A marketing plan that works for you

With winter fast approaching and another year almost in the books, it’s a good time to look back and think about the year ahead. Here are some marketing ideas that can help you make it your company’s best year ever.

First and foremost, there are two questions you should have clear answers for before you begin to market your products or services. No. 1: Who are your current and prospective clients? And No. 2: What do you want your clients to say about your company to others?

Where do your current clients live, eat, relax, travel, socialize? What do they have in common? Are they concentrated in one particular neighborhood, income bracket, age group? The more you know about them, the more effectively you can market to them – and the more effectively you might tap into another market entirely. Once you know your typical clients, consider executing one or two or even all five of these simple but remarkably effective strategies:

Door hangers. It doesn’t get much simpler than this. If the house looks like one you’d like to work at, place a hanger on the door. If it doesn’t, move on and find one that does.

Co-marketing. If you have 10 commercial clients who use the same janitorial service, that janitorial service more than likely has other clients who would be interested in becoming one of yours. Ask the service if you can co-market with them – they give you their mailing list and you give them yours.

Newsletters. If you have five clients on one street, don’t just mail your newsletter to them but mail it to the whole street. You’ll build brand recognition and spark new interest. And no one can sell your work to prospective clients as well as the recommendation of a trusted neighbor.

Cold calling. Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about that old trusty standby that many established companies tend to forget about. Many start out cold calling but as their business grows and their phones ring more and more, they cease to actively seek new clients and instead sit back and wait for new clients to come to them. This is a mistake. Get out of the office and knock on some doors.

Sponsor a local event. If you’re in the business of installing putting greens, for example, sponsor a golf outing. And don’t just make a donation; maximize your investment by getting involved. Make your gift contingent upon your getting the opportunity to address the group and having your company’s name highlighted in some way. And the event need not relate directly to your area of business either. You might give to a local charitable cause – a school festival, say, or a 5K created to raise funds for cancer research – and build your company’s community profile that way. Not only does doing so get your company’s name out there, it gets your company’s name associated with a good cause and prospective clients will be more likely to support you in turn.

Now for the second question: What do you want your current clients to say about you? Being able to articulate this will clarify what message your company should be marketing on a daily basis to make your business grow. I encourage you to talk with as many of your clients as you can and find out why they like doing business with you. Their reasons should help you to determine what message you need to convey through your marketing. And don’t just assume you already know; there can be a big difference between what you value in yourself and what others value in you.

Once you have this messaging framework, you need to articulate a plan. But let’s keep it simple; we’re landscapers, not the government. Your plan could be as simple as 12 sheets of paper, one for each month. On each sheet, you write what marketing strategies you are going to execute that month, along with the goal of these strategies, how much you are going to spend, who is responsible for what, the deadline, and, finally, how you will know if you have succeeded.

As you work on your plan, remember to watch your money. I have a number of clients who now spend much less on yellow page ads and much more on door hangers, thank-you notes, newsletters, jobsite signs and postcards. Their results attest to the effectiveness of these strategies. Within the next month, get a marketing plan and take it with you to one of the many landscape and nursery shows across the country. Ask others to look at it and see what they think; chances are you’ll get some ideas you haven’t even thought of. Good luck and merry marketing.