As a business in the home and garden industry or a home improvement seasonal contractor, understanding how to attract new customers is paramount to success and longevity. One effective way to gain a more significant following is to cater to loyal customers, inviting them to come into your store to meet your staff and witness firsthand who you are as a brand. You can also reach out and make a concerted effort to connect by phone, text, or email to inquire about your services and products, gauge satisfaction, or answer any questions a customer might have. This type of enthusiasm and customer service will stay at the top of their minds and inspire them to keep coming back because they know you will provide them, every time, with the service and quality they expect.
The key is getting existing and potential customers in the market for a product or service to choose you over the competition. Here are some effective marketing strategies to help home improvement companies create the right offer to motivate and attract new customers to their business.
Know your target audience
Understanding your target audience and how to reach them at the right time will help you make smarter decisions that will positively impact your business. For example, are the folks you’re trying to get your ads in front of more likely to respond to an educational resource, a limited-time offer, a BOGO, or a discount for referring friends and family? Research what excites / motivates them and eventually gets them to make a purchase, plus bear in mind who typically makes this type of decision in their household.
The more you know why they NEED your particular product or service, and what their most common path to purchase is, the more you can use this information to your advantage to shape a message and offer around that.
Inevitably, partnering with the right media consultant with the wherewithal to assist / guide you, using best practices to strategically present the top type of offer that will resonate with your targeted audience. Thorough research and working with an agency will ensure you spend your marketing dollars in ways that will likely produce the greatest return on investment (ROI). For most businesses, combining direct mail and digital mail via postcards or coupons (QR codes, web addresses, etc.) is a great place to start (and/or continue) your ad journey and is par for the current marketing course. Few things are more effective than offering first-time customers (and existing customers) savings and promotional deals that will get them to consider your business over the competition and give you a chance to keep them coming back down the road.
Use different advertising channels & delivery
Once you’ve gained a deeper understanding of your target audience and what motivates them to convert, you need to consider where and how to advertise. While a mixed approach to marketing (similar messaging across different channels) can be highly effective, this doesn’t mean every ad should be precisely the same.
For instance, while you might have a similar offer — let’s say $50 off your first lawn care service — this should be expressed (and possibly redeemed) across various media. An online banner ad might drive people to a landing page to download the offer coupon and set up a consultation. Meanwhile, your print ad may be even more detailed and provide a variety of lawn care offer options that the customer can choose from by calling, following a QR code, or straight up Googling your listed company website.
While your main offer could be the same, it can be presented differently based on the method of delivery, which will ultimately increase results. You can showcase supporting offers by utilizing multiple ad delivery methods (print, digital, etc.). Thus, along with the $50 off your first lawn care service, you might be able to have supporting offers delivered in a print ad that you otherwise might not be able to present in other media properly. Some great examples could be a free month of lawn care with a 12-month agreement or 20% off any landscaping service. Supporting offers are a great way to keep customers returning, especially if they’ve redeemed their first offer as a new customer.
Keep offers going in any season
In advertising, timing is everything, and the home improvement industry is no different. Businesses in varying regions with differing seasons must consider timelines when advertising certain products or services. If you operate a business in an area with stronger winters, running a special offer for landscaping in December when homeowners are not thinking about their lawns is a lousy use of your ad dollar—and vice versa for the warmer months. Instead, you can focus on promoting indoor home improvement projects in winter and use your equipment and experience to help fix roads, clear snow, attend to gutters and drains, and put up and take down holiday lights. Moreover, depending on the type of store or business you operate, you can determine which season is the slowest and the services to be targeted for special offers to increase sales. Don’t wait until a season ends to advertise your services; adjust with the seasons so you can get the message out all year round, staying top of mind, possibly getting lower rates, and reaching new customers from season to season.
When you are developing your marketing plan, always be one step ahead. This means you need to get your customer’s attention as they are just starting to think about their need for a product or service, rather than when they actually need it. In most regions, landscaping and lawn care begin in the early spring, giving people the opportunity to plan and do the prep work before the growing season. Suppose you wait until June or July to run ads and introduce coupons for your products or services. In that case, you will have given your customers a reason to take their business elsewhere because they started making these decisions months ago.
5 tips to boost home and garden advertising
Evaluate your current marketing plan to determine how effective your efforts are and where improvements can be made.
- Research your audience to better understand their demographics and what types of offers would be most appealing to them.
- Know your market, your competitors, and what they’re doing. How are they advertising their offers for similar products and services? Is it working? Is it worth trying some of the same methods, or do you want to take a different approach? Maybe consult an expert first. You may find that their offers will be appealing to your audience. However, if you choose to use the same strategy, you might find yourself in direct competition, both in the types of products or services that you offer and in how you approach your customers. Can you include any supporting offers to entice the customer to your business? Consider offers that could help that customer stay loyal, especially after they’ve made their first offer redemption. What can you do that your competitor isn’t doing to keep that customer returning to your business?
- Review your historical data. Access and investigate your records of previous offers that have worked, and various marketing strategies used in the past, and review the results. How did multiple products/services perform during other times of the year using advertising methods and messaging? Rinse and repeat if possible.
- Customer feedback via online reviews or word-of-mouth can yield extremely valuable insight and information as to how effective your marketing efforts have been in the past. Every comment, good or bad, is essential to listen to and adjust how you do things. A review can indicate what has worked or what opportunities you can expand on for your business. Did a specific offer resonate with them? Have they mentioned they don’t look forward to cleaning up the fall leaves before the first freeze? Maybe they aren’t really good at cleaning their gutters. Do they need a little help putting up holiday lights? Do not ignore this feedback; instead, use it to help you determine what offers to push forward.
- Talk to your media partner and utilize their expertise to get the most out of your marketing. Valpak Clipp has marketing specialists who can help you create and implement a strategy based on best practices and what offers have been known to work for your industry, based on many different variables. Our data and demographic information (household income, pools, family size, etc.) can be used to create powerful offers that will benefit your business across multiple campaigns.