Digital Marketing for Tree Services

T

treeclimbingson

Location
Midland park
Hi everyone, I reached out to a few members privately about this, but they suggested I bring it to the forum, so I apologize to them and anyway here is my question:

I am looking for some industry experts' opinions. My step-dad owns a tree service in New Jersey, and I have helped him get more customers with digital marketing, mainly through google Adwords and Facebook. This has led me to believe that I could help other tree services by doing this.

However, when I started talking to other tree services, they seem to either claim to have enough customers already or didn't trust digital marketing. Do you think that getting more customers is a problem worth solving for tree service owners? Having grown up around my step-dad, I know you guys can be a tough group to reach, so maybe that is the problem. I would really just appreciate your feedback on whether or not getting more customers through digital marketing really solves a problem that tree service owners have or not. Maybe there is another problem for your business that would be more valuable to solve? Thank you very much for your time!
 
Afraid to grow and what that brings with it! I know for me that's why I haven't put a bunch of time into web sites, google and Facebook. During the summer I'm crazy busy. If I were to add more clients, I would get busier and have to hire more help... buy more trucks... and a whole host of other stuff. During the winter I'm busy enough to pay the bills and put food on the table and catch up on the pruning that is so fun in the winter.
I guess afraid may not be the word I'm looking for, but wanting to be well prepared for growth is a better description.
Looking around my area, most companies are the same way, small where growth takes a lot of planning or large where they are laying people off and growth is wasted.
That's how I feel about it may be wrong but it's working for us right now.

Oh yea and tree people are pigheaded, hardheaded and just an over all tough group to offer change to! Some can be down right jerks!!!
 
I'm not "an industry expert" but a couple of things do come to mind.

One is that your offered area of interest immediately reminds me of the dozens of 'google' calls I get at a rate of more than one per week. After saying no 8 or 10 times and that I had to get back to the work I already wasn't finishing I asked one guy to explain the program to me. Turns out that for $300 to $800 per month they can make me the expert in my area and assure me that they will move me up in the search logarithms so that I am the company that shows up to call.

Similarly Yelp, whom I used to have a good opinion of, was calling me several times a month at one point. For $300 a month or so they could polish up my reviews and improve business for me by leaps and bounds. That would be ok but, my suggestion that I could just ask my already happy customers to put up a review was somehow wrong or offensive to the rep that was speaking to me.

In short - both of those seem like marketing bs scams to me. You need to somehow differentiate yourself from that.

For perspective sake, I'm just a small operation and get all the work I want from word of mouth referrals only. I do zero advertising.
 
It is a wild, wild west out there. The people who claim to represent Google and Yelp that call your business are like the door-knockers who get their business by convincing clients that they just need a guy with a chainsaw to do the job, and undercut those who are knowledgeable and carry proper insurance, etc. And in some markets, the word of mouth is enough. No digital marketing agency can tell you for certain that you will get X dollars of business (the exception is when running paid ads where you pay either to have your ad shown or clicked on, and the potential sale can be tracked). The good ones can help boost visibility for people in a really competitive market.

Heck, I do this kind of work and these clowns call me all the time or send me texts from the other side of the planet.

The person who was annoyed about your encouraging clients to submit their reviews themselves is suspect. You shouldn't be bribing people for these reviews but you can make it easy for them to go to where you are reviewed so that you get genuine customer reviews---QRCs on cards or paper that link via smartphone scan to your reviewing options might be nice, like maybe on your biz card or invoices.

All said and done, there will be a steady increase in the use of internet resources to locate services (phone book is disappearing) so anything the industry as a whole can do to help with developing the right strategies for most of the companies that are solid and committed to their service delivery. What I hear is the need to find a way to boost some business in traditionally slow seasons so it is not as much feast or famine. It would be good to know options for tackling that and going with a strategy so you can ignore the telemarketers and no longer waster your time. As long as word of mouth works, as long as you get a lot of repeat or "subscriber" business to make you feel you have plenty, nothing wrong with that and you're doing it right.

Just one opinion.
 
t.c.son I'm not trying to be discouraging. I definitely think of it as an important and valuable service. A person with enough passion and an understanding of the 2 to 20 no thank yous that each prospect will throw out could have the market nearly to themselves.

Any tree person that is a true businessman and not just their own boss needs to use advertising.

And as stated, electronic is where it's at. Seems like allying oneself with solid people/companies for the long term and pushing their marketing forward through the years might be a good idea. Also risk reversal where you only get paid for what your efforts improve a company.
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone. It seems like I should really just take a page out of your books and operate mostly from referrals. It seems nearly impossible to get the owner on the phone or reading an email, and when they do they are usually not very thrilled that you've managed to get a hold of them haha.

But it sounds like there is definitely some value in helping some companies get more customers with Google Adwords campaigns. However the best way would probably just be to get a lot of success with one client and get some referrals from them and grow that way.

It also sounds like things are a bit cyclical and so it would be tough to maintain clients that you would want to pay you each and every month for your service. It sounds like I would be asked to turn off a lot of ad campaigns after a couple of successful months.
 
I can't imagine who would pay someone to do AdWords campaigns for them. That's what you pay Google for.
 
Levi.CO said:
I can't imagine who would pay someone to do AdWords campaigns for them. That's what you pay Google for.
Click to expand...

I think the use of someone to do Google Adwords work for you is in the case of hiring someone who knows how to do the research and pick through the noise, and then create the campaign. It is a bit of an art and a science. I have heard mixed opinions about the value of Adwords and Pay-per-click advertising, specifically for small businesses. My gurus are more enthused about Facebook ads targeting highly specific groups and locations, and more in the area of putting good information, regularly updated information, and ensuring that your website makes it obvious about what people can do to hire you, get a consultation, even get a discount coupon if you need to have incentives for getting hired at certain times of the year.
 
It took me about five minutes to make an effective add. It helps drive traffic, as you know. It is definitely expensive but I'm happy to pay for it.

I am definitely interested to know more about the Facebook adds...
 
Levi.CO said:
It took me about five minutes to make an effective add. It helps drive traffic, as you know. It is definitely expensive but I'm happy to pay for it.

I am definitely interested to know more about the Facebook adds...
Click to expand...

Me too. Unfortunately I had to back out attending a recent presentation on how to do them effectively and haven't been able to corner a colleague for a really good "brain-dump" of what was said. My own foray into it was "meh" because I don't think I did it right. I also use an effective ad blocker for Facebook myself so it hasn't been really high on my list!
 
i have some experience with facebook ads, but when you're dealing with any service-based company, it's probably harder to find customers than on google. google adwords campaigns can find people looking for specific things in a specific area, like anyone who searches "tree removal near me" in a zip code will find you, whereas on facebook you'd be targeting certain likes and interests. so it would be hard to make sure your ads are getting in front of people who specifically have a fallen tree that needs removing. however, it would get you in front of certain people that would probably keep you in mind for later, but i think adwords is more helpful for services. I would definitely love to see the case study that tests both options though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom