In my spare time, I’m obsessed with gardening (and yes, there’s dirt under my nails as I type this.) So, I take particular joy in writing copy for landscaping companies.
Landscaping is a fascinating industry, combining artistic vision, keen business sense, and thankless hard graft. Anyone who owns a landscaping business deserves hearty respect for the beauty and biodiversity they add to our neighbourhoods and towns.
But if there’s one thing I’ve learned writing website and blog content for landscaping companies, it’s that the industry’s competitive landscape is challenging. (So sorry. I couldn’t help myself.)
A landscaping company owner spends every second wellie-deep in garden design and haggling for the best price on hard landscaping materials. That leaves little time for marketing their business.
So here are my tips (as a content writer with a love for all things landscape design) on writing copy that will elevate your landscaping company’s website and blogs to catch the eye of potential customers.
Your landscaping services are not for everyone
One of the trickiest truths to learn in marketing is that no one’s services are for everyone. And that truth applies to landscaping companies, too.
If you try to market to everyone, you will appeal to no one. Marketing works best when it feels personal. To feel personal, it has to be personal, meaning your marketing copy has to be written with a particular customer persona in mind.
Think about your best customers, the ones that are a joy to landscape for. Then, consider what they have in common. You may find similarities along the lines of:
- Hard landscaping vs planting projects: Consider whether you gravitate towards hard landscaping or planting projects and whether you’d like to do more of that type in the future.
- Budget ranges: You may feel too much pressure to deliver on large-budget projects. Or you may prefer the grand scale of a high-end challenge.
- Recurring vs one-time customers: Think about whether you’d rather provide routine maintenance for clients or if you would like to deliver a stellar project and then ride off into the sunset like a romantic landscaping cowboy.
- Design aesthetic: If you prefer designing a specific type of landscape, chances are those clients align with your ideal customer.
When you find what your favourite customers have in common, you’ve taken a massive step towards identifying your ideal customer. Your landscape business’s marketing efforts should focus on speaking to the customers you want to work for.
As you write copy for your website and blogs, write with your ideal potential customers in mind.
Pro tip: When you write your website copy or a blog post, keep one of your favourite customers in mind. That way, your writing will always be personal. You’ll be surprised how many people feel you’re writing “just for them.”
Remember the customer problems you're trying to solve
After identifying your ideal potential customers, list the problems you solve for them. Clients chose to work with landscape companies to solve issues such as:
- Lack of time to maintain their yards or gardens
- Lack of expertise to design or build hard landscaping projects
- Lack of knowledge about planting to achieve the desired aesthetic
When you write copy for your landscaping marketing, discuss those pain points and how your company is the ideal solution.
Keep the copy focused on the client and their problems, and show them how much easier their life could be when they work with your landscaping service.
Pro tip: A potential client reads your website because you’ve a) struck a personal chord on a problem they can relate to and b) you’ve shown them why your services are the solution to that problem.
Be specific about your landscaping specialities
You’ll attract better leads for your landscaping business by calling out your unique landscaping specialities.
Identify the services at which you excel. (Naturally, they will likely align with your favourite clients from above.) In your landscaping marketing, mention these specific services as positive attributes of your business. You should conduct keyword research to explore how prospective clients speak about services like yours in their searches.
Not only does this tactic help attract customers searching for your services, but it also helps with your search engine optimization (SEO). SEO for landscapers is most effective when your website and blogs contain the keywords most relevant to your business and interesting for your customers.
Search engine marketing hinges on high-quality website copy that attracts clicks and entices users to stay longer on your website. Search engines love that sh*t, and they’ll reward you with higher search results rankings.
To secure a better position on the search engine results page, include a healthy serving of mentions of your speciality services and dedicated services pages.
Plus, speaking about the specific services you offer will help readers who are a bad fit for your services self-identify as such and leave your website without clogging up your sales funnel. Harsh, but true.
Pro tip: Your landscaping website should include a separate web page for each of your speciality services. Describe your services in detail on each page. You can add more keywords to each page by including a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section. And remember to add each page’s meta description and meta title!
Emphasise your landscaping company's unique value
Akin to the unique services you offer, your website and other digital content should share the values you hold as a company. These could be attributes of your company, like being a 3rd generation family-owned business, or values you hold dear, like promoting sustainability in landscaping.
In the old days of marketing, we tried to position our products to appeal to a certain demographic based on age, gender, income, geographic location, etc.
Some of those tactics may still be relevant. For instance, you’ll likely focus on a specific geographic location to avoid targeting customers wildly outside your service area.
But more importantly, you should consider your customers’ “value graphics.” Value graphics are the values your customers have in common, the shared values that make them say “yes” to your services.
Your family-owned company may appeal to customers’ value graphics because they, too, value family. Valuing family means they want to spend more time with theirs, and hiring a landscaping company for yard maintenance allows them to do so. See how that works?
Pro tip: Read your online reviews to tap into your customers’ shared values. You’ll see what value-based belief makes them say “yes” to your services. When you find it, use it to attract more ideal customers.
Present with professionalism and polish
You’d never leave a job site untidy, so don’t settle for sloppy marketing content. A crisp, well-written website reflects positively on your business. If you look professional online, you’ll position your landscape business as the skilful, experienced choice for landscaping services.
Pro tip: Catching typos and rewording lengthy sentences requires paying close attention to the copy. Take a break from writing your website or blog copy before you attempt to edit it. Better yet, ask a friend or colleague to edit for you.
Make professional copywriting part of your marketing strategy
At The Content Lab, we help landscapers market their business and break into Google’s search results with informed, targeted copywriting.
Successful marketing and SEO for landscapers starts with remarkable copy. We’ll help you attract ideal clients and search engines alike so you get more high-quality leads to find your website, read about your services, and submit a contact form.
With copywriting experience for all digital content – from websites to meta descriptions to eBooks – we’re well versed in creating copy that impacts your search results, your lead generation, and your bottom line.
Talk to our founder Abby (abby@thecontentlab.ie) to explore how we can help you create compelling digital content for your landscaping business.