Starting a lawn care business is pointless if you have all the tools, equipment, and knowledge needed to operate, but then you lack customers. Customer is the lifeblood of any business. You may have the most innovative product, the best customer care, and the most strategic operation, but if you do not have a consistent source of customers, sooner or later you will find yourself out of business. Most of the well- known products in the market aren’t the best, but they have the best marketing strategies that take them to the pinnacle of success and popularity.
When you are just starting a lawn care business, you aim to most likely grow your business as soon as possible to get the capital you’ve invested in the business. But to expand and grow a lawn care business, you should first gain new customers consistently. But if you care about growing your business so fast that your client-base demands exceeded the core capabilities of your business, it could be detrimental to your business. You must be prepared with the right resources and procedures before acquiring a large number of the client base.
Ways To Get Lawn Care Customers Fast
1. Call your family, friends and personal network
As the common saying goes, “your network is your net worth.” The quality and quantity of the people you know determine a big factor in your success in any business. This is true if you reach out to them and let them know what you are offering. Who knows that they might need your services or someone that they know can benefit from your business.
This is a no-fail strategy since you are tapping those people that know and trust you. This is an essential step for any new small business owner who wants to start marketing their products and services.
2. Advertise through paid media
Just because you’re a start-up, it doesn’t mean that you cannot follow the trail of the big companies or corporations that hire marketing agencies to promote their products and services. You simply need a good strategy to use paid media for your lawn care business. Market segmentation and targeting are two of the most effective ways to use paid media services. You don’t want to spend all your marketing budget targeting the audience and market that have no or little interest in what you’re offering. That’s why the most important step in a paid media campaign is research. Understand how it works, how it impacts different groups of people, and how to properly do it may do wonders for the visibility of your business.
3. Try door to door campaign
Although this sounds too traditional nowadays, door to door marketing is still a way to go if you do not have much for the marketing budget. This is not only cost-effective but also a great way to freely advertise your business by personally interacting with your potential customers. Doing a door to door marketing campaign comes with a couple of options:
- Use door hanger
- Hand out flyers and talk to prospects
Both can be beneficial in building brand awareness for your business, but it is also important to weigh the pros and cons of each.
If you employ door hangers in your marketing campaign, it could be a lot easier and least time consuming because you don’t have to spend time talking to a potential customer. Getting customers using this method will heavily rely on how well-written your marketing content.
Copywriting is the top skill that is needed to convert customers using a written brochure or flyer. The glossiness and the overall look of the material cannot outweigh the words written on the material that significantly appeal to the emotional needs of the reader.
4. Ask for referrals
Asking for a referral from your existing clients and contacts can help you increase your client base. Since they already experienced the quality of service that you provide, and they already tend to trust you, asking them for referrals is a good strategy to expand your client source.
Their word of mouth referral can serve as a testimonial to what you’re offering. If they experienced a good service from you, referrals will come easily and effortlessly.
5. Look for brand ambassadors
In some cases, extraordinary service is not a sufficient incentive for some people to refer or talk about your product. After all, it takes effort and resources to share content and experiences, whether in social media or person. That’s why you should run an incentive for them to become brand ambassadors. In this way, they will be motivated to share their experiences and testimonials with others as they eye for an incentive, prize, or discount.
Here are some tips on how to create an affiliate program for your brand ambassadors:
- Share points to customers who can refer to paying customers. It could be in terms of cash or points that they can redeem later.
- Award the referred customers too so that they will be incentivized to avail of your services. It can be in the form of discounts, vouchers, or redeemable points.
- Craft a marketing campaign that is easy to share
Study shows that about 95 percent of Americans read an online review before they make a buying decision. Since online reviews about a particular service or product are found online, you will need more positive reviews from your existing customers. Because of this, you may craft a feedback box where they can freely leave their comments and share their experience.
Join Facebook groups
Online presence is vital for any start-up business, and since social media is a place where most people connect, you can join some related Facebook groups to connect and discuss the details of your business. Some of these people have questions about a specific subject, and your knowledge and expertise might help them with their confusion. Not only you will develop friendships and connections with people of the same interest, but also, it will give your business a certain level of leverage in the market.
You may choose to appear as an expert or educator in some of the Facebook groups, answering queries of different people, or you can directly advertise your business with them. Both ways can help your business gain online presence since most of the people in your neighborhood and local areas are on social media.
Starting your lawn business can be overwhelming. If you used to offer the same expertise as an employee, you may possess the right set of skills, except for the marketing part. It is important to learn how to market your products and services to gain success in any business endeavor that you choose.
