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On this episode of the Profit Roadmap, we’re talking with Tony Ricketts, the founder and CEO of Lawnline Marketing.
We cover some great topics, including:
If you haven’t heard of them before, Lawnline Marketing is a unique marketing company that helps companies in the lawn and landscaping industries.
They also offer complete marketing services instead of just piecemealing things out. They take a holistic approach to marketing including websites, SEO, paid ads, and even social media management.
Tony admitted that the lawn and landscaping industry isn’t known for being sexy, but this was a booming industry that he was familiar with.
When he was in college, he was on a landscape crew and did a lot of softscape installations and landscape management.
Tony was looking for an edge, and his knowledge plus a desire to help the companies he worked with see quick results led him to choose lawn and landscaping.
One of the unique things about this industry is that the cycle from lead to client is pretty short–you can run a few paid ads and then get a customer quickly.
Tony also liked that there wasn’t a lot of competition in this space, as there weren’t very many marketing companies solely focused on green industries when he got started.
But the biggest factor for Tony was that he realized trying to scale a marketing agency that worked with all types of business was really tough, and by putting his focus on lawn and landscaping he could really grow his own company.
The trends in marketing are always changing, but there are a few important things Tony says you should focus on this year.
Looking at your data and analyzing your numbers is key to finding the best channels for you.
For example, Tony noticed that the cost of Google ads had gone up significantly over the past year.
It was still a good platform for ads, but the smart move was to shift marketing dollars to other platforms.
Some of the latest platforms he’s noticed are TikTok and Nextdoor, and he has done quite a bit of testing on both.
He’s looking to see what is working on these platforms to boost conversions and then make that a repeatable process.
That said, even though platforms like TikTok are newer, they don’t quite have the audience targeting dialed in like Facebook or Instagram do.
Check out different targeting options in ad platforms for different channels (like Google, Facebook, etc) to find your ideal audience.
He says that there is a lot of information that can be found in how effective your strategies are, and for a lot of lawn care and landscaping companies this can be tough… especially since it takes so much time!
This is a unique skill set, and many companies don’t have someone in-house to take care of that, which is why he recommends working with a professional company.
The types of companies that Lawnline works with are looking to grow.
That means they have money to invest in marketing, and they are able to take on new clients.
Tony says that the majority of businesses that work with Lawnline are getting 200+ leads per month, and if you’re not a place to take on lots of new business, it can be difficult.
That means having the right team, software, and processes in place to serve more of your community.
Tony talks about how he recommends Service Autopilot to his green industry customers as it is easy to keep track of your clients and leads and make sure that data is going to the right places.
For example, imagine someone fills out a quote form on the website. If they use an SA form, that data doesn’t have to be reentered and it is associated with the client’s account in SA to easily take the next steps.
As we like to do on the Profit Roadmap, we asked Tony his thoughts on AI.
He said that AI is a misunderstood technology that does have some major limitations.
Tony compared AI to a tractor used by farms–it didn’t replace farmers, but it did make them a whole lot more efficient.
Simply put, AI is a tool, and Lawnline has even developed some of their own technology to help with content creation.
That said, they still use human editors to go through AI-generated content and make sure that it is correct and is in the correct voice.
Want to learn more about Lawnline Marketing? Be sure to visit their website or give them a call at 813-733-5376.
Related: Boosting Employee & Customer Satisfaction with Applause HQ
The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Summon the Rawk by Kevin MacLeod
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/4434-summon-the-rawk
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Tags: Podcast, Profit Roadmap
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