If you’re among the 647,741 landscaping service providers in the US, you have a lot of competition. Setting an appropriate budget and distributing it effectively is essential for those looking to advertise a landscaping business.
Here, we’re going to talk about how you can use your marketing funds the right way when getting the word out about your services. Read on for a marketing budget template for those looking to make an impact in the landscaping industry.
Understand the Basics of Your Marketing Budget Percentage
Before you begin to distribute your marketing budget appropriately, you’ll need to determine how much you have to spend. It’s important that you make this decision based on percentages rather than hard-and-fast figures.
Landscaping businesses have fairly simple guidelines for marketing budgets.
If you make under $2 million in annual revenue, 5-7% of your earnings should go toward marketing. Those who make $2-$5 million should allocate 3-4% of their budgets while those who make between $5-10 million should aim to spend 2-3% on advertising. If you make over $10 million yearly, you will only need to spend 1-2% of your budget on marketing.
This makes sense when you consider that those with more money have a greater sum within those percentages. 1% of a big company’s budget will be more than 5% of a startup’s. Additionally, since small businesses need to build a name for themselves, they’ll spend more on branding.
Note that there will also be external factors that let you know when to increase your budget. If you’re introducing new services or targeting new geographical areas, you’ll want to put more cash into advertising. If you have low operational capacity or are struggling to scale, you might be able to cut costs.
Start With Great Branding to Advertise a Landscaping Business
Once you do the math and calculate how much you have to spend based on percentages, you can get started. Branding is the first channel in which you should funnel your marketing budget.
This is where you establish an initial emotional connection with consumers by using memorable images and a relatable brand voice. Branding appropriately means getting people interested in your company and making them feel loyal to you.
Without great branding, even the best marketing efforts can fall flat. This results in a wasted budget even if you make strong investments elsewhere.
Research your target audience and figure out what potential landscaping clients want to see. Design a logo that will appeal to these individuals and use language that they’ll connect with based on their values and overall education levels. Make sure that they know there are people behind the screen who are knowledgeable, approachable, and friendly.
Building an emotional connection with people should be a top priority for any landscaping business. You’ll get a recommendation rate of 71% rather than the average 45%. People will also be more likely to contact you and develop brand loyalty so that you make more money in the long term.
Showcase Cost-Effective Service Plans
San Francisco landscaping services also must be practical in their branding efforts. Position yourself as a brand leader with authoritative language, data-driven market research, and a good understanding of your audience.
Being pragmatic also requires you to set service plans that those in need of landscaping can afford. If your prices are too high, it doesn’t matter how much people like you. They’ll go somewhere cheaper.
It’s important that your prices reflect what people are willing to spend in your designated market area (DMA).
People in the Bay area are willing to spend an average of $530 to $649 on landscaping services. Those in San Francisco have higher budgets of about $883. They are often willing to spend about 20.4% of their budgets on marketing because of their high-traffic locations.
Invest In Stellar SEO and Website Design
Recent research shows that every dollar invested in your website’s user experience brings about a $100 return. A top-notch website can increase conversions by 200%.
For landscaping businesses, this means:
- Including a prominent image on your home page showcasing the best landscaping work you’ve done
- Creating a compelling homepage headline near this image that’s both concise and catchy
- Making a user-friendly navigation page that lets people see your different landscaping packages, deals, blog posts, testimonials, and past work with the click of a button
- Having a business introduction that talks about your landscaping services’ expertise, experience, and accolades
It also means optimizing your pages for SEO. You want to rank for top-notch keywords and establish good domain authority. This will boost your visibility by getting you on the top page of Google, which accounts for over 90% of all online traffic.
Keyword research and quality link building can be challenging for individual businesses, so work with a professional to ensure that you get the most out of your budget.
Focus On Personalized Marketing
Personalized marketing can slash acquisition costs and increase conversions. In fact, 97% of marketers notice greater business outcomes as a result of personalized ad campaigns.
Creating buyer personas that represent your target market is the first step to personalized marketing. This lets you identify client pain points, values, and interests. You will likely have multiple buyer personas that represent different factions of your target market.
For example, you may have a buyer persona that represents a luxury homeowner in need of monthly decorative landscaping. These people likely have more money to spend but will want more specialized services. They may want shaped hedges and have more trees in their yard that need trimming than others do.
Another buyer persona may show a middle-class homeowner who needs annual lawn maintenance services. They might have less money to spend, but they’ll only need a generalized package for trimming bushes and hedges.
If you have a B2B service available, you may also have a business-related buyer persona. A commercial building owner may want to get routine landscaping done outside of their office building or retail storefront. They’ll require specialized services to meet commercial maintenance requirements.
You can then segment your marketing efforts to meet the needs of different sections of your target market. Send personalized emails to each section of your target market that showcase the services that that segment wants to see. Target PPC ads to the right audience based on their demographics and search histories.
Managing and responding to reviews is also a low-cost way to maintain a positive reputation. You can personalize these responses by directing the person commenting by name. You can also tailor your response to best suit their precise comment and offer replies driven by information about what that commenter’s specific demographics want to understand.
Create Content that Serves Your Target Audience and Showcases Your Brand
Regardless of how well-designed your website is, people will bounce if the content doesn’t interest them. They’re looking for quality information about the landscaping services that they need. They want to hire industry leaders who seem knowledgeable and are committed to resolving their specific issues.
It’s important that you produce quality content for your website. Make sure that it’s interesting to those in the target audience that you base buyer personas on. Research the tone and types of content that these clients want to see and make it readable and engaging for them.
Create fluff-free content that’s relevant to the audience. Keep things professional while still maintaining the emotional connection that you created while branding. Think about the search intent that people had when looking for you.
It’s also important to think of your goals when creating content. If you’re looking to boost conversions, try blog posts that advertise specific packages that you offer. If you’re looking to generate interest and get leads, informative posts about landscaping will likely work wonders.
Whatever you do, don’t shirk multimedia content. Companies that use visuals can get 700% higher conversion rates than those that don’t. Video content, infographics, and high-quality images can help people engage and connect.
Set KPIs For Your Marketing Campaigns
Key performance indicators (KPIs) measure the success of your marketing campaign. They’re quantifiable and measurable, so you can get a data-driven understanding of how successfully you have used your marketing budget percentage.
Some quality KPI examples might include:
- Amount of revenue for a given timeframe
- Average annual income per client
- Numbers of new leads
- Close rate percentages
- Customer retention percentage
- Profits from specific types of landscaping services
This will make it easier to determine whether your marketing campaigns were successful. You can see where you went wrong and readjust your budget to best meet KPIs for the next advertising period.
Constantly assess and reassess KPIs. Make sure that you base new metrics on previous successes. You want goals to be attainable, but you also want them to push previous limits so that you can be more successful in the future.
Maximize Your Marketing Budget With 46Mile
Successful marketing isn’t about throwing your budget at the wall and hoping something sticks. If you want your marketing budget to go further, we are the people to call.
We’re experts at uncovering the specific marketing strategies that work for different verticals. With us, you won’t get a one-size-fits-all approach. We know who your target customers are and how to reach them.
Contact 46Mile today to advertise a landscaping business and make things happen for your business.
