So you want to develop more landscaping leads and grow your lawn care business but you don’t know where to start? It’s time to consider video marketing, a digital marketing strategy that ticks all the boxes!
Most small business owners have been led to believe that video marketing is either too difficult or too expensive. The truth is, some of the most successful video marketers have no background in digital marketing or video creation.
Like it or not, video marketing is among the biggest business trends. According to Elite Content Marketers, 66% of people said they’d prefer to watch a short video to learn about a product or service. Meanwhile, 18% would rather read a text-based article, website, or post. Additionally, video generates more engagement than any other content type on Instagram and is the fastest-growing advertising tool on Twitter.
Bottom line, businesses that aren’t video marketing, will be left behind.
We get it, trying anything new can be intimidating. That’s why we’ve outlined basic video marketing steps to help you out-market your competition!
Identify Your Landscaping Customers
As is the case with any marketing strategy, you need to start with your clients. It’s crucial to have a solid understanding of your target audience to properly market your lawn care services to them.
To create a client profile, consider the following questions: Where do your clients live? How old are they? What industry do they work in? How much income do they earn? What religious/cultural values do they have?
Answering these questions will help you determine who your targeted clientele is and how to appeal and relate to them. All of your digital marketing efforts should focus on creating messages that resonate with your audience.
Another way to understand your landscaping customers is through a keyword search. This technique is also used in written content. However, for video content, you can conduct your research on YouTube. Simply start typing what your clients are looking for in the YouTube search bar (‘grow grass from seed’ for example), and watch as suggested search terms auto-populate—these are the top related video searches.
A keyword search will provide topic ideas for your marketing videos. Use your audience profile along with your keyword search as a starting point for the next phase of video marketing, creating your script.
The Perfect Video Marketing Script
Once you identify and understand your audience, it’s time to consider the tone of your video. Will your video be funny? Serious? Informative? Educational?
Your message as well as how you deliver it is critical as you are trying to connect on an emotional level with your target audience. Do you want to come off as strictly professional or do you want to incorporate a little humor into your video? The choice is yours and depends on what you are most comfortable with. Just remember, the goal is to reach a large number of potential clients very quickly and stand out in people’s minds.
Next, you’re ready to start your script. When creating your video script, keep in mind these three points:
1. Your video should be relatively short, between 2-5 minutes.
2. Your message should focus on what your audience is looking for, not just advertising your lawn care services.
3. Always provide a direct call to action at the end of every video encouraging viewers to contact you either by phone, email, or your website.
Once you’ve learned how to identify your lawn care customers and create the perfect video script it’s time to produce and distribute your video!
If you don’t consider yourself an expert behind the camera or working with video editing software, technology is on your side! Today’s smartphone cameras and webcams provide high-quality results and can sufficiently get the job done. Plus, with access to hundreds of free and affordable apps and resources, there’s no reason you can’t produce a high-quality marketing video.
Lights, Camera, Action
When creating a video to market your lawn care services, there are several aspects to consider, starting with the camera. Whether using a high-resolution camera, a smartphone, or a computer webcam, be sure to stabilize the camera while shooting. This may require using a tripod.
Next is lighting. Proper lighting will make all the difference in the overall quality of your video. Make sure the room where you are recording is well lit. Avoid backlighting which will make the subjects in the video appear dark.
Sound quality is as equally important as lighting. The shooting location should be free from background noise. The speaker in the video should speak loudly and clearly. Even inexpensive microphones can produce decent sound quality as well as reducing unwanted noise.
Finally, editing will most likely be needed. With practice, you might be able to shoot your entire video perfectly in one take. However, most videos will need some level of editing. Start by recording multiple takes of each video segment. You can edit and cut the clips later.
For someone with no editing experience, this may seem daunting. Fortunately, many computers come standard with basic video editing tools, and your smartphone app store will also have a multitude of apps to download for basic video editing needs. Look for instructional editing guides on YouTube or hire a freelance editor from Fiverr.
Posting Your Video
Once your marketing video is ready to share, you’ll need to decide where your potential clients will see it. It’s incredibly easy to publish videos and distribute them to anyone around the world, for free. Below is a list of the most important platforms to post your marketing video.
YouTube
YouTube should be the first and most obvious place to share your video. As one of the most highly trafficked websites in the world and the second-largest search engine behind only Google, you can’t go wrong with marketing to landscaping clients on YouTube.
Social Media Channels
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram are making much more of an effort to incorporate video content into their platforms. Not only should you be sharing your marketing video on these platforms but regularly utilizing them to connect with current and potential clients.
As with any new marketing strategy, there is a learning curve that requires a fair amount of trial and error. As you gain experience writing out a script, finding the perfect lighting, and stringing together your best takes, video marketing will soon become second nature. Get ahead of your competition and start advertising your landscaping services with video marketing today!
For more lawn care advertising ideas, check out the marketing features offered by Automated Landscaper Marketing.