Category Archives: Business Development

Content marketing strategy for landscaping business

Content Marketing Strategy for Landscaping Business

This year I have written content for more than four landscaping businesses so it will be safe to say that people in this particular industry realize the importance of targeted content writing and content marketing. So what should be your content marketing strategy if you want to promote your landscaping business?

In this business people are primarily influenced by the following:

Your experience/portfolio
The clients you have worked for
Personal recommendations
Visual collateral
Constant communication

If you don’t have a blog then you should definitely start a blog for your landscaping business website. A blog is not just a “trendy” thing to have: it is a top-notch communication channel. If this doesn’t motivate you, a regularly published blog can increase your search traffic easily by 100-200% within 3-4 months (it depends on the frequency and quality of your blog posts).

When we use the word “content marketing strategy” it means you are not simply going to publish content – you’re going to make sure that the content reaches the right audience and then it makes the right impact.

Not all your landscaping clients will be visiting your website. They will be on Facebook, on Twitter, on LinkedIn, on other blogs and websites or simply looking around for a similar service on various search engines. Your content marketing strategy involves using multiple channels as well as multiple content formats to reach your prospective clients. Since I provide textual content, this is my focus.

So in order to launch a content marketing strategy for your landscaping business you need to do the following if you haven’t already done so:

Start a blog under your own domain name (something like http://your-business-website.com/blog) and start publishing content on it on a regular basis. Focus on quality but also be regular. In the beginning it will help you if you can post everyday or at least thrice a week. The growth of your blog should be gradual. It’s not a good strategy to hire a writer in the Philippines, for instance, make him create 50 blog posts and then publish them in one go. In a day, publish just a single blog post.
Create Facebook and Twitter profiles and start interacting with people over there. Although this might sound like social networking but your content plays a vital role in creating a solid presence for you or your brand. People will recognize you on the basis of the content you regularly post under your profiles.
Carry out a content analysis of your business website. Are all the necessary pages there? Do you think all the information the client needs in order to make a decision in your favor is present on your website? Does it have testimonials and the FAQs section? Does it properly explain what sort of landscaping services you provide and what sort of material you use?
Set up an account with an email marketing service such as mailchimp. Permission-based marketing, although as old as the contemporary Internet, still rules the roost when it comes to reaching out to your target audience in the most effective manner. You will need high-quality content for your email marketing campaigns.

You must be wondering once you have established these channels (and many more) what you’re going to talk about. For instance, your blog. Of course you will be talking about landscaping. You can start by explaining the various aspects of how you carry out individual projects and what parameters you take into consideration. You can talk about various forms of landscaping, materials, methods and architectural conventions. Once you have started, the ideas begin to come on their own.

Remember that link building must be an integral part of your overall content marketing strategy. Google looks for quality websites and blogs that link back to you. So continuously create content people would like to link to as this will significantly improve your search engine rankings for your targeted keywords – primary, secondary and longtail.

The same holds true for your social networking and social media profiles. Keep in mind that search engines these days list social media content also. So be careful of what you are posting.

My favorite content writing tool

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Early in the day I was reading somebody’s blog post in which she had listed 50 of her favorite blogging and content writing tools. Right now I cannot access the post because I’m writing this from my galaxy tab and not my computer.

But if you ask me what are my favorite blogging and content writing tools these days, I’ll simply say Google Docs, and nothing else. And even the too I keep my editor window maximized (F11) and toolbar disabled so that I have just the editing screen with my text.

In order to improve my focus and eliminate distractions I’m rapidly moving towards minimalism and this also means using less and less tools. After all what do I have to do? I have to write. Whether I’m writing for one of my clients or for myself, all I need is an ability to type without much fuss.

So when I’m away from my computer I use my 7-inch Android tablet and google drive and when I’m in front of my computer I use Google Docs. Other than these, at least for writing, I don’t use anything else.

Of course for publishing I use WordPress but that’s not a tool but a platform. In fact, even for my main content writing website I use WordPress as backend.

Oh, and I forgot to mention GetPocket that was previously known as “Read it Later” or something. I use it not only to read useful blog posts and articles on my tab but also to compile content writing ideas.

Why sometimes I don’t turn down low-paying content writing assignments

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I just accepted a content writing assignment where the client has dictated almost all the terms, including how much he wants to pay me. OK “dictated” is a bit of an exaggeration, as he had simply suggested how much content he requires, and how much he will be able to pay. My first instinct was to politely let him know that I won’t be able to do the work, but then something made me accept it.

Over all these years – I’m not saying I’m perfect – I have developed knack for understanding what my clients are trying to convey. There are some clients who simply don’t want to pay what I’m asking for because either they don’t see value in what I’m going to deliver them, or they don’t take their content seriously. Some don’t want to pay because they cannot and at the same time, would like me to write for them. Here in lies the big difference.

I don’t mind writing content for clients (not always because then it will not be financially sustainable for me) who cannot pay my rates but nonetheless would like me to write for them. They have a genuine problem, but what impresses me is that they understand the value of good content. But how do I know which client is serious and which one is just haggling?

A serious client lets me know up front that look, this is how much I can pay. He or she also provides me all the business details and lets me know why he or she wants the content and why I’m the right person. They even call me a couple of times.

I repeatedly claim on my website that I’m constantly trying to build relationships instead of increasing my clients’ list. Yes, it’s good to have more clients, it’s good to have well-paying clients and it’s also good to earn lots of money, but earning lots of money in bouts is not good, especially when you know that you can help someone in the real sense. My personal experience has been, whenever I have worked for people who can actually use my services and I have delivered what I have promised, they stick with me. For years. They may not be able to pay me lots of money for a single project, but since they always work with me, their small instalments add up to bigger amounts. Yes, again, money is important, but the satisfaction that I derive out of the fact that my content helped them grow their businesses is also a great bonus.

Am I doing a favor? Not at all. I work in a business environment and when businesses grow they also generate more business opportunities. As I mentioned above, almost all those people who approached me for low-paying content writing assignments and whose work I did in turn down, turned out to be my “permanent” clients. They keep on paying me and a big chunk of my income comes from these people. So they are my assets.

It’s not always possible though, and not everybody is looking for such a relationship. Most of my clients are fine with my rates, they want content, they pay for it, and we both get on with our lives.

Don’t put all your search traffic eggs in one Google basket

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This is what says Duane Forrester, Senior Product Manager at Microsoft Bing in a post titled Bing Penguins & Pandas Poetry

Whether you like Microsoft or not, what he rightfully says is don’t just depend on Google for all your traffic – invest in other sources (websites, blogs, other search engines and social networking websites).

In the afternoon while having lunch with my wife I was explaining to her what it means to solely depend on Google for your business: it’s like farmers depending solely on the monsoons (or other rainy climates) for their crops. When you just depend on rains then your crops fail when the rainfall is below normal or if one year there is no rain. You have to create other sources of water. You need to learn to preserve water. You need to learn about crops that can be grown even if there is less water. I mean, don’t just depend on the rainy season for your harvest.

In the same manner, if you solely depend on Google, what happens if all of a sudden, like just happened with the Penguin update, your links vanish from search results and your traffic drops drastically? Most of your business will be gone.

Here are a few things you can do to create other qualified traffic sources:

Publish your content on other websites and blogs: This not only improves your search engine rankings it also gets you targeted traffic from niche sources.
Publish a regular newsletter: This is something I haven’t been doing I must confess. I have set up a newsletter at MailChimp, people have been signing up gradually, but I haven’t been regular. I must. In the coming weeks, I will. By publishing a regular newsletter you can keep in touch with your older, existing clients and you can also bring back those visitors to your website who might have visited once, dropped their e-mail ID and then forgotten about your website even when they could have used your service.
Submit your blog and the RSS feeds link to related directories: Again, this will get you more traffic from more sources.
Make ample use of social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter: Right now I’m not sure how a B2B business (which mine is) can engage people on social media for the purpose of getting you work, but many content based companies have significantly improved their traffic bypassing Google altogether.
Create a strong brand for yourself: People should know what you do and they should seek you whenever they need what you can provide. For example, people should know that I’m a professional, experienced content writer and when they need credible, reliable and well written content, they should approach me.
Submit content to social media websites: Create small videos related to your business and put them on YouTube. You can create slides and put them at SlideShare.
Create a community: Creating a community doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be getting customers and clients out of it (you do, in fact) but they will be your advocates whenever they come across people who may require your services.

Duane further says:

Algorithms change. Rankings change. Competition happens. The fact is, you need to be prepared. So, when your single biggest source of traffic sudden loses steam, what do you do? If your plan was to make sure your content ranked well across all the major engines, then your plan of action would already be in effect, protecting you from the loss in one area. True, its not an offset that matches what could potentially be lost at the same level, but the option is losing everything and having nothing suddenly.

This is actually very true. So use your content to create multiple traffic sources.

What is thought leadership and how your content supports it

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The primary purpose of publishing content on your website or blog is to establish authority and thought leadership, and portray you as an expert. Now, when I say “portray” by no means I’m saying that you need to pretend. In fact, I believe a good thing about blogging is it makes you stretch your limits and learn new things, if nothing else, then just to share them on your blog with your readership.

But what exactly is thought leadership? According to the link mentioned at the end of this blog post it means

Initiating, supporting and spreading new ideas that are bold, unparalleled and noteworthy. Beating the same old tune is quite easy and if you do that, nobody notices you and nobody pays attention to what you’re saying. On the other hand when you say something that is totally unheard of everybody sits up and listens.
Taking a stand is one of the greatest traits of a leader. A leader never sits on the fence. He or she jumps right into the fray and does whatever it takes to push the cause forward, even at the cost of antagonizing some people.
Credible, trustworthy content is at the crux of content-based thought leadership. If there is no credibility, if people don’t believe in what you say, then you cannot call yourself a leader. But how do you get credible content? By learning, by doing the right research, by backing your data with verified sources and by constantly redefining your abilities.
Having an eye on the future. We all work for the future but sometimes we get stuck in the current grind. A leader, no matter how pressing the current situation is, always has the future of the business or the organisation in his or her mind.

You can read the rest of the blog post at the original link.

via Is Your Content Supporting or Sinking Your Thought Leadership Efforts? | Content Marketing Institute.