Starting a lawn care business comes with valuable perks. This includes repeat business and possibly evolves into selling additional peripheral consumables. However, it isn’t free of cons too. Aside from the startup costs being expensive, it’s a very saturated and competitive market.
Without effective lawn care lead generation strategies to support a regular stream of customers, your business hangs on a thread.
Thankfully, there are countless ways to acquire landscaping leads. If your landscape advertising strategist is inexperienced, generating leads may come with a bit of experimentation.
But you don’t want that.
Trial and error are expensive, on top of being a waste of time and effort.
We’re certain that you want lawn care lead generation strategies that will bring you the results you need. That’s what we’re giving to you.
Below, we’ll share the top 10 proven effective lawn care lead generation strategies we’ve implemented, so you can too! Keep reading to learn more.
Importance of High-Quality Leads
Let me rephrase what I said earlier.
You don’t only want lawn care service leads.
What you need are high-quality landscaping leads for your business.
What’s the difference?
High-quality lawn care service leads are ideal because they are highly convertible to prospects, and then buying customers. Regular leads, on the other hand, don’t give you that positive certainty.
Remember that any person can be a lead so long as they check the boxes of your ideal buyer persona. But the better the quality, the more informed they are of your goods and services. More importantly, much prepared to make a purchase.
The reality is that high-quality service leads can be hard to come by. Research says that 70% of marketers say they want more quality leads. That said, the success and longevity of your business are anchored on your lawn care lead generation strategies.
If you’re not equipped with the marketing chops to elevate your lead generation, there’s no reason to fret. Landscape Marketing Hero can help you propel your lawn care business through effective, time-tested and experienced landscape advertising techniques.
Your high-quality lawn care lead generation begins with filling up our form here to get your FREE e-book, The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Growing.
10 Proven Effective Lawn Care Lead Generation Strategies Worthy of Your Investment
1. Direct Mail Strategy
Direct mail is a lawn care lead generation strategy that involves sending physical letters or postcards to potential customers. This method can be effective if you have a well-designed direct mail piece that stands out. The key here grabbing your prospect’s attention and effectively communicating your lawn care services.
What makes this technique stands out is that it’s interactive. Customers physically handle your mail and contemplate whether to keep them or not. If you manage to slip in some discount coupons or promotional offers, they’re more likely to keep it.
Mailchimp says direct mail has a 5.3 percent response rate, which is significantly bigger than email’s 0.6 percent response rate. Moreover, direct mail has a higher ROI than display ads and paid search. It’s best to use direct mail in step with a solid email marketing strategy, as well.
2. Google/PPC Ads
Paid search or ads appearing on top of your search results is another way to funnel traffic to your website. This is a good lawn care lead generation strategy to use while you’re strengthening your business’s organic rankings.
Google Ads, also known as PPC or Pay-Per-Click, means exactly as the name suggests. You pay for every clickthrough in your advertising. However, it’s not a set-it and leave-it campaign. You’ll want to maximize the ROI you can get from PPC ads and this is where management comes in. An agency can help you track your company’s performance and optimize your ads to rake in more leads.
A good Google Ads strategy can give you a cost-per-lead of around $10-$35, excluding management costs. If you get a lot of clickthroughs but not many conversions, you might want to look into the following strategy.
3. High-Converting Landing Pages
Your landing page is supposed to do two things:
- Attract prospects
- Convert prospects into leads
But to this end, you have to ensure that your PPC ads or other advertising is optimized for clicks. When users click through your ads, you need your landing page destination to follow through with the ads. Be direct to the point, integrate clear CTAs and create a demand for your solutions that other service providers don’t offer.
Here are other landing page tips to make your lawn care lead generation more effective:
- Use hard-hitting headlines
- Insert persuasive subheadings
- Add pictures when relevant
- Incorporate a clear explanation of your offer
- Rub their pleasure points
- Soothe their pain points
- Make your CTA as clear and enticing as possible
4. Creative Lawn Care Vehicle Wraps
While lawn care vehicle wraps are a more expensive lawn care lead generation strategy, they’re also one of the most effective. Not only are they an excellent way to produce leads, but they’re also helpful in building brand awareness. When your lawn care vehicle is driving around town, it’s essentially a moving billboard for your business. Sadly, 3M indicated that a staggering 46 percent still don’t use their vehicles for as part of their marketing efforts.
Conversely, a wrapped vehicle gets an average of 30,000-70,000 views daily, depending on its route, according to SpeedPro. Making car advertising efforts 65 percent more effective than traditional advertising, with a 57 percent higher conversion rate says BrandOnWheelz.
Lawn care vehicle wraps work so well for several reasons:
- They’re eye-catching and can’t be missed.
- They’re a cost-effective advertising strategy.
- They create a sense of professionalism.
- Audiences are more likely to remember brands with visually appealing wraps.
5. Promote Referral Programs
People love it when they feel appreciated. And what’s a better way to show your appreciation than by giving them a discount or a freebie?
Referral programs incentivize your customers to spread the word about your lawn care business. However, your reward must be compelling enough or your solutions should be incredibly convincing enough to push customers to act.
Some of the most enticing offers to give customers are discounts, cash back or even gift cards if applicable. Once you create enough desire among your customers, referral programs will be great avenues for lawn care lead generation.
Do note that any referral program endeavors will be immediately blocked if your services are not up to par. Moreover, referrals take meticulous tracking and follow-ups prior to conversion.
6. Social Media Ads
Today, social media is one of the pillars that create a holistic marketing strategy. Most especially because half of the world’s population uses social media across all platforms. Among all social media outlets, Facebook remains to be the most used by marketers for advertising. Utilizing social media sites can help your lawn care business meet customers where they already are.
For example, Facebook’s algorithm arranges posts on a feed to show items that are most relevant to a user. So, with compelling copy and optimized content, your posts can appear to users actively searching for lawn care services.
When done correctly, lawn care advertising on social media can be extremely effective and efficient. You can use social media ads to target your audiences based on their location, age, gender, interests, and even behaviors.
7. Retargeting Ads
Another excellent lawn care lead generation strategy is to create retargeting ads. Retargeting ads allow you to display lawn care ads to people with previous interactions with your business. They could have either visited your website or interacted with your brand in some other way.
This lawn care marketing strategy is so effective because you’re only targeting people that exhibited an interest in your solutions. And, you’re doing so while they’re still in lawn care research mode. You have a higher chance of converting them when you catch them early on in the lawn care decision-making process.
8. Stunning Lawn Care Website (with specific CTAs)
You know what they say, “first impressions last.” It’s often the first impression potential customers will have of your business so it needs to make a good one. Your lawn care website is one of the most important lawn care marketing tools at your disposal. Think of it as the online storefront of your business.
Without an appealing, compelling and user-friendly website, generating leads and converting them into customers will be challenging. This is true even if you have a competitive organic ranking in search engine results pages.
The key to stunning lawn care websites lies with the user experience, design and content. Hitting this trifecta will position your lawn care business as an expert and increase your chances of converting prospects.
9. Radio Ads & Podcast
It’s not hard to imagine if business owners feel reluctant to invest in radio advertising in this day and age. But we often overlook that AM/FM radio’s share of ear remains strong in 2022. Radio listeners account for 62 percent at work, 72 percent at home, and 88 percent in cars. Radio advertising can be a great reinforcement to supplement your other marketing efforts.
Podcasts, on the other hand, are another advertising industry on the rise. It’s not like other styles of marketing that allows immediate gratification for every listener. Podcasts are great for advertising because they’re useful in building an authoritative presence, connecting to listeners and communicating your messaging.
While you provide useful information for your listeners, you become the frontrunner entrepreneur when it comes to lawn care services.
10. Television Ads
With the rise of subscription internet entertainment services, one might think the time of television is dead. However, that’s not necessarily true. Did you know that in 2021, Americans spend more than 3 hours on TV throughout the day?
That said, television advertising can be an effective lawn care lead generation strategy for your business. Even if a 30-second TV ad is expensive, the ROI is also substantially high to justify the upfront costs. For each dollar spent on TV ads, the average ROI is $10.40, that’s more than 10x.
For lawn care businesses that normally service within a specific locality, you can opt for local TV ads instead. This can be a great opportunity to reach and convert captive audiences. Especially because users view TV ads to be more trustworthy than other advertising strategies.
At the end of the day, advertising mediums and marketing platforms are no more than gateways to reach your audience. The success of your advertising lies in your marketing campaign strategy and how your advertising efforts complement one another. The more holistic your approach is, the better your odds in generating leads.
So, there you have it!
Those are the top 10 lawn care lead generation strategies you should implement to ensure a steady stream of customers. Learning each one of them can seem daunting at first, but shouldn’t have to be.
Landscape Marketing Hero can help create the perfect lawn care marketing blueprint to help you generate leads. It starts with signing up here to avail of our FREE growth guide called The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Growing to learn more.