As a seasoned green industry business owner, I understand the urge to resist talking about sales and marketing. Remember the good ol days when you could throw some post cards in mailboxes and boom, marketing? Well those days are gone. Don't worry though, change is good! Here are some tips to keep your business up on your marketing game.
1. Get Organized
Alright people, let’s be honest. The green industry is a busy industry. If you’re not out in the field getting work done, you’re back in the office completing paperwork so you can get paid.
The bad news is that knowing your marketing strategy and having an organized laid out plan is absolutely essential. So get started now if you haven’t yet. Step one is to create a marketing strategy; who are you selling to? What kind of strategy will they respond to best?
For example, if your audience is primarily young millennials, a big part of your marketing strategy will be online and social media marketing, because that is what this particular audience responds to best.
2. Delegate
Delegating is constantly a struggle for many owners, what they don’t realize though is how damaging it can be to not delegate work out. There are many ways to do this, and you don’t have to feel like you’re giving up power or control. Look at it this way; if you are hiring smart, these people should be better at those tasks than you are. If you responsibly delegate, you will be able to focus on big picture items.
Create a team of people and give each person a responsibility that coincides with both your strategy and your goals. Make sure that you are delegating to a team that knows how to create a streamline, consistent marketing strategy.
If you are a pretty small organization, do something as simple as splitting the responsibilities. Make these duties clear however, make one person responsible for all social media.
3. Know your voice
As the owner of a field service software company and the former owner of an irrigation company, I have a good amount of knowledge to offer my fellow business owners. These business owners happen to make up the majority of our audience, for that reason, we use my voice for our marketing content. Don’t confuse your audience by being the all-seeing-eye, be clear about who you are and if you know your audience you can easily convey what they want to hear.
After you decide what kind of voice you are going to commit to, really commit to it. Don’t be more than one voice, it will be more difficult for your audience to figure out who you and relate to you. An example of a company using a lack of a voice- in a very successful way; is Green Industry Pros. This website is dedicated to all things green, but they keep themselves out of it. The reason this works for them is how consistent they remain in every article and piece of content. They are seen as a curation of knowledgeable information from different platforms. They also produce content however, and they leave first-person out of it.
4. Be consistent
Consistency both in marketing and elsewhere in business; is key. The notion of consistency should always be in the back of your mind as a business owner.
The most important place to be consistent, and this should be obvious, is in the work you do. No matter what kind of company you have, producing great results consistently is the best marketing you can do. I have always given advice based on the tried and true fact that your work will speak for itself. Don’t half-ass anything, and you will be marketing yourself without even trying. It may sound fervent, but it cannot be overstated how central your work ethic is. It still surprises me how my fellow business owners can forget that the most important way to market their business is simply to show up.
5. Market AND sell
One great way to market yourself is to simply have marked vehicles and uniforms. When a potential customer sees your logo consistently, they will start to feel a comfort and familiarity with your business, thus making them want to work with you. Don’t get lazy though, marketing is wildly helpful for growing a business; find creative ways to market your business online and otherwise.
Selling is much more straight-forward. I truly am a salesman at heart, I love to sell! It’s like a game but with real money! If I were to give one piece of advice regarding selling it would be that timing is absolutely everything. Communicate with your customer base, know what time of year and even month that they are most willing to buy, and then bring on the selling at those times. If you are attempting to sell to customers who are overwhelmed with work or the timing is off, they are going to remember you as the pushy salesman who was there at the wrong time for them. That is not good for business, do your research, timing is everything. Another thing to always remember is that you are selling yourself just as much as you’re selling a service. If a customer is put off by you, they won’t buy from you; simple as that. Be personal, join clubs and build relationships with your customers before they become your customers.
For a full list of sales and marketing tips, download our free eBook!
