Figuring out how to market your small business when its new or you have only a few customers can be challenging.
What’s important to keep in mind is that regardless of your budget or time there are ways for you to market your small or local business to your target customers.
There are many strategies at your disposal that you can use to reach potential customers.
Marketing is what a business does to get customers, and it doesn’t mean you have to do things which require a big budget, large team, or a ton of time.
Today I want to share with you how a lawn care business with zero or a few customers can market itself. We will use creative marketing strategies that are easy to employ and don’t require a lot money.
The Basics of Marketing a Lawn Care Business
Since we are discussing a business that has a few customers or none at all, we will start with the basics. If you haven’t already, decide on a name and number for the business that are consistent and will help you build your brand.
This will help with your word-of-mouth marketing and make it easy for customers to share your business with others.
It will also help with any online listings you create for your business, as this will help in establishing consistency and avoiding any duplicate names or numbers.
Build an Online Presence for Your Lawn Business
For many small businesses social media marketing might be overwhelming. In our approach what you are going to want to do is pick one platform and share one type of content on it.
We want to keep it simple while still having a presence on social media and connecting and sharing with our customers and potential customers.
One type of content you can share is pictures of the lawns you work on. You ask your customers if they are alright with you sharing pictures of the work you have done for them on your social media account.
Another type of content you can share is lawn care, gardening, and other yard maintenance tips. You can even have best lawn of the month winners.
What’s important if you keep it simple and try to be as consistent as you can be in connecting with people and sharing helpful things with them.
Market Your Lawn Care Business by Spreading the Word
For our next marketing strategy what we want to do is pick our target neighborhoods that we want to get business from.
Get some water balloons and pass them out to families in the area letting them know you provide lawn care and that the yards you work on aren’t just for show but that they are also places where kids play.
You are giving away the free water balloons as a safe way for kids to have fun at home. This helps you be different and establish a connection with your community.
Market Your Business by Cleaning Your Community
Another way to market your business is to do a neighborhood cleaning event. Pick a few blocks in your target area and pick maybe a couple hours on a specific date that you help clean up the neighborhood.
If you have a work truck you can write a message on a large piece of paper or cardboard that you tape to your vehicle.
You want the message to let people know who you are, what you do, and that you are here today cleaning up the neighborhood.
Market to Customers by Being There for People
Another way to try to get customers is to market to people when you are on the job. Since some of your work is in front of homes and close to sidewalks you can take advantage of any foot traffic in the area.
There might be people out jogging or walking by as you work. There might even be people in their front yards or nearby business who are outside maybe doing some type of work themselves.
When you come to work bring with you a big jug with something to drink such as lemonade, healthy sports drinks, or some other type of juice and some disposable cups.
Offering a cold and refreshing drink to someone jogging in the area is an easy way to reach a potential customer.
People might even start to recognize you when you are doing work in the area and come by, helping you build a relationship with them and get your business known in the area.
As you can see marketing a small business doesn’t have to mean you need a lot of money or that there aren’t simple and doable ways for you to reach people.
I hope these strategies help you come up with other ways for you to try to get customers for your small or local business.
Leave a Reply