The Present & Future of Marketing for Landscape, Hardscape & Outdoor Living Contractors

In this conversation, Josh Blakeley discusses the current and future landscape of marketing for landscape and hardscape contractors. He emphasizes the importance of online marketing strategies, including SEO, paid advertising, and leveraging social media to generate leads and grow businesses. The conversation also covers the role of AI in marketing, the significance of optimizing websites for conversions, and the necessity of tracking marketing efforts to ensure success. Blakeley provides actionable insights and strategies for contractors to enhance their marketing efforts and achieve better results.

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1. What we will cover today Why you can have all of the best tools in the world for generating online reviews but still fail at consistently driving 5-star reviews How to tap into the power of multi-channel communication (Email, SMS, Physical) to increase your review count Online reviews are a TEAM SPORT and to succeed you need to get the entire team on board & bake a focus on reviews and reputation management into your team culture Why you MUST acknowledge and respond to all your reviews (good, bad & indifferent) How to have all of this taken for of you (completely turn-key) so you can focus on your business & let your reputation speak for itself

2. Why Listen to Me? We’ve help generate millions in sales in the landscape and hardscape contracting space using highly effective local & regional marketing strategies for the past 6 years. As of this moment we’re profitably conducting online marketing for over 70 companies & generating over $1.2M per month in revenue, for our current clients & partners.

3. This is what we do… Our mission as a company is to help our clients increase their sales & grow their revenues as a direct result of our services. We care deeply about our client & their results. The whole team rallies around our client successes and we celebrate as a team when they expand their fleet, grow & hit their goals. We look forward to helping you take your Landscape & Hardscape business to the next level!

4. Some Of Our Valued Clients

5. FAIL Won’t be able to keep the phones ringing, bids being made & business booming

6. Success Maximize your lead flow & hit your sales goals

7. Takeaways What did you learn? What did you notice? What would you like to share?

8. Takeaways What did you learn? What did you notice? What would you like to share?

9. How Do You Own the Internet in Your Area?

10. They Tried A Few Different Things 1 2 3 4 Google Local Services Ads Google Ads Google Maps / Google Business Profile Website

11. Your Landscape & Hardscape Company

12. The Result?

13. Let’s Apply This To YOUR Business

14. Let’s apply this to your business

15. Your website is the HUB

16. SCENARIO 1: 180 Visitors per Month 5% Conversion 9 Calls / Leads 30% Conversion 3 Booked Jobs $12,500 Average Transaction $37,500 SCENARIO 2: 180 Visitors per Month 15% Conversion 27 Calls / Leads 30% Conversion 9 Booked Jobs $12,500 Average Transaction $112,500 Why is conversion optimization SO important? Triple the Leads & Revenue

17. How do we optimize for conversion?

18. 12 Critical Elements to Enhance Conversion Speak to your target avatar. What are their fears and frustrations? Why should they choose you? BE REAL - Use authentic images of your team on the homepage & throughout the website Use video & multi-media elements to engage different modalities Website welcome video Videos for each of your services Video explaining why someone should contact you vs. the competition Leverage social proof - Showcase your online reviews prominently on the home page Get the basics in order Phone number in right hand corner Ensure that there is a web form customers can fill out Add credibility with authority symbols (Associations, BBB, Lead Services etc.) Ensure you have clear calls to action on each page that speak to your customer avatar & tell them exactly what to do next Use special offers & coupons that match the service they are in need of Make sure your website is mobile optimized with an easy click to call function Leverage Live Chat Start giving clients the option to book ONLINE SITE SPEED MATTERS Engage via SMS & Phone via Marketing Automation

19. Be Real & Authentic

20. Leverage Video & Multimedia - Project Galleries

21. Showcase Social Proof

22. Showcase Social Proof

23. Get the fundamentals right

24. Leverage Live Chat

25. Is your website mobile friendly? 4.8 billion people now own mobile phones 3 out of 5 consumers search for local businesses on their smartphone Google reports that 40% percent of mobile consumers turned to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile web experience

26. ACTION ITEMS What can you put in place to increase conversions?

27. Does SEO Still Matter?

28. YES! SEO Still Matters You can’t rely on Pay-Per-Click Alone

29. Landscaping Keywords

30. On Site Optimization Strong website with good content & user experience (UXO vs. SEO) Leverage Multi-Media to improve on-page time Pages for each of your Services Pages for the Cities that you serve Unique Content & NearbyNow to pass heat map data to the city pages Unique Content on every page Keyword in the Title & H1 Meta Description that SELLS The click Name, Address, Phone Number in the footer Blog with ongoing updates / syndication Focus on PAGE SPEED desktop & mobile

31. Off Page SEO Claim & Optimize Google Profile Listing Get lots of citations across the web Build Up Online Reviews leveraging best in class tools like JBL Connect etc Build authoritative links back to your website from other websites Strategic Content Syndication Join local organizations

32. Are you building links & authority? Once the pages are built & optimized it’s links to the page that determine placement More than 70% of the battle is getting links. He who has the most QUALITY links WINS!

33. Are you actively building links to your website?

34. On Page: Pages for each service / main cities Optimize Titles, H1s, URLs, Images, Etc Unique content for all pages GBP Claim & Optimize Maps Add to YEXT or some other citation management platform Add to major data aggregators Put system in place for driving online reviews Add new citation on an ongoing basis Ongoing Content Push new blog post out and syndicate via signal engine Signals Leveraged Expertise, Authority & Trust Multiple do-follow links back to the website, GBP listing & internal pages on the client site Multiple Map Embeds Fresh content on the client site

35. Do Google Maps Matter?

36. YES! Google Maps Matter

37. Our Proven Formula for getting ranked in the 3 Pack

38. ACTION ITEMS What do you need to put in place to improve your organic rankings?

39. Is Your Foundation Strong?

40. Are You Taking Advantage Of Paid Online Marketing Opportunities? Google Ads Google Local Service Ads Meta (Facebook & Instagram) Ads Microsoft Ads

41. Why Most Pay-Per-Click Campaigns Fail Set up only ONE ad group for all services Don’t use specific text ads and landing pages for groups of keywords No strong call to action or offer in the ad or on the landing page No lead follow up

42. ACTION ITEMS What can you do to drive better results with Paid Advertising?

43. M ore repeaters business & more referrals =

44. Are You Active On Social Media? 1.6 Billion Users Average user has 135 friends Check’s in 6-9 per day

45. Are You Leveraging Email Marketing?

46. Are You Leveraging Email Marketing? Send an eMail after every service call requesting a review Send an eMail a few days after service asking them to engage on Social Media Send out a Monthly eMail Newsletter to remain top of mind and drive more repeat & referral business

47. Here is the problem 50-60% of inbound leave unconverted 90% of webforms fail to convert

48. Here is why Leads that are not followed up within 15 minutes go cold The average customer must be followed up with 5-7 times before booking Today’s consumer prefers to interact via text message vs. phone call or email

49. Here is the solution Leverage marketing automation to follow up with webforms within the first 2 minutes of submission via Phone, email & text message Automate the follow up so that every prospect is touched 5+ times and able to engage via 2-way text messaging

50. SCENARIO 1: 180 Visitors per Month 5% Conversion 9 Calls / Leads 30% Conversion 3 Booked Jobs $12,500 Average Transaction $37,500 SCENARIO 2: 180 Visitors per Month 15% Conversion 27 Calls / Leads 30% Conversion 9 Booked Jobs $12,500 Average Transaction $112,500 Lead follow up is CRUCIAL! Triple the Leads & Revenue

51. Lead follow up is CRUCIAL! A utomate and leverage AI to… Triple the Leads & Revenue

52. ACTION ITEMS Can you put marketing Automation in place to streamline your follow up & maximize your conversion rates?

53. Do You Have The Tools In Place To Track Your ROI?

54. Watch Traffic Trends with Google Analytics Track your online ranking for important Keywords Utilize call tracking phone numbers on your website, Google Business Profile, Paid ads channels Put a CRM or some other tracking tool in place to track lead sources and billed amounts (JBL Connect) Do You Have The Tools In Place To Track Your ROI?

55. How Are You Doing?

56. ACTION ITEMS What can you do to drive better results with Paid Advertising?

57. THE FUTURE OF MARKETING The shift from "PHONE Call" to "SMS / Online Booking" for conversion Prospects preference for live 2-way SMS chat on your site / social profiles (Google, FB) The increase in popularity of short video platforms especially for Brand Awareness - FB, IG, YouTube & TikTok Companies who embrace automation / speed to lead will have a competitive advantage The true winners of marketing in the future will understand the need to convert a 1 time lead into a repeat buyer that uses you again / again & refers you to others. You MUST create systems with automation to create that outcome Tracking must shift from simple call tracking / projected ROI to actual ROI tracking Leverage AI across all areas of your business

58. ACTION ITEMS WHAT WILL YOU IMPLEMENT?

59. ACTION ITEMS Get your free copy of our Marketing Checklist & Website Analysis https://landscapecontractormarketing.com/marketing-checklist