Best Inbound Marketing Strategies for Tree Service Companies
If you aren’t familiar with inbound marketing, the easiest way to explain it is by describing what it’s not. It doesn’t disrupt users online experience like YouTube ads, social media ads, email lists or other offline forms like TV ads and cold calling. Inbound marketing is very natural and organic. It fits neatly into the user’s existing habits. As people are surfing the web trying to find information on goods and services, you appear as a solution to their needs. You actively attempt to put yourself before them in a non-disruptive manner. If someone goes to google looking to hire a tree service and you appear in the search results, that’s a type of inbound marketing (SEO). If they have a question and find an article on your blog that answers the question, that’s another form of inbound marketing. Inbound marketing attempts to earn the user’s attention by providing quality content that solves their problems or fits their interest.
It’s hard for businesses to get started with inbound marketing. It requires time and much dedication to reach success. Early on your investment will not bring back a high rate of return. Your first articles or posts will not garner much attention. But overtime as you keep at it, you will notice that you’ve started to gain momentum and things get much easier. For this to work you have to understand and accept that there will be no immediate gratification. It will feel like you’re failing at first. It will require much patience on your part.
If this is so hard and time consuming, why should you invest in inbound marketing? It’s cheap. Well cheaper than TV, radio, print or PPC campaigns. Eventually the cost of client acquisition will decrease to levels you couldn’t possibly hope to reach with traditional advertising mediums. Strong inbound marketing strategies and infrastructure will make your business very durable and able to bring in revenue without having to spend a lot on advertising. After all, almost every business owners top complaint or wish is that they would like to be able to bring in new customers without having to spend so much to get them.
Here are the best inbound marketing strategies we know of for tree service professionals.
Write a blog
It seems like everyone has a blog these days or even a Vlog, that’s a video blog, so how could it possibly help you to start one so late? If your competition is doing something and you’re not, do you not think that could be a problem and an area you’re missing out on? One of the fundamental ways that people interact with the internet is to seek knowledge. Billions of search queries occur every year where people are trying to find the answers to their questions. You need to be able to provide those answers so you can gain their business in the future. There’s also a SEO element to it as Google loves fresh content. Having a well-maintained blog shows Google that you are a good source of information on tree care. Your website will then be ranked higher as more and more people go to you as a source of information. Blogs also establish your brand and help you build a reputation with your customers. As they start to view you as an authority on tree care, they will be more likely to recommend your services to friends and family. Word of mouth advertising is invaluable and you cannot put a price on it.
Social Media
Social media is great for small business like tree services that don’t have a lot of cash to invest in advertising strategies with a low rate of return. Buying a good camera that provides great pictures and videos would be a much better investment than an ad on TV or radio. Let people see the good work you do. Share on your business’ Facebook and Twitter so your happy customers can share how great you are.
One social media platform many aren’t aware of is Pinterest. It’s wide open right now. Pinterest is all about sharing interesting images, videos and topics. Those interested in seeing beautiful trees or captivating before and after pictures will pin your content. This will help you build your brand and build your online reputation with Google leading to higher rankings. The more people value your content, with links to your business’ website of course, by pinning and sharing it the more valuable links you will be able to achieve. Along with increased traffic. Make sure you have a variety of images and videos so you can cast a wider net.
Online forums
Find forums on tree service, create a profile that clearly identifies your business and engage with the online tree service community. Here you can build relationships with other tree service professionals and future clients. Maybe if you know of someone in their area that needs tree care you can pass along that lead and they will be willing to do the same for you in the future. Plus, it’s another way for you to grow you online reputation as an authority on tree service and build your brand at the same time.
Inbound marketing is hard and it takes time, but if you stay dedicated and devote your time to really growing you inbound marketing strategies it will pay off for years to come and greatly increase the value of your company.
