As an arborist, being the best at what you do is not enough. Getting more people to patronize your business can be a challenging feat and requires a series of strategic steps.
Fortunately, you don’t need to be — or pay — a marketing expert to get more traffic into your tree business. Here we give you some tips to help you develop and implement a marketing strategy.
1. Outline Your Marketing Strategy
Most arborists rely on the same tree service marketing tactics, such as posting advertisements but pay little attention to strategy. If you wish to accomplish your milestones, you need to have a clear understanding of where you’re headed.
It’s a good idea to have a marketing plan that considers these elements:
Identify Your Marketing Goals
Marketing goals determine your advertising strategy, and they can range from growing your client list and raising revenue to acquiring more significant contracts. Keep in mind that you can have multiple goals, but ensure they’re realistic.
Understand the Attributes of Your Perfect Customer
Understanding who is most likely to patronize your business plays an invaluable role in picking the appropriate marketing method. Creating a customer avatar involves knowing the ins and outs of their personality, lifestyle, and motivations. Your avatar of the ‘perfect client’ should include:
- Property type (residential or commercial)
- Average income/budget
- Life stage (young family versus single retiree, etc.)
- Preferred communication method
- Where they ‘hang out’ online
These metrics can help you create a marketing plan that addresses your target demographic. The more intuitively you connect with your audience, the more likely they are to choose your business.
Understand the Competition
After identifying your ideal customer, you’ll need to keep tabs on your competitors. After all, the aim of marketing is convincing individuals to purchase services from you and not the alternatives.
Your competitors can either be local or international companies. It’s your job to know their strengths and weaknesses, offering, as well as what sets you apart from them. Looking at their marketing tactics can also help you round out a smart advertising approach.
Decide on the Metrics
You must devise a system that’ll help you measure whether or not you’re making progress in the right direction. This action shows you whether your strategy needs modifications or more funding, and also helps you know how your new clients discovered your service.
2. Create a Social Media Presence on Facebook
If your business is doing well, you may not think Facebook is a necessary marketing element. Word of mouth can be a valuable method of reaching new customers but skipping social media may mean leaving money on the table.
Marketing on Facebook by making your business page a priority enables you to keep in touch with happy customers, build your brand, run cheap — but effective — ads, and more.
The problem with most tree service companies advertising on Facebook is that they desire an instant return on their investment. This unrealistic expectation can undervalue social media marketing as a whole. Any good marketing effort takes time, and some trial and error (or A/B testing) can offer insight into what works, and what’s not worth the effort.
Whenever a potential client visits your website through your Facebook post and contacts your company, many amateur marketers will claim your website did all the work. Nevertheless, Facebook is an excellent means of expanding your network, displaying positive consumer reviews, and showcasing your company’s unique value proposition.
3. Focus on Your Google My Business Profile
Building an online presence plays a vital role in your business’s visibility. Luckily, Google makes getting found via location-based search simple with its Google My Business offering. Setting up this account is free and only takes a few minutes of your time.
Once you’ve created a GMB listing, your business automatically pops up whenever someone around your location searches for your services. Of course, Google offers other tools that can be beneficial for increasing leads for your business, too — and many of them are free.
Register with Your Business’s Actual Name
Companies make the mistake of adding additional keywords related to their service in hopes of appearing on top of the list. This action works in reverse, making the establishment harder to find. Register with your company name, and ensure that it’s consistent across all your marketing materials and platforms.
Specify Your Hours of Operation
Offering your hours of operation makes it easier for customers to figure out when they can contact you, or what time you might be available for an appointment. Plus, it saves them a phone call!
Insert Photos
Adding images for your business listing can help consumers recognize you and your brand. Showing the people behind your tree service makes you more relatable and helps customers connect to your team.
4. Ask Your Current Customers for Referrals
For centuries, word of mouth has been one of the most effective methods to get more gigs as an arborist. Happy people tend to share their feedback with others, which could lead to more service calls.
Offering discounts in exchange for a referral — such as a buddy program — can help you reach more customers, too.
5. Consider an Eye-Catching Truck
Similar to ice cream trucks with their impossible-to-miss design, a service truck with a unique and memorable logo serves as a mobile billboard for your business.
Whenever your business is performing its duties on a client’s lawn, it’ll be easy for passersby to collect your company’s phone number, email, and address in case they need a professional arborist.
6. Create a Website That Converts
After creating a social media page on Facebook and a Google My Business profile, the next step is building a website that converts potential clients into new customers.
Your website should cover who you are, what services you provide, and your qualifications. Ideally, it would also include photos of your employees and workplace and an online booking form. This information is essential since your clients will use this platform to pay invoices, book work, and approve quotes.
Marketing aside, a website positions you as a professional, making you appear more trustworthy and worth their while.
7. Employ Email Marketing
You won’t get tree care gigs every day throughout the year as the seasons can determine who needs tree trimming help (and whether the weather is suitable for service). Therefore, you’ll need to keep your brand in the back of your customer’s mind whenever the need for an arborist arises.
Email marketing is the best method for this task as it is personal and can be used to promote new services, increase sales, and fill up your appointment book.
This method involves compiling consumer email addresses and initiating an email campaign (it can be automated) to keep up with your clients, even in the off-season.
Conclusion
Marketing your tree service business is essential if you want to stay in business. Fortunately, there are tons of free and low-cost tree service advertising ideas that can help you drum up business. Whether you’re a tree trimmer, or professional arborist, or offer another tree and gardening service, connecting with customers is simpler than ever with these marketing strategies.
