Gone are the COVID years of easy sales and relaxed marketing efforts for landscaping companies. As 2026 and 2027 will have a weaker business cycle, now is the time to review your marketing practices and make sure your strategies are dialed in.
Below are some of the key mistakes when it comes to marketing.
1. Marketing to Everyone
You’ve probably heard the phrase “If you try to be everything to everyone, you’ll end up being nothing to anyone.” This is particularly true when it comes to your marketing, as when you try to appeal to everyone, your messaging becomes vague and your campaigns become diluted.
Additionally, you can end up with low-quality leads and feel pressured to compete on price rather than on value.
Even if you are a full-service landscape company, you still have an ideal client you want to work with. Think about messaging to this one specific person when creating your marketing campaigns. Why is that person going to purchase your services? What sets you apart from other full-service landscape companies in your region?
2. Blindly Following Best Practices
It can be incredibly tempting to follow best practices. They’re called best practices for a reason, right? However, typically by the time a marketing practice has been deemed a ‘best practice,’ it’s already outdated. If your business wants to stand out, the last thing you should want to do is what everyone else is doing as well. Also, what may work for one company doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for your organization and your target market.
Testing and trying tactics that haven’t been done in the past are often far more successful. Your goal should be getting results, whether the method you use breaks conventions or not.
3. Thinking Branding is Optional
You may think branding is something only large corporations need to invest in, but your brand is your reputation and often the reason people choose you when they have the option to choose from similar service providers. If you end up blending into the sea of sameness, then leads may resort to price shopping alone.
Take the time to define what you want to be known for and make sure your branding reinforces this idea all the way from your fleet to your website. Consistent branding builds familiarity, and that familiarity will foster trust over time.
4. Confusing Visibility with Demand
On the flipside, if you are actively investing in your branding efforts, but the phone still isn’t ringing, this could point to a failure to include a strong call to action for your audience. You can have visible fleets and beautiful social media posts, but you still need to make it clear why customers should call you.
For instance, if you’re a lawn care business and pride yourself on crafting lush lawns for families, lean into this type of messaging and create a sense of urgency so your audience’s awareness turns into action.
5. Only Focusing on Last Click Attribution
Another common pitfall is assuming that if a consumer clicks on an email or a social media campaign and signs up for an estimate, this marketing method alone is what caused them to engage with your brand. Crediting the only final touchpoint causes you to undervalue your other marketing efforts that created awareness and trust.
Instead, look at marketing as an entire ecosystem so you don’t base your marketing budget and planning solely around your last click attribution.
6. Skipping Strategy and Going Straight to Tactics
Busy does not equal effective when it comes to marketing. If your company wants to run paid social ads or needs to post 40 stories on your company blog, first ask what the strategy behind these tactics is and how they tie into your larger business plans. Without a clear strategy, your marketing tactics will be random at best with no measurable impact.
By first deciding what you want to achieve and who you are trying to reach, then you can select the proper channels to focus on and put money behind tactics that will actually move the needle.
7. Relying on Industry Averages
It’s natural to want to lean on industry averages to benchmark your marketing efforts, but the truth is there’s no true industry average, as how individuals feel about your company is completely different from another landscape business.
Instead of being satisfied with your marketing efforts aligning with ‘industry averages,’ treat your organization more like a swimmer or a weightlifter who focuses on their personal records. Every time you send a marketing email or create a paid social media campaign, compare the stats to your own previous efforts.
