It’s a great time to find new landscape design clients online. The National Association of Home Builders is forecasting 25% growth in the housing sector with single-family construction increasing by about 32%. Those new homes will need your landscape design services resulting in an increase in business in the coming year. And according to Google's research, they are going to look for those services and research your firm online. As a landscape designer or architect, you need to take advantage of the slower winter months and prepare to take advantage of this increased demand. Having a professional website built that utilizes inbound and content marketing as a means to increasing lead generation, will help get your business name recognized, and increase sales. It all starts with a website that is easily found online in search engines, has lead conversion pages, an automated email marketing channel, and social media share and follow buttons. It sounds complex, but when set-up correctly, it will attract better clients and make sales easier by pre-answering questions and eliminate a lot of wasted time.

How Can Inbound and Content Marketing Increase Sales? 

Effective inbound marketing can be broken down into four distinct phases, or goals; attract, convert, close, and delight. Each of these areas is important to create an effective inbound marketing campaign. Done correctly, you can attract and close new clients, and grow your landscape architecture business. 

1. Attract Visitors - You can drive traffic to your site by creating unique informational content on your blog and in social media by incorporating highly searched keywords and phrases. In a competitive market, blogging once weekly is a minimum. Companies with 1-10 employees, that publish 300+ blog posts (300+ equals the total aggregate of all blog posts published over time) get 3.5x as much traffic as those that have 0-50 total cumulative posts. Keyword-rich blog articles allow search engines to find your site and list it on search engine result pages (SERP). Avoid using sales-oriented language and stick to unique, informational content that can help to establish your brand, and build trust with visitors by providing relevant information. 

2. Convert Visitors into Prospects – Once visitors come to your site, your goal becomes to convert them into leads. There are several methods to reach your goal. First, create highly engaging and informational landing pages. Your pages should have a clearly marked area asking visitors to click for more information. This is known as a “call-to-action” or CTA. When a visitor clicks on the link, they are taken to a page where they are asked to fill out a form with their contact information in return for a “premium” item, like a report, or for example, in the case of a landscape architect, perhaps an outline of common ornamental plants for a specific geographic location.

LANDING PAGE TIPS

• Build trust with testimonials, or reviews of your service.
• Keep actionable areas like your call-to-action button above the fold, visitors may not scroll down to see them. 
• Always use interesting, visually appealing images on your pages.
• Include a contact form and a guide to using your services.
• Keep content to one offer per landing page! 

3. Close the Sale - Once you have a prospect’s contact information, you’ll need to create an email campaign to slowly build trust and authority and lead your prospect through the sales process, or lead funnel. You can do this by continuing to provide relevant and more specific information to visitors based on their initial inquiry, for example if a prospect downloads an ebook on creating a hardscape/landscape outdoor living space, your next email can offer information on using natural stone vs. manmade materials when creating a patio. Make sure to personalize your outreach to match a potential client’s specific needs! 

4. Encourage Clients to Promote Your Firm - Your greatest advertising online comes from satisfied customers. Once you’ve made the sale, keep in contact, make sure you provide stellar service and ask them to share their experiences with their social networks.

Inbound marketing is one of the best methods for generating interest, leads and sales for every business including landscape architecture firms. Follow the path above and you’ll see true growth in your business that will give you the edge in a growing housing market. 

Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool. Encourage people to talk about your business, build online authority and trust by developing your brand identity with inbound and content marketing. 

About Michael Conway and Means-of-Production

My firm builds Squarespace websites, Houzz profiles, and content marketing and advertising solutions for architects, interior designers, design-build contractors and landscape design firms. Our all-in-one tactics attract the right clients with exceptional architectural photography and brand messaging that sets you apart from the competition. Contact me for a free-of-charge consultation and marketing review. It takes about 40 minutes and you'll be provided a list of actionable improvements designed to solve your specific marketing problems.