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Ways to Grow Your Social Media Following

by | Oct 23, 2018 | Marketing | 0 comments

Ways to Grow Your Social Media Following

Whenever I meet with clients, the top concern I hear is, “I know I need to be posting on social media, but I have no idea what to post or how to increase my number of followers.” To help your business thrive in today’s modern age, social media usage is a must – and most businesses are on it, in one way, shape, or form. But how many of these businesses use it in an active, strategic way that actually increases their following? After all, you can’t reach the level of Wendy’s Twitter savagery:

or GoPro’s Instagram’s strategic use of hashtags to increase their engagement:

by posting a few links, @mentioning others, and using 77 hashtags on each post. #notgonnawork Strategy is the name of the game and in order to grow your following successfully, you’ll need a good one. If you are struggling for followers, here are a few ways to get your social media presence off the ground (no pun intended). Create a Strategy and Stick to It Who are you? What are you hoping to accomplish? What types of followers are you looking for? If you answer, “Because everyone else is,” or “Well…” I’m here to tell you, you may have a problem. Sitting down and coming up with answers to these questions in incredibly important when you begin to grow your following. Setting SMART goals is an easy way to answer these questions and give your social media meaning: Specific (We will focus on one social channel (Facebook) and measure response rate.) Measurable (The response rate can be measured from the Insights tab.) Achievable (We didn’t make an outlandish goal of say, a 100% increase in 15 days.) Relevant (Our goal will increase our overall social media presence, making us relevant.) Time-bound (The goal will be met in the first two quarters of the year.) Choosing the Right Channels Many businesses make the mistake of utilizing every social media channel they can, becoming overwhelmed, and eventually giving up. Different social networks cater to different individuals, and different pockets of the population can be found on each. Millennial-aged individuals tend to gravitate towards Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. Generation X and Baby Boomers lean more towards Facebook. Individuals with a college degree are more likely to use LinkedIn, and Pinterest is utilized almost exclusively by women. Pro-tip: “everyone” is not an audience. Where will your business thrive and with which clientele? Identify your ideal audience and focus on posts within that channel.
Create Meaningful Relationships Blog Post. Like. Share. Blog Post. Share. Like. It is easy to fall victim to an endless cycle of mundane posts. Spoiler Alert: Eventually, your followers will tune you out if your posts are robotic. Be a human. Show your personality. Be honest. Be vulnerable. Inject humor. In a world where everything is digital and human interaction is not always common, it is more important than ever to show who your company is on a personal level. Interacting with your followers as if they are your closest friends is incredibly important. Showcasing the faces behind your business – even more so. And don’t forget to engage with your followers! Responding to comments and questions on your posts shows your followers that you are invested and listening to them. Take Abercrombie’s excellent response to a comment below on Instagram:

Create a Schedule

Posting on a consistent basis not only reminds your followers that you are still around, but it also allows your business to organize your content and more effectively target the clients that you want. Creating a schedule gives you the opportunity to post at times that will maximize your engagement and helps you avoid repeating the same content over and over. If you are not interested in paying for a scheduling platform, I have found that I can easily create a calendar for myself in Excel – simple, effective, and gives me a month’s worth of content that I do not have to brainstorm for.

Sources (1) (2) (3)

Written by: Katie Petersen

What Social Media Platform Should I Use?

by | Oct 2, 2018 | Marketing | 0 comments

What Social Media Platform Should I use?

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, YouTube. Social media can be overwhelming. #AmIRight One of the top mistakes I see business owners make is pushing themselves to do too much with social media, becoming overwhelmed, and giving up entirely. It does not have to be that way. My advice for business owners who know they need to be involved with social media but don’t know where to start, is to pick two or three platforms, get to know them well, and use those to connect with followers. You may find that one platform works extremely well, and another does not. When the time is right, switch out the platform that does not work for your customers and try a different approach. Finding the right balance of platforms is essential to your growth as a business.

 

Below, I’ve briefly explained the more popular social media platforms. Because every tree service is unique and has their own target clientele, which platform you utilize will be based on who you are trying to reach. Always keep in mind, the main goal of any social media efforts is help you promote your business to customers and prospects.

 

Facebook

 

Oh, Facebook, the birthplace of social media. Create an account, “friend” your friends, post photos, start a business page, gain followers, utilize hashtags – Facebook does it all. If you are looking for a quick and easy way to connect with many followers of all ages, Facebook is the way to do so.

 

Instagram

 

Brush up on your photography skills! Instagram is the place to showcase photos of yourself, your business, and your passion for the tree care industry. Plus, like Twitter, Instagram uses hashtags to connect you with other users and push your content to those who search for #trees.

 

LinkedIn

 

LinkedIn is typically used to post an online resume. Have a skill you want to promote? LinkedIn. Want to boast about your background or assure a potential client you have the correct credentials? LinkedIn. LinkedIn is also a great place to “connect” with colleagues and clients and promote business-oriented content.

 

YouTube

 

If you have read my article entitled “5 Ways to Better Your Social Media Marketing” (and if you haven’t, you really should – it’s great), you’ll know that I stress the importance of moving your business towards videos. Utilization of video is key for your business in 2018. A YouTube channel is the way to do that! Showcase yourself, your employees, your equipment, a job site. This creates a more intimate, personal connection with your clients.

 

Twitter

 

Have you ever tried to condense your thoughts into 140 characters? #Yeahmeneither Luckily, Twitter allows 240 characters now and you can enhance your content by using hashtags. Hashtags allow your content to be discoverable by others so that when client is searching for #treeservice, any content you post with that hashtag attached will pop up in their search.

 

Snapchat

 

If you are looking to appeal to a younger crowd, Snapchat is 100% the way to go. Snapchat allows you to display a photo or video for 1-10 seconds, with your “snaps” being able to be added to your “story” where followers or subscribers can watch them after the fact. This is a great way to interact with clients if you want to tell a quick story or give a follower a quick burst of information.

 

Pinterest

 

Pinterest is a great place to organize ideas, thoughts, and lists and present them in one simple “board” to all of your followers. If, for example, you want to showcase steps, tricks, or items with which to prune a tree, all of these ideas and examples could be “pinned” to one board, allowing you to easily share it with your followers.

 

Google+

 

Contact a Google employee to learn more ☺

Written by: Katie Petersen

5 Ways to Better Your Social Media Marketing

by | Aug 27, 2018 | Marketing | 0 comments

5 Ways to Better Your Social Media Marketing

If you’ve ever found yourself staring at your computer screen, wondering what to post on your social media accounts, you are not alone. Digital marketing success remains elusive to most small business owners. The fact of the matter is, 46 percent of (small) business owners are unsure their marketing strategies work and 17 percent know they aren’t working at all (source). #WHAT. This does not need to be you. While I cannot tell you that there is one simple, fix-all option available for individuals struggling with digital marketing, I can give you 5 strategic ways to better your social media marketing and help your business thrive.

 

Strategy #1: Use Real Photos and Personal Stories

 

Do your followers know who you are? Have you given them a reason to connect personally with you? Spoiler Alert: majority of customers are not impressed by the type of equipment you use.Posting photos of your truck fleet will not gain you more business. But, you can certainly tweak those posts and use them to your advantage. Perhaps you are still using the very first truck that your father bought when he started your tree service. Posting a narrative about that, talking about the history of your company and what your father meant to this company, will give customers a reason to connect with you. It humanizes your business and gives them a trigger to remember you when they need your services.

 

Strategy #2: Shoot (More) Videos

 

Video, video, video. I cannot stress this enough: the future lies in videos. While videos can seem overwhelming, take it step by step. Start off small – use your phone and record a quick video introducing yourself, your company, and share three fun facts about who you are. As you become more comfortable conversing in front of the camera, up your techniques. Have someone else shoot you discussing a common misconception about tree care, like how trees with early leaf drop does not mean they are a lost cause and need to be removed. If you have the funds, invest in a video marketing company, and allow them the opportunity to come in and shoot your work day. By taking what would normally be multiple paragraphs of text and translating that into video form, you are allowing your customer a new avenue to engage and connect with you. Plus, the stats don’t lie: 59% of executives agree that if both text and video are available on the same topic, they are more likely to choose video (source). #VideoForTheWin

 

Strategy #3: Engage and Reward your Followers

 

I’m not sure about you, but my Instagram and Facebook feeds are scattered with individual and company accounts that receive tons of engagement. How are they succeeding at this? By giving their followers a reason to engage with them. Successful digital marketers know that the best way to increase engagement is to incentivize your following:

 

Create a contest for your follows (ex. Upload a photo of yourself with your favorite tree. The best photo receives a $25 credit towards your next service)
Host a giveaway (ex. The first 10 likes on this post receive a $10 Starbucks gift card)
Offer discounts (ex. Like this post and receive 5% off your next tree removal)
Elaborate or superfluous giveaways are unnecessary. Simple, easy offerings are the best way to create a buzz around your company and have your followers watching your page for your next giveaway.

 

Strategy #4: Collaborate with Others in Your Niche

 

We all have people we look up to in our businesses, the individuals or companies that set the bar high, keep us chasing growth, and that every customer seems to know. If you have not used these individuals to your advantage, it is time to start. Reach out to them and propose collaboration on a blog post, a video, or a quick photo on your page. Set-up a lunch and learn with your employees or clients and have this expert come in to teach on a specific topic, all while promoting this on your social media. Business is not always about competition – customers love to see individuals working together to bring them the best possible product. Meeting with others and collaborating with them will not only give you an opportunity to learn something, it will open up your business to a whole new set of followers.

 

Strategy #5: Use Online Tools to Find Top Content for Posts

 

Do you struggle to find relevant content that your followers not only appreciate, but also understand? #beenthere. Many individuals find it difficult to engage with certain companies on social media because they do not equate the relevance of the post to their individual lives. Try one of these content sourcing tools for mainstream articles, on topics that businessmen and stay-at-home moms can both understand.

 

Google News Alerts are a great way to keep yourself informed of headlines that are happening in your industry. Nuzzel connects with your Twitter feed and shows you the most shared content from users you follow. If you follow numerous accounts that are relevant in your industry, the content provided by Nuzzel is invaluable. Mix (formerly StumbleUpon) is a discovery engine that finds and recommends content to users. All you have to do is select a few interests, and hit the ‘Mix’ button and the platform will show you pages relevant to your interests. Finally, Reddit is the hot bed of the Internet, and it’s a great place to find content. Subreddits enable users to browse different topics, where users post and “upvote” the best content. Subscribe to subreddits that are the hottest in your industry so, when you log into Reddit, your front page will be full of content specific to you.

 

Pro Tip: Reddit can also be a great place to share your own unique content. If you’re active on the platform and get familiar with some of the subreddits, submitting links can be a great way to get more traffic to your website (source).

 

These five action items are just a few easy ways to up your social media marketing game and propel your business forward. Doing these things will not only set you apart from the competition, but it will open up your business to an entirely new client base.

Written by: Katie Petersen

6 Stages of the Customer Journey

by | Aug 27, 2018 | Marketing | 0 comments

6 Stages of The Customer Journey

We all want more sales, right? The easiest way to do that is to create an endless amount of referrals from your existing customers. To do that you must provide an exceptional customer experience that motivates people to tell others. I wrote on this a while ago, in an article titled 3 Tips for Redefining your Customer Experience. In that article, I talk about focusing your attention on every touch-point with your customers to improve the way your customers feel about your company. I’d like to take this a bit further and share with you the stages of the customer journey to help you and your team enhance the customer experience and turn your current customers into promoters of your business.

 

Stage 1: Research – The first stage is where the customer gets to know you, and guess what, they are doing this on their own. It’s no secret that the primary research tool today is the internet. Therefore, you must have an attractive, mobile friendly, easy to navigate website that helps the prospective customer answer as many questions about your organization and the services you offer before they contact you. It is estimated that 80% of the sale is done before the prospect reaches out to the business. People do not want to be sold anymore. They will research your company and only contact you if they feel comfortable. You must grab their attention here and provide them with access to reviews and social media accounts to give them a feeling of what they can expect from your company. Also, there must be ample opportunities to contact you on every webpage so when they are ready, they know how to reach you.

 

Stage 2: Connection – When the prospect does reach out to your organization either via phone call, email/text/chat or in person, the initial conversation is critical. It sets the tone for the entire relationship. Training your team on how to engage with a new prospect is very important. What message do you want to portray? Consistency is the best way to successfully deliver your message. If you use a tag line on your website, make sure everyone uses that in conversations with customers and prospects. This goes for field employees as well since a lot of referral business actually happens on the jobsite when a curious neighbor asks one of your crew members what they are doing. When everyone within your organization talks the same way, the customer experience is heightened.

 

Stage 3: Decision – Your prospect has completed their research and has either chosen to use your company or not. If they have chosen your organization, celebrate this decision by confirming why they made the proper choice. You can do this verbally, with a hand written thank you card or an automated email. Whichever way you decide to do this, make sure the customer gets an immediate response from you. There is nothing more unnerving than to sign up for a service and not feel like your business is appreciated because you don’t hear from them. If the prospect did not choose your company, institute a follow up procedure to gain insight as to why they chose someone else. This will show the prospect that you truly care about their experiences with you by learning what you could have done better to earn their business.

 

Stage 4: Define the Experience – Because there are a number of variables that determine when tree work will actually be done, you must set up a realistic expectation for the customer. Tell them what factors come into play and what you will do to notify them of changes or delays in their project. Every tree service has lost a customer because the customer got anxious to have the work done and went with someone else because they didn’t know when you were going to get to it. Eliminate this risk by defining what the customer experience will be right at the time of the sale.

 

Stage 5: Performing the Work – Now it is time to deliver the promise that has been sold to the customer and perform the work. Because the salesperson is rarely at the job site when the work is being performed, the crew leader must have been informed of any concerns by the customer before the job starts. Internal job briefing is vital to make sure the crew performing the work meets the expectations of the customer.

 

Stage 6: Review and Promote – Once the job is complete you must check in with your customer to see how satisfied they were. Again, you can do this a number of different ways from an automated email survey to a written card to a phone call whichever fits best with your company. Similar to the lost prospect, by asking the customer to review the services you provided, you gain an opportunity to learn how to improve. Remember to ask all happy customers to give a testimony or direct them to online to give a review. It is in this last stage where you truly see whether or not your customers are enjoying their experience with your organization.

 

Being able to provide great tree care is expected by your customers and that is why they contacted you. What sets your company apart is mastering the customer journey so they are left feeling fantastic about their decision to choose your company. So take time to dig into each of these stages with your team members and come up with ways you can improve on each stage.

Written by: Eric Petersen

4 Ways to Tell if your Marketing Strategy is Actually Working

by | Aug 21, 2018 | Marketing | 0 comments

4 Ways to Tell If Your Marketing Strategy Is Actually working

Before I share with you how to know if your marketing strategy is working, you must actually have a marketing strategy. To me, having a marketing strategy means promoting your business in defined direction to achieve growth. This includes a clearly stated revenue goal from a specific set of services and clientele. If you haven’t developed a strategy yet, check out our white paper, 3 Ways to Branch Out Your Marketing. Let’s face it – your strategy won’t be perfect right away and will certainly evolve over time, but establishing a desired result and way to achieve it is vital to begin.

Use the following 4 ways to ensure your marketing strategy is functioning the way you want it to.

Website Visits – The first place someone goes to find out information about your company is your website. It doesn’t matter if they were referred to you or found you through one of your marketing pieces. Your website is your chance for a great first impression. If you are confident about your website, begin to track the number of visitors to your site by using Google Analytics. This tool can break out where the visitors are coming to your site from and how long they stay on it. If you haven’t spent time updating and refreshing your website, check out our 5 Tips for a Better Website and make your website a priority.

Click Throughs – Your website must have a “Call to Action” on it to allow your customers to request a proposal for tree work or purchase firewood/mulch directly. When your website is set up correctly, the number of click throughs are easy to measure. You can also create custom landing pages specific to one service and track results from each specific page.
Closing Ratio – This is more of a management metric than a pure marketing metric, however, if you see that your company is getting more chances at jobs, but you do not see an increase in sold jobs, training of the salesperson may be a solution you need to explore.


Job Analysis – Each month it is very important to look back at the jobs that were finished and analyze them around the questions below. Give a score to each job to track how well these jobs are fitting within your goals for your organization. Each “YES” answer earns 1 point. Your goal is to have as many 3 point jobs as possible.


Was the work performed a targeted service?
Was the client within your targeted clientele profile?
Were the jobs done within the time budget set by the salesperson?

Now that you understand some of the data that will help you determine if your marketing is working, you must start tracking it. Use the current month to establish the benchmark for each of these areas and work towards improving on them every month into the future. After tracking these for a few months, you will begin to see clearly what you need to improve upon. Make sure you share this information with your team so they can take some ownership into improving what they do to move the organization forward.

Of course the ultimate goal is to perform more jobs within your targeted services, for your targeted clientele, and done on time and within budget. When this starts to happen and everyone on your team begins to realize that your company is growing intentionally, you will see the momentum pick up and your business will rise to the next level.

Written by: Eric Petersen

6 Steps to Building a Better Brand

by | Aug 17, 2018 | Marketing | 0 comments

6 Steps to Building a Better Brand

In today’s over-commoditized world, building your company’s brand is one of the most important business decisions that you need to make. By formulating a solid brand for your organization, it sets the tone for your entire operation. This is more than just your unique value proposition – it is the way you interact with your customers and team members, it is what people feel and remember about your company. At the 2018 TCIA Winter Management Conference, Bruce Turkel stated, “A good brand makes people feel good. A great brand makes people feel good about themselves.” This brand must be yours and it must be genuine. Here are 6 questions to ask yourself when building a great brand for your business. What are your company’s values? Spend time thinking about your own personal values. What do you believe in? Does your business operate on those basic life principals? Talk to others within your organization and ask them what they value and how the company can emulate those beliefs. For my firm, I used a large list of value words and circled my top 10. Words like trustworthiness and altruism stood out and helped me solidify what I wanted our company to believe in. This helped tremendously in moving our brand forward. What are your company’s strengths? If you haven’t done a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) on your business, do so now. This analysis helps in so many ways and is vital in building a better brand. Think about the strengths of your company – What is your team the best at? Where are the opportunities for growth within your organization? Who is your ideal customer? Your company’s values and strengths will highlight who will benefit the most from your services. Get as specific on this as you can. The more laser focused you can be on your target clients the better you can fulfill your promises to them. What can you solve for your customer? For this question, dig deeper and think about the reason that your customers are contacting you to perform a service. It isn’t just about removing the dead branches from the tree in their front yard or making the leaves look greener on the tree that hangs over their porch. It is about eliminating the work on their end. It is about giving them more shade on a hot afternoon when they are enjoying their patio with their friends and family. Think about the real reasons someone wants work done on their trees. How do customers feel about your company? Are your customers raving about your company? Do they tell their coworkers about what a wonderful job your team did? Have you mastered the customer experience by renovating every customer touchpoint so they have only positive things to say about your organization? Understanding how your team and services makes your customers feel is a significant part of your brand. Does your company’s look match what your message is? – Does your logo and color selection match what your values and strengths are? Is your logo sleek, modern and edgy, yet your equipment and uniforms look old and worn down? Does your website convey the same message as all of your written communications with your customers? The look of your company, from every aspect, is the most visual part of a brand and a part that cannot be taken lightly. While this can be expensive to change, it should be your last step in revitalizing your brand. If you are confident in the answers to parts 1 – 5, this step should be easy to implement. After you have figured out what your brand is, you must be consistent with it. Ensure that all of your team members know what it is and why it is important. Common phrases within your organization can help solidify the brand internally so that the external world will start to believe it. Building a brand doesn’t happen overnight, however, with structured concentration on it, you will begin to see how it can dramatically change every aspect of your business.

Written by: Eric Petersen