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The Landscaper's Guide To Modern Sales and Marketing Newsletter
MARCH 2022
Use SEO to Dominate Landscapers in Your Town Want to Pop Up at the Top of Google?
2. Do a Hell Yes Photo Test. Low-quality, outdated photos can bring down your SEO ranking — and make or break whether a prospect becomes a customer. I’ve seen it all, from ancient printed photos to blurry iPhone snapshots. You’re better than that! The photos on your website should be extremely clickable and showcase the best landscapes you’ve ever done. Since you get better every year, I guarantee that photo from 12 years ago isn’t your best. Not only do great photos make your website and services more attractive in a Google Maps search, they also help you out with the Google algorithm. That’s why you need to update the shots on your website and your Google listing. The more photos you have and the more recent they are, the higher your Google Analytics score will be compared to your competitors. Remember — if your current photos aren’t a Hell Yes, they’re a no. Prune and replace them now before people start Googling like crazy this spring! 3. Add a “Service Areas” section to your website. Your website needs to include a page where you list the cities, towns, and neighborhoods you serve and the services you offer in those places. This is a key SEO tactic that over 80% of landscaping companies miss out on, which is why it’s part of Ramblin Jackson’s Tree of Good Fortune proven process. When you have a Limb for Each City and a Branch for Each Service, you’ll appear higher on Google searches including those key terms (ex. “Tree trimming in Boulder, Colorado”). As a bonus, prospects visiting your website will also know with 100% certainty whether you can help them and what you can help them with. Win-win! If you’re still worried about recruiting enough talented landscapers to meet the demand your SEO will generate, turn to Pg. 4 and follow the QR code — I’ve got you covered.
A few years back, I made a big mistake: I took a friend’s referral at face value. My wife and I had just bought our first home, and we wanted to renovate our pantry. We were in a hurry, so I called up the company my friend recommended — but I didn’t do any research first. Oh, man, it was a DISASTER. These guys were so uncoordinated that the project took six weeks longer than they quoted. More than once, one of the workers forgot materials at the shop. Instead of fixing the situation, he blamed his coworker and started a fight! Meanwhile, our pantry sat there unfinished. Watching them bicker, I thought, “Dang, I wish I’d googled these knuckleheads.” Had I googled them, I would have discovered their website didn’t even load, they didn’t have a Google listing, and they had no online reviews anywhere. Google is a powerful tool, and it’s the first place your future customers will go when the snow melts this spring. They’re probably already looking out their windows, flexing their typing fingers, and thinking, “Ah, I’m finally ready to do some landscaping!”
To reach and impress those customers when they Google landscapers in your town, use these three quick and easy SEO tips.
1. Ramp up your reviews. As I just shared, a word of mouth referral often isn’t enough to get someone to choose your landscaping company — you need to kill it on Google reviews, too. If a prospect has been burned before, like me, they’ll Google you to confirm that your reputation lives up to the referral. And even if they don’t mean to check your reviews, they’ll see them when they look up your website and phone number! So, I’ll say it again: You need a strong Google rating moving into the spring in order to outperform your competitors. How do you get that strong rating? You ask for more reviews! You should do this after every job, either with an in-person conversation or a follow-up email. This is a simple step that thousands of landscapers don’t take.
JACK JOSTES, CEO RAMBLIN JACKSON
RamblinJackson.com • 1
Read It in Your Truck on a Rainy Day
What Makes Great Employees Stick Around? RAMBLER JESSICA SHARES HER STORY
Jessica Winkler, one of our awesome team members, just celebrated five years with Ramblin Jackson! Looking back on her time here, it’s incredible just how much she has grown. When Jessica started with us in 2017 she was on the heels of running her own online marketing business. She came onboard as a freelance project manager and a year later became a full-time employee. Then in 2020, we promoted her to operations manager!
When we sat down with Jessica to ask what has kept her committed to being a Rambler all of these years, she cited that the potential for advancement within the company was a big factor. “One thing I love about Ramblin Jackson is that we play to people’s strengths and see where opportunities are for them to shine, grow, stretch themselves, and potentially move into new positions. For example, one of our account coordinators just recently moved into a PM role, something they really wanted to do, and it ended up being a really good change.” Jessica also pointed to the camaraderie on the team and our focus on reasonable hours and a healthy work-life balance. As the mom of 1-year-old twins, family time is vital to her! Finally, she cited other perks for working here: her respect for our hardworking clients (her husband works in construction) and our strong core values. As she puts it, those values, “are not just posted on the wall, they’re really something we live by. We talk about them every single day, and they’re very much a part of how we do our work. I think having that foundation in place [is important because] you always know where you stand, and if you fall short then you know where you fall short.”
“When I first started at Ramblin Jackson there were just three of us in a very tiny office in Boulder, and now we’re over a dozen employees, we’ve seen a lot of growth, and we’re fully remote,” Jessica says. “My role has really evolved over time for what Ramlbin Jackson needed, and it has also allowed me to really lean into my strengths and my skill sets.”
If you want to keep long-term employees like Jessica, steal these tactics for your retention effort!
Sell Happiness Without Draining Yourself HOW TO MAKE SALES FROM THE HEART
Give customers happiness, and give yourself purpose. When a business sells happiness, it doesn’t always directly convert into that for anyone else. Maybe they’re not in need of your service or product and simply aren’t receiving your messaging the same way they will later. However, when you shift your focus from selling to providing people with a sense of happiness and/or peace, you might surprise yourself with how meaningful and fulfilling your company’s content, marketing, and overall mission will feel for you and your team. Happiness can’t be bought, but it can be sold effectively to make the world a better place. We hope these tips will help make you and your team become more fulfilled marketers!
In life, you might feel pressured to smile even when you’re unhappy, and the same is true when trying to please customers in your business. As the best marketers know, happiness can’t be bought, but it can be sold. Selling happiness and fulfillment is something companies do every day — and for genuine, great reasons, too. But how do marketers display those positive feelings all the time? How do you remain an effective leader, fulfilled business owner, and ambitious individual when imposter syndrome strikes? Don’t ‘trade’ your happiness every time. It’s hard to approach sales or marketing with a generous attitude if you’re already giving away a lot in your personal life. Do you ever exchange your money for temporary happiness, like a car that you can barely
afford? What about spending too much time on certain tasks you dislike or with a group of friends you don’t really care for? Make conscious decisions to trade your money, time, and effort for happiness — and nothing less. That means cutting out unhealthy decisions that might’ve been useful coping mechanisms at one point of your life but are no longer necessary to help you thrive. Selling happiness starts with possibility. Even when you and your employees don’t feel 100%, remember that happiness starts with a common truth: Anything is possible. When you’re happy, it can feel like the world is full of opportunities. That’s something you want to share with your customers, whether through friendly one-on-one interactions or through your marketing campaigns.
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Read It in Your Tru
TAKE A BREAK
UPCOMING EVENTS The Landscaper’s Ultimate Guide To Recruiting | Virtual Workshop + Course Launch Thursday, March 24 9–11 a.m. MDT The Landscaper’s Guide to Commercial Sales & Marketing Thursday, April 21 9–11 a.m. MDT Get your copy of “The Tree of Good Fortune: The Landscaper’s Guide to Modern Sales and Marketing” at TreeOfGoodFortune.com!
CAESAR EQUINOX GOLD GREEN
FLOWERS FORWARD IRISH LUCKY
MARS RAIN
SPROUT WOMEN
RamblinJackson.com/events
RamblinJackson.com • 3
uck on a Rainy Day
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PO Box 1429 • Lyons, CO 80540 (303) 544-2125 • ramblinjackson.com
1 3 Quick and Easy SEO Tricks for Spring 2 How to Keep Great Employees 2 Make Sales From the Heart Without Draining Yourself 3 Upcoming Events 4 Level Up Your Jobs Ads to Attract Recruits INSIDE
TIPS FROM OUR RECRUITMENT EXPERTS Spring will officially be here in just a few weeks, and you know what that means: a huge spike in demand for your landscaping skills! This is fantastic news … unless you don’t have enough workers to meet that demand. Recruitment is tough right now, but you can set yourself apart from the competition — starting with better job ads. No one wants this job. The ad fails to include a pay range, and it also makes HOW TO WRITE LANDSCAPING JOB ADS THAT ACTUALLY GET RESPONSES
another fatal mistake: It doesn’t center on the applicant. What are their pains and problem areas? How can you solve them? You need to answer those questions in your ad, like this: Needed: Lawn and Tree Applicator Craving a job that gives you independence, satisfaction, and fantastic benefits? Join us and use your skills to fertilize lawns, trees, and shrubs on both residential and commercial properties in exchange for $40,000–$45,000 per year, health insurance, and a 401k.
One of the biggest mistakes landscaping companies make in their advertisements is failing to include an actual pay range in every single job post. It’s tempting to use the phrase “competitive wages” to show that you’re keeping up with the market, but that’s a huge miscalculation. No one can feed their family on “competitive wages” — they need to see a dollar amount! Here’s a simplified example of a bad ad. Needed: Lawn and Tree Applicator Our company is hunting for someone to fertilize lawns, trees, and shrubs on both residential and commercial properties. Applicants must have a valid driver’s license and a clean driving record, and be able to lift 50 pounds. We offer competitive pay and benefits.
Bam — you’ll get calls out the wazoo for a job like that!
To discover more hiring mistakes you’re making and learn how to finally score those Hell Yes Employees, follow the QR code on this page right now and sign up for our new online course, “The Landscaper’s Ultimate Guide to Recruiting,” at RamblinJackson.com/events.
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