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PRO

Is Social Media Marketing Worth The Effort?

A question for all of you landscapers and gardeners out there - and the suppliers too.  How much time to you spend on social  media marketing (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin etc) and do you think it benefits your business?  I'm a fan and find it's really helpful for awareness and for building strong relationships with clients.  If you'd like to connect on social media - pop a link in the comments and I'll look you up.

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  • PRO

    I'm the total opposite, I find you are competing against the doley brigade and idiots and when you are charging a competitive rate people think they should be paying £10.00 per hour.

    • PRO

      I find more tangible connections work best like getting known at the local garden centre by staff its also a hub as you can introduce yourself to other services or garden designers  who advertise on the notice board if you require their services , most are on whatsapp and connections are formed which lead to work . 

      Have tried nextdoor which is handy for local community awareness , plenty of people into gardening offering and needing advice and although you can register your business the leads have proved very passive .

      Interestingly had some good leads off Bark although the return rate is low because most people never seem to return your response , no courtesy  but the ones which have were genuinely seirious about  wanting some quality work carried out most were signed up to social media sites but chose to go down a different route . 

      Good to learn it works well for you ,Having good links to your website , services and helpful advice its the perfect medium , Have you tried more unconventional marketing routes such as publications , have you taken a stand at trade shows etc ?

  • PRO

    I agree with Dave... actually pitching for work on social media gets all those after the world changing for £10 an hour.

    I use FB and Insta to share fun stuff or interesting stuff, primarily with clients. Your welcome to look at the occasional posts....just search Honest Services.

    I get business through reccomendations, the website and Bark.

     

  • Hi there,

    I think if your offering very specific tailored work and want the right client to find you, then it's a no brainier.Say  for example my style of design is unique to me and my area, I only use white and green as my colour palette, As far as I know , no one else offers what I do.There would be of course , quite rightly, plenty of people who would be horrified by that style anyway. But if you tailor your Instagram or fb account to what you offer,  the idea is you attract only those potential favourable clients to you. Flies to the ointment!! An architect colleague of mine has told me that ALL of his work now comes from Instagram.He even pays a company to do his posting! That's staggering if you think about it. I think if your business minded or just want to cherry pick the best work that suits you then this it's a must Just my opinion ,as one of the worlds least business minded people!!

     

    have a nice easter

     

    paul

  • PRO

    i agree with Dave far too many bottom feeders using social media promoting gardening for £10 hour etc.

  • PRO

    We get phenominal results for Social Media, but the messaging has to be right,  it is not about pitching for work or quoting rates, not the approach we adopt.  It is all about the customer not about us - it is about customer engagement and adopting a long term strategy.  Give it a try you might be surprised.

     

    • Do you mean that client has to recognise themselves in your messaging?? And in that way you attract the clients you want and vice versa??

       

      have a good weekend

       

      paul

      • PRO

        Absolutely Paul, it is all about the messaging, you are spot on it is about them recognising that you would be able to help them - so before you post you need to develop personas for the customers you want to attract.  You then design your web content and FB/Instagram/Linkedin messaging accordingly - doesn't have to be about the services you offer it is about establishing an understanding and relationship with these personas.  Followers and potential customers, of the type you want to attract will recognise that you are the type of business that can help them and enquiries will follow, no need to mention money, ne need about a race to the bottom in terms of hourly rates - but it is a medium/long term strategy.  Finally, remember it is all about the customer, be outward looking.  This seems to work for us.

        • PRO

          Its a very interesting approach Richard i can understand how it attracts customers . 

          many businesses like to present their business profile in the best light and list their services , showcase their talents to perspective customers it also adds credentials , reassures perspective customers that we are reliable and honest , attracts reviews etc . This is the way i was taught to approach advertising my services . 

          I advertised in publications which was very effective in attracting enquiries but not always the ones i wanted and not all converted to work , also wasted alot of my time . 

          I made sure my services were highlighted in the copy , nice logo , the usual stuff adding one offs to regular maintenance , competitive rates (whatever they are ) . 

          Main problem with this was having to book my advert for Six months which meant paying for months i didn't need to advertise I wasted alot of money and alot of time dealing with enquiries and sometimes customers sold themselves to me to at least visit their property after telling them i had no capacity and i would bite because it sounded like a good opportunity but not always the case . 

          I decided to stop advertising in this way since i have a customer base which fits in and relaxed my approach , I was too intense about my approach in general so just went with the flow , Took time to chat more to customers and people . 

          I now have one Advert which goes against everything i was doing before and i did it for fun and because its free a hand scribbled message on a post card which simply says '' gardener available ''  my own name ( not my business name } and mobile number . 

          Lists no services , makes no claims or self promotion , somehow its proving very effective , i tried this last year as an experiment and it worked but this time the wording is minimal . 

          I have a theory that when we advertise and sound too good we also sound very expensive and i have never found a customer who is attracted to expensive .

           

  • I never advertise. I have no need to. Now, I am doing maintenance, which is primarily mowing and hedge/shrub cutting and very occasional chainsaw work, a lttle spraying and these days only very rarely any landscaping. If however you are primarily landscaping, then different rules as regards advertising apply, to a certain extent.

    What has naturally happened is that I have built such a large network of clients and contacts that the work just finds me. I don’t have to chase it down, it just turns up. So my reputation is my advertising.

    Most of my work is commercial. By that I mean PCCs, Local Councils, Schools, companies/businesses and Chatsworth Estate. There is of course some domestic work also. After many years of this you become well known, trusted and are the ‘go to’ person. The commercial work does mean that you are in contact with more people per job than you would be with domestic work and this in turn multiplies the network of potential new clients.

    As an example of how it works, I have two clients who live across from each other. The first one used to work for Chatsworth Estate. They contacted the individual who manages all the contractors [third in command over the entire estate] to ask for a recommendation for a gardener. I then got a call from this Chatsworth Manager to ask if I wanted my contact details passed on. This is totally independent of my contract work for the estate and was merely a word of mouth recommendation from someone whose judgement could be trusted.

    So I started mowing for this chap and then soon after his friend and neighbour asked me to do her mowing and hedge/shrub cutting. It just snowballs along.

    Another fairly recent example would be that I was approached by someone I know well who lives opposite the council cemetery on the edge of the village where I was mowing. He is on the local PCC for which I had been mowing at an isolated and historic country churchyard. He came to introduce me to the new Rector, the Rectory being next door to him. Two years later I am still looking after the garden at the Rectory.

    This way of gaining new clients avoids the tyre kickers and the cheap labour brigade entirely because these new clients come through existing contacts and so the ground rules of engagement are already established. They are the right sort of clients to start with. It is close to a 100% success rate of new client adoption.

    It costs nothing. It also wastes no valuable time filtering out the chaff.

    If doing maintenance there really should not be the need for a constant supply of new clients all the time [unless you are expanding]. If there is a high turnover of clients, there must be something wrong.

    If I ever need anyone to do anything [plumber, electrician etc.] I always use someone I know personally or someone I know of and who comes highly recommended. I would never respond to an advert, wherever the advert was placed.

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