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2023 Marketing Trends

by | Jan 26, 2023 | Marketing | 0 comments

2023 Marketing Trends

Written by Katie Petersen

For the past couple of years, I have written an article regarding the marketing trends for the respective year (see: 2021, 2022 articles). Each year I see evidence of evolving trends and some “trends” that are not really trends at all but have become a necessary part of a marketing strategy. 2023 is no different. From the continued rise of influencer marketing to the tried and true standard of selling yourself on social media, here are some upcoming marketing trends for 2023.

Social Marketing: Rise of the Influencer

While I plan to do a deeper dive on this concept in an upcoming article, influencer marketing continues to grow and develop at a rapid pace. Having a trusted source vouch for your company is something that no amount of money in the world can compete with. The term “influencer” can also mean more than what you probably think. It doesn’t have to be someone with a huge following, it can be an employee, returning client, community business partner – anyone who has had experience with your company and can give others positive feedback about it. 

Tik Tok especially continues to grow in this area as more and more content creators, influencers, and everyday people embrace what the platform has to offer. Tik Tok has refined their platform for businesses as well, so if you aren’t on it yet, now might be the time! They are working towards improving usability for businesses as well as expanding the options for targeted ads. 

 

B2B Marketing: We’re still talking about video

Remember how I said Tik Tok has continued to grow? Well, there is a reason Tik Tok has claimed and maintained the top social spot: video. If you’re not using video yet, it’s time. Video is here to stay and you should work to integrate it within your marketing for 2023. Whether on Tik Tok, YouTube, or Instagram, creating videos will instantly help you connect more with your target audience and will add more credence to your messaging. Customers like to see who they are buying a product from and the best way to do that is to show your face on a video.

Video can also be used to simply connect with your customers. Many companies (ourselves included) can get caught up in pushing content that only contains a sales message. What video can also provide is an outlet to show other sides of your company. Perhaps you could do a video featuring a few employees from your sales team. As an owner, you could share five fun facts about yourself, or share a story about how you got into the industry. Video is a powerful tool that can help you directly connect to customers – don’t sell yourself and your company short by being afraid of it.

 

Content Marketing: Building Your Strategy

Did you know that only a little over 50% of businesses have a documented content strategy in place? Ensuring that your content is audience driven, and actually relevant to said audience, is what will take your brand and business from mediocre to extraordinary. Having a documented content strategy will also allow you to focus on 1-2 relevant platforms, as opposed to spreading yourself thin over all of them. Making sure you are checking the insights for your content and how it is performing over time will help you narrow down your strategy and tell you where you should be and what you should be talking about.

Having documented content and a refined strategy will help you reach the audience that seemingly alludes you. Connecting with an outside influencer will also show customers that you are willing to work with others; instead of a “me, me, me” strategy, it takes your message and shows that you trust it in the hands of someone else. This gives customers confidence in you and what you can offer to them.

 

2023 is here and will breeze by quickly. Take the ideas that you can for the year and implement them in a strategic and balanced way. Trying to tackle too many things too quickly will throw your entire strategy off balance. The work you put in this year will allow you to start your 2024 marketing ahead of the companies that remained stagnant. 

Want additional help with your marketing? Check out our Thrive Sales & Marketing Package!

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Attention is the New Currency

by | Jan 14, 2022 | Marketing | 0 comments

Attention is the New Currency

Written by Katie Petersen

,Commitment. In today’s fast paced world, the one thing all companies and people are looking for is commitment. When you get a customer to commit to you, and become a repeat customer, you are winning the “game.” 

But how do you establish commitment? To begin to focus on commitment, many companies need to change their mindset. Rather than worry about the money or potential money a customer could bring in, think of them in terms of commitment. And how do you get someone to commit to you? You give them ATTENTION. In other words, give your customers the attention they deserve and they’ll reward you with dollars for your business.

Attention to your customers in the marketing and sales world is just as important as it is in your personal life or real life. So how do you make your customer and potential customers feel special? Below are our good, better, best ideas for giving your customer the attention they deserve!

 

GOOD – EMAIL NEWSLETTER

An email newsletter is still an excellent way to stay in touch with your clients and prospects. Crafting a newsletter, whether weekly, monthly, or quarterly, is a great way to contact your customers and remind them that you are there! If you can, include a “client highlight” section in your newsletter where you talk about how you helped someone, have them discuss what you did, or let them review your company. Again, give your clients the attention they deserve! Some great options to develop your email newsletter are MailChimp, Constant Contact, or Active Campaign.

 

BETTER – FREE COMMUNITY

Do you offer your clients a place to connect and come together? Fostering a community that they can join where you offer them company updates, free information, or new services is another great way to give them the attention they crave! Being able to have 1:1 conversations (even through an online platform) is a great way to show your clients that you care and you are keeping them top of mind. If you haven’t yet, look into creating a Facebook Group for your business! 

Shameless plug: ArboRisk’s FREE facebook group, Tree Talk by ArboRisk, gives our clients a network to bounce around thoughts and ideas! Plus, our podcast, The IndusTREE Podcast, is featured in there monthly with Eric Petersen being joined by one of our industry experts to discuss our topic of the month! Join FREE today!

 

BEST – PAID COMMUNITY

Perhaps you have curated your free community and email newsletter to the MAX and are ready to take the plunge to have people pay you for your information! If you are continually giving away tree care secrets or have found a niche of people who are willing to pay for additional content from you. Start a subscription fee-based newsletter or group! You can upsell joining this group by offering them access to your calendar ahead of regular clients or provide them with extra tips for keeping their trees healthier throughout the year. You could provide them with insider discounts or sample products to try. Giving certain clients this special attention and extra care will keep them returning to you year after year! 

 

These are all great ways to stay top of mind to your clients and give them the attention they deserve! A client that sees the value in the attention you bring will provide you with their investment and loyalty year after year!

If you need more assistance with your marketing or sales plans, contact ArboRisk today! Our Thrive Sales and Marketing Risk Management Package is the perfect solution for any tree care company stuck in a rut (no pun intended) with their marketing!

How to Audit Your Website

by | Jan 14, 2022 | Marketing | 0 comments

How to Audit Your Website

Written by Katie Petersen

A website review, or audit, can seem daunting, overwhelming, and paralyzing. Where do you start? How do you know what to do? What parameters do you measure? Thankfully, a website audit does not have to be stressful or overbearing – it just has to be something that you get yourself organized for and then actually do it. 

Below are a few tips for prepping for a website audit, followed by potential items to have on a checklist as you review different areas of your website. 

Prepping for a website audit

The number one advice I can provide to you in conducting a website audit is to be as prepared as possible. What do you hope to accomplish with the audit? Where do you want your website to go in the next 5 years? Is there a specific product or service you offer that you specifically want to drive people too? Most importantly, don’t try to do too many pages at once! Pick your five most visited pages, or the five pages that best drive your business goals, and start with those! Making sure these pages are where you want them will help you adjust the additional pages on your site in the future.

Web Design

Next, take a look at your web design. Is your website design easy to read? Research has shown that websites that are too complex actually turn off potential clients. Simple, cleaner website designs actually help drive customers to your business! Make sure your pages’ structure – headers, body content, footers – are all easy to distinguish and help a visitor navigate your pages correctly. Do you include photos to break up the text? Do you have CTA (call to action) buttons throughout that make purchases simple? Does the design of your website align with your company’s brand? Does your website also show up well across all devices – computer, laptop, mobile? Looking at all of these design elements will help you showcase your products and services to visitors in a way that successfully aligns with your mission.

Lead Generation

Does your website convert your visitors into leads? This is the most crucial step when designing and auditing your website. Make sure your pages have clear CTA buttons that are positioned in a visible way and easy for the visitor to understand. If you have a potential visitor who begins filling out a contact or purchase form, but ultimately abandons the form, do you have some type of retargeting set-up to reach back out to them? Many times, companies will automatically send a “Looks like you forgot something…” email to remind the visitor to finish the form. If they happen to try to click out of the form, pop-ups offering an incentive or free consult are another great way to grab their attention and entice them to continue filling out the form.

Content

The content on your pages is also as important as your potential lead generation. Does your content make sense? Is it concise while still providing visitors with the necessary information to move forward with your business? Make sure your content is structured correctly – with the most important information at the top. Ensure there are no grammatical or spelling errors on your site; this is an incredibly easy fix that companies often overlook! Finally, the content should complement the design of your website. If you use blocks, bullets, white space, photo dividers, make sure these all align with your brand and vision!

SEO Generation

Finally, audit your SEO! SEO is a MUST to have your website to rank well on Google and ultimately have your website seen by visitors. To start, set up a tracking tool to find out what is going on with your site – audience, traffic, clicks, etc. Use tags, meta descriptions, keywords and phrases throughout your site. Ensure that you have outbound (links to outside sites) and inbound (links to your own website) links throughout your pages. If you use WordPress for your website, Yoast SEO is a great tool to help organize your SEO – plus, it helps make SEO less overwhelming!   

Auditing your website can seem daunting and overwhelming. However, by breaking it down into simple, easy to follow steps, that mountain is not insurmountable. Being prepared ahead of time and understanding what you want to accomplish will help you complete the audit and put you ahead of your competition.

If you need help with a website audit or your sales and marketing techniques, contact ArboRisk! Our Sales and Marketing Thrive Risk Management Package will help you create the appropriate marketing message to land more of the jobs and customers you want.

Marketing Trends for 2022

by | Jan 14, 2022 | Marketing | 0 comments

Marketing Trends for 2022

Written by Katie Petersen

2021 was a unique and interesting year for marketing trends – but let’s be honest, at this point, every year the world sees new and interesting marketing trends that take us by surprise. That being said, it should come as no shock that diverse and different marketing trends are on the rise for 2022. As you dive into your marketing for 2022, let’s take a look at what trends you should be looking at and how you can incorporate them into the marketing plan for your tree care company!

Video Marketing

Coming in as no surprise, video marketing continues to be a rising trend. More specifically, short-form content, in the form of Tik Toks and Instagram Reels, are the hottest platforms. With Instagram Reels, users enjoy the quick snippets of information, while creators see their account being prioritized by Instagram, due to their focus on Reels within their algorithm. To set your tree care company up for top level video marketing in 2022, I suggest becoming active on Instagram and Tik Tok. Start playing around with ideas for short videos you could promote – a “day in the life of an arborist” video may interest your clients, a bad pruning vs. good pruning job, or creating a montage of customer reviews from satisfied clients. 

 

Influencer Marketing

Raise your hand if you have ever bought something off of the internet because an account you follow promoted it and gave it good reviews. Yes, we’ve all been “influenced” at one point or another. 2022, however, has been dubbed the “year of the creator,” so it is important for your tree care company to understand and embrace this trend. When you think of the tree care world, is there anyone who comes to mind that you trust their opinion on? How could you partner with them to promote a service, a product, etc.? Is there a clothing wear company that you could partner with to promote their product while also having them promote across their channels? Perhaps one of your clients has a substantial following on a social media platform; work with them on how they could promote your business. Influencer marketing knows no boundaries – it is simply a matter of reaching out to connect and cross-promote products or services.

 

Audio Content

2021 saw the rise of Clubhouse as a social audio app that allowed users to listen to, learn from, and chat with like-minded creatives. So it is unsurprising that 2022 will definitely see an increase in audio content consumption. If you have a blog post, consider moving that content to video or audio form. Having audio on your website will help with Google rankings in the coming year. If you have the time, starting a podcast is another great way to create audio content (who doesn’t love listening to a podcast while driving?!). 

 

Livestreaming

In addition to audio, livestreaming is also on its way up for 2022. Users viewing live content is actually shown to be up about 250% from last year. Livestreams allow viewers to connect immediately with sellers and builds trust and rapport in real time – as opposed to perfectly curated content. One way to get into livestreaming is to host a Facebook Live discussing what your company does, host a Q&A session allowing potential clients to engage directly with you, or announce new services or products that your company offers directly to the consumer. ArboRisk, for example, hosts a Facebook Live the last Wednesday of each month in our “Tree Talk” Facebook group, where we discuss our topic of the month (Hiring & Recruiting, Business Planning, Sales & Marketing, etc.). Livestreaming is an easy way to connect immediately with customers and should definitely be a part of your marketing for 2022.

 

Organic Marketing

It’s 2022 and SEO isn’t going anywhere. The tried and true way to drive individuals to your website is still holding strong and can be a leading source of new business for your tree care company. To increase your SEO, if you have not done so already, consider starting a blog! This is a great way to continually update content on your website and drive users to your business. Make sure to write long-form content when doing so – search engines favor content that is 2500-3500 words. Ensure that your website is mobile friendly, as well! Roughly 60% of searches are done on a mobile device and ensuring your website is mobile friendly is an easy way to increase your SEO.

 

These are just a few of the emerging trends that are expected in 2022. The more you are able to look forward and plan content accordingly, the better positioned you will be with your marketing now and into the future.

Need help creating a marketing strategy for 2022? Check out our Thrive Sales and Marketing Package or contact an ArboRisk team member today! It has all you need to help take your company to new heights!

Feel, Felt, Found: 3 F’s of Objection Handling

by | Aug 25, 2021 | Marketing | 0 comments

Feel, Felt, Found: The 3 F’s of Objections Handling

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

Unfortunately, part of being in sales entails hearing objections from your prospective customers.  While many times the objection can be demoralizing to you, the sales person, it really is simply a statement by your prospect that they don’t yet see the value in what you have to offer. The key word is ‘yet.’ It is your job as the sales professional to find a way to overcome that objection and show the value to your prospect so they purchase from you. 

Think about the rejections you often encounter in the tree care industry – “Your price is too expensive,” “We just don’t need it right now,” or “I’ll just let the tree die and plant something else.” Each of those statements give you a glimpse into what matters to the prospect and where you missed in delivering that value to the prospect on the initial presentation.

After years of sales experience, participating in sales courses, and shadowing some very successful insurance agents, I want to share what I’ve seen as the best way of handling objections: the Feel, Felt, Found method.

1. Feel: “I understand how you feel.”

Letting people know you’re listening is one of the most important pieces of the sales process. The premise of “feel” is letting your prospect know that you understand how they feel about the product or service you’re trying to sell them. For example, if they tell you they feel your estimate is too expensive, let them know you understand they think your price is too high. Simply acknowledging their main concern is the first step in working towards a solution. 

 2. Felt: “I’ve felt that way before.”

Felt is your opportunity as a salesperson to let your prospect know that either you, or someone in the past, has been in the same position. With the price example, you simply state “others have felt that way before.” This puts your prospect on the same level as their peers. People crave a sense of belonging and informing them that they are not alone with their feelings brings a bit of humanity to the sale. 

 3. Found: “But what we’ve found is…”

Once you’ve set the foundation in letting your prospect know you understand them and informing them they are not alone, it is now your chance to explain why they should consider moving beyond their initial objection. This is your opportunity to explain to your prospect how you may not be the cheapest tree service in the area but the benefits of them choosing your company more than make up the difference in cost. Use real life examples such as, “we’ve found that companies without a Certified Arborist are two times more likely to damage your property” or “we’ve found our higher price to be worth it as our high end equipment ensures the job will be done on time and in a safe manner.”

 

The magic recipe is “I understand how you feel, others/I have felt the same way, but I’ve found that…” 

It is important for you and your team to recognize that the feel, felt, found method is not efficient unless you have a good understanding of why the prospect is objecting. If you don’t understand why they are objecting, it will be much more difficult to close the sale. For three ideas on how to dig deeper during a sales call, check out a past article here.

During your next sales meeting, I’d encourage you to brainstorm with your team about common pain points your prospective customers have. Then write down the ways your company can solve those issues and the common objections you hear for those solutions. Lastly, discuss previous customers who have given you similar objections and still purchased your product or service. This will give you and your team the building blocks you need to start feeling comfortable handling objections, and ultimately closing more sales.

For additional help with objection handling and one-on-one sales training, check out ArboRisk’s Thrive Sales & Marketing Package! Our team of industry experts has the skills and knowledge to help you take your tree care company to new heights. Click here to learn more!

Sales Sweet Spot

by | Aug 2, 2021 | Marketing | 0 comments

Sales Sweet Spot

Anyone that has ever played baseball with a wooden bat knows the difference when you hit the ball with the sweet spot of the bat versus off the end or handle. The sting from a mishit can bother you for innings afterwards. However, when you hit the ball with the sweet spot, it sounds different, you barely feel it in your hands and the ball travels much further and faster. It truly is a sweet feeling when you connect just right. 

The same is true for sales. When you propose the right service at the right time to the right customer, everything is easier and more fun. That simply is the Sales Sweet Spot. 

Selling in the sweet spot will dramatically increase your sales team’s close rate, production crew’s efficiency and overall profitability. So how do you determine what your sweet spot is? 

First you must look at what your company excels at. Every tree care company has a specialty service or unique advantage within the marketplace. Unfortunately, when it is not identified, a tree care company will perform all kinds of jobs that typically lead to longer work days and more frustrations all while incurring more risk to the company. 

To begin to identify your specialty service, you must look at each service individually and ask yourself, is this a strength of our company? If not, what do you need to do to make it a strength? Those answers will quickly tell you if this service is one that you should focus on as your specialty service.

The next step is to identify your ideal customer. This article will help you determine who your ideal customer is. Remember to connect your business’ culture and values to your ideal customer. People like to do business with people they like as well as your employees would rather work for people that fit the culture and values of your company than for someone who doesn’t. 

Finally, create a list of services that your ideal customer will prioritize. Clearly, where this list of services overlaps your specialty service is your sweet spot. 

To further explain the sweet spot, let’s look at ArboRisk. Our specialty service is to help great tree care companies become extraordinary tree care companies through proper risk management. We accomplish this by helping our clients do everything they can to prevent an incident from occurring and making sure they have the proper insurance coverage in case the unforeseen does happen. 

Our ideal customer is a professional tree care company who understands that they are in control of what happens to their business and is dedicated to getting every employee home safe each night. 

When we are working within our sweet spot, our clients are able to make substantial improvements to their already great business because of our industry expertise. We have seen tremendous growth and reduced incidents for our sweet spot clients.  

“Do what you love and love what you do” – Ray Bradbury

Working within the Sales Sweet Spot sets your company up for just that. Enjoying each day, by working on the jobs you love with the type of customers you love. 

To develop or strengthen your Sales Sweet Spot, enroll in ArboRisk’s Sales and Marketing Package to work one-on-one with our industry experts.

Written by: Eric Petersen