Marketing Tips for Lawn and Garden Marketers
It’s Time to Start Thinking About Fall
It’s hard to get motivated about Fall sales when the temperatures have climbed past 90 degrees, but for lawn and garden services and retailers, July marks the end of the summer selling season. It’s time to start thinking about Fall marketing efforts and to get prepared for the lawn and garden rush that begins after Labor Day.
The local lawn and gardening business has always been competitive, and Fall 2016 will be no exception. Staying top-of-mind will be key to business success as more and more retailers and lawn service flood the Central Pennsylvania market with promotional messages.
Frequency is Key to Top-Of Mind Awareness
Top-of-mind awareness is a powerful marketing goal. When consumers put a business into that small set of names they
remember first, they’re also highly likely to patronize that business over less familiar names. Top-of-mind awareness also increases a business’s value to consumers. It is an image enhancer. When customers familiar enough with a business to assign it top-of-mind awareness status, they’re also much less likely to be price sensitive with that business. They’re, also less likely to shop around. They stick with the businesses they know.
One of the most effective ways to build top-of-mind awareness is through frequency. Frequency is a marketing term that refers to how often a consumer will see an ad. High frequency means consumers see the ads repeatedly. Repeated exposure to ads results in heightened awareness. And if these ads have relevant content that customers care about, that awareness can quickly escalate into top-of-mind awareness for the business.
Smart lawn and garden services here in Central Pennsylvania know they can create top-of-mind awareness with regular advertising in a major medium, like newspaper. Newspaper is an especially desired format for lawn and garden businesses, After all, LNP readers tend to be 40+ homeowners with families and a yard. Advertising in LNP not only offers affordable way to reach homeowners who care about their lawn and garden, it also offers special Fall sections developed to engage homeowners looking for ways to improve their homes, lawns and gardens this Fall. Contact us to discover all the ways your lawn and garden business can build strong awareness with LNP.
Reinforce the Message with Social Media Marketing
Newspaper are a great tool for creating top-of-mind awareness. However, when businesses combine newspaper with targeted digital campaigns, they can amplify targeted reach quickly with relatively inexpensive programs designs to build on core messages. For example, if a lawn care business promoted a series of “fall cleanup” ads in LNP, they could also target those readers again with social media ads that allows prospects to click through to a website, or find a special offer on a stand-alone landing page. Our LNP Media Group teams can help you map out synergies like this, and can also create and place social media ads, develop landing pages and proactively optimize campaign performance daily, to ensure your business gets the best results possible.
Effective Advertising Won’t Work if You’re Not Ready for the Leads
While mixing traditional and new media is a key part of growing a lawn and garden business today, there are still some old-fashioned basics that make the difference between success and failure.
Media makes the phone ring (or emails or texts ping.) However, no matter how prospects contact a business, crackerjack sales teams must be ready to take the call (or email or text) and start selling quickly.
Make sure your team is ready to handle new leads. Consumer expectations have changed. They now expect quick responses, and if you’re not ready to answer quickly, they’ll move on. For example, If someone expresses interest on your website, have someone contact them within five minutes to close the deal. And like in the past, you need to look at the bigger picture when creating a marketing plan — which could include a mix of old and new channels.
The Trifecta of Lawn and Garden Marketing
When you combine a strong print campaign with a creative social media effort, and have a team in place that is ready to respond and sell quickly, you’ve set yourself up for record Fall sales. If you want to learn more about how LNP Media Group can help you create a marketing trifecta, or how we can employ our wide range of marketing and advertising tools to take your marketing efforts to the next level, contact us today and we’ll create a custom plan that makes sense for your business.