Landscaping is hard work, but boosting your revenue doesn’t have to be.

Although you will have to put some sweat into the yard work you complete for clients, you don't have to break a sweat trying to market and grow your business.

Grow More Than Just Plants

Sometimes, the work of a good landscaping company speaks for itself: you’ve probably seen beautiful master-planned communities, such as Cadence, with not just well-manicured lawns, but parks, trails, and other public areas that shine. If you’re just getting started in the business, what are ways you can not only stand out but boost your company’s revenue?

Standing Out

If given the chance, your excellent work will eventually help build your reputation as an expert in your field. But how do you procure your first clients in order to start making a name for yourself in the landscaping industry? Here are some tips for marketing your landscaping company.

Branding

Creating consistency in your branding can help you achieve recognition early in the game. Make sure your logo, your mission statement, and all your marketing materials follow your aesthetic. Invest in a designer to help you create your visual branding, as well as your website.

Know Your Target Audience 

Even if you have a bottomless marketing budget, targeting the wrong audience will get you nowhere. To avoid wasting your resources, do the research to determine your ideal client. If you specialize in a certain type of landscaping (residential, corporate, tropical, xeriscape, etc…), it makes sense to devote your marketing efforts to reach clients in your niche. 

Diversify Your Marketing Channels

Based on your budget and your target audience, you should cater to your marketing efforts. A good marketing company can help you create an action plan that may include the following tactics:

• Direct Mail marketing - fliers or postcards
• Social Media marketing - creating targeted ads that will be seen by certain users on the platform
• Pay Per Click marketing - implementing paid ads online that produce your website in search engine results (SERPs)
• Online listings - your business can be advertised on sites such as Angie’s List, Thumbtack, Porch, Houzz and more

Early Marketing

Get ahead of the seasonal needs of potential clients by marketing early. If you incorporate snow removal as part of your services, be sure to advertise that long before the first winter storm. Let customers know about your fertilization treatments prior to the first thaw of spring so they can book early.

Communicate

Let’s say you’ve landed a few clients and have completed their jobs. To help spread the word about your company, find a way to communicate to your clients how helpful it would be if they left a review on Google. Google does not allow businesses to directly solicit clients for reviews, but you can state in your communications that feedback is appreciated.

If the feedback you receive isn’t positive, it’s important to acknowledge and respond. While it can hurt to see your ratings negatively affected by a bad review, making things right with the client can be beneficial in the long run.

Increasing Revenue

It costs more to generate a new client than to retain an existing one, so be sure your business practices and your work gives clients a reason to stay.

Be Realistic About Overhead

It may be tempting to undercut competitors in an effort to get more clients and increase your revenue. However, as you generate more clients, your overhead costs increase. You need to understand exactly what it costs to run your business:

• Gas to travel to job sites
• Hourly wages for employees
• Cost of materials
• Impact of weather delays
• Software 
• Insurance/licenses
• Rent for office/warehouse space
• Maintaining equipment

If your profit margins aren’t defined, you can end up losing money on a job. 

Diversify Your Target Audience

Is there a service you’re not currently offering that could help your business grow? Can you add hardscaping, green waste removal, holiday light installation, or pest control to your landscaping options? Doing so can help you reach more customers, and increase revenue. Of course, you need to be aware of overhead costs associated with growth so you can ensure it’s worth the investment in additional products, equipment, employees, or software upgrades to manage everything. 

Lead-Capture

Your marketing has produced leads, but do they have an incentive to give you their information so you can follow up? Are you prepared to analyze the collected data? You can increase your revenue by investing in lead-capture efforts. Consider offering a free estimate in return for a potential client filling out a lead-capture form. Or, maybe you offer a discount on a future service or access to free lawn care tips.

Move Your Inventory

Your business software should help you forecast client needs so you have an accurate inventory. If you invest in products, you lose money when they sit, unused. If you don’t already have supply chain management software, setting one up can help save you money. Inventory spreadsheets are great, but if they’re not calculating real-time needs for your company and your clients, they’re not working hard enough for you.

Upsell

If you’ve ever gone through a fast-food drive-through, you’ve probably been asked if you’d like to increase the size of your meal or add fries. This is an example of an upsell, and businesses do it all the time. It’s a way of gradually increasing the existing cost of your order with additional services or products. Are you actively encouraging your clients to consider other options for their projects that can benefit them? 

For example, if you’ve created a beautiful backyard oasis for them, but you know the type of plants they’ve chosen tend to attract pests, you can upsell your pest control services. Perhaps you’ve poured a sprawling, cement driveway for a client, and now is your chance to upsell your snow removal services. It’s important to be mindful of your clients’ needs and only upsell products or services that add value. No one wants to feel like they’re being taken advantage of by a pushy salesperson.

Recycle Materials

Have you considered recycling inventory that you can’t use on a job? Whether you’re removing elements of an existing design or you have leftovers when a job is complete, you can recycle or upcycle many materials. Depending on where you live you might find a company like asphalt materials that accepts a variety of landscaping-related building materials for recycling. Typically, the following are eligible for recycling:

• Asphalt
• Concrete
• Rock
• Sod

If you’re recycling products that a client has paid for, always be transparent about costs; it’s important that clients don’t fall under the impression you’re being paid twice for a product you used on their landscaping job and then took to another one.