9 Tips for Growing Your Landscape Business with Blogging
By now, you may have made a New Year’s resolution to start regularly posting blogs on your company’s website.
Every January seems like a fresh start to begin blogging. You plan to write one blog a month. Then the busy lawn and landscape season starts, and you forget about blogging.
Ironically, from April onward, you should be updating your website with fresh blog posts on average of two times a month. Instead, your blog goes dark.
Why Blogging is Important
As a business blogger for the green industry, I’ve talked to lawn care owner-operators, landscape maintenance, and landscape design/build marketing managers about consistent blogging. And you probably heard a lot about regularly blogging, too, at conferences you attend, such as the GIE + Expo.
But how can you get started and keep the blogging momentum moving forward? And is all of this blogging worth the time and effort?
Yes, this “chore” is necessary to keep your name popping up in search engines as well as keeping you top of mind with your current customers.
The catch? You need to realistically assess if you have the time to write consistently, edit and post blogs on your website.
For instance, do you really want to spend your evenings and weekends writing blogs at the height of your busy season?
You can also have someone in your company write blogs. But if it’s all hands on deck from April through November, then one of your administrative staff probably will stop writing blogs by mid-June because of the busyness of your lawn care or landscaping company.
Finally, does all of this blogging work? Yes, it does.
Landscaping business tip: Learn how to get more lawn and landscape customers in 2019 in this blog.
9 Tips for Growing Your Landscape Business with Blogging
In the New Year, you promise yourself that you’re going to be more consistent and committed by posting fresh content on your landscaping or lawn care blog.
Here are nine tips to help you with your 2019 New Year resolution:
- Your content will focus on your customers’ needs and wants: Each region in the U.S. and Canada have unique growing situations—depending on rainfall, humidity, soil conditions, new construction and established lawns, etc. If you cater to higher-end landscaping clients, for example, this type of customer may tell you they know everything when it comes to their next outdoor project. While higher-end customers may have different outdoor living desires compared to middle-class customers, high-end clients are still fully human.
Typically, higher-end customers are worried about cost, time and inconvenience to their lives. So, blog about budget, time, construction chaos, and how, as a landscape contractor, you’ll keep the project moving along on time as well as on budget.
The bottom line: Your blogs need to be customer-centered, but not overly complicated. Remember, “Just the facts!”
- Homeowners will look for answers to their lawn and landscape problems: Your blog guides your readers to find solutions to their questions. You may be afraid of telling your sales prospects too much, or they may end up doing their own lawn and landscape maintenance work. But homeowners are busy people—and will be looking for a trustworthy, expert lawn care company that’s an expert in the problems they face with their yards.
- Keep your blogs simple: Yes, your readers want you to teach them about how to make their lawns mean and green as well as different types of swimming pool shapes. But don’t use a lot of jargon that only industry people would understand. Instead, speak in general terms.
- Your blogs should be tailored to educate your clients and sales prospects: One of the main purposes of blogging is to inform your clients. Today’s consumers will check out blogs and websites of you and your competitors before they call you. So, meet one of your prospect’s pain points by educating them about typical problems or goals for their property. Your purpose should be to keep the sales prospect on your website and guide them to go the next step to fill out your contact form.
- Don’t forget your CTA: A CTA is simply a “call to action.” You want your prospects to take the next step by calling you or filling out your contact form. Each of your content marketing efforts, including blogs and newsletters, should have a “call to action” at the end of each article. It can be as simple as stating, “If you need regular mowing services, call us today at XXX-XXX-XXXX or fill out our contact form” or your web designer may put a CTA button on your post.
Learn more: Here are five reasons why your online copy needs a CTA.
- Blog as much as you can consistently deliver: The experts advise you to blog every week. However, your blogging schedule needs to work for you. If you can only get a blog posted one or two times a month—that’s okay. The important thing is that you’re posting regular, informative blogs that educate your sales prospects, moving them closer to make an appointment with you. You can plan on adding more posts per month as your schedule or budget allows in the future.
- Don’t forget to take parts of your blog posts and repurpose them on your social media channels: To keep your lawn and landscape company top of mind with your sales prospects, post tips from your blogs onto your Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter channels. Just make sure you know where your sales prospects are hanging out online.
- Plan ahead with an editorial calendar: To stay on schedule, make sure you create content or an editorial calendar. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it should include a relevant topic, focus keywords and the date that you’ll be posting it.
- Hire a blogger: If you and your staff don’t have time to blog, then you may want to consider outsourcing your blogs and social media content needs. You can find a content copywriter on LinkedIn, research terms, such as “landscaping blogger” or a “landscape writer” to find a writing service to help you with your content calendar and blogging needs.
How the Landscape Writer Can Help You with Your Blogging Needs
At the Landscape Writer, you’ll find a business blogger who specializes in the green industry from lawn care owner-operators, landscapers (both organic and traditional), hardscapers, irrigation companies as well as other vendors including web developers, snowplow designers and marketing managers.
If you need someone who is passionate about your small business and its success through blogging, then you need to call the Landscape Writer today at 717-381-6719, email her at wendy@landscapewriter.com or fill out her free consultation form.
Additional sources to help you:
DeMers, Jayson, “The Top 10 Benefits of Blogging on Your Website.”
Kappel, Mike, “Why Your Small Business Must Start a Blog.”
Wainwright, Corey, “Why Blog? The Benefits of Blogging for Business and Marketing.”
