Take a look at our March newsletter!
The Landscaper's Guide To Modern Sales and Marketing Newsletter
MARCH 2023
Expert Advice From 3 Landscaping Bookkeepers! How to Budget for Marketing in a Recession
When the economy starts to get tough, one of the first things landscapers do to tighten their belts is cut their marketing budgets — but this is a huge mistake!
The first person I turned to was Carla Policastro, CPA. She’s the CEO of Cycle CPA, which offers virtual bookkeeping and chief financial officer (CFO) services for the green industry. She told me, “You have to think of marketing as an investment into your business.”
to “close the gap” between leads and customers “might be investing more in their marketing fund than a company that does.” Last but not least, I spoke with Jason New, the founding principal at McFarlin Stanford. He advised that consistent spending on marketing is the best strategy, recession or no recession. “The most profitable companies invest in their marketing consistently,” he said. “To build an audience to grow with their market — assuming the basics are in place, such as a website and social media platforms — these companies [spend] on average 3% of top- line revenue. Once a brand is established in the market, to maintain that brand presence we see companies spend on average 2% of top-line revenue.” I hope you found all of that advice as helpful as I did! Before I go, I have one last tip: To fully understand your cash flow, you must ask every new customer how they found your company and track that data. With that information, you’ll be able to identify exactly how much revenue each marketing source is generating. You can even survey your current customers if you haven’t asked them yet, like I did in the January newsletter! That tactic will help you spot which marketing efforts to cut back and which to keep.
And I’m not just saying that because I run a marketing company.
“During an economic downturn, you may actually want to increase marketing spend. Cash flow issues are one of the major reasons
During a recession, it’s more important than ever for your business to bring in new customers, right? Well, when you stop running your marketing campaigns to save money, you actually reduce your
why companies go out of business, so investing more into advertising allows you to bring that revenue in,” Carla said, adding, “Also [if you’re] relying on word of mouth, think about that. Does that really bring in the ideal clients that you want to work with? When you invest in marketing, you’re able to bring in those ideal clients who are willing to pay for the value you provide.” Next, I chatted with Christeen Era, owner and CEO of the accounting, bookkeeping, and business consulting firm Core Growth Strategies and co-founder and CEO of Green Profit Academy. She said that the best marketing budget approach in a recession depends on your business model. If you aim for a high quantity of clients, you “may need to invest more into your marketing to increase that quantity.” But if you provide quality-based service, your current marketing and nurture campaigns may be enough. Finally, she added that companies that don’t have nurture campaigns in place
odds of attracting new clients. Instead of improving your cash flow, you compound the issue and make it worse!
Here’s the nasty truth: Cutting back your marketing will probably cost you more money than it saves. Of course, there is one exception. You can and should cut marketing campaigns that aren’t producing results. If you’ve been promoting your company on Instagram for six months and haven’t gotten a single lead from it, by all means, stop paying. You don’t have to take my word for it that cutting your marketing is a bad idea. To double-check my facts, I interviewed three bookkeepers who specialize in the snow and landscape industry. Here are their thoughts on the all-important question: “How should I handle my landscape company’s marketing budget during the recession?”
Good luck!
JACK JOSTES, CEO RAMBLIN JACKSON
RamblinJackson.com • 1
Read It in Your Truck on a Rainy Day
HAVEN’T READ IT? NOW YOU CAN LISTEN ‘The Tree of Good Fortune’ Is Available on Audible!
Let’s be honest: Most landscape professionals aren’t big readers. You’re just too busy! On any given day, you’re probably in your truck on your way to a job or sweating it out while working on a project — not kicking back on your couch with a book.
streamline your sales process, stand out from your competition, charge higher prices, cut unnecessary marketing expenses, find more qualified employees, and increase profits. Ultimately, listening to this audiobook should help you spend less time driving from job to job and more time doing what you love to do — like hunting, fishing, skiing, flying airplanes, or hanging out with your family.
If that sounds about right, we have good news: Jack’s book, “The Tree of Good Fortune: The Landscaper’s Guide to Modern
Sales & Marketing,” is now available on Audible! We’re really excited to offer this second way to access the book so the wisdom in “The Tree of Good Fortune” can reach more landscapers.
If you’re interested in learning while you work, look for “The Tree of Good Fortune” by Jack Jostes on Audible.com or in the Audible app. P.S. If you’ve already read the book and loved it, do us a favor and leave a review on Audible or Amazon (the print version is finally available there!). Your recommendations will help other landscapers find this awesome resource and keep their local, family‑run companies in business. Every positive word helps.
Audiobooks are a multitasker’s best friend. Now, while you’re bouncing between jobs (or heck, even mowing your own lawn), you’ll be able to level up your business, too. “The Tree of Good Fortune” will teach you how to stop losing on prices and finally win more Hell Yes Customers. It gives you simple steps to help you
What That Means for Your Marketing ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS EVERYWHERE!
Today, artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the hottest marketing trends of 2023. AI is helping business owners boost their customer experience, better understand their target audience, and measure and judge for optimized growth. But what exactly is AI marketing, and how can it benefit you and your business? What is AI marketing? Companies will use AI technology to make automated decisions quickly. It collects and analyzes data, observes economic trends, and develops strategies faster than any human can. AI marketing software can take on a wide range of responsibilities, such as data analysis, consumer trends, and content creation and personalization.
But how does AI compute and calculate this information? Whose data and trends is it looking at? Because AI marketing is used to help businesses improve their customer experience and understand their audience better, the best data for AI to use would be yours — the business’s customers. AI will analyze customer data and notice specific trends that will help it predict your actions on apps, websites, and other media. With this insight, companies can use these trends to create personalized content just for you in a matter of seconds. What are the benefits of using AI? One of the biggest benefits of AI marketing is that it gives you a better understanding of your consumers. This means that
your automation will be faster and more intelligent and can positively impact your company’s revenue and ROI. AI can also generate personalized content both on social media and in emails that will attract your customers. In addition, because you’re using technology to create content, AI won’t make any costly mistakes. AI marketing doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. In fact, it’s expanding its channels by improving customers’ experience using chatbots. The marketing tool will improve business’s messaging services to provide customers with a better chatting experience. Chatbots could even integrate into sales, lead generation campaigns, and other customer service channels.
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Read It in Your Tru
TAKE A BREAK
Schedule a 15-minute Marketing Brainstorm with our Senior Landscape Marketing Strategist, Robert Felton! In just 15 minutes, Robert will: • Offer game-changing feedback on your marketing ideas. • Find gaps in your existing campaigns. • Discuss your best marketing strategy. • Share next steps for success! This is a quick, easy, no pressure call — and we’ll even send you beef jerky or candied almonds for your time. Visit LandscapersGuide.com/call to schedule your Marketing Brainstorm today. Ready to Level Up Your Marketing and Get More Hell Yes Customers? WINTHESPRING.COM Thursday, Mar. 9, 2023 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. MST Registration ends soon! Bring your sales, marketing, and operations teams to our half-day virtual event and Win The Spring!
BASKETBALL BOOKS
GUINNESS IDITAROD LEPRECHAUN POPCORN
RAINY SHAMROCK SUFFRAGE WINDY
DAFFODIL DAYLIGHT
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uck on a Rainy Day
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1 Marketing Budget Advice From the Experts 2 ‘The Tree of Good Fortune’ Debuts on Audible 2 One of the Hottest Marketing Trends of 2023 3 It’s Not Too Late! 3 Take a Break 4 An Inside Look at Win The Spring INSIDE
JOIN US AT WIN THE SPRING! A Virtual Event Sharing Cutting-Edge Landscape Technology
The experts from LandscapeHub will walk you through their cutting-edge process of digital plant procurement. Think of them as the Amazon for plants, rocks, mulch, and other landscape materials. Place one order with them, and they’ll snag your choices from your favorite local suppliers. It’s so much easier than driving to the nursery and filling out an order form, and you can still buy local — just in a more organized, automated, and systematic way. You’ll take the stress out of your vendor relationships while keeping them strong. The pros from Team Engine will also be on hand to talk about ways to leverage communication, like texting, to increase employee retention. It might sound crazy, but a simple message saying, “Hey Gary, how are you doing? Do you have everything you need for your project today?” can convince an employee to stay instead of ditching you in the middle of the busy season. There are only a few days left to register for Win The Spring, so don’t miss out! Scan the QR code to register, or visit WinTheSpring.com right now.
I live about 1,000 miles away from my parents, and the distance is tough on my mom. We talked on the phone, but she missed seeing my face every day. Things only got harder when my kids were born. She missed her grandsons like crazy after every visit. Then, something amazing happened. We discovered FaceTime! Now, Mom can see Whalen and Wyatt’s big smiles and chubby cheeks whenever she wants to. FaceTime isn’t a replacement for in-person visits, but it’s an excellent complement to them. Why am I telling you this story? Well, technology can improve your business just as much as it has improved life for my family — and I’ll show you how at our Win The Spring virtual event on Thursday, March 9! Win The Spring is a 2.5-hour event packed with information about how to make your company more efficient by leveraging the latest landscape technology and systems. We’ll have two special guests to show you ways technology can make your life easier.
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