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3 Ways to Jump Start Your Marketing

3 Ways to Jump Start Your Marketing

With spring finally at our doorstep, I want to ask you; is your marketing ready for spring? The best tree services are already deep into their marketing planning for the upcoming growing season. If you haven’t given much thought to how you are going to make the phone ring this year, here are 3 ways to jump start your marketing.

 

Create Your Plan – No marketing happens without a plan and most plans are not perfect. So don’t get caught up in trying to make a masterpiece marketing plan, just get started by brainstorming with your team.

First focus on what service you want to provide the most of this year. What service is the most profitable for you? What service contains the least amount of headaches or hassles? Which service fulfills your mission as an organization and fits your company’s strengths the best?

 

Next, identify your ideal customer that fits your targeted service. Who are they? What do they value? Where do they live? What is the best way to communicate with them?

 

Lastly, craft an Early-bird deal for customers who sign up for your service in advance. You probably already do this with different discounts like winter pricing, senior citizen discounts and repeat customer credits, but by truly offering a lower rate for a short bit of time you will increase interest from new customers.

 

Social Media Blitz – After you have your plan formulated it’s time to support the efforts online.
Write a blog or two offering free information on the subject/service that you want to promote. In there, dispel any rumors about the service in a non-salesy way. You can offer pros and cons to educate your customer.

Post the blog on all of your social media channels and follow it up with links to similar articles on that same topic.

Edit your website to show the Early-bird deal right on the home page with an easy way for the customer to contact your team.

 

Customer Contact – Now that you have your online backing for your Early-bird deal set, it’s time to reach out to the public. Looking at your ideal client profile that you developed decide on how to get the word out.

 

Start by contacting your current customer base with the Early-bird offer. These are the customers that are the easiest sale because they already know you. You can do this a number of ways, from a flyer in the mail, to an email or even phone calls to the top 20% of customers.

 

Reach out to prospective customers that you have had some interaction with in the past, but for whatever reason they did not choose your services. This may be best through email or hand selected phone calls.

Finally, sending out a series of postcards to designated zip codes will help introduce your company and services to new potential customers. Work with a marketing firm to design a three part series that builds off each other to promote your professionalism, service and company’s brand.

 

By focusing on one special deal to start the season that fits your company’s strengths, you will intentionally gain more trust with your current clients and pick up new customers that fit your desired buyer profile and obviously lead you to greater revenue this year.

Written by: Eric Petersen

Beat the Weather in 3 Easy Steps

Beat the Weather in 3 easy Steps

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

As you probably know, I’m a work comp geek and pride myself on helping businesses minimize the financial impact that an injury causes their business. When looking at today’s forecast for my town, which calls for 6-8 inches of snow, I realized that weather presents a similar challenge to businesses that an injured employee does. How do you get productive work done when Mother Nature or an injured employee disrupts your upcoming work day?

We all know that your production will be affected by the weather multiple times a year. It doesn’t matter if that weather event is extreme heat or cold, rain or snow, the weather will do what it is going to do and you have to deal with it. The best way to deal with it is to be prepared before it happens just like you are before an injury happens.

Here are my 3 steps to beating Mother Nature and remaining productive during the most severe weather:

1. Weather Protocol – Discuss weather protocol as soon as possible. A storm can creep up fast and I can guarantee your team will be wondering what they will or will not be doing at work when the storm hits. Consider these questions and ask for your employees’ involvement in creating your protocol:

  • What is your cut off for high/low temperature before it is too dangerous to work outside?
  • What tasks or projects in the shop do you have that you’ve always wanted to do, but don’t ever seem to have time to do?
  • Are there safety or equipment training topics that can be presented?
  • How can we involve every one of our team members in a productive way if they are not in the field?

2. Reserving Jobs – Keep jobs reserved that are lower priority and don’t require climbing or aerial work. Maybe these are small pruning jobs or removals. If it is safe to be outdoors, but not safe to climb, use that to your advantage and get these jobs done when you can. Remember to emphasize proper job site preparation when working in less than ideal conditions and encourage your team that getting the job done safely is much more important than getting it done quickly.

3. Communication – Build a notification system where team members either contact one another or log on to an internal message board before they begin to travel to work. Within my office we use the Slack, a powerful software that allows us to communicate with everyone instantly. It can be downloaded as an app on your phone so all can get the same message at the same time.

Lastly, the preparation work that you just did for a weather event can and should be utilized to be prepared for an injury. The same small projects that you want to accomplish should be integrated into your injury management plan so that you can get the injured worker back on the job as quickly as possible.

We all enjoy and despise weather at times. Make the most of it for your business by being ready so you don’t have to watch valuable production hours or days fly by. If your company needs additional assistance with safety and weather related training, check out ArboRisk’s Thrive Risk Management Safety Package!

7 Deadly Sins of Work Comp

7 Deadly Sins of Work Comp

Is your work comp program not working for you? Read the 7 Deadly Sins of Work Comp from ArboRisk Insurance, the experts for tree service insurance: 7. Allowing injured workers to stay at home 6. Assuming your classifications are correct 5. Not monitoring your claims 4. Not being prepared for your premium audit 3. Thinking that your Experience modification cannot be controlled 2. Accepting the fact that injuries are a cost of doing business 1. Believing all work comp programs are equal! Need help to avoid the 7 Deadly Sins of Work Comp? Contact ArboRisk to have a free work comp cost analysis with a Certified Work Comp Counselor!

Written by: Eric Petersen