Landscaping Website
Are you a landscape professional who is not yet sold on the value of landscaping website? There are some statistics you might want to know. For instance, did you know 62 percent of consumers and small business owners turn to the Internet first when they want to research a local company? This is according to a survey done by advertising agency WebVisible. They also found that only 44 percent of small businesses have a website.
This is astonishing news, because it means over half of small businesses are completely missing out on a potential goldmine of sales and market visibility.
How A Landscaping Website Benefits You
One of the leading publishers of online data, eMarketer, sees increased consumer usage of online content through 2014. The increase in smartphone users alone is projected to be almost 20 percent. This means having a landscaping website simply makes financial sense.
There is virtually no limit to the ways you will be able to interact with clients and future customers using a landscaping website. You will be able to offer landscaping apps, online discounts and free blog content that can easily make folks return to your site again and again. In addition, the design of your site is only limited to your imagination. You might want to offer a colorful barrage of tips and information that will give it a neighborhood, homey feel, or instead opt for a streamlined less-is-more look.
Your site will also give you information about your customers that can help you market your business even more. Website statistics can show you where your viewers are coming from, what time of day, how long they stay and what the most popular portions of your site are. In return, you will quickly be able to hone in on what is working and discard what is not. You simply cannot do that with any other form of marketing.
Landscaping WebSite: 24/7 Availability To Clients And Potential Customers
Once your website is up and running, it is like an advertisement that is working for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Compare that to a print ad or even a television commercial. Running an advertisement in your local paper is a static way to attract customers and a good way to build a reputation. However, you will be limited by the readership of the newspaper, and in almost every survey, newspaper readership continues to decline year after year.
Television commercials, besides being expensive, also reach a limited amount of potential consumers. Moreover, neither print nor television can compete when it comes to interaction. A potential client can interact with your website and gain knowledge about you, your company and your philosophy all of his own accord. Doing so has shown to create a feeling of investment in a customer. This, as you know, is excellent news to any small business owner. The more invested a customer feels the more likely they are to do business with that company.
One more aspect to consider when implementing your website will be your ability to offer content that will answer many of the questions your customers have. Offering knowledge to your customers will make them better clients and decrease the chance of dissatisfaction on their part.
For instance, you have probably experienced what many professional landscapers have: the watering dilemma. After installing a gorgeous turf lawn for a customer, or returning an old lawn to its previous glory days, you receive a frantic phone call that goes into excruciating detail about how the lawn is turning yellow and dying. This is often because landscapers and customers have a different view on watering the lawn. A customer thinks twice a week watering is sufficient, while you, of course, know this will not cut it.
Now imagine having a well-written content piece on your website detailing the importance of watering and its impact on a successful lawn. It is almost a guarantee that having this article prominently displayed on your website will cut down on the frantic phone calls that probably leave you and your secretary exasperated.
Now times this out by content about other specialties that your landscape service company offers. Whether it be miniature rose care, types of gravel driveways, fence installation or even the convenience of having your driveway plowed out in the winter, you can probably get an idea of how well your landscaping website can serve both you and your customers over the years.
The Rise Of The Lawn Care Website
While print and television advertising can still be successful, keep in mind that, particularly with the print media, viewership is decreasing and all indicators suggest it will continue to do so. This coincides with an increase in Internet usage. And with smartphones and other technology increasing their pull on consumers, there is no reason to suspect this trend will do anything except increase.
To put it bluntly, there might come a time when a business that does not have a website is seen as committing a sort of advertising suicide. It simply will not make financial sense for any landscaping business, large or small, to not have an Internet presence.
How Much Experience Do I Need?
Thankfully, you do not need to be an expert to have a website. In fact, there are many companies that will do everything for you, from designing the site, launching it and keeping it updated. This is helpful for landscape professionals who do not have the time or knowledge to run a site completely on their own. If you want to build your own site, Word Press is the fastest and by far the easiest way to go. You do not need to learn HTML or PHP. In fact, this site is built with Word Press.
The benefits of having professionals design landscaping websites are many. A professional website designer knows what templates work with what demographics. They will be able to answer any questions you have, and it is in their best interest that your site becomes and remains successful.
Professionally designed landscaping website
A professional website designer will also be able to get you the exact statistics you want, and will probably suggest some that you have not even thought about. This is crucial because landscaping websites are not just static advertisements, but instead are dynamic and interactive ways to satisfy your current clients and entice entirely new ones.
