Most marketing strategies to generate lawn maintenance leads are a bit saturated due to all the lead generation processes companies in this field. As a result, over 55% of businesses in the niche are failing in growing even by 1%.
Trial and error can lead to wasted time and money and missed opportunities for more lawn care companies, so it isn’t the best option to rely on what works and what doesn’t but rather focus on lead generation strategies that will actually boost your lead scoring.
But where can you get started to ensure your company is going in the right way? Spying on your competitors is always a great choice, but only to know what they are doing, not to follow the exact same strategy since every business is different regardless of them being in the same niche.
With this in mind, we would recommend focusing on digital methods and leaving aside (but not completely) traditional lead generation options that don’t offer the top results as before.
For it, starting with your website, building it properly, and optimizing every aspect will be crucial. Then, focus on other strategies online while integrating the best alternatives of the traditional yet useful methods.
To lend you a hand, you can look at what we’re confident your competitors are doing right below!
You Need a Top Website for Lawn Maintenance
Your website should be the top priority if you want to build your brand online and rely on all the lead generation strategies that come with it. After all, leads will land on your website, nowhere else.
This is why you should remember that your website should serve two main purposes: attract potential clients and convert website visitors into sales-qualified leads to take them to your sales team.
But how can you start with this? To create a top website, you need a design that is both attractive and converts visitors to leads. You will also need to optimize the building and design.
SEO (search engine optimization) is a confusing term that many people don’t understand, but you need basic comprehension when building your site.
If we need to put it simply, it’s as easy as setting up online strategies to improve your lawn care website’s ranking in search engines for hundreds of keywords consumers are searching for.
While traffic is important, it’s equally important to convert at most 1-3% of website visitors into qualified leads. You must make sure they find your site first. SEO solves more than 65% of this problem, and it is why it’s crucial for every company regardless of the niche.
When you work on your SEO, this will increase organic website traffic over time and help you to get more leads for lawn maintenance.
These tips will help you succeed in this endeavor and allow you to boost your website during and after its creation:
- It is crucial to take a lot of time when building a website. Take it slow, and don’t fret about how long it takes. As long as you are doing it right, it will be worth the time you’re investing, be it more or less than you expected.
- If you create long-form, useful content on your blog over time, you can rank for hundreds of search terms.
- Google My Business allows you to create online directories and social media profiles. It is important to ensure consistency in your company name, address, phone number, and website.
- Use high-quality, professionally-created visual and written content. You are a lawn maintenance specialist, after all.
- Every page on your website should be inviting visitors to take action. Visitors should find it easy to research, get a quote, or take action on it, for example.
- You can test and refine your strategy. A great lawn maintenance marketing agency can help identify and fix problems if you have the funds.
Get Leads By Surveying The Area
Although it might sound like an old-fashioned lead generation strategy, canvassing a local area for more high-quality leads may be more effective than other strategies, after all, your ideal customers will be more likely to do business with you and to remember you if they meet you face to face.
Try canvassing after you have completed a local job. You will be able to name-drop your customer and show examples of your work.
To get the best results, you should:
- Even if you don’t get the response you desire, be polite and courteous.
- For each interaction, set a goal: Get their contact information, leave an email address and send them a business card. Whatever it is, just make sure you’re able to accomplish it.
- After obtaining their information, follow up with potential customers to see if you can add them to your emailing list or consider them actual prospects.
Search Engine Marketing & Pay-per-Click (PPC)
A successful PPC or SEM campaign is a landscaping marketing strategy that generates leads and jobs regardless of where you are located, which is why ALL your competitors are performing it, without a doubt.
Google is still the most used search engine for PPC campaigns and SEM, but don’t forget about Bing and how some people, believe it or not, continue to use it. Though, we wouldn’t spend most of our budget on it.
Are you still unsure about whether or not to use PPC or SEM to generate leads for your lawn maintenance business? These stats will help you take the final step:
Businesses make $2 on average for every $1 they spend in Google Ads, which is pretty much 100% ROI + profits. But this is only if you know how to set the campaigns.
Around 42% of clicks on search results pages go to the top 3 paid ads, which means you are bound to get most of the visitors.
Visitors who visit your site via PPC/SEM are half as likely to purchase since they are going with buying/hiring intention.
On Your Website, Pay Attention to Landing Pages
Landing pages are crucial for website lead generation since they are the ones where most prospects will land when looking for your company or services locally. Also, they are worth your time, considering you can save leads all the time of going through your site until they find a CTA to get to the contacting part.
However, you ought to know that landing pages can be used for informational purposes only and many other needs based on your goals. You can find a different purpose by looking at your prospects’ needs.
What should you do with the information they will read, and how should you manage the entire process? It’s simple. Now it’s time to convert readers as the info isn’t a pointless addition to your site.
Visitors should be “pushed” by the information on your landing pages to decide whether or not they want to use your services.
You can achieve this by designing a landing page that converts. You should optimize it for a better user experience and include conversion-focused elements. These are our top tips to help you reach your goal:
- Eliminate anything that does not help you convert web traffic into leads to avoid visitors leaving.
- Please describe the service that you offer and why it is valuable to your clients.
- It is important to clearly describe what happens to visitors after they click on an element.
- Reduce the number of clicks for prospects to get to a certain point. 3 is what most people top for numbers.
A Bit More About PPC
Although we mentioned some statistics and told you why you should rely on this strategy, did we tell you how it works specifically? Sure, these ads will help you increase traffic to your site and generate leads, but how?
Google Ads or PPC (Pay-Per-Click) can be a bad investment if you don’t take the right approach. This strategy works best for lawn maintenance services that have a short sales cycle and a high sense of urgency.
The entire option is to set your campaigns or ads based on keywords you will be using for your SEO as well, and you only pay for the ad when someone clicks on it and according to the entire bid for it.
With this in mind, these are the top factors to remember:
- Google allows you to budget up to $1,500 per month. If you don’t try your best, your ads won’t appear as often per day. However, don’t force yourself to do so if money is tight. It is only possible to reach it if you are certain it will be profitable and have the money.
- Spend between 5-10 hours per week with an agency to improve or learn more about PPC, so you know what to do.
- You can try different ad copies and find the one that works best.
- You can refine and create landing pages to convert more clicks into leads.
Contact Forms Are Needed, Not Simple Additions
If your landing page is clean and optimized, leads and visitors will be more likely to give you their contact details, as we discussed earlier. However, you still need to provide the place where they can leave the options to contact them, and those are contact forms.
Don’t ask too many if you don’t want them to sign up when setting them up. It is important to discuss specific elements in detail.
Your website can convert prospects into sales leads in seconds by using the right contact forms on the landing pages.
Converting a lead to a customer can take weeks or even months. More information makes lead nurturing and conversion easier. To get started, however, you don’t need every single lead contact information.
You can request just an email address. This should be simple, with all fields clearly marked.
Contact forms are very important and should always be available where they are needed most.
Focus & Don’t Miss the Trust Signals
Lead generation is synonymous with social proof. Your business should have the right people and services to do it.
Google trust signals are a great way for your company to stand out. Potential clients also have confidence in trust signals.
These are the key factors to trust building:
- Collect Your Best Testimonials: You can ask your customers for testimonials to lower your lead generation costs.
- Another way to show social proof is through success stories. These stories give potential clients a peek into your experience and the things you have to offer. They are also able to demonstrate that you can keep your promises and deliver results that matter.
Manage Your Business’s Reputation On & Offline
Did you know that over 75% of people use the internet to locate local lawn maintenance professionals and to do it quickly? In the process, they also look into your reputation and what customers think about you, and your pricing.
Are you capable of turning up on time and completing the task that you have promised? If so, you probably don’t have much to worry about since most people are just trying to find quality but also at affordable prices.
Word-of-mouth can also be used offline to your advantage. Ask satisfied customers for recommendations to friends, family, or neighbors who might be interested in your lawn-care services, and if they have worked with you before, that’s even better.
After you’ve completed your lawn service, hand them many business cards and ask if you can put a temporary sign in their yard.
Listing your landscaping business online on review sites is a great way to get satisfied customers to leave reviews. This will increase your chances of bringing in more leads for landscaping.
Positive reviews and a good reputation will follow. Just make sure you’re working on it both offline and online, so you cover every aspect, audience, and client.
Sending Postcards Still Works
While postcards might seem a bit old-fashioned, it still works well. Why? Because they are simple to send and can be targeted at a wide range of customers who need to deal with landscaping issues and require maintenance.
First, organize your mailing list. If you don’t have one already or have just started to build one, just focus on this before anything else. Although they can be purchased online or in person, we recommend that you build them yourself.
It is crucial to only send addresses and names to commercial or homeowner owners who can be interested in the maintenance of their lawns on their property. This will be more efficient, and you won’t be criticized for sending so many postcards.
It’s now time to make your first postcard. It is cost-effective to use a 4×6 inch card. These cards are easy to print and inexpensive to send.
Next, design your card. If you lack the skills, you can hire a professional.
Your headline should be strong. People will be interested in your ability to grab their attention and wonder why you were chosen to manage their septic tanks. What are your advantages over your competition?
Highlight your services and offers. Your postcard, regardless of its message, should not be lost.
Make Sure Most Reviews Are 5 Stars
You will eventually get bored of hearing us talk about reviews. However, there are many things to discuss when it comes to them. One thing is to get reviews, and another is whether or not they are good.
Over 80% of customers use online reviews to evaluate the quality of local businesses. 30% of these reviews can be used for any type of business.
They can be trusted just as much as referrals. Companies invest a lot of time and effort in them. These statistics will explain why:
- Respondents trust online reviews better than referrals from family and friends.
- 70% of respondents think positive reviews increase trust in local businesses.
- 83% believe that companies with fewer than ten positive reviews are not trustworthy.
Negative reviews are the most common reason for negative customer opinions. They can lead to customers leaving and ruining your business. But how do you fix them?
You can find reasons to report them, such as a comment made by someone, not from your state or that doesn’t have anything to do with your services. Maybe, you never offered the services to that person.
If you’re not giving your best, you can fix it by starting doing so.
Respond as fast as possible to negative and positive reviews. If possible, respond the exact same day.
Blogs Are Life Saviors
Blogs can be a great way to generate leads because they are focused on one topic.
First, they can increase leads’ interest in your site. They will spend more time on it and ask questions about what you have posted and the services you offer.
You should spend time building a blog that is good because:
- It is more likely that your main website will be found.
- People who read your content will consider you an expert and trustworthy person.
- These leads can be easily converted into clients.
Think about a client looking for information in your blog post.
Because you took the time and wrote about their needs, they are more likely to request your services in the future.
There is plenty to talk about in the world of landscape and its maintenance. Also, it’s never boring to solve a customer’s problem.
Get More Leads by Creating More Offers
No matter their status, people love to get free stuff. Users who are looking for something free will click your links, and they will be willing to give you their emails or contact info in exchange.
You can give valuable information if you feel confident about your services or offer a guide for free if you’re happy.
It’s a great way to show your expertise and build rapport with clients before they spend any money.
You don’t need to know what type of guide you can provide. Consider who your ideal client might be and what you could offer them.
Think about the most common problems most homeowners encounter or anyone with a lawn that requires maintenance. Let’s say that homeowners want to deal with some damage; explain briefly what they can do but add why they need a pro.
You can create a step-by-step guide to help them accomplish this task and give details about how to maintain the space.
Guest Blogging Is Top
Guest blogging can help you get leads on websites that are related to your industry but not necessarily competing with you. This can help you improve your SEO in the process, which is the main reason behind the strategy.
It will help you improve your lead generation process overall. Sign makers could use your services to complement their marketing efforts.
This is just one example. Guest blogs can be created and posted on websites that aren’t necessarily focused on lawn care as the main topic but maybe a secondary one.
Guest blogs have proven to be relevant to your industry and not your competition. It will be meaningless if it doesn’t.
This is a crucial local SEO practice as it will help your website rank higher in the local SEO market if there are backlinks to guest bloggers.
Ensure that your location and business are relevant to guest-blogging sites to get the best results.
Don’t Forget About Online Forums
Many people want to discuss how to take care of their lawns and perform maintenance themselves, at least in the simple areas that don’t really require a professional.
Quora and other local forums are great resources for anyone who is serious about this topic.
Forums can be a great way to meet new people, and also for you to make new contacts. A list of questions can be compiled about your business, which you can then present to potential clients.
You will make it easier for them to ask questions and follow your instructions, which will speed up their process.
This will allow you to generate qualified leads faster than responding to every comment from customers.
Asking others questions about your project or your services can be a great way to encourage them.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Lawn Maintenance Business
All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?
The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).
Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:
The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.
Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”
You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.
The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.
The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.
Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.
To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.
By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.
An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor
You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.
HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.
They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.
If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.
HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.
Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).
Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?
They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.
However, you need to remember two facts:
- Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
- They don’t generate “natural” leads.
Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.
Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.
What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.
When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.
What Is Local SEO?
Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.
What does this mean?
Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.
To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.
If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.
Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.
“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.
Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.
Can My Lawn Maintenance Business Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?
If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.
Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.
Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.
How Powerful Are Organic Lawn Maintenance Leads from Google?
For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.
This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.
I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.
However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.
On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.
You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.
What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?
Here it goes: you can work from home.
The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.
We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.
You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.
Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.
So, let’s summarize this:
- You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
- You can bet on passive income.
- There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
- You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.
How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?
Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.
Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?
You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.
You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.