I'm switching gears a bit in my lawn care business. Generally, I keep mowing to Monday-Thursday and keep Friday open for rain day make ups and fertilizing. The fertilizing jobs can also include aeration, soil testing, overseeding, lime application, lawn insect control and a few organic options. I'd like to eventually get enough fertilizing jobs to completely phase out the mowing.

There are hundreds of mowing crews in the area but only 5 or 6 that offer fertilization, including the big shot national companies.

I've noticed that 90% of my new customers in mowing come from Google searches but most of my fertilizing customers are word of mouth referrals. I got one customer in 10 years from handing out business cards (good customer but not a great ROI). Flyers are a complete bust. But that's the entire extent of my market research.

Has anyone run a successful local marketing campaign? Should I hire a marketing expert? I don't even know where to look. Any advice?

I see incredible power in social media with this domain. Facebook of course, by a mile. It is the absolute winner in messaging and building loyalty and good impressions. But you've got to maintain it and keep it active, engaging and informative.

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Originally posted by r0gue:
I see incredible power in social media with this domain. Facebook of course, by a mile. It is the absolute winner in messaging and building loyalty and good impressions. But you've got to maintain it and keep it active, engaging and informative.

The only thing I seem to get on Facebook is requests for job applications. But I could be a lot more active on it. I'll work on that. Thanks.

Like my page on Facebook!

I had a mobile detailing guy come to the house to work on one of my cars. When he arrived he put a yard sign on my lawn and left it there while he was working. While he was there, he booked two other details from people passing by who saw the sign. I thought it was brilliant.

Sell the sizzle. A blog with images of rich green lawns. Images appropriately named before uploading. "Lawn care 19010" and "lawn care Anytown PA".

If I was looking for a local company, I'd put in "lawn care + zip code". And images of richly growing grass, well tended, would get my attention.

Update your blog weekly to get the google-bots and others to bring you higher in their search rankings. Search Engine Optimization ...

It'll take about six months, but a couple hours a week will bump you higher on google searches.

Lay in a load of fresh images and keep at it over the winter.

I reduce most of my images to 800x600 but like larger images for cropping, etc. You want your stuff to open fast. And when setting an image, try to remember to have it "open in a new window". You do not want to steer people away from your blog by having the image replace your blog page.

This way, when they close the image, your blog is still behind it.

I call it a blog, but it is actually your new website.

Companies will beat down your door trying to sell you their tools to increase SEO. The best tool is fresh original regularly-updated content.

Sell the sizzle. Mmmmmmmmmm, freshly cut grass, barbecue, throwing a baseball with your kid.

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Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
I had a mobile detailing guy come to the house to work on one of my cars. When he arrived he put a yard sign on my lawn and left it there while he was working. While he was there, he booked two other details from people passing by who saw the sign. I thought it was brilliant.

I did recently get a call from one of my "Keep off until dry" signs. Maybe they're a bit smaller than they should be.

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Originally posted by Woodman:
Sell the sizzle. A blog with images of rich green lawns. Images appropriately named before uploading. "Lawn care 19010" and "lawn care Anytown PA".

If I was looking for a local company, I'd put in "lawn care + zip code". And images of richly growing grass, well tended, would get my attention.

Update your blog weekly to get the google-bots and others to bring you higher in their search rankings. Search Engine Optimization ...

It'll take about six months, but a couple hours a week will bump you higher on google searches.

Lay in a load of fresh images and keep at it over the winter.

I reduce most of my images to 800x600 but like larger images for cropping, etc. You want your stuff to open fast. And when setting an image, try to remember to have it "open in a new window". You do not want to steer people away from your blog by having the image replace your blog page.

This way, when they close the image, your blog is still behind it.

I call it a blog, but it is actually your new website.

Companies will beat down your door trying to sell you their tools to increase SEO. The best tool is fresh original regularly-updated content.

Sell the sizzle. Mmmmmmmmmm, freshly cut grass, barbecue, throwing a baseball with your kid.

That's another thing I've got to get going on. My site comes up first on organic search (unpaid, which seem to carry more weight than paid advertisements) or it did, now a couple of rating sites come up first but no local business is before mine. My content is stale. I'm usually out of time at the end of the day or at least unmotivated. I should have been taking pictures before this hot & dry spell hit.

The more money you spend on advertising the more you will HAVE to make whether it is effective or not.
You're selling a quality service, not the cheapest prices, blah, blah... Reasonable pricing and a quality of service that is clearly evident will work for you.
You may only need to print something like "All referrals appreciated" or "We value any referral" on the bottom of your receipts. Also list the other services you offer. If someone mentions a need for one, your client will know what you can do and direct them to you.
Ask everyone, "How did you hear about us?"
If you pick up a new customer from a referral, a note of appreciation, a free service or a gift card to the customer who gave you a referral works wonders without any begging or discussion of payment.
A line ad so people can find you if they lose your card is fine, but we never got much of anything off of signs or yellow page ads.
A referral will already be sold on you by someone the prospect trusts. YMMV

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word of mouth referrals

How do you increase the "word of mouth referrals"?

Offer customers a discount if they get a friend to use your service via a referral. Offer the new customer a discount to try your service.

If you can finance the referrals with labor there's no out of pocket. Sort of.

Spend time studying your competition and thinking about what you can offer that they do not. Providing good service and being reliable is the best bet. I have a friend in your business. He used to be a stockbroker, and was successful, but hated it. He established a landscape business and targeted the same customers he had as a broker. He had good social skills, combined with connections.
He got to have all the big boy toys he had previously wanted, and deducted them as an expense.

Social media by a mile. It's amazing how much traffic we generate from it.

Use great pictures. Use timed/delayed posts. Answer PM's immediately.

Know your customer:

Private - it's the more affluent homeowner who doesn't want to do the work themselves.
Commercial - it's large management companies who job out to third parties. Once in a while, it's the actual owner (for office buildings, and for apartment complexes).
It's "pride of ownership" customers, or those looking to stand out to capture tenants.

I'm speaking from the end-user/owner side. Office, retail, residential apartments - all handled by related or third party management (building manager, or regional manager).These are the decision makers, your targets.
It seems clear you are providing work that is already punching above the other local providers. Signs, PR, are all great ideas.

Once you understand who you are targeting, you can use a lot of the advice others are rightly offering.

Sounds like you need to be upselling to your mowing clients. Doesn't have to be pushy, but you are their lawn guy, you should be recommending periodic fertilizing services.

See if any of the local newspapers have a gardening page. If so, maybe offer to write a free article or two. That'll give you a by-line and that could lead to some good, free publicity.

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Originally posted by Appliance Brad:
Social media by a mile. It's amazing how much traffic we generate from it.

Use great pictures. Use timed/delayed posts. Answer PM's immediately.

I'll give it a go. Thanks.

Social media and ask current customers to review you on google. In my business I have 45 5 star reviews my next competitor has 1. We are getting 2000-5000 a month in gross revenue from this alone. That's going to net us around 20,000-30,000 a year.
I was shocked when the calls started coming in but it really works.

Granted this was a long time ago.

I was surprised at how much residential work we got from commercial customers. Employees who wanted "my lawn to look like this". As well as passers by.

Facebook friend every single person you encounter every damned one of them. Then once a week or so have a problem of the week. A weed that's blooming, snowmold, redthread, a watering tip, a "Pro Tip", Now's the time to overseed do you have the time? Then be sure to offer yourself as the solution.

Start making the change to a landscape service not a mowing service. Keep a spreader, loppers, shovels everything but a mower highly visible. Don't quit your day job though.

I mowed 8 residences a week. The other 4 days I kept busy trimming trees spraying weird shit, rolling seeding renovating etc. Only 5 weeks a season fertilizing. I dreaded the fertilizer thing, tons of bags that only made the mowing gig worse.

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Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
I had a mobile detailing guy come to the house to work on one of my cars. When he arrived he put a yard sign on my lawn and left it there while he was working. While he was there, he booked two other details from people passing by who saw the sign. I thought it was brilliant.

This really is a good idea and inexpensive.

Make your fertilizer business a different name (and business) than your mowing business. Talk to ALL of the mowing companies that don't fertilize and work a deal out with them that you'll give them a referral fee for each yard they send you and they'll give you a referral fee on each yard you send them (for mowing), when you get enough fertilizing jobs from everyone else......sell them your mowing jobs....or sell the mowing business as it's own entity.

My mowing guy who I'm personal friends with for 15 years, doesn't do fertilizing, he referred a company that does. I had a previous fertilizing company that ruined my lawn. The guy did such a great job that I referred him to 3 of my neighbors.....so I picked up 3 accounts from 1 customer.

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Originally posted by braillediver:

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word of mouth referrals

How do you increase the "word of mouth referrals"?

Offer customers a discount if they get a friend to use your service via a referral. Offer the new customer a discount to try your service.

If you can finance the referrals with labor there's no out of pocket. Sort of.

mark123

this has been very successful for the fertilizer company I use. they are a locally owned and operated small business. been around for many years and have a 5 star rating online (on their own site. they don't have but 4 or 5 reviews on yelp or google). seems as though the wont the referral local user reviews to project their business. I don't know if they control the reviews but I can say there is not one neighbor that wont refer them. everyone has nothing but good to say. the company also wins yearly with the best service company award in the county. they are all about customer service and referrals. my neighbor was using them before me. so he got my referral for the first year. then I have referred three other neighbors over the past few years who all signed up. it used to be a 15% off monthly billing for a year. now every referral they give you $5 per month off your monthly billing for a year (which is a better deal for the customer). and they don't limit it. if I had the referrals my monthly could be $0. I would say most of their customers in the neighborhood have been another neighbors referral. they also leave the small "don't enter yard has been treated no kids no dogs" signage. word of mouth is the best advertising. good luck with your future increase in business.