The air is getting chilly, and the seed pods are turning brown—it’s “quiet season” in the garden!
But if you own a landscaping business, late autumn and winter can be a little too quiet. Planning your revenue streams around sharp seasonal drop-offs in work can be scary. You have financial obligations to meet and employees to pay. Ideally, grass would need mowing and leaves would need blowing all year round.
Don’t fret! There’s plenty you can do to help find more clients and book new business, even when it’s not peak landscaping season.
Why you should focus on landscaping marketing strategies this winter
We know winter doesn’t mean a complete freeze on landscaping work (see what we did there?! 😜). You probably offer autumn and winter services like snow removal, gutter cleaning, pool over-wintering, tree surgery, and pruning.
But the quieter months can also be the perfect time to take care of those digital marketing tasks you’ve pushed to the bottom of your to-do list all summer long.
The time you spend marketing your landscaping business this winter is a smart investment that will pay you back next summer in better leads and more bookings.
And making a plan is always better than winging it, so use these 5 tasks as the bones of your landscaping marketing strategy and make this winter your most productive one yet.
1. Research the right keywords for your landscaping business
Before digital marketers start creating memes and posting videos, they use keyword research to decide which phrases they want to include in their messaging. That way, prospective clients can find their landscaping websites more easily when they’re using a search engine.
Search engine optimization (SEO) means improving your website so that search engines recommend it to people in search results. There are technical aspects of SEO, but in this piece, we’ll focus on:
- the words that attract search engines to your website and
- the words that your ideal client uses to find your website.
Think like a client
When your clients want to find landscaping services using a search engine like Google, they probably type in things like “landscapers” or “landscaping services”. But you probably also offer other services like lawn mowing or corporate landscaping.
Whatever your services, think about how a client might search for them. For your specialist services, get specific with phrases like “lawn care business” or “pruning young trees”. Each of those keywords describes the precise services your clients are looking for.
Choose niche keywords with less competition
If you use keywords that are too broad, they’ll be highly competitive. That means everyone else in the country wants to rank for them, too. The trick is to find keywords that are relatively popular but not too competitive.
Think of them as the generic, store-brand keywords. Instead of “landscapers”, you might want to use “landscaping services”. The first word is far more popular (94K vs 12.1K monthly searches), but also more difficult to rank for (our keyword research tool scores them 45 out of 100 and 26 out of 100 for difficulty, respectively).
Use local search terms
Of course if you’re in landscaping, you’re trying to attract local customers. So you don’t need to get clicks from every person in the country who’s searching for landscaping services. You just need to find the ones who are looking for service in your local area.
Local SEO lets you focus on finding landscaping customers in your local area. Use your keyword research tool to look up a phrase that’s specific to your area, like “landscapers in Portsmouth” or “landscaping companies near me in western Massachusetts”.
Check out the competition
Which keywords do the landscaping company down the road use? You can find out with the tools we’ll link below, and you might find that they’re keywords you could use on your website, too.
Or you might see that your competitors are taking their business in a slightly different direction than yours (they’re focusing on hard landscaping and you’re into garden design, for instance). Either way, checking out the competition can give you good ideas about how to market your own company.
Check out the competition
Which keywords do the landscaping company down the road use? You can find out with the tools we’ll link below, and you might find that they’re keywords you could use on your website, too.
Or you might see that your competitors are taking their business in a slightly different direction than yours (they’re focusing on hard landscaping and you’re into garden design, for instance). Either way, checking out the competition can give you good ideas about how to market your own company.
Free keyword research tools
We recommend using a keyword research tool to hone your keywords. These free ones give you real insights that can help you build a marketing strategy for your landscaping business:
- Ahrefs has a solid keyword generator tool
- This competitive keyword analysis tool from SpyFu lets you see competitors’ keywords
- WordStream offers a comprehensive keyword tool
- If you sign up for a Semrush account, you can use several of their keyword tools for free
Or just search for “free keyword tool” and you’ll find tons of options!
2. Create a content calendar for social media and blogs
Okay, with your keywords in hand, it’s time to create some engaging social media content and value-packed blog posts.
What do your clients want to read about?
Your blogs and social media posts should answer questions or solve problems for your readers. If you want to write blogs about your own personal interests, share them separately in a personal blog—THIS blog is all about your potential customers!
Clients might have questions about plants (the best times of year for pruning or the type of soil preferred by most plants), hard landscaping (which materials are best for a pool patio or whether a water feature is right for their yard), or general maintenance (which fencing materials you’d recommend).
Whatever your customers usually ask you, write about it. The purpose of your blog is to a) inform readers about topics that matter to them so that b) they start to think of you as a subject matter expert. If you write about topics they care about and share quality information, they’ll see your website as the go-to source for excellent landscaping advice.
Boost your search rankings and keep an eye on the competition
Good blogs get read and shared, and those metrics matter to search engines, too, which will see your high quality blog and rank it higher.
You can use your client reviews or testimonials for inspiration. Or head on over to a competitor’s website and see what they’re blogging about. You can’t copy their blogs, but you might find inspiration for your own blog topics.
How do you use keywords in your posts?
Sprinkle your main keywords into every blog and social post wherever it feels natural. But don’t keyword stuff! Cramming lots of keywords into your posts won’t help them rank higher. Google will actually demote your site if it thinks you’re keyword stuffing.
If you have specific keywords for your subpages or blog posts, use them in the title if possible. And use them in your social media posts, too.
Plan your posts for the next 12 months
Making a content calendar for the next 12 months probably sounds daunting, but it’s an essential part of your digital marketing strategy. To make it less overwhelming, we’ll break it into steps:
- First, think of 12 blog topics, writing and optimising 1 blog to publish each month.
- Then, create 3 social media posts about each blog.
- Save space for 3 links to industry news that’s not from your landscape business. It’s good to share non-promotional posts, too.
- Plan 1 “testimonial” social post per month to highlight kind words from a happy customer.
- Choose 1 day each week where you share a quick video of the work you’re doing in someone’s yard. Even if it only lasts a few seconds, a video is a great way to showcase your work and expertise.
- Space your social posts out so that you’re posting about twice per week.
You can keep track of your ideas by putting them into a spreadsheet. Make a column for the date you intend to publish each blog or social post and a column for links to any useful documents, like your completed blog post. You might want to include a keyword column, too, so you can be sure you’re using the right ones.
3. Learn how to send marketing emails
Direct mail marketing still works in the landscaping industry, but if you have an email list for your clients, it makes sense to send them some marketing emails, too.
An email newsletter is a great place to start. You can include:
- A link to your monthly blog.
- 2 or 3 links to yard care or industry news (you can reuse the ones you’re planning to post on social media).
- 2 tasks you suggest homeowners do for each month to keep their yard in top condition. Ideally, these would be doable for the average homeowner—but slightly annoying, so that they’ll probably just hire you to do it instead. 😉
There are free tools like Mailchimp that will let you upload your email list and send a small number of emails for free. And almost any tool will include email templates that are surprisingly easy to use.
Be sure to send a test email to yourself and one or two close friends before you email your entire mailing list. That way, you can click all the links to be sure they’re working and double-check for typos.
4. Get to know your followers
You work outdoors, with your hands, as far from the virtual world as possible. And odds are, you like it that way.
But your clients are on social media. And so are their friends and family—people who might want to book your services, too. So when they ask a question about their dead plants, answer them. When they wonder whether that dangling tree branch should be pruned this winter, give them your professional advice.
Social media interactions don’t necessarily result in bookings. But every question you answer or message you respond to helps you build a stronger, more professional-looking brand.
Buzz-worthy posts
Remember that your social media page should be, well, social! Make posts fun, and offer deals and discounts to drive a little extra business during the winter months.
Create some buzz around your services by starting a referral program. Offer discounts to clients who refer new business to your company and a first-time discount to your new customers who book your services as a result.
Volunteer to get involved with community events this holiday season, like hanging your town’s holiday lights. It’s a nice thing to do for your community—and you can use it as feel-good content on your social media channels later!
Make sure you look legit
Posting on social media makes your company look active and authentic. Update your contact details and respond quickly to your followers. When they see you’re open for business and ready to help, your company will be top-of-mind when they need professional landscapers.
5. Find a digital marketing tool that makes it easy
You’re not a digital marketer, and if you’re new to the idea, all these helpful suggestions might have you breaking out in hives. 😵💫 So if you’re feeling overwhelmed, here’s something that can help:
Find a (free!) social media manager, like Buffer.
Social media management tools let you schedule your social media posts months in advance. When spring rolls around and you’re too busy to post every week, your social media page will stay active—you’ll have already put in all the work over winter!
You focus on the landscaping, we’ll write the content
When you’re ready to put down the snow blower for an hour and talk content strategy, call The Content Lab.
We’re here to help you get more residential clients and grow your business year-round, even when you’re too busy to tend to marketing.
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