Frustrated with not getting good leads from your website?
You are not alone.
We uncovered some pretty common mistakes many of our clients were making on their website.
We outline these common mistakes and what you should do in our FREE eBook Guide to Making Your Website a Lead Machine.
It’s time for your landscape website to do the heavy lifting. Download our Landscape Lead Machine eBook and start converting more of your traffic into workable leads for your business.
Getting traffic to your landscaping website is an obvious first step you’ve focused on in your marketing. Perhaps you have AdWords campaigns running on Google, television commercials airing, sponsorships at local events, billboards strategically placed around town… you have the visibility that is gaining attention to your landscape company and traffic to your website. The problem is, you are not seeing this traffic convert into more leads. You have more traffic to your website than ever before, but you are just not seeing an increase in customers. There is no correlation between this increase in traffic and the number of leads. What gives?
This problem is something we like to call Website Traffic Evaporation. Website Traffic Evaporation is the traffic that comes to your website and disappears without a trace. These website visitors have made it a point to come to your website but, for whatever reason, they leave without filling out a form to schedule a consultation or a meeting. Once gone, the likelihood they return is not great. So how do we combat Website Traffic Evaporation? We think this guide will provide some answers. We cover the following:
The Guide for Making Your Landscape Company Website a Lead Machine is perfect for any business with challenges in turning website visitors into leads that will eventually become customers. It was created by Neon Goldfish as part of our mission to help landscaping companies improve their website and online marketing strategies.
Let’s start off with a staggering statistic.
It is estimated that 95% of the visitors to your website are not ready to make a decision.
This means that only 5% of the visitors that you attract to your website are at the point in the buyer’s journey where they are ready to make a decision and move forward with contacting someone to help them.
95 out of every 100 Visitors are not ready to buy
They are not ready to contact you to schedule an appointment.
They do not want to talk to someone from your sales team.
Where most landscaping websites fail is not catering to the other 95% of those not quite ready to move forward. This group of site visitors is still learning about their problem and researching options to solve it. They are searching for more information they will use to progress through the Buyer’s Journey eventually moving them into that 5% group that will take action.
So how do we connect with this larger group of visitors not quite ready to buy?
It starts with Getting to Know Your Website Visitors.
We’ve created a simple checklist for your next marketing campaign to drive actionable results. Grab your inbound checklist before your next launch and make sure it’s ready to go before you launch.
There is no doubt that you have most likely identified a target market for the marketing campaigns that are driving the traffic to your website. The standard demographical information is essential for just about any outbound marketing campaign so you are well positioned in front of potential leads for your landscaping business. Additionally, you want to make sure you are NOT exhausting resources (time and money) to get in front of individuals that are not a good fit for your clientele. This still is not enough. You need to dig deeper. You need to create and focus on your buyer persona.
A Buyer Persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal clients. They represent that perfect client you wish would walk in the door and purchase one of your services.
You might be asking how a buyer persona is different than a target market. That’s a fair question.
The buyer persona does include demographical information such as age, income, geographical location, and maybe even interests as a portion of its total composition. A buyer persona dives deeper and looks at the challenges this semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer has. It looks at their goals, where they spend their time, the actual language they use, and common objections they have to do business with your landscaping company.
Your buyer persona will be the guide you reference for everything. The text on your website will be catered to their challenges and goals. The images you use will connect with them. The content you create on your blog and the headlines you use in your marketing campaigns will speak directly to what matters most to them.
A common pitfall seen on a lot of websites is the copy focuses on talking about the business and how great it is. It positions all types of features and benefits about the company and rarely speaks to how it will help the visitor solve the problem they are trying to overcome or the goal they are trying to achieve.
This all sounds great, but I’m sure you are asking how to go about creating a Buyer Persona.
Interview Current ClientsYou likely have existing clients that would be more than happy to share some of the details needed in creating a Buyer Persona. Focus on some of your top clients and compliment on how great of a client they are and ask if you could interview them so you can attract more customers just like them. Nothing beats a one-on-one conversation, but an online survey might make sense if you have a large group you want to collect feedback from.
Get Feedback From Your TeamConsultation meetings and talks with prospective clients all day, every day. They have an inside track on the goals, challenges and objections of your Buyer Persona. Talking to them about the prospects that did not turn into buyers will be extremely helpful.
Good Old Fashion ResearchAfter talking to your best clients and consultants, you should have a good feel for your Buyer Personas. Put yourself in their shoes and turn to the Internet for additional insights. Try to search like they would search. Find blogs, industry resources, or forums they might reference. Digest what is being talked about.
We want to help you understand your target audience and their buying habits.Instead of marketing to everyone, market to your ideal customer. We’ve created a step by step process to help you identify and better understand your customers.
We will walk you through:
Get this free template and more by downloading the NGF Landscape Buyer Persona Template
Now that we have a buyer persona created, we need to explore the journey that a potential client of your business will travel during the process of making their decision. This is called the Buyer’s Journey. You will see that these three steps pretty much apply to every purchasing decision we make. Anything from buying a cheeseburger for lunch to choosing the landscaping company that will provide the tools needed to begin or further advances our home values.
Pay special attention to this section as the steps correlate with the two groups of site visitors we are focusing on. The 5% of your website visitors ready to buy are in the Decision Stage. The 95% of visitors leaving your site without a trace are in the Awareness and Consideration Stages.
Potential clients in the Awareness stage understand that there is an issue that they’re trying to solve. They may be interested in making an improvement to an existing situation they have, or they may be trying to solve an underlying problem. In either case, they’re not really sure what they need to do to make things better. They know that some symptoms exist, and they’re starting to do some research on the matter, such as which landscaping business might have a better deal.
One way to help them out is to offer an eBook to help them with their research. This not only helps potential clients figure out the best way to solve their problems, it also gives your company the opportunity to build credibility – bringing this future client one step closer to being a loyal customer.
Once a potential client goes beyond Awareness, they move into the Consideration stage. While this phase is a little more involved, they are now one step closer to making their final decision.
In this stage, potential clients have clearly identified the problem they are looking to solve. Their main focus now is in more refined research. Identifying these potential clients and being ready with a video testimonial from an already loyal
client or a comparison of different services positioning yours as the optimal choice is an effective way to take them to the third and final stage – the Decision stage.
The third and final stage in this progression is the Decision stage. In this stage, future clients know what they need. They will likely be ready to conduct a consultation with your company. They’re ready to buy. Guiding your web traffic into this stage involves careful attention to detail and a willingness to share information.
With several different options, potential customers will go with who they trust, and developing that trust involves understanding the perspectives of potential clients as they exist in each of these stages. The goal here is to build credibility while educating.
Converting more website visitors into leads often requires making some modifications to your website. Below are three key areas that can be improved on most websites that will have an impact on converting more visitors into leads.
A value proposition is a concise statement positioning the value you bring to the table. It explains how you can solve the potential client’s problem. It clearly states the benefits. It tells them what makes you different from all the other companies they are considering. Your value proposition needs to answer the following questions:
A value proposition is something that is read and can be understood instantly. It is usually composed of the following:
Place your value proposition on the home page of your website above the fold. This is the real estate that is visible when a potential client visits your website before they begin scrolling down the page. It should grab their attention and instantly let them know they have found a solution to their problem.
The action that you want the site visitor to take can be anything. Here are some examples:
These CTAs lead to additional content often in the form of a landing page containing a gated content offer they will find valuable enough to exchange information to obtain.
To be clear, we are still focusing on the site visitors in the Awareness and Consideration Stages of the Buyer’s Journey. This is that website traffic that is not yet ready to directly interact with us but needs more information so they can progress to the Decision Stage.
These content offers provide your site visitors with the information they are searching for to solve the problem they are having or achieve the goal they desire. They’ll find it somewhere on the internet, so why not be the one that provides it to them?
When you provide content that is helpful during the Awareness and Consideration Stages of the Buyer’s Journey, you gain a few distinct advantages over everyone else.
Too often, these small details are seeds not planted in the beginning stages of the buyer’s journey and end up being “selling points” that we try to force into the mix during the Decision Stage. Plant seeds early and you will be surprised how much betterThe sky is the limit when it comes to content offers you could create as valuable resources for your buyer personas. Focus on solving their problems and you will be headed in the right direction. Here are some common content offers.
Email SubscriptionThe most basic opt-in offer. Website visitors will follow those that present value. Do you have great content on your blog or podcast? Do you send out valuable insights to your subscribers? Using a simple email signup form on your website to build your audience is an excellent tool.
eBook / GuideAn eBook or guide is typically a multi-page PDF document that covers a specific topic in detail or is a step by step guide teaching your buyer persona how to do something that will help solve their problem.
ChecklistA checklist is a list of specific actions that need to be covered for completing a certain task. Think of this like you sharing your “secret” recipe where each list item is the ingredients coupled with details on how you make your special dish.
Case StudyThis is a real life story of how you solved a problem for yourself or a client. Case studies help your buyer personas identify with a real life problem that is likely similar to something they are facing. The explanation of how you solved this problem builds credibility instantly. Share as many numbers/metrics to quantify your success
Comparison SheetWhen it comes down to evaluating options, nothing works better than a side-by-side comparison. A comparison sheet places several top options next to one another noting the attributes of each revealing which options have common and independent features the buyer persona will find important during making their final decision.
InfographicAn infographic meshes graphic design with story telling to deliver a single image that drives home a message. These visually engaging designs are usually full of statistics that support the infographic theme.
QuizQuizzes are a series of questions that your buyer persona will answer to reveal an outcome that will help them with their problem. They can be used to show the best program from your company for their interests.
CalculatorA calculator helps your buyer persona understand the outcome of the variables that go into an equation. These calculators are excellent tools for driving value. Examples of this are showing the lifetime earning potential of a particular landscape project over time to justify the investment in time and hard work.
VideoVideo is growing like crazy and rightfully so… it is accessible everywhere. Take advantage of this engaging medium by telling your story using video. Create proprietary videos as opt-in offers. Perhaps it is a video going through the key attributes of potential clients that best fit your program.
Online CourseWhat better way to teach your buyer persona more about alleviating their problem than through an online course. Setup a short mini course that helps them tackle a small problem. This will build trust and increase the conversions for them contacting your company to tackle a project.
Now comes the time to roll up your sleeves and apply everything we’ve just covered. Below are some simple steps you can follow to begin. This will take some time to plan and implement so be sure to physically mark time in your calendar to devote to each of these actions. It will also take time to see results so be patient. This is far from a “set it and forget it” campaign.
Marketing to the masses causes headaches and long days spinning your wheels. Work smarter not harder and start connecting with the people looking for your specific services. Grab your Buyer Persona template and learn who your best customers are and what they have in common.
Stop wasting precious website traffic. Only when you truly understand the future clients of your landscaping company can you create content they will find valuable at all stages of the buyer’s journey. This content will build trust and credibility as the authority that helped them research, understand, and solve their problems or challenges.
Neon Goldfish helps landscaping companies make the most out of their marketing budgets. We take the time to learn about the goals of you and your business so we can customize a solution that will increase consultation scheduling and retention.
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