How to market your gardening business

How do I market my gardening business?

Marketing is all about enhancing your business’ profile. To attract more customers, you need to get your company name out there.

Building your brand is an essential part of any gardening businesses’ marketing plan. Improving brand awareness will help you to increase your customer base and make more sales.

The first thing to do to get your marketing strategy up and running is to decide on an approach. Today, digital marketing is an essential part of growing any business.

According to recent statistics, almost half of all adults carry out online research before making a purchase or contacting a company. Your online identity is the first interaction most
customers have with your brand. Therefore, it needs to be the best it can possibly be.

Carrying out some traditional marketing alongside your digital marketing plan is also a good idea.

Traditional and digital methods for marketing your gardening business

Traditional marketing involves all advertising that is done offline. It can be highly effective as a business growth tool and includes:

• Print marketing (brochures, leaflets, flyers, etc)
• Brand signage (vehicle stickers, shopfronts, sponsorships)
• Branded assets (gardening business cards, workwear, paperwork, etc)
• Newspaper and magazine adverts
• Mail drops

Digital marketing, on the other hand, is all done online. When you create a digital marketing strategy, it’s important to ensure that your brand is consistent across all areas of your online presence. This is called omnichannel experience and it creates consistency and helps to build trust.

Building a professional gardening website

A user-friendly website is essential for any gardening business. Your website will often be the first contact potential customers have with your brand. It must be a good one to encourage people to choose you.

When creating a website for a gardening business, some important things to include are:

• Your business name, logo, and tagline
• Contact information (telephone, e-mail, online contact form)
• The area you service
• The services or products you provide (eg. landscaping, maintenance, or winter gardening work)
• Pictures of your previous gardening work
• A simple method to make an appointment or request work
• Customer reviews

If you’re quite computer savvy, you can build your own website using website design platforms such as Squarespace and WordPress. Alternatively, you can hire a web designer to build your website for you.

The importance of online customer reviews

As mentioned above, customer reviews are an integral part of your digital marketing strategy. Positive customer reviews help you to attract potential new customers.

Many people will avoid a company with bad or no reviews. Therefore, having a review section on your website is extremely important.

Your customer reviews should be easily accessible on your company website. They should also be posted on third party review sites or on industry accreditation websites such as Checkatrade and be visible on your social media profiles.

Boost your gardening business with SEO

A website is essential for marketing any gardening business. But, if nobody can find your website, it’s pretty much pointless. That’s why you need to make sure Google recognises your gardening business name. That way, you’ll actually appear in local searches.

There are millions of websites on the internet all competing for similar search terms. To ensure that you rank in online searches, you need to have an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) strategy.

Whether you optimise your website yourself or hire a marketing agency, here are some important things to consider.

• Use keywords relevant to your business and location (eg. Gardening services in [location])
• Ensure your website design is user friendly and optimised for mobile phones
• Post regular content about your work trends in gardening
• Include your company name and contact details on every web page
• Include links to your social media profiles

With a fully optimised gardening website, your customers will be able to find you far more easily.

Grow your social media following

Alongside your business website, you need to be active on social media. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter are often where customers interact directly with your gardening business.

When using social media, make sure that all your accounts are consistent. Post regularly about your work. And always respond quickly and politely to any questions, requests, and complaints.

To promote your business on social media you can share videos and ‘before and after’ pictures of any installations. Post tips or professional gardening advice, such as the best times of year to carry out different jobs in the garden.

Focus on e-mail marketing

So far, we’ve mainly spoken about attracting new customers. Perhaps the most important part of a successful gardening business, however, is customer retention.

An e-mail marketing campaign is an effective way to target your existing customers. It can be used to promote special offers, provide service upgrades, and talk about new services.

E-mail marketing also helps to keep your business in your customers’ minds. It will remind them of the work you’ve done for them in the past, strengthen your customer relationships and build trust across your client base.

When planning an e-mail marketing campaign, some important things to remember are:

• Include information about any new services you offer
• Provide details of special deals and discounts for existing customers
• Use a strong subject line to interest your customers (eg. Is your garden Winter ready?)

When setting up an e-mail marketing plan, avoid sending too many ‘salesy’ messages. For every direct sales message you send, you should also send out several informational messages to keep your customers engaged with your business.

Why not join Checkatrade?

Finally, perhaps the most effective way of marketing your gardening business is by joining Checkatrade! As a Checkatrade member you get instant access to a wide range of benefits.

With over 3 million homeowners searches per month, being part of the Checkatrade database is a great way to promote your brand and grow your gardening business.

Why

Win more leads

In 2023, there were over 908,000 job searches for gardening work on the Checkatrade website.* That shows existing interest, with more gardening customer leads to tap into.

Grow your reputation

Checkatrade use the tick that homeowners trust, helping you to win more business. People know what to expect when they’re looking for Checkatrade tradespeople.

Get discounts and benefits

As a Checkatrade member you get exclusive access to trade deals, saving money on business essentials to help you stay profitable.

This includes making savings on equipment, van leasing, insurance, workwear, and much more.

Sign up today and start maximising your business’ true potential! We even offer free advice on how to create the perfect marketing plan.

FAQs

How can I promote my gardening business?

There are many ways to promote your gardening business. As mentioned above, a combination of digital and traditional marketing is the most successful method.

How do gardeners advertise?

You can advertise your gardening business through your website, social media profiles, print marketing, local newspaper ads, and word of mouth.

What is the best place to advertise gardening services?

Placing ads in local magazines and newspapers is a good way to target people living in your area.

How can I get clients for my gardening business?

As mentioned earlier, to gain more clients, you need to have a marketing strategy with both digital and traditional methods.

Can a gardening business be profitable?

Yes. A gardening business can be highly profitable. You will, however, need to take time to build your company and develop an excellent reputation to see your company thrive.

Content disclaimer: This content has been created for general information purposes and should not be taken as formal advice. Read our full disclaimer here.

* Internal search data from users of the Checkatrade.com website in 2023