The Holganix Blog

As a contractor, it is hard to give homeowners the thick, green lawn they are looking for in the summer. It is also hard to properly deploy labor in the summer months when services have slowed to a crawl. So, how can lawn and landscape contractors provide value to homeowners while building revenue and keeping their labor force working?

In his tip of the month video, Holganix CEO & Founder, Barrett Ersek dives into 4 methods he incorporated in his previous lawn care business during the summer months to meet demands and generate revenue. If you are reading this blog via email, click here for Barrett’s video.

Barrett’s Lawn Care Tool Box

In the above video, Barrett mentions several tools he recommends lawn and landscapers utilize to market their services to homeowners. Access those tools in the resources below.

Holganix Tree & Shrub Box

The Holganix Tree & Shrub Box contains several tools to help lawn and landscape businesses generate a tree and shrub business to compliment their turf business. Tools enclosed include but are not limited to: pricing guide, postcard designs and a video for your website. 

>>Download The Tree & Shrub Box

Summer Weather Box

The Summer Weather Box contains tools to help lawn and landscape contractors communicate to homeowners how they can help take care of the lawn during the summer. Tools enclosed include but are not limited to: homeowner letter and social media graphics. 

>>Download The Summer Weather Box

Aeration Box

The Aeration Box contains tools to helps lawn and landscape contractors upsell aeration and overseeding services to their current customer base. Tools enclosed include but are not limited to: homeowner letter, postcards and a video for your website. 

>>Download The Aeration Box

Why is social media so important for lawn care companies? Social media is a free tool your company can use to promote brand awareness, engage with customers through customer service, and can help generate new customer leads! Continue reading to see how you can maximize Facebook and other social media tools to help grow your company.

Ensuring your Facebook Page is set up properly is imperative to promote engagement. Before you even begin, make sure you are creating a “Page” as opposed to an “Account”. Facebook accounts are used by individuals while Facebook Pages are used by companies. Facebook may delete your account if you classify yourself incorrectly.

As you start to build out your page, consider these four items:

• Your Profile Picture - This is the first thing someone will notice about your Facebook Page and should be a recognizable image such as your logo. Your Profile Picture should also be 180 x 180 pixels.
• Your Cover Photo - This space should be used to show off your company’s identity in a visually appealing yet simple way. Your Cover Photo should be
• The “About Us” - This section is where you can help your page stand out from your competition and make your company shine. Be sure to fill out as much information in the “About us” as possible so customers can get a feel of your brand.
  
• The Call To Action - This is a button located in the right hand corner, beneath your cover photo. Consider making your call to action button a “Contact us” or “Call us” that allows prospects to get in touch with you directly when they have questions.  
  
  

Here are two examples of companies that have set up their Facebook Page using the above checklist.

Your company already uses marketing to gain new customers and promote your brand, don’t let these efforts go to waste. Add social media buttons to marketing pieces including email, newsletters, and print material. Also make sure you have your social media buttons linked to your website so customers can easily click to see and read more about your company.

With small or large companies, we can often find ourselves becoming “too busy” to get bogged down by the tedious work of social media. However there are ways to make sure that even in the busiest of months, you can still be posting effortlessly.

One way to do this is to schedule posts ahead of time. If you know there is a certain day or week that tends to get overwhelming, then schedule a post to get automatically sent out. You can schedule these posts weeks before, allowing you to be fresh and ready for the busiest of days!

Additionally, you can plan for success with a content calendar. A social media content calendar allows you to organize your social media activities far in advance in order to make your social media more manageable. You can download a customizable Social Media Content Calendar by Hubspot using the below link:

>>Download the the Social Media Content Calendar

4. Always Use Include Visuals in Posts

According to Hubspot, visual posts receive 2.3 times more engagement than posts without visuals and visuals account for 87% of total interactions. Whenever you are posting to your Facebook Page ensure you are incorporating an interesting visual or a video. See below for two free, easy ways to make professional grade graphics without paying for a graphic designer!

Free resources for visual posts:

• Pixabay: Free stock photo website.
• Canva: Allows you to create a visually appealing post without the help of a graphic designer. They have numerous templates to use for Twitter, Facebook and more!

5. Create Attention-Grabbing Content

Posts should only include a 1 to 3 sentence summary about the article or piece of content you are linking back to. It should also always include a visual! When using social media, your audience is scrolling through news quickly so don’t get too wordy or they may bypass your posts. Keep posts short, simple and attention-grabbing!

When you are thinking about what content you should be posting use the “rule of thirds” to help guide you!

• Education Pieces Authored By You - ⅓ of your post should be educational pieces authored by your company. For example, you may post about pests that are destroying certain plants, then link this back to a product or service you offer to combat it!
• Brag About You - ⅓ of post should be about you. This is where you can get into sales in a tasteful way! Consider posting a testimonial or a promo for this section.
• Educational Pieces By A Third Party - ⅓ of posts should be educational content by a third party.  For example you might post an alert by your State extension on a specific weed or pest that’s prevalent in your region.

6. Free Resources to Steal Today

As you begin or continue to use Facebook in your marketing, be sure you are taking advantage of these free resources.

• Social Media Content Calendar: Helps you plan out your posts.
• Canva: Creates graphics without the help of a graphic designer.
• Pixabay: Download free stock photos.
• Holganix Launch Box: This contains a bunch of already created articles, social media posts and graphics that are designed for you to use to send to your homeowners!
• The Webinar recording: If this article appealed to you, watch our webinar recording below on the subject for additional information. Be sure to set aside 17-minutes to watch the recording. If you are viewing this blog via email, click here to access the video. 

Organic isn't a fad - in fact, according to the Organic Trade Association (OTA) 82% of U.S. households buy organic with millennials representing the largest group of organic buyers in America. That many not seem like a large number to you, but consider that today 25% of millennials have families and that in 10-to-15 years, that number is expected to increase to 80%.

Can you consider how these new families will affect the consumer market - whether it's groceries, cleaning products or lawn care, buying organic matters to the millennial consumer.

You can read the rest of our blog to learn more, or watch the webinar recording below for the story. If you are reading this blog via email, click here to access the webinar recording.

Today’s Disruptive Economy

Regardless of the industry, today’s economies are being disrupted. Consider how Tesla is disrupting the traditional auto-industry. Ten years ago, few took Tesla as a car manufacturing company seriously. Compare the views of Tesla from ten-years ago to today and you get a whole different story. In fact, Tesla’s market valuation exceeded century-old titan, General Motors in 2017 by $1Million Dollars. Earlier this year, reports stated that the Tesla Model S outsold the luxury flagships of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi in Europe for the first time.

In the green industry, robots are starting to be disruptive and have the potential to displace labor. Last year, the manufacturers of Roomba announced a solar-powered, weed eating machine dubbed the “Tertill” for presale on Kickstarter. While the first or second model of the Tertill may not function 100%, in a few years it’s our firm belief that devices like the Tertill will be commonplace.

It’s important to pay attention to innovation in and outside of our industry in order to outcompete the competition.

The “Whole Foods” Customer

Additional innovation is happening in our industry when it comes to the technologies we have to create a beautiful, green, weed-free lawn. Biologicals like Holganix Bio 800⁺ products (Holganix Lawn, Tree & Shrub, Bloom, Agriculture and Golf) are creating disruption by offering a better way to reach results using fewer chemicals. That innovation is being disruptive because there is a need to not only be more sustainable for the environment but because the customer is demanding it.

That customer could be called the Millennial but for this presentation we are widening that demographic to include anyone who would potentially shop at a "Whole Foods"-type of grocery store. These consumers are demanding that today’s businesses use sustainable products.

According to a report by Satista, the organic product industry in the U.S. is worth 26.7 billion dollars. This translates to us in lawn care as well. The millennials are going to be our consumers and if we take a look at the trends of this group of people it is going more and more organic. 82% of U.S. households are buying organic items already and 30% of those purchasing organic do so to avoid fertilizers and pesticides. Don’t you think that diversion from fertilizers and pesticides can translate to their lawn care services as well?

Get Credit For What You Do

One way to combat the disruptive economy is through your company’s “why.”  A customer is more likely to use your product if you have a “remarkable message” on why you do what you do. If you are using Holganix products, it’s important to tell your customers and prospects that you are doing something different and get credit for the steps you are taking to meet customer demand and do good for their plants, family and the environment.

Let’s look at a few examples that are currently using the “Holganix message” of using environmentally friendly lawn care products to build a green, weed-free lawn.

UltraGreen Lawn Care

UltraGreen Lawn Care allows the “Holganix message” to do their marketing for them! In any marketing or sales piece they create, UltraGreen, ensure they include the organic, environmental message to sell their product. Because they took advantage of the Holganix message, UltraGreen grew from 0 to 7,000 customers in just four years and saw a 15-to-20% savings on material costs! 

PureGreen

According to PureGreen Lawn Care owner, Nathan Brandon, “over the last ten years, I have really noticed that more and more of my customers are requesting organic services.” He latched onto this trend and changed his messaging to focus on communicating how PureGreen is responsible for the environment and how their customers play an important role in that mission.

According to Rob McCoy, Holganix sales manager, “This is giving people a purpose beyond what their lawn care choice is, and this message has really helped sell the product!”

Tomlinson Bomberger: Lawn Care Landscape & Pest Control

When Tomlinson Bomberger decided to start using Holganix products they designed the “Soil Smart Lawn Care Program”. Each time they get a new customer or lead they offered the customer the ability to either choose the “Traditional” lawn care program or the “Soil Smart” lawn care program. The Soil Smart program was roughly 20% more expensive than their standard program but incorporated Holganix products and thereby offered a more environmentally friendly solution. According to Tomlinson Bomberger, the Soil Smart lawn care program is their fastest growing program yet!

Using Holganix Products and Want to Get Credit For What You Do?

We’ve created multiple marketing tools to help you better communicate why your lawn care program is better than the competition because you use Holganix. The Holganix Launch Box is our most popular tool - it contains a multitude of both print and digital marketing pieces to help you grow your business. Download your Holganix Launch Box by clicking on the button below.

What is Holganix?

At Holganix we want to revolutionize the way the world grows by focusing on biology as the solution to soil and plant health. We have noticed that lawn care needs a good foundation in the soil and roots to really focus on plant health and to produce a happy customer. That is why our line of products uses living biology to nurture soils and ultimately create a stronger and healthier looking lawn!

Want to learn more? Click the button below to schedule an appointment with your Holganix representative.

Don’t wait until the spring lawn care season to think about your 2018 marketing and sales strategy. Take advantage of the preseason lull in sales to strategize and map out your plan for successful growth this upcoming year.

Utilize these three FREE marketing tools to ensure you are ready for 2018.

1. Holganix Launch In A Box

If you are looking to plan campaigns to educate prospects and customers about Holganix and soil health, look no further than the Holganix Launch In A Box. This tool contains 12 “Stealable” tools for you to incorporate into your 2017 marketing campaigns.

What are some of the tools provided? Some of our favorite tools include three articles to use in your blog and/or email newsletter, postcard designs, social media posts and website content. All materials are 100% stealable.

>>Download your Holganix Launch In A Box here

2. Webinar: Marketing to the "Whole Foods" Consumer

Organic isn't a fad - in fact, according to the Organic Trade Associate (OTA) 82% of U.S. households buy organic with millennials representing the largest group of organic buyers in America. That may not seem like a large number to you, but consider that today 25% of millennials have families and that in 10-to-15 years, that number is expected to increase to 80%. Can you consider how these new families will affect the consumer market - whether it's groceries, cleaning products or lawn care, buying organic matters to the millennial consumer.  

Register for our webinar on how to market to the "Whole Foods" Consumer and take advantage of the growing organic trend. 

>>Register for the webinar

3. Ebook: How to GROW Your Business with Tree and Shrub Services

Consider growing your business by offering tree and shrub services to current customers. Did you know that you could expect 10 to 30% of your current customers to sign up for tree and shrub applications Not to mention the fact that adding an additional revenue source to current customers means boosting profit margin. It's like new found money! 

Your current customers are your low hanging fruit. Think about it. Your customers already know and trust your brand; they also care deeply for their landscapes or they wouldn't be paying for lawn fertilization to begin with.

Download this book to learn explore: 

1. How to market your tree and shrub business to current customers

2. How to price out tree and shrub applications

3. What materials you will need to get started!

>>Download the ebook

At Holganix, we are self-appointed soil geeks. Learning about new trends, research and theories that are happening in the field makes us tick. We bet it gets you excited too!

Here are our top 5 favorite plant and soil science TED Talks. Warning! Some of these are crazy, unique ideas that will make Holganix almost seem ordinary! If you know a good TED Talk we are missing, post it in the comments of this blog. We’d LOVE to check it out!

If you are reading this on an email, video function will not operate. Click on the link to watch each TED Talk. 

Humus – The Essential Ingredient

Humus is what is left after soil microorganisms have decomposed organic matter. It holds nutrients and moisture and provides a great structure for planting in. Humus is essential for food production and is being gradually depleted. Learn more in Graeme Sait’s TED Talk.

Healthy Soil, Healthy World 

If you pick up a handful of soil, you will be holding more microorganisms in your hand than the entire number of people who have ever lived on earth. Think about that for a moment. Can you imagine the quantity of living things in your grasp? Soil is FULL of life. In this TED Talk you’ll have the opportunity to explore the soil from a microorganisms’ point of view.

Putting Carbon Back Where It Belongs

Good news! Plants can quite literally change the face of the earth. By growing more plants, we can capture more carbon dioxide, water, production, biodiversity and profit? In fact, a 1% change in soil organic matter across just one quarter of the world’s land area could sequester 300 billion tons of physical C02. Check out Tony Lovell’s TED Talk here.

Stop Treating Our Soil Like Dirt!

Healthy soil is not dirt! Healthy soils are critical for keeping water clean producing food and buffering the effects of extreme weather. Soil plays a fundamental role in our lives in three key ways… Watch Karen Wynne’s TED Talk here.

Soil – From Dirt To Lifetime 

Did you know there are more living organisms beneath the soil then there are above it? Soil scientists can’t even come to an agreement about how many microbes are actually in the soil. Check out Fred Kirshenmann’s TED Talk here.

Getting your customers ready for summer can be tough. Not only is the turf about to undergo summer weather-related stress, if not drought-like conditions, but early-summer is also a key time for tree and shrub applications due to disease pressure.

Holganix has designed two key summer marketing resources for you to steal and utilize in your own marketing efforts to prepare your customers for summer.

On average, you can expect 10–30% of your current customers to sign up for tree and shrub applications if you communicate it properly. That’s like new-found money! Due to high disease pressure, early-summer can be one of the best months to market your tree and shrub services.

Download the Tree and Shrub In A Box to access:

1. Tree and shrub post card

2. Tree and shrub letter to current customers to upsell them on tree and shrub services

3. Video to upload to your website and share in your social media campaign that discusses tree and shrub applications

4. Educational content on how to apply and price out tree and shrub applications

>>Download the Tree and Shrub In A Box

If Mother Nature decides to dish out her usual drought-like conditions, it's important to have a conversation with your customers about what's going on with their lawns and what they can do to help! 

Download the Summer Weather In A Box to access marketing materials to help you communicate and educate your customers on how to care for their properties throughout the summer.

1. Content: Steal our summer weather blog article to post on your blog, email newsletter and website

2. Social Media: Grab out social media posts to help advertise your summer weather education to fans and followers on social media networks

>>Download the Summer Weather In A Box

Just because the grass is finally growing and operations are busy, doesn’t mean it’s time to slow down on marketing and selling your lawn care services. Don’t get off the marketing and sales hamster wheel just yet, or risk losing your momentum and compromising your growth opportunities.

Take 15 minutes each day to close a deal, write a social media post, mail a post card or send out an email newsletter.

Has operations chaos sapped you of all creative juices? Check out the list of resources below on marketing and sales for busy LAWNtrepreneurs.

Holganix Launch Box

The Holganix Launch Box is filled with tools to help you start marketing your use of Holganix. It’s an excellent resource to cheat on your marketing and sales initiatives and to R&D (rip off and duplicate) from marketing tools Holganix has already created for you. Tools include but aren’t limited to social media posts, customer letters, blogs and email blasts, all on Holganix.

>>Download the Holganix Launch Box

Branding Your Lawn Care Company

Get inspired by this webinar featuring Linda Thomas, The Director of Marketing at Real Green Systems. According to Linda, branding is more than just a logo. Watch the webinar to establish what BRANDING really means and what you can do to establish a successful brand for your lawn care company.

How to Get Your Ideas to Spread

In a world where consumers are faced with too many options, it’s easy to ignore the ordinary and boring. Instead, Seth Godin urges marketers and entrepreneurs to build products, services and campaigns that are Remarkable. The term “remarkable” means it’s worth making a remark about. Remarkable products, services and campaigns are inspiring and crazy, and certainly not boring.

Watch Seth Godin’s TED Talk entitled, How to get your ideas to spread for remarkable marketing inspiration.

4 Minutes of Focused Spring Marketing Tips

Holganix CEO and Founder, Barrett Ersek is a former lawn care company owner. In the below 4-minute video, Barrett compiles his favorite lessons on spring marketing from his 20+ years of experience on building, running and selling lawn care companies. Hint, getting customers from marketing initiatives doesn’t ALWAYS mean selecting the cheapest tool in your marketing arsenal. 

Social Media Tips for Lawn Care Companies

Social media is a tough nut to crack. However, utilizing social media in lawn care enables you to build relationships with customers, creating a more loyal fan base. Furthermore, you can tap into your customers’ friends or followers and maintain an up-to-date flow of information about the goings-ons in your company including coupons and sales. This short blog will discuss how to jump on the social media bandwagon with tips specific to the lawn and landscape industry.

>>Read the social media blog article

After a short winter, anticipation for the start of spring is thick. Many of us are itching to get back on the properties and begin normal maintenance operations. The marketing and sales machines are moving. Early telemarketing campaigns have begun and post cards are already starting to go out the door. However, before full-blown spring chaos is upon us, it’s important to slow down and really think about growth strategies for 2017.

Scottish author and historian Thomas Carlyle once stated, “A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.” In other words, don’t confuse being busy with real growth. How do you know you’re moving business growth in the right direction without a rudder, or goal, to guide you?

Setting clear, measurable growth goals

“Step one for 2017 needs to start with setting a clear, measurable growth goal,” says Barrett Ersek, CEO of Holganix and former lawn care company owner.

“Once your growth goal is made, creating a plan with actionable, clear and measurable objectives is key to ensure you reach your goal.”

For most of us, starting with the marketing and sales plan is key to hatching the appropriate marketing and sales campaigns to reach revenue goals.

A tool to help plan

That’s one of the reasons why Holganix has brought back its acclaimed webinar, “Building Your 2017 Marketing Plan” for lawn and landscape professionals. To date, we have a webinar scheduled for February 21 at 5:00 PM ET (Register here).

Attendees will set revenue goals for 2017 and break down campaigns needed to reach that revenue goal.

According to Nathan Brandon of Pure Green in Nashville, Tennessee, working on his marketing plan with Holganix’s marketing department has been a contributing factor to helping him stay focused on growth objectives. Nathan started his business in year-end 2013 and grew to 500 customers by December 2014, just 12 months later.

Shar McLaughlin from Irish Green Lawn Care attended the webinar in early January. According to Shar, “The 2017 Marketing Plan webinar has been a tremendous help to me in scaling my business. As a die-hard goal setter and planner, this is the most detailed plan I have used. I attended the webinar twice! Only one month in, but so far we have hit all our goals.”

Register for our webinar!

Slow down, get strategic and start growing this 2017 by attending our webinar Building Your 2017 Marketing Plan.

Did you know Holganix helps grow your lawn and landscape business?

We are passionate about sustainable GROWTH! And to us, growth means more than just growing plants. It also means the growth of businesses – ours and YOURS! Here are seven ways Holganix helps grow your business.

Holganix differentiates your business

In lawn care, you don’t have to just compete on price. In fact, if you rely on LOW prices as your mechanism for growth, you could seriously damage the health of your company. Going up against national lawn care companies that have buying power with reduced costs associated with treating lawns is a big NO!

Instead of competing on price, show your market what makes you special! Grow DIFFERENT!

When you use Holganix, you reduce your synthetic inputs by 50 to 75%. Reducing inputs allows you to market your company uniquely against your synthetic wielding competitors.

Combat the growing green movement and government regulations

Going green doesn’t just help differentiate your business, it also allows you to offer a service that sustainably minded homeowners desire.

Do your customers really care about organic services? You bet they do! According to Statista, in 2013, the United States was the world’s largest market for organic products. In fact, it was a $26,700,000,000 market. Your customers want organics; why not offer them?

Consumers aren’t the only ones thinking organically, so is the government. With government regulations around the use of synthetic products increasing, you can escape the noose by going green.

Increase productivity with LOGISTICS

If you use liquid fertilizers, it could take your technicians up to 45 minutes to fill a truck with product! Because of the Holganix RAD (Refrigerated Automated Dispensing System) and other equipment offered by Holganix, lawn care companies are able to fill their trucks on average in 12 minutes!

Reduce customer call backs

By using Holganix, you are nurturing healthy plants. Healthier plants mean less call backs and less money wasted!

Learn about the seven ways Holganix grows healthier plants here.

Reduce reliance on UREA pricing

Fertilizer costs associated with urea may be low now, but they won’t be forever. By using Holganix, you reduce the use of urea fertilizer by 50 to 75%. Why rely upon urea pricing and a finicky market when you can control your cost of doing business with Holganix?

Tools for education

Holganix has created TONS of tools to help you get your learn on and grow your business! Topics include marketing, business strategy, production and science. Here are some of the tools you have available:

1. eBooks

2. Articles

3. Videos

4. Webinars

Marketing support

Holganix has also created tons of marketing pieces you can R&D (Rip Off and Duplicate). We’ll customize any piece with your logo and company contact information, just give us a call! All designs are free. Just send the design to your local printer and your marketing campaign is in business!

1. Postcard Designs

2. Yard/Lawn Sign Designs

3. Door Hanger Designs

4. Brochures

5. Marketing Boxes

6. Video

>>Explore our marketing tools in Holganix University

Okay, Holganix grows your business. But, where should you start?

Feel a little overwhelmed by the amount of free tools available at your fingertips? We recommend starting with our Holganix 101 for Lawn Care webinar. It’s designed for Holganix newbies and covers:

1. What is Holganix?

2. How do you talk about Holganix to homeowners?

3. Access and introduction to Holganix marketing tools

>>Sign Up Here

Don’t wait until the New Year is here to think about your lawn and landscape marketing and sales strategy for 2017. Take advantage of the lull in sales and services between Thanksgiving and Christmas to begin strategizing and mapping out your plan for successful growth this upcoming year.

Utilize these three free marketing tools to ensure you are ready for 2017.

Back by popular demand, we have two upcoming dates for the webinar Building Your Marketing Plan. The webinar will provide a template to create your plan and then will delve into examples of some seriously powerful marketing and sales campaigns to capitalize on 2017 growth opportunities.

What is one of our favorite marketing and sales campaigns? Golden Streets! Golden Streets are neighborhoods containing your most profit-potential prospects. Getting creative (Don’t worry, we have some creative examples!) will help you get attention and convert those leads into sales.

>>Learn more about gold street theory here

When are the webinar dates? We currently have two dates scheduled: December 7(tomorrow) at 10:00 ET and January 5 at 5:00 ET.

>>Register for a webinar here

If you are looking to plan campaigns to educate prospects and customers about Holganix and soil health, look no further than the Holganix Launch In A Box. This tool contains 12 “Stealable” tools for you to incorporate into your 2017 marketing campaigns.

What are some of the tools provided? Some of our favorite tools include three blogs to use in your blog and/or email newsletter, postcard designs, social media posts and website content. All materials are 100% stealable.

>>Download your Holganix Launch In A Box here

3. 2017 Strategy In A Box

The 2017 Strategy In A Box contains educational content around building your marketing and financial plans for 2017. Additional tools are provided to then help turn those plans into action!

>>Download your 2017 Strategy In A Box here

Cheers to a successful 2017!

We hope these tools help you make 2017 a successful year for you and your company.

We are always looking for ways to continually provide support to our lawn and landscape customers; let us know if these tools have been helpful and what tools we should look to create in 2017 to make your job easier. Reach out: 866-56-EARTH or info@Holganix.com.