Today I want to share something with you that will help you crank up the effectiveness of your marketing efforts AT LEAST 10x’s.

You see, the key to creating killer marketing materials and campaigns is to sell what your clients and prospects really want.  And believe it or not, it’s probably NOT what you think it is.

What every single one of your prospects and customers wants is the RESULTS you provide.  Unfortunately, 99.9% of all marketing or advertising I see sells the procedures.

For example, I see a TON of marketing that says:

• Weekly service visits
• Full service lawn care service
• Landscape design and installations
• Get 10% off our special service package

Now, I don’t want you thinking you shouldn’t say these things because you should.  You just shouldn’t say them by themselves.  When said by themselves without any other qualifying information, what you’re selling is the PROCEDURE and not the RESULT.

You see, people don’t give a flip about HOW you’re going to give them a beautiful, thick, weed-free lawn.  They just know that’s what they want and that’s what they’re going to pay for.

So, as you prepare to do your fall marketing, take some time to review the materials you’ll be sending out and ask yourself if you’re selling the RESULTS or the PROCEDURES.

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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.

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One of my favorite things to do when I’m not actually working is to THINK about new ideas, projects I’m currently working on, or things I’ve read recently that might be able to help me in my business. I hope you do the same.

You see, your brain is a VERY powerful tool and for most of us, myself included, it’s really an under-used asset. We spend way too much time filling it with junk like most of what’s on TV, news programs that are all hype and propaganda, or mindless surfing on the internet. 

When we put our brain to work for us, its ability to quickly come up with creative solutions to our problems or challenges is really quite amazing. 

That’s why when I’m away from work and not engaged in a conversation with someone else (although my wife might say I even do it then!), I’m thinking about solutions to the current challenges and issues I’ve got going on.

Now, in order for the brain to be able to come up with these solutions, it’s important that we feed it good information so when the time comes, it has the resources to call on. 

For example, when it comes to marketing your lawn care or landscaping business, if you’re struggling to get more new customers and all the things you’ve done previously haven’t worked, your brain won’t be able to help you come up with a solution to the problem if you’ve never studied up on anything related to marketing.

Or, if you’re having trouble finding good employees, studying even just a little about human nature, what motivates people, what the labor pool is like in your area, or how to train people, will do wonders for helping you come up with a solution.

It even applies to our personal lives as well. If you want to be a better father, mother, brother, son, etc., I can promise you that your brain won’t be able to come up with any solutions if all you ever fed it is episodes of ‘The Simpson’s’ or ‘The Family Guy’. Even though they can be good entertainment, they do nothing to help you grow personally or professionally.

So, my challenge for this Friday is to find a way to add at least 15 minutes of personal study to your day. And it doesn’t even have to do with lawn care or landscaping. You’ve already demonstrated a willingness to grow and improve your business by opting into this list, but don’t stop here.

I’ll readily admit that I don’t know it all. There are TONS of great, innovative thinkers out there that you can learn from. Get their information too. Study it. THINK about it. Then apply it to your life or business.

Your local library is FULL of books and resources that can help you in almost EVERY aspect of your life. Take advantage of them.

Just like your body, when you feed your brain high quality ‘food’, it gets faster, stronger, and more powerful. Why let that go to waste?

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So, now that football’s back on TV, kids are heading back to school, and the days are getting shorter, that can only mean that summer’s winding down.  That means it’s time to start thinking about your fall marketing.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that in the green industry the two big marketing seasons are spring and fall.  Although if you’ve been on this list for any period of time I hope you know by now that marketing is a year round activity.

Even though most of your competitors are only marketing twice a year, if you start looking at it like a constant, never-ending responsibility, when it comes time to promote your fall services, you’ll mop the floor with your competition.

Why?  Because you’ve invested the time and resources necessary to build a relationship with your target market.  When you communicate with them consistently they begin to know you, recognize your trucks, and understand the benefits you bring to the table.

On the other hand, if you only market twice a year, they’ve had 6-8 months to forget about you so you’re basically starting from scratch.

So, as you gear up to do your fall marketing, why not get started a little early?  You’ve still got time right now to start building that relationship so when you’re ready to offer your fall service specials, your prospects already know who you are.

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That’s why it’s critically important to do 2 things that will make this task easier.

1. Make sure you know who your targets are and only go to those ‘fishing holes’ where they’ll be hanging out.  If you’re like 99.9% of all businesses and try to be ‘all things to all people’, you’ll end up wasting a lot of time, effort, and resources.  Sure, you’ll stumble across a customer every once in a while, but only after sifting through a whole lot of suspects that aren’t good targets.
2. Use the right bait.  Any one that’s been fishing knows the importance of using the right bait.  Otherwise you end up wasting a lot of time with not much to show for the effort.

Any time I begin working with a new client, these are 2 of the first things we work on, making sure they know who their ideal target are, then ensuring we have the right bait in place.

So what’s the right bait?  It could be a combination of services, offers, and information tools.  The right combination of these, strategically used can be a magical marketing system that grows your lawn care or landscaping business like crabgrass on steroids!

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A great example of this is the fast food industry.  They’re the kings of the combo meal, which more than anything is a package of the products they offer.  Basically, they’ve made it easy for their customers to buy their products.

What can you do to make it easy for your customers to purchase your products and/or services?  Do you have lawn care or landscaping services you can package together, making it easier for your customers to purchase your services?

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