<font color=blue>INDUSTRY BUZZ</font> Consistency is Key

When it comes to building your business, there’s no better way to get your name into the marketplace than consistent, targeted and effective marketing. Be it through traditional mediums, unique efforts or just the convenience that comes with having an easy means of contact, getting your name out there plays an integral role in your business’ success.

The first step to successful self-promotion in an overcrowded marketplace lies in ensuring your brand and means of communication with your consumers are convenient and effective. Initiatives like promoting a toll-free vanity 800 number and a customer-focused Web site are great ways to focus on the consumer and support your brand. For Lawn Doctor, consumer convenience is truly what differentiates us from our competition. Initiatives like 800/4-LAWN DR and LAWNDOCTOR.COM are two such ways we get our brand message in front of the consumer, using effective marketing vehicles to cultivate leads and grow our franchisees’ businesses.

Of course, it’s not enough to simply make these experience-enhancing initiatives available. We need to promote our vanity number and Web address on every piece of advertising and public relations we release, so consumers directly associate them with Lawn Doctor’s brand.

An unfortunate misconception among many lawn care operators is that marketing their businesses in highly seasonal markets is only a seasonal endeavor. In fact, this is not the case. Rather, consistently marketing your business across a broad spectrum of mediums and times of year is the key to staying top of mind with your valuable consumers, regardless of the season. Now, that’s not to say you should be running thousands of dollars worth of radio advertising in the dead of winter or spending exorbitant dollars on campaigns in the peak of the summer heat. But you should be present in the marketplace, even during those times when your closing rates are low or virtually nonexistent.

Public relations is an effective, low-cost way to keep your brand out there during the off-season. Maybe it’s an inexpensive marketing initiative or even just talking with consumers at the supermarket or shopping mall. Promoting your business should be a 365 day part of your business life, so don’t pass up opportunities to increase your sales in the busy season by going into hibernation in the slow season.

Understanding that low-cost initiatives are perfect for the winter and summer months in noticeably seasonal markets, what makes sense for the heavy selling season? Although each market and each individual consumer is very different from the next, there are countless traditional and unique initiatives to implement in your market when it’s time to close some serious sales. One of the most important steps toward determining what’s right for your market lies in research and campaign tracking. Before you decide what you should be dropping in the marketplace, there are a few key questions you should ask yourself first:

1. What have I done in the past that’s worked well for my business?
2. What hasn’t worked so well in the past?
3. What are my competitors doing?

Once you’ve taken a look at these questions and provided answers you feel are sufficient, it’s time to develop an effective marketing plan for the season and put it into action. Similar to investing in the stock market, when you’re developing your marketing plan, you must be sure to diversify, so you’re able to expose your brand and services to a wide array of consumers within your demographic in different ways. Naturally, when it comes to lawn and landscape services, that doesn’t mean you’ll want to place an ad in a publication largely read by teenagers. Teens, though a viable market for some industries, simply aren’t going to purchase our services.

So, diversification should be evaluated in terms of the mediums you use, in addition to the audience you want to attract. For example, if the average homeowner in a given age group is in your general demographic, a direct mail campaign sent to a targeted list of homeowners who meet these demographic criteria — among other criteria — may work for your business. But that’s not the only way you can reach this group. If these homeowners also watch the 11 o’clock news, running a television ad during that programming may also be a good way to get in front of your potential customers.

There are countless ways to market your business to your consumers, but gleaning additional value from the advertising dollars you spend comes from careful, thorough evaluation and research. That is, for every dollar you spend on advertising, you should be in a position to track that dollar and see how many — or how few — dollars it returns. In so doing, you’ll be in a better position the following season to figure out whether or not you should continue to invest the same level of funds in the same mediums or if you should scrap some initiatives altogether. Whether you’re marketing in the spring, summer or fall, knowledge of what works in your area, and when it works, is the key to cultivating success with consistent marketing.

Scott D. Frith, CFE, is the vice president of marketing and franchise development for Lawn Doctor, Inc., the world’s largest lawn care franchise. He has been involved in the green industry for over a decade and serves on the board of directors for Project EverGreen. Frith also sits on the International Franchise Association’s Marketing and Public Relations Committee.