writing.

Now, you’re probably wondering why I’m telling you this and why I subscribe to an email list like this.  To answer your question, one of the very BEST ways to generate publicity, which is basically FREE advertising, is to get published by the news media.

When you get publicity, there are usually a few benefits such as credibility, attention, and in most cases these days you get links back to your website.  And in case you don’t know, links from high quality news sources provide TONS of traffic to your website as well as credibility with the search engines, which in turn helps your website rank much higher.

Okay, now onto why I’m telling you all this.  Peter published this afternoon’s query list and it has a request for information on landscaping small spaces.  It’s for Total Landscape Care Magazine which is an industry publication devoted to, well, I’m sure you can imagine.

Anyway, if you’d like an opportunity to share your expertise and knowledge, PLUS get mentioned on a high traffic website and possibly get links back to your website, then I strongly encourage you to check this out.

Now, before I post the information, let me give you a few rules.

First, please don’t contact the author unless you’re ready and willing to share your ideas.  This could be a fantastic opportunity, but I don’t want to bombard the author with tons of needless inquiries.

Second, just be willing to share your ideas, experiences, or suggestion.  Again, this is a FANTASTIC opportunity to get some publicity for your business and even though it’s for a magazine of your peers, the media exposure you’ll get, along with the links to your website will definitely make it worth your while!

Okay with all that said, here’s the information for this media opportunity, along with the name and contact information of the author:

Topic: Landscaping small backyard spaces
Name: Olivia Grider
Email: [Contact Me and I’ll pass along the reporter’s contact info]
Title: contributing editor
Media Outlet/Publication: Total Landscape Care magazine
Specific Geographic Region? No
Deadline: 5:00 PM CENTRAL - August 28
Query:
“I’m looking for landscape designers and contractors to tell me about the latest trends in landscaping small backyard spaces. The article is for a national trade magazine (www.totallandscapecare.net) that goes to landscape contractors. I want to give them new ideas and tips for future projects.

Notice the deadline is this Thursday at 5pm CT, so if you’re interested, shoot Ms. Grider and email or give her a call TODAY!

Okay, enough rambling on for today.  I’ll be back again tomorrow with a killer marketing idea I can’t wait to share with you.

As I’ve mentioned quite a few times recently, the face of marketing is rapidly changing.  To be more accurate, the face of SUCCESSFUL marketing is changing.

No longer can a business simply blast out their sales message unsolicited to targets that have no interest or desire to receive it and expect to receive positive results. 

Now, it’s still entirely possible to do so, but the effectiveness of this type of marketing is very quickly going the way of the dodo bird.  Fortunately for you, the vast majority of your competitors are totally clueless about these changes.

Also, the ‘branding’ style marketing used by most of your competitors has always been a crap shoot and given these changes that are taking place, it’s even more of a gamble.  Especially if you want to grow your business effectively in the coming months and years.

Let’s talk about your specific business for just a moment.  If you’re sending out sales letters or postcards without spending a fair amount of time carefully targeting the recipients of these, I bet your response rate is pretty poor.

Or, if your ads look or sound pretty similar to what the competition’s ads look or sound like, I imagine your response rates aren’t very good. 

So what can you do to increase the effectiveness of your marketing IN SPITE of this rapidly changing environment?

The first thing that needs to take place in order to make this happen is a shift in mindset of how you view customers and prospects.  Because consumers have so much control over the marketing ‘conversation’, it’s important to become a ‘welcome guest’ instead of an ‘annoying pest’ like the majority of businesses.

The easiest way to do this is start viewing your prospects and customers like friends.  People you genuinely want to help.

Once you change the way you look at them and start thinking about THEIR problems, not the fact you need their business, selling your services to them becomes much easier because now you’re providing solutions to their problems.

Instead of you message coming across as marketing, it now comes across as answers to their problems. 

Instead of your communications being about helping you get more business, they are about helping your prospects lives easier.

And as a result, you’re no longer seen as someone looking to steal their precise time, but rather someone looking to help them better use the time they have.

Now, as I’ve mentioned several times recently I’m working on a project that I hope will help you understand the changing environment and learn how to use these changes to your advantage.

But to ensure I’m providing you with the information, tools, and resources you need, I first need your help.  You see, I’ve already got a lot of information together that I THINK you’ll need based on the comments and questions I’ve received from others.

However, I want to make sure I’m covering everything that YOU need to create a killer marketing system that will run on auto-pilot and allow you to become this trusted ‘friend’.

So, what I need you to do is click on ‘Comment’ below and let me know what challenges you’re currently facing when it comes to marketing your business. 

What are your biggest frustrations?  What are the biggest obstacles you face?  What are your biggest fears heading into these uncertain times?

Take just minute to share with me your responses and I’ll do my best to make sure they get answered.

If you’ve already sent me your biggest questions, concerns, or comments, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d take another few minutes to do it again. 

Here’s why:

I’m working on a coaching program that’s going to be extremely comprehensive.  It’s going to cover EVERYTHING you’ll need to first, understand this new environment, and second, create a killer marketing system that will help you totally dominate your marketplace.  This program will also include ALL the tools and resources you’ll need to make this happen.

So, to ensure I’m not missing anything, please take just a few minutes to let me know what your biggest marketing challenges, fears, headaches, and concerns are.  I want to make sure I’m covering everything you’ll need to make marketing your business a breeze.

So go ahead and click on ‘Comment’ below and take a few minutes to share your questions, concerns, fears, or headaches with respect to marketing your business. 

Please don’t procrastinate.  Do it now.