Staying At The Top Of Their Mind
Let’s face it – while your customers may be at the top of your mind, you probably aren’t at the top of theirs. After all, they are busy, which is why they hired you. But if you want your marketing efforts to pay off, you have to get yourself to the top of their minds (or at least close!) Here’s one way to do that – with an email newsletter.
Why is an email newsletter better than a paper newsletter? Well, to begin with, cost. It is much less expensive to press the Send Button in your email program than it is to cart 100 or 200 folded paper newsletters to the post office and pay postage for them.
Also you can afford to send communications much more frequently. As often as weekly wouldn’t be out of line. Keep in mind, the more often a customer sees your message, the more likely they are to eventually buy your offer (just don’t over do it with the emails – you don’t want to be compared to a spammer!)
Use HTML Templates for consistency
It’s a great way to brand yourself. If there is a consistent theme to all of your emails, and they all look alike, only the content is changed, your customers will recognize your newsletter and maybe even look forward to receiving it. You can achieve consistency in look by using an HTML template. These are widely available online, many for free.
Not Too Long, Just Short and Sweet
A newsletter in email format doesn’t have to be as long as a paper newsletter either. Really, if you received a single page, paper newsletter, with only a single article o the front, maybe an ad for one of your services, and not enough content to fill the back, let alone another page, you wouldn’t perceive much value from it, would you? I know if that newsletter showed up in my mailbox, it would probably find its way to the recycling bin pretty fast.
But an email newsletter is just the opposite. It needs to be short and to the point. It needs to be packed with information and a call to action in a relatively short space.
Your customers will stop opening your emails if they always require 30 minutes to read. Email is supposed to help us get things done faster, not tie us up.
Short messages at regular, frequent intervals will help to keep you at top of mind position with your customers.
What Information Would You Put In A Newsletter?
Timely, useful information. For example, in the Spring you could let your customers know what weeds are getting ready to germinate. And how they can prevent it. If you use great detail to explain the process, it may convince them to use your service. After all, you just showed them you know your stuff well enough to explain it, and after all those steps it just sounds like it would be easier to hire you.
If you’re experiencing a drought, you need to let your customers know about the benefits of xeriscaping – and that you are the local expert.
You could create a series of articles that explain the most common threats to lawns in your local area. And the answers to the threats which leads to your service which just happens to address each of those threats.
The subject in the email newsletters can be very specific or very general as long as it is useful to your customers. One successful strategy is to make them useful, but incomplete. There is enough information to be of use to the customer, but they need to contact you to get all of the information.
For example, to use the weed germination scenario, you could write about all the weeds which are about to germinate in thier lawn, how to identify them, what its going to make the lawn look like, and generally how the lawn could be treated with a pre-emergent herbicide. For the exact chemicals, methods of application, etc. they could contact you, or, of course, they could hire you and forget these weeds ever existed.
The Goal In Marketing Is To Get Sales
Be creative, but not over the top. You want your message to be remembered, not your marketing. All your marketing has one goal – to get more sales, not to win awards. Don’t worry about creating the perfect newsletter from the start. Just get started and perfect it as you grow.
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