By David Crary
In order to run a successful green industry business, one obvious component is customers. Without happy, loyal customers your business will fall flat and fail. Keeping customers and gaining new ones is the only way for a business to grow and prosper.
Sometimes it may seem that no matter how hard you try, expanding your customer base seems impossible. Don't give in just yet. Here are 5 marketing tips that will help your business acquire new customers.
Expand Your Service Area
As your business begins to grow, you may realize that the current area you service just is not big enough to suit your needs. Many small businesses will simply stay in one area and impede their growth or kill their business because of a refusal to expand. Expanding is not a bad thing, in fact it is really good.
Try to expand the area that you service in order to draw in new customers. The trick is to not expand too quickly. Slowly begin to expand your area of service and accept only the new customers that you can handle. Eventually, you will be able to expand into other towns or cities and service many of the residents.
Work the Trade Shows
These shows are great for you because you get to look at new technologies and machinery that might be coming to your industry. However, it also allows you to see what other businesses are doing that is successful. Some trade shows are concentrated to one area so you will be able to look at your competition and take a page out of their book when it comes to attracting customers. Look at the bigger businesses that have attracted more customers than you and review their marketing strategies. You will learn something and you can take other strategies and hopefully be able to come up with something successful for your own business.
Although you should never outright copy another business strategy, using them to gain knowledge about what works and what does not is perfectly fine and can give you ideas. Trade shows can also be a good opportunity to use new advertising to pull in members of the community who might be there to learn more about the green industry.
Some great examples of national trade shows are the GIE+EXPO in Louisville and the Landscape Ontario trade show in Toronto. Obviously, you won't see a lot of competitors at these two shows, but you will see a lot of equipment and field service software vendors and see ideas about how the heavy hitters in the industry approach trade shows. You can implement those on a smaller scale when you exhibit at a local or regional trade show.
Get Referrals
People are more apt to try a service if someone else has told them about it. If one person in a neighborhood has a good experience there is a better chance that others in the neighborhood will trust you to do a good job. One of the easiest ways to get these types of referrals is to do two simple things.
- Ask to put signs in the yards of those you service
- Set up a customer referral program. Offer small incentives or rewards for those who get friends, relatives, and neighbors to call and try your service. It does not have to be much, but many people do not resist free awards.
Create a Social Media Campaign
Today’s world revolves around the internet and social media sites. Create an online presence for your company after researching what platforms your customers use. Customers appreciate feeling connected to the companies they decide to spend money with, social media creates that connection. Create a social media marketing strategy that will draw people in and make them interested. The trick is to have people remember your name when they need a service.
Offer New Services
According to the 2016 Green Industry Benchmark Report, the average green industry business offers 4 of the following 8 services - irrigation, mowing, fertilization, snow removal, arbor care, landscaping, lighting and pest control. As a green industry business, the opportunities to expand and offer new services is extremely vast.
Don't make the mistake and pigeonhole yourself by sticking to only a few services. If you are trying to expand, offering new services might be a way that you draw in new customers. Those who have a good experience with one service will often come back for another. If you're a lawn care business, check out our blog post for ideas on services to add.
If you're serious about growing your business, download our free eBook to learn how to create an effective customer referral program.
