August is the perfect time to focus on how you are going to market your business this fall. As the heat moves people more indoors, off to the beach for vacation, or in some parts of the country back to school, you may find your field crews slowing down a little as they recoup from the long days of the spring and summer work and prepare for the seasonal work that the fall brings to the green industry.
Below we outline four solutions on how you can use this time most efficiently in your marketing efforts:
1. Announce a New Service
Expanding and diversifying the services you offer will not only set you apart from competitors, but it gives you flexibility to adjust to ever changing markets, weather, and the demands of different customers. Start by evaluating what your company already offers and seeing what new services you might be interested in adding. Perhaps you only do irrigation and would like to start doing drainage as well. Or, maybe you already install lighting but don’t offer maintenance packages for previously installed lighting systems.
No matter what areas you may want to expand into, there are many opportunities! Once you are prepared to add new services to your fall offerings, make sure to let everyone know by:
- Adding the new services to your website
- Sending targeted emails and mailers to existing customers letting them know
- Creating door hangers and mailers to target new customers
- Utilizing social media to post photos, articles, and links to the service work you do, or to related industry articles letting customers know why these services can be very valuable to them as home or business owners
2. Showcase You’re An Industry Expert in Seasonal Timing
Despite unpredictable fluctuations in weather, most places around the country will still experience changes in weather as the summer ends and we prepare for the fall. Â Homeowners will be looking for you to lead them in knowing what fall services are required or recommended for their property this time of year, as well as what may be specific for this specific year.
Make sure you are marketing information now to your customers to get them thinking ahead to fall turf diseases, storm water management, landscape lighting installations in time for the holidays, and other niche opportunities that your company offers. While many in the green industry will just be marketing their irrigation blow outs in the fall, this is a selling opportunity for your company to stand out as a trusted advisor to your customers. Your customers don’t need to know everything about what is best for their lawns each season; as long as they feel confident knowing that you do.
3. Sharing Project Photos
Customers often make decisions based upon their initial digital impression of a contractor before deciding whether or not to conduct business with them. In today’s ever growing digital world, that initial impression is made well before you even have a chance to meet with a potential customer face-to-face. This makes it crucial to take advantage of every opportunity to build your online image portfolio. Good quality photos are a great way to demonstrate the high-quality level of work that you provide. The best part is that these photos do not have to come with a heavy price tag and can be used on everything from a website to social media. (Read more about Central’s tips for best practices in business photography.)
Fall is a perfect time to use these photography strategies to market your services. Perhaps you have a project you worked on all summer and now it is complete with amazing before/after photos. Or as the daylight patterns start to change the lighting in the late afternoons can be perfect for good natural lighting shots vs when the sun is extra bright and high in the sky for much longer during the summer and a lot of photos have too many shadows.
4. Time for Some Housekeeping
August is a good time to prep for marketing fall services by doing some housekeeping on your contacts and your lists. Ask yourself some key marketing questions:
- When was the last time you checked the status of your contact lists?
- When was the last time you checked your bounce rates on emails?
- Take some time to discuss with your team what your CTA (Call To Action) buttons are going to be in the communications you will send out.
- Are you offering free estimates on fall landscape lighting projects?
- Are you encouraging current customers to start booking their winterization as soon as possible so that they don’t have to remember once the busy season of the fall kicks in?
- Are you looking to move customers into wifi-enable products so they don’t have to be home for routine or emergency calls later in the year as the weather gets bad?
Finally,
Whatever your fall messaging is, take the time in August to prepare and to ensure you are reaching your clientele and not loosing their year-round business. Whether it’s marketing and design support, digital/social media marketing assistance, website and SEO audits or access to professional job site photography, Central is the right partner to help you increase your sales and efficiency this fall. Our highly skilled team has decades of experience to help you identify best-practices and implement initiatives that deliver results. We’re ready to help you grow!