I hear a lot of “reasons” why online marketing “doesn’t work for tree care companies.” The thing is that those “reasons” are just myths. They’re simply not true. But since we hear the same myths over and over again, it’s easy to get sucked into believing it.
Want to know the REAL truth about online marketing for tree care companies? Keep reading!
Tree Care Marketing Myth #1 – Digital Marketing Is Too Expensive
It’s tempting to look at digital marketing as “just another business expense.”
But, when done well, marketing is an investment that pays for itself in new business.
Many of my clients have yielded significant revenue increases. For example, an arborist I work with in New Jersey landed a $5,000 job from just $100 in ad spend. I have another client regularly spending over $6,000 per month on online marketing because they see the results.
It delivers a clear ROI at a much lower cost per lead than radio or TV advertising, print ads, door knockers or any other marketing you’re probably doing right now.
Tree Care Marketing Myth #2 – No One Clicks On Those Google Ads
What you’re really saying is you don’t click on ads that don’t interest you or are not believable.
According to Forrester Research, businesses will invest over $103 billion on online advertising by 2019 – with a special focus on search marketing, display networks, social media advertising and email. That’s more than they spend on TV and cable.
Do you think they’d be spending all that money if it wasn’t resulting in more business?
Tree Care Marketing Myth #3 – All our business comes through word of mouth. We don’t need to invest in marketing.
If you get a lot of referrals, great! That means your customers really like your work.
But be careful about relying exclusively on referrals. All it takes is one bad online review to turn the flow of referrals into a slow trickle.
What happens if your leads dry up, decreasing your revenues, while your expenses stay the same? Yeah, it’s not a good outcome …
You’re much better off with a system that generates new requests for an estimate whenever you need them.
A good system generates a consistent source of leads for a “safety net” if you’re not getting enough calls from existing customers. It also stabilizes your cash flow and, best of all, it’s under your control.
Tree Care Marketing Myth #4 – We tried digital marketing in the past – it didn’t work then so it’ll never work for our tree service business.
The real question is: why didn’t it work for you?
Often, it’s due to one of the following factors:
- Ads that don’t capture the interest of potential customers
- You haven’t clearly defined or targeted your ideal audience
- Generic landing pages (or even worse, no landing pages) with a boring marketing message
- Poor website design that doesn’t encourage visitors to contact or call you
- Not making it clear what you want your customers to do next
It’s usually a symptom of a deeper problem – you’re missing a clear online strategy that drives the marketing tools and tactics you use. And that shows up in ads that just don’t work.
Tree Care Marketing Myth #5 – Any local digital marketing agency can handle tree care marketing
A lot of local agencies have clients in many different industries, but that doesn’t mean they understand the tree care industry.
As a result, you pay for market, industry and customer research in the first couple of months, instead of paying them to bring in more business.
And, because they don’t understand the terminology, how work gets done and what kind of work you do, you’ll often find yourself having the write the ad and website content yourself. Do you really have the time or interest in doing that? If you do, why are you hiring an agency?
Tree Care Marketing Myth #6 – Any writer can create good content for our tree service website
A lot of tree care businesses hire an intern, English major or office assistant to create their website content. And then they wonder why no one visits their site or calls them.
Creating content that brings in quality traffic and then turns a visitor into a customer requires a very specific skill set. It’s not just about having a good grasp of the English language and “writing well” – it’s about salesmanship, SEO and conversion optimization.
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