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– What Is A Tree Service Lead?
– I Want More Tree Trimming Leads
– I Only Want Tree Removal Leads
– Can I get My Own Tree Leads?
– Which Combination Of Marketing Activities Works Best
– Tree Service Lead Generation – How Do We Do it?
– Tree Service Leads Cost
– How Much Business Will I Get From These Work Leads?
– Are Leads From A Pay-Per-Call Agency Good Value For Money?
– How To Choose The Best Tree Service Lead Providers
– Wait! There’s a Problem
– The Big Opportunity
Here at MarketingDirector.com agency, the team has just finished a complete overhaul of the tree service leads we deliver to U.S. tree service clients. Details of our improved service is now shared together with unique insights we’ve gained.
We want you, as a tree care business owner, to be successful whether you use our services or not. Therefore, we also reveal several ways to generate tree job leads, independently.
What Is A Tree Service Lead?
Tree service leads are people with clear and present needs for tree work directed to your business. The better quality lead will:
– be timely i.e. delivered in real time without delay or filtering
– be exclusive to your business i.e. not sold to your competitors
– ideally, be a phone call sent directly to your business line
Our definition indicates that live telephone calls sent direct to your business are the best example of direct inbound leads. A minority of prospects might still prefer to write with an email or via a contact form on your website. But written inquiries only account for 1 in 20 of all leads in the green industry presently.
Here’s a recording of a live call lead that was sent straight to one of our clients recently. It involved trimming more than a hundred trees:
Listen to more recordings on our home page.
I Want More Tree Trimming Leads
There is a perceived (but easily overcome) problem which arises when delivering ‘pure’ tree service leads to clients. As a result of this and other preferences, some clients ask that we send only service-specific calls to them, such as tree trimming or stump grinding. The quick solution is two-fold:
i). stop tree service campaigns; and
ii) only send live calls that are specific to ‘tree trimming’
This can be done immediately and is quickly achievable. The more sustainable and profitable solution that our clients prefer takes a little more work and is addressed later in this article. In the meantime, we’ll continue to generate species-specific trimming calls related to each client’s geography and local tree fauna e.g. live oak tree trimming in the southern States and sabal palm tree trimming in Florida and southern California – these are two examples of the many tree types of tree trimming leads that we can target for clients.
I Only Want Tree Removal Leads
There are also times when clients just want tree removal leads or emergency tree removal service leads. Where our client has more specific requirements, the total volume of live calls that we can deliver from any one geographic area is restricted. In this case, we usually deploy additional advertising platforms to boost the numbers of calls to the maximum possible.
Live calls for tree trimming, tree removal, arborist services, tree care and tree services are ONLY sent to YOUR business. They’re not shared at all between you and your competitors. If exclusive live calls are the sort of tree leads you prefer, then contact us without delay. We’d love to help.
Can I Get My Own Tree Leads?
Absolutely, yes. MarketingDirector.com wants your business to succeed any way you can. We provide a wealth of free tree service marketing advice to help you build your own exclusive tree service leads as summarized below.
Non-Digital Marketing Tips For Tree Firms
To get you started, we share the top 5 non-digital ways to generate leads on your own, here. These straightforward marketing tactics, prioritized from many others, can be implemented by non-marketers. They will give you a great foundation for additional marketing activity and complement other strategies we recommend.
A Digital Marketing Model For Tree Firms
We have gone further by also sharing what we would do personally in your business, as your very own marketing director employee. Our specially-designed digital marketing model should be highly-effective for tree firms wanting to take their business to the next level. It is what the next Davey or Bartlett Tree Experts would do. On the downside, it will take time and modest capital investment before it starts generating leads in useful numbers. It will also need some expertise in order to assemble and co-ordinate the different components of the model.
Marketing Tips in Wintertime
We even report on the 22 best tree service marketing ideas can help green companies beat the seasonal drop in business during winter. Check them out here at your leisure.
Top 10 Ways To Grow Your Business When Starting Out
For a tree company which is new in business or that wants to reassess the way in creates leads, the most sustainable way to drum up business ultimately is good old ‘word-of-mouth’ advertising. Yes, it still works. This is the prime engine of good quality leads according to experienced tree professionals and arborists – we know because we asked them (report here). More than 90% of home-owners will use a provider again if they receive great service, relay the experts at HubSpot.
Our knowledge of your market stems from the fact that we only serve your industry and have got to know it pretty well.
Which Combination of Marketing Activities Works Best?
Most tree company owners I know are not afraid of trying out new marketing methods. Heck, they dice with danger almost every day so dealing with a new channel often presents little challenge. However, the same owners get fed up when the channel doesn’t produce the expected volume of business, regardless of how well it’s implemented. So what else should they do as well? What’s the next promotional method they should try? And how can one method integrate with and reinforce other marketing channels already in place?
Word-of-Mouth Advertising Is A Great Place To Start
Word-of-mouth advertising is a great place to start. Business leads from this route come from you doing tree work very well on a consistent basis. Positive word-of-mouth also comes from great customer service. The necessary mindset involves treating your customers the way you would expect to be treated yourself. It also involves going the extra mile to clean up and fix any site problems that inevitably occur from time to time.
Once your local reputation is established, you can depend on a reliable stream of good quality referrals for new business. But what does it take to accelerate the time it takes to reach this happy state?
Here are 5 Simple Marketing Actions That Will Accelerate Your Local Reputation, Encourage Repeat Business and Gain New Leads and Introductions To New Customers:
- Create A Google My Business (GMB) Listing – This is a great way to dominate the 1st page search results on Google in your local area. The chances of your tree firm’s name and contact info appearing in the Google 3-pack are much increased by great reviews. So….
- Encourage Google Reviews that point to and boost your GMB listing. Google provides a page where your satisfied customers can drop their comments and stars. Get familiar with that web page. Note down the hyperlink to it and make sure your happy customers can find it easily. Add the page link or equivalent QR Code to your quotation forms, estimates, work completion sheets, invoices, business cards and post-job feedback via SMS texts.
- Get & Keep Your Customers’ Contact Details – keep meticulous records of all your customers such as their name, email, mailing address and phone number. This means that you can offer your past customers deals or seasonal service offers in the future e.g. oak tree pruning this winter. Regular contact with your customers keeps them warm to your company’s brand and your services. This enables you to gain more repeat business from them and from their referrals to others.
- Create A Referral Program – aim to generate new business from your existing customers. It gives you a great excuse to write or call them. Best-selling author, Bill Cates recommends that you always ask for ‘introductions’ rather than ‘referrals’. That way, the contact process is more within your control. Incentivize ‘customer-get-customer’ referrals in the same way as described in option 2. (above). Incentivize referrals by offering a cash gift or coupon or a percentage discount on their next tree job.
5. Set Up A Website (Optional)
A website has numerous benefits for your business if implemented properly. You should be doing it anyway even though building a strong website can be hard. Ensure that your website design expert gives you a mobile-responsive web design that works fast on mobile phones when published. In the context of the above 4 suggestions, a website can leverage your new GMB listing greatly in these ways:
- Online Traffic to your Pages – Your newly-prominent GMB listing includes a visible link to your website. This will attracting visitors to your website where you can share your further service details and credentials with new prospects.
- Online Visibility in Search Engines – This additional traffic helps your own website rank better in the search engines for industry-relevant search terms. This gives you another chance of being found by new customers in your service area.
- Amplify Your Growing Reputation – Share your positive customer reviews to a wider audience by adding a ‘What Our Customers Say’ page. Regularly update examples of happy reviews on this page. Positive endorsements by other customers works well.
We hope you see the multiplier effect that a co-ordinated marketing approach can build for your tree service business. Over time, it will work harder and harder for your business and grow tree service business leads to a sustainable and cost-effective level.
You Still Need New Tree Job Leads To Get The Ball Rolling
The above reputation-building system will take time to work for your business. But it’s important you start for a sustainable and growing number of leads in future. Therefore, you will need introductions or leads from other sources before the ‘word-of-mouth’ strategy starts to work for your tree business. Let us pump-prime your own lead generation system with quality live calls from your service area. Read on to learn more about our lead generation service. Or call us to get started.
Tree Service Lead Generation – How Do We Do It?
We create a good number of high-quality, inbound phone calls for clients mainly through online marketing and highly-targeted tree service advertising on mobile phone platforms. Additional advertising platforms are brought into play where tree leads are needed in greater volumes. For long term clients, we will create digital properties to generate calls through SEO techniques. Our clients never pay large up-front charges. They only pay calls sent direct to their business phone on a pay-as-you-go basis. This way, we create an unbeatable combination of quality leads in good volumes and at a low unit cost with no large, initial investment.
You Only Pay For Quality Leads
The calls that we generate for clients are created with high-buyer-intent. This means we deliver prospects (usually home-owners) who have a need for a specific service for their trees, right now. If any irrelevant calls slip through the net, our clients can challenge their relevancy, quickly and easily via text message. Nine times out of ten, we will agree with their claim and refund any billed charge to their account without quibble. In this way, our clients are assured of high quality calls, always. We have no written contracts so the only reason our clients top-up their account is that they want more of our good quality calls.
Tree Service Leads Cost
Our clients pay a flat fee of just $35 for each highly-qualified, exclusive-to-your-business, direct inbound phone call. There are no administration or set up fees. There are no renewal charges and no annual membership fees either. We recommend you start off at this level with us. The volume of calls will build steadily over time as we optimize your campaign.
Some of our longer-standing clients choose our Accelerator Program for a higher volume of calls and these are $45 each. Tree removal leads are getting expensive, for example, and volumes can be slower to build than for other leads. So we add more advertising platforms to the mix so that we reach more prospects in your city/cities. The Accelerator Program can be applied to different types of leads e.g. Tree Removal or Tree Trimming or Emergency Tree Service, Emergency Tree Removal.
How Much Business Will I Get From These Work Leads?
That depends on several factors. From our side, the level of business you receive is reliant on the quality and volume of live calls that we send through to your company.
In terms of quality, we only drive live calls to clients – any irrelevant inquiries can be challenged and charges re-credited to your account without quibble.
The volume of live calls grows over time. This is because we work constantly to improve the optimization of each of our client’s campaigns. Additionally, the number of leads for tree services builds further. This is because we add new platforms and digital properties for longer-term clients.
Your skills are important factors too
The level of business that you obtain from our tree job leads is also reliant upon your phone answering and selling skills. There are two priorities here:
- Your company’s ability to answer your prospect’s call – When we send a call through, it should ideally be answered within 3 rings maximum, the earlier the better. We understand that if you are tying a running bowline 50 feet above the ground, you may not be able to answer the call at all. This is why our system can automatically send the call to a second and even a third number if your main line is busy.
- Your ability to convert the answered phone call into paid work – Our clients average between 35% and 85% conversion rate. The average is close to 50%. So for every two qualified calls at $35, you should be able to generate one paid job, on average.
Are Leads From A Pay-Per-Call Agency Good Value For Money?
Absolutely, yes. The above numbers prove it. Every two high quality live calls from MarketingDirector.com usually lead to one paid job, on average. Your minimum charge is usually around $300, correct? Your maximum can be as high as $5000 or more for one or two very large trees. Even with wages, fuel and operating costs, that’s a great Return On Marketing Investment (ROI). Higher conversion rates will liberate even greater profits from our quality leads.
We give you access to our back office system so that you can tally the calls against the amount spent. Everything is identifiable and accountable in real time.
Remember that the repeat business you gain from getting between 15 to 40 new customers each month is free of charge. In the way, the value you receive builds and builds over time, the longer you are with us.
How To Choose The Best Tree Service Lead Providers
Look for those lead providers which:
- Give you exclusive leads only for your business.
- Allows you to listen to recorded calls.
- Keeps in touch and gives you advice on how to get the best conversion rate from the calls provided (conversion rate = ratio of paid business from each call).
- Charges a reasonable fee per call.
- Gets up-to-speed quickly.
- Just focus on the green industry, preferably just the tree removal and tree trimming market. Marketing Director.com ONLY focuses on providing quality tree job leads. We don’t even do landscaping or lawncare.
Here’s how we stack up against the competition on these factors and more:
Wait! There’s a Problem
There is a small but important anomaly with the ‘tree service’ keyword when bidding for it on various ad platforms. It’s to do with consumer behavior and the way people search online. As a result, some tree company clients can’t or won’t handle exclusive leads for tree service. It presents both a problem and a big opportunity.
The Problem
Most buyers of home services prefer reaching for a familiar vendor name over someone new. You may have a reasonably-good local profile plus many years’ of superior arboreal experience and hard-won technical qualifications. But when home-owners face a tree problem, they will usually grab the fridge magnet or business card of someone who has looked after one or more of their trees in the past. Most times, the phone numbers on your competitors’ leave-behinds work. But when they don’t, the home-owner will still search online for their familiar tree guy on a “better the devil you know” basis.
How This Affects You
If your service area comprises between 2 to 3 counties, you could have up to 145 tree business competitors operating in it (Source: IBISWorld and our data). Coupled with typical consumer buyer-behavior, it means that there are quite a few home-owners in your service area who are searching online for ‘Bob’s Tree Service’ or ‘Trey’s Tree Service’, for example. Even though we don’t target these business names, our campaigns still flush out live calls for them, unless we can find and block all your 145 local competitor names. This is despite our ads only specifying our client’s brand name.
The problem arises when our clients don’t like being asked “Is that Bob’s Tree Service?” We understand that it’s natural to regard calls meant for someone else with irritation. And normally, clients are reluctant to pay for them.
So we usually weed out as many as we can to maintain our great call quality. We can’t afford to irritate our clients.
The Big Opportunity
But in our example above, tree loppers Bob and Trey have both gone out of business and can no longer be found in the market. They found you instead. As soon as you can park the initial irritation, you can save the caller a lot of wasted time spent in a fruitless search for tree guys gone AWOL. Suggest to your caller that you are local and operate a skilled, competent, experienced, affordable service business. State that you are their local tree service company with a great reputation ready to help with whatever tree-related issue they have. Ask them what tree problem they have rather than hanging up wondering where on earth where Bob disappeared to.
We all win
We want clients to capitalize on these leads. Customers gain by serving them and saving them time hunting for missing businesses. Our clients gain by adding another happy customer to their books. We do better by delivering more live calls in greater numbers. It’s a win-win-win for all.
So we’ll guide clients how to sell tree work easily with this 3-part outline:
- Share the opportunity – We’ll tell you how many calls are being missed by quantifying the business opportunity that pure tree service calls represent.
- Brand switching training – We will train you on how to take care of these callers more easily. In this way, home-owner prospects will see the benefits of trying your firm over ‘Bob’s’ who has, in all likelihood, ceased operating or taken an extended vacation. The training is free-of-charge because if you succeed, we do too.
- Open the floodgates – We can then un-restrict these particular home services leads when you become less reserved about receiving and winning new business from them.
So if you’re interested in tree service leads, the question is: “Are you REALLY interested?” If your answer is “Heck, yeah, I want leads that work”, a great opportunity awaits you.
Buy tree job leads from us, your tree service marketing agency.
John Hackwood
John Hackwood helps tree service owners get 15-40 NEW customers per month. He is an expert at helping them get clients using proprietary methods and making things super simple to understand. He has been a marketing professional since 1988 and is using this considerable experience to help small businesses in the US tree care sector.
If you’re interested in learning how John can help you grow your tree service business then click on blue button below.