As a landscaping company, you need a steady stream of loyal clients, and you need to attract new landscaping customers to your business, too, but you don't want just any old clients—you want local customers who are happy to pay for the services that are core to your business. Strategic landscaping marketing and branding help you find those clients.
That’s why branding is such a vital part of marketing, and why it should be part of your overall landscaping marketing strategy. We'll explore landscape branding, keeping in mind its golden rule—be consistent.
Why is consistency so important for landscaping marketing and branding?
Your prospective clients want to work with a landscaping company they know and trust. On the surface, that doesn't leave much room for a new company to gain traction in the market. But consistent branding can help. Here’s how:
It builds trust and recognition
When locals start to see your landscape business represented around town and online, they become familiar with it. They recognize your logo and they start to feel like they know your company, even if they've never used your landscaping services before.
It helps customers see you as a professional
Consistent branding also builds your business's reputation in the community. Branding raises your visibility, and consistency makes you look polished and put together—two attributes customers definitely look for in a landscaping company.
A unified brand shows current and prospective customers that you're reliable and experienced. They're happier to trust you with their yards and their business.
How can a landscape business ensure brand consistency?
Every piece of content that represents your company—from direct mail campaigns to digital marketing—should look and sound like it belongs to your brand. Here's how you can carry your brand through every part of your digital marketing strategy and beyond.
Look consistent
If you haven't established a company brand, you need to, and a good place to start is the visual identity of your business. We're talking about the logo, fonts and color scheme that you use on your company website, social media posts, email marketing strategy—everywhere your brand shows up.
Start by creating a logo that speaks to your ideal client. If you need a little more guidance, a gifted branding agency can steer you toward smart choices for fonts and a supporting color scheme.
When you're happy with your visual identity, use it everywhere! Stick to the logo, fonts and colors you've chosen, and don't stray from them in any of your marketing materials. Every little piece of correspondence should feature that design.
Sound consistent
Digital marketers use "brand voice" to represent a brand's persona using language. Your company's brand voice consists of the tone, words and phrases you choose to use (or not to use) when you represent your company.
Brand voice is powerful. It can make your company feel light, fun and engaging, or strong, reliable and established. For instance, using contractions and simple language on your website and in your paid advertising will make your brand sound less formal and more approachable—establishing a "friendly neighbor" persona that puts readers at ease. On the other hand, if your company caters to landscaping customers like business parks, hospitals and schools, you might want to appear buttoned up and extra professional. Your brand voice will reflect that by skipping the contractions, using a more formal tone, and using the proper landscaping terms instead of simple language.
However you choose to represent your company, be consistent. Use the same type of language everywhere—from your biggest billboards all the way down to the contact details on your website.
Consistent brand voice boosts search engine optimization (SEO)
When you use the same keywords to talk about your services, search engines notice. They'll start giving you a higher place in their search results for those words.
As a landscape business, you'll want to attract clients within a 30-mile radius, give or take. So, your brand voice should include local terminology and references whenever it's natural and appropriate. Local SEO practices like these help you climb the search engine results when people are looking for landscaping in your service area. That way, local businesses and residential clients are more likely to see your website when searching for local garden design or lawn care services.
Plus, "sounding local" makes you more attractive to your local clients! It's another piece of brand building, and it's essential to fostering a brand-client bond based on familiarity and trust.
Extend your brand…consistently
With your visual identity and voice in place, it's time to train yourself and your staff to keep it consistent everywhere.
Traditional marketing
Whether you're designing a new flyer or planning an appearance at a community event, all your materials should be branded. Use the agreed-upon fonts. Make sure your logo is visible. And use language in your ad that sounds like it belongs to your brand.
Digital marketing
Carry your branding through to your online marketing, too. Your website should only contain the fonts and colors you've agreed upon, and your logo should be visible on every page.
Make sure your Google Business Profile contains up-to-date contact information and features your logo. Use your logo on your social media channels, too, and when you interact with followers online, remember that you represent your brand. Stay true to your professional brand voice (even if some of your followers make it difficult).
Customer experience
Every interaction between your company and your clients—whether it's an email, billing letter or phone call—should be branded. Including official letterhead and email signatures, business cards and invoices—every touchpoint should feature the approved logo, fonts and colors.
Staff Training Helps Everyone Feel Prepared
It might be tempting to take full control of your brand voice to make sure it stays consistent, but it's important to get your entire staff on board. When you empower your staff to use your brand voice, they'll feel more confident performing their roles—plus, they'll love being included in your company's growth.
Working with a digital marketing agency, especially one that knows industries like landscaping well, can really help you hone your messaging and make an airtight plan to keep it consistent. Consider finding a green industry-focused digital marketing agency to spearhead your efforts and keep them on-message.
When you and your employees deliver the same quality customer experience to every client, you'll build an unshakable reputation for brilliant customer service. Great service grows brand loyalty; brand loyalty grows companies. And just like that, you're in the growth business again!
