How to Use Your Marketing System to Attract Affluent Customers and Larger Projects
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The Content Team,
HALSTEAD.
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Successful outdoor living businesses that consistently land $150K+ projects don’t do so by chance. To score such large jobs, they put some, and potentially all, of their efforts into attracting a certain sector of the population—people who enjoy the finer things in life, who want to replicate the luxury and comfort they experience inside when they’re outdoors, and who have the income to afford it. To make these efforts as worthwhile and efficient as possible, these top companies rely on effective marketing systems with laser-focused targeting.
Get Familiar with the Affluent Audience as an Outdoor Living Business
If you want to take on larger-scale projects, make sure you’re ready for it. Top firms have worked their way there. They’ve built the crew, developed the skill, and attained the equipment needed for these jobs. Along the way, they have likely earned awards for their stunning landscapes and outdoor living spaces, are known for their high-quality work, and have consistently increased the scope of their projects over time—all of which help them reach their ideal customers.
Attracting a particular audience requires knowing exactly who your audience is and taking intentional, deliberate, and strategic action. If you want to take on higher-value projects, you’ll need to reach an affluent audience and create connections.
Even as successful lawn and landscape business owners, many professionals feel out of their league when approaching prospects in the top 1% of income earners, who are those earning a minimum of approximately $600K annually as individuals and have a net worth of around $11M. Recognize the value that you bring, and don’t be intimidated.
The affluent demographic is known to choose a company based on the experience they provide. Going above and beyond for these customers is expected, and if you don’t meet that expectation, your competitor will. For example, you can use automation in your marketing systems, such as sending a follow-up text or email to check in and ensure they’re happy with your services after you’ve completed the landscape maintenance on their estate. If they reply, following up promptly will show your dedication to providing the best experience possible.
Use your marketing to show how you can elevate their everyday experiences through the high-quality outdoor spaces that encourage making last memories. Highlight expansive outdoor spaces where they can envision eating outside with their families, playing in the pool with their children, and relaxing by the fire with friends rather than focusing on single-feature projects like a small paver patio.
Content marketing allows you to educate and inform using helpful information that doesn’t feel like a sales tactic, making it effective at not only showcasing your work but at building trust with your audience.
Using a Content Marketing Strategy to Attract the Affluent Audience to Your Outdoor Living Business
Qualifying your audience is key when trying to attract larger jobs. Positioning your business also means demonstrating how you go above and beyond what any competitor does. Whether it’s the size, scope, and high quality of your outdoor living spaces or the superior customer experience that you provide, your content can accomplish this goal. By clearly showing the type of projects you will do, your content can help position your outdoor living business as a luxury brand.
There are three types of content beneath the content marketing umbrella: written content, photography, and videography. All three can be used across various platforms and are the core of a content marketing strategy. Paired with search engine optimization (SEO) efforts that target a wealthy audience, you have a winning combination to drive traffic to your website that will convert to comprehensive outdoor living projects.
Photography & Videography
A general rule of thumb is to show what you want to attract. To draw a well-to-do audience, your photography and videography should show luxurious outdoor spaces and feature expansive estate landscapes. If you want to build resort-style outdoor living spaces complete with a custom inground infinity pool, an expansive paver patio with an outdoor kitchen, and an outdoor living area with a natural stone outdoor fireplace, posting a photo on social media of a single walkway project isn’t going to reflect that.
Professional photography and videography help show luxury more than a photo snapped on your smartphone. Using a drone to capture these visuals will show these outdoor spaces from an impressive perspective and truly capture the broad scope of your work. These high-quality and artful visuals are a must on your website and look spectacular as part of your Instagram feed or in your digital portfolio.
Lawn, landscape, and outdoor living companies with the most impressive visual content are patient and wait for the landscape to mature before scheduling a photo or video shoot. A mature outdoor space with lush planting beds full of colorful blooms, a vibrantly green lawn, and a paver patio outfitted with stylish patio furniture will be more attractive than a recently completed project showing dead grass, mud on the paver patio, or otherwise bare outdoor space. A mature outdoor space makes it much easier to envision what spending an afternoon in a comfortable chair beneath the shade of a pergola would be like.
There is still a time and a place for less formal, daily-diary type social posts using the photos and videos you’ve captured with your smartphone. When you include yourself or your team members in your content, it helps add personality to your brand and establishes trust with your audience as they get to know you through your content.
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FOCUSING ON THE EXPERIENCE
Photography and videography are effective methods of demonstrating the experience that your high-quality outdoor living spaces can create. Tactically, this may look like a professionally produced drone video showing a family enjoying their resort-style backyard, with dad grilling supper on the built-in Big Green Egg in the outdoor kitchen, the kids splashing in the inground infinity pool or playing hide and seek by the pool grotto or cave, and mom watching from a comfortable spot beneath the poolside pavilion. This example shows the impressive experience the prospect can look forward to and creates an emotional connection.
You can also convey what the customer experience will be like by creating time-lapse videos showing a project from start to finish. Share photos of smiling customers or video testimonials of affluent customers in their new and lavish outdoor spaces. This helps your prospects envision themselves in their own outdoor oasis.
Written Content
Your blog, website content, and social media posts are important in SEO. Providing educational content that meets the affluent customer’s needs, combined with paid ads, is what will get you discovered on Google searches and social media.
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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
A simple explanation of SEO is that you want your content to show up first on a customer’s search engine results, so creating content that answers a question, provides inspiration, or meets a need is essential.
The first step to SEO is keyword research. Using tools such as Google Ads Keyword Planner and SEMrush, you can generate data about keyword search volume and keyword difficulty related to your specific area. Knowing what your target audience is searching for will help you create content that will reach them. For example, broad keywords such as “luxury landscape design,” “outdoor living spaces,” “backyard transformations,” or “backyard makeovers” can be used to target affluent audiences.
Google Ads and SEO efforts are a winning combination. To attract a higher-end market, you can use Audience Segments to reach people with certain interests, behaviors, and detailed demographics. For example, you could target the top 10% of household incomes or even a zip code for a wealthy neighborhood.
With Google’s Helpful Content Update (GHCU) in August 2022, ensuring that your content is useful and well-researched is a key component to ranking higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs). The days of keyword stuffing are gone, and your ranking will be adversely affected if you attempt it.
Especially since the GHCU, having professional writers create content as part of your marketing strategy is more important than ever. Expertise is a factor that Google uses to rank your page, and if there are grammar errors and inaccuracies, Google will pick up on them, and your ranking will suffer. Not to mention, an affluent audience tends to be highly educated, and speaking on their level is a must.
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CONSISTENCY IN YOUR BRAND’S VOICE AND TONE
Your written content is an essential branding component. Word choice affects the overall mood and emotion that is conveyed in your message and creates your brand persona. Professional writers are experts at conveying brand voice and tone and keeping it consistent across all of your written content while also keeping your ideal customer persona in mind. When you are targeting an affluent audience, you need to speak their language in order to connect with them. For example, how a college-educated ultra-wealthy professional speaks is very different than how a typical teenager speaks.
A great way to see how the average affluent homeowner speaks is to read customer reviews for a business that serves the type of customer you aim to serve. These words are often referred to as the voice of the customer (VOC) and provide insight into your target customer’s word choice and what factors are important to them.
Comparing these two reviews will help you see the difference in the VOC, as each expresses what is important to them.
Example 1: “The price was reasonable and they added mulch to areas that weren’t included in our contract. We are very pleased!”
Example 2: “We could not have been more pleased with the attention to detail, quality of craftsmanship, and timeliness of the service provided.”
Example one focuses on pricing and securing a great deal, while the second example talks about the level of detail and the service provided. The average homeowner is typically more concerned with saving money, while an affluent customer is interested in a superior experience and product. These are generalizations, and, of course, there are exceptions.
The focus of your written content needs to match the VOC. A wealthy customer will likely be more interested in the artistic design of planting beds, how a beautiful paver driveway will impress their guests as they arrive, or the convenience of controlling the amount of shade with a louvered pergola than they will be with getting a deal.
Your Website’s Role in Your Marketing System as a Landscape Industry Business
Think of your website as the hub for all your content. Your salespeople can share the case studies that you have published on your website as tools to help them close sales. The professional photos and videos on your site will show high-end complete outdoor living spaces, which helps qualify your audience. You can share blog posts published on your website via Facebook to drive traffic. The possibilities are endless when you have a well-organized website with evergreen content.
Website Design
Lawn, landscape, and outdoor living businesses whose target customer is affluent have well-designed websites that exude luxury. Their websites are stunning to view, well organized, and run smoothly. They’re also updated regularly because nothing online is static. Trends and technology change frequently, and maintaining a top-of-the-line appearance requires continual review and revision to stay current.
Affluent customers tend to have high expectations, and if your website loads slowly or looks outdated, they’ll seek a better experience elsewhere. Establishing yourself as the best in the business will help attract an audience that is willing to pay premium prices for a premium experience.
How Social Media Can Help You Build Relationships With an Affluent Audience
Social media provides the opportunity to connect with your audience regularly. Your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram posts serve as touchpoints throughout the customer journey and help keep your business top of mind. Properly managed social media helps engage customers, build relationships, and drive traffic to your website.
Establishing trust is one of the most impactful things you can do with any audience, including the affluent, and social media is a great tool for this purpose. Your posts and the content you share help establish you as an industry authority, which leads to trust. Just as in any relationship, you can’t be around one day and gone the next and expect to build trust. A strong social media presence requires commitment and consistency to be effective. Posting regularly shows that you are a reliable company that isn’t going anywhere.
Paid Social Media Ads
Amplifying your posts via paid ads is no longer an option, it’s a necessity. The days of being discovered organically on social media are gone, which requires strategic effort to ensure you get the results you’re looking for—more leads.
With 70% of internet users active on at least one Meta platform, Facebook and Instagram are excellent ways to reach people of all demographics, including the affluent audience. Baby Boomers have held the largest percentage of wealth in the United States since 2004, which continues to grow. At the end of 2022, they held nearly 71% of the nation’s disposable income. 82% of this generation can be found on Facebook, making it the ideal social platform for targeting the affluent using paid ads.
As a busy professional, you wear a lot of hats, and staying consistent with social media posts can feel overwhelming. A marketing system that includes a social media posting plan and ad strategy allows you to take this task off of your plate so you can focus on other aspects of your business.
Why You Need Online Reputation Management in Your Marketing System
Online reviews are the modern-day word-of-mouth referral, and 79% of review readers view them as equal to recommendations from friends and family members. With the customer journey beginning online, your reviews are likely the first thing potential customers see. Your online reputation can either attract leads or send them running in the opposite direction to your competitor.
The more online reviews you have, the better. Having a system in place to consistently garner reviews is essential to establishing trust online. At HALSTEAD, our clients can keep track of their online reviews from one convenient dashboard. This process can be automated to send branded emails or texts to customers as you complete their projects, making it easy for happy customers to share their experience via a Google or Facebook review.
Even negative reviews can work in your favor if they are managed well. Negative reviews allow you to put your excellent customer service skills on full display, providing review readers the opportunity to see how you handle the difficult situations that sometimes arise. Since affluent customers value experience, this is integral to building their trust.
How Analytics and Lead Tracking Help You Know What Works
With call and form tracking, Google Analytics, and Facebook data, you can have a clear picture of what’s working and what isn’t. At HALSTEAD, we have a single dashboard where our clients can see all their data in one place in real time. When you can see your marketing ROI by connecting sales and marketing, you won’t have to guess what’s working or what steps you need to take next.
Analytics give you a clear picture of your marketing efforts, so you are never left in the dark. You can track how you have attracted an affluent customer with a larger project, including what social media post or link they clicked on so that you can repeat what’s working at moving your contact from online to an offline full-scale outdoor living project.
Implementing Refreshed Traditional Marketing Techniques in Your Strategy
While today’s marketing system is largely digital, there is still a place for traditional marketing—with a refresh to reach a modern audience.
Luxury Sales Brochures
Leave behinds are still an effective marketing tool when done right. When you meet with a potential customer, you can leave a luxury sales brochure that looks more like a magazine than a brochure. The high-quality paper and weight help further establish your business and the work you do as high-end. With professional photography, these colorful photos help position your company as the leader in your area and will connect with an affluent audience.
High-Net-Worth Referrals
Working with one high-net-worth customer can lead to many more projects as they share their positive experience with their neighbors, friends, and family. While affluent customers tend to naturally make referrals, you can move the process along by creating a referral program.
Keep in mind that affluent customers generally aren’t motivated by receiving discounts, so thinking outside of the box is key. For example, one of our clients has a referral program that rewards the referrer by making a $500 donation in their name to the charity of their choice. This gives the referrer the satisfaction of doing something good for their community as a reward for their referral.
