3 Strategies to Promote Seasonal Offerings - The Edge from the National Association of Landscape Professionals

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3 Strategies to Promote Seasonal Offerings

Author, Alain Parcan, Director of Marketing for Market Hardware, and NALP consultant, contributed this article. 

Seasons change. And so should your marketing messages. But, when it comes to highlighting new services or seasonal offerings to your online audience, your message should inform, educate, and deliver your news in a detailed and impactful way. But the biggest challenge, and the one many businesses often struggle with, is getting the message out to their audience in a timely and effective manner.

So to solve for that challenge, here are three simple strategies to help you communicate new services and offerings to your audience… particularly useful when you want to market your most profitable services.

Announce seasonal topics on your website — First and foremost, your website is the central hub of all your online marketing efforts, which means this should be the first place you announce new services or seasonal offerings. If your business decides to add a new service or advertise a seasonal promotion, add a small paragraph on your Home Page mentioning the offer. Just be sure to remove or update it once it’s no longer relevant, so your website won’t seem outdated.

You can also take it a step further by adding a call to action. To promote their Christmas lighting services, Lawn America, an NALP member, added an announcement bar along the top of their Home Page, with a call to action to “Schedule Today”. It may require a designer to add a tool like that to your Website, but it pays off if you’re eager to promote a certain service.

Send out an email newsletter — Email newsletters can be sent out to huge lists at once, with a small investment. Email is a perfect opportunity to tell your customers about new service offerings and remind them about your specialties. And while we recommend keeping your email newsletter 90% educational, that last 10% is a great opportunity to include a promotion that recipients can claim during their next service call or appointment. A small, goodwill offer is a great way to show your customers you value their business, and sending it out through your email newsletter will ensure that all of your clients and prospects will be able to take advantage of it. As long as you keep the bulk of your email newsletter educational, customers will appreciate receiving a small offer from time to time. Of course, be sure to re-use your newsletter content on your Social Media pages to get more bang for your buck.

Set up a targeted ad campaign (the RIGHT way) — In the past, traditional Pay-Per-Click ads on Google were a great source of new customers. Today, this method is increasingly competitive, to a point where it is typically too expensive for many businesses. On the other hand, setting up a display ad campaign is much more affordable, and can also target people searching for your services, or even just Web users that have previously visited your website. If you’d like to get the word out about new services and offers, consider setting up a display ad campaign. On average, web display ads only cost about 1 cent every time your ad is seen, so they can result in great long-term exposure at a reasonable cost – with effective results, too!

As an NALP member, you are familiar with the constant ebbs and flows businesses deal with. This includes new services, expanded product offerings, and more. It’s important to evolve as a business, but it’s even more important that your audience is in the loop about that evolution. Incorporate these strategies to ensure your message is delivered in a timely and appropriate manner.