LawnTeX Magazine Issue 2 3 | Page 4

Often we never think our goals will have a horrid outcome. As a marketer I love what I do and I do it well. Being in lawn care marketing I have a lot of goals and I do not like failing. But more often than not we find ourselves wondering what happens when things go wrong? Well it's a task and it can truly be tiring when your entire lawn care marketing plan goes up in flames.

Developing a lawn care marketing plan in 2012 I stepped way out of my comfort zone. At the time there were a ton of new websites poping up all over and I though hmmmmm.... I can pay for all of my leads and they will sell great. I set sky rocketed expectations and to be completely honest I failed myself pretty much instantly. Having a strong head and at the time being a young but dedicated marketer I thought I had my plan under wraps. With about $12,000 I jumped all in with a few online lead sites and payed ads. Yelp being on of the companies I strongly pushed and used.

After 3 weeks or so had passed and we were averaging the cost of $130 for each sale I knew something was way off. I at the time did not realize it but I had not been utilizing the simple skill set you learn day one. I avoided my customer bases habits and I had to turn it around. With a little over half of my marketing budget down and nothing going my way I had to develop something and quick, or my failed lawn care marketing attempt would be the least of my worries.

It was during this time that I came up with F.M.R.P or what is better know as my Failed Marketing Recovery Plan. I can remember clearly to this day cracking open a bottle of beer one night after work, a few sips down it had hit me. I needed to make an action plan that would work for me and get the job done the quickest and most efficient way possible.

It was July 2012 that I built this plan and followed through with it. I navigated my marketing back to our more traditional approach, and worked very hard for 90 days to turn the campaign around. That season we ended with 300 new customers and a lot of it was really getting back to the simple basics! Below I will show you how to pull your marketing year out of the dumps!

1. Look back at what worked the best in the past, pull your three best resources and spend an adequate amount to get the results you need. Yes, you may have been looking to pull away from your old lawn care marketing plan, but for this period of time it

2. Use happy customer referrals, I have seen it grow business by up to 50% depending on size, and word of mouth is the best advertising. This is a way to almost always GUARANTEE a quality deal!

3. Set reasonable expectations for yourself and your budget. Do not think just because you spend a bit you will have a million new customers, this is a campaign and it will need a few seasons to be tweaked to perfection. If you constantly make crazy changes your results will be all over the board.

4.. Keep proper analytics and tracking information so you know what channels are working for you, and which are not! This is key!

If you follow these steps you will be well on your way to getting past your bad marketing experience! Keep focused and pushing forward!

What happens when lawn care marketing goes wrong? wrong...