Familiar with design software? If you are a high-end design/build, you most likely are very familiar with design software from your 3D designs! And if you're a manufacturer, maybe you've used design design software if you're in the marketing department. Regardless of how you've used it, design software and website design are VERY different things. You have graphic design in both but you have user experience in website design (some would argue that user experience is more important that graphic design). Website design includes designing for various platforms (mobile, ipad, desktop). Design software is a stable platform. When you're designing in something like a 3D design software, you're not concerned about button actions or how that plan will look on mobile. Watch for more.

Everyone knows that you can choose location, age, family, income - and other demographics when it comes to creating a Facebook audience for targeting your posts and dark ads. But what about interests and behaviors? Does every high income wife with children that is age 42 want a service you install or a product you sell?! NO!! So don't stop there. Make sure your Facebook audiences include interests and/or behaviors. Watch here for more:

Just stop it already with the wet pavers in your project pictures! A couple of summer rain drops on select pavers and natural stone - yes, that can be beautiful. But a hosed down paver patio or paver walkway? NO!!! Stop it. It's not stylish. It doesn't look good. Let them dry and then take your phone or camera out to snap a pic. 

No matter how much you're investing in advertising - online or offline, every business gets the best leads via referrals. There is no denying that. So how do you - as a landscape design/build company - get more referrals in the digital world? Anna shares her 5.5 ways to help you take some huge steps in growing your referrals - tomorrow.

In this video, Corey talks about the collision of experience driven purchasing and video marketing = drone. Team them up with still shots for an immersive experience . And remember - Buying a camera doesn’t make you a professional photographer. Buying a drone doesn’t make you a professional videographer. 

Yelp is a powerful website and app. As the 10th most popular website - it gets a lot of action from visitors. Surely, you've used it to read reviews and maybe you have your free profile setup on there. Does this mean you should be spending money on this platform - as a landscape design build company (or anyone really!)? Watch now.

What happens when you begin to look at your landscape projects through the lens of a camera? You start to see things you know the camera will capture. In this video, Corey talks about the four basic steps of getting winning photography - all by yourself! 

Despite the fears of spam and annoying ads, email marketing is alive and well. But how do marketers determine their email marketing strategies? One of the most important stats we look at is the “email open rate”. You may not know what this means, or worse, you may think you know what it means. Whatever the case, we’re going to let you in on all the knowledge to perfect your email marketing tactics and increase your open rates.

Using Blackwood Group's inspiration website, Halstead created a highly image driven website. The new look placed each project into a separate case study - into what developed to be a true, high-end elegant digital portfolio. The projects are all accessible via the homepage - but city as well as by category. Awards and about the company are accessible via the menu.

Done with poor quality leads from home and garden shows and increasingly getting more leads from word of mouth and through their old website, Hummel's Landscape in Harrisburg, PA was ready for a new, sophisticated website that reflected their extremely high-end landscape work.

Nature's Accents, based out of Hamburg, PA wanted a new website for brand awareness and SEO. They were developing a strong following on their Facebook page and reaching a higher-end clientele - but their unresponsive, outdated website didn't align to their new presence. 

Grandscapes, based out of Rhode Island, came to Halstead Media with an outdated website that was difficult to view on mobile and desktop. The text was small and the images were tough to see. In such a visual industry, they struggled showing the quality of their work with an unresponsive website.

Capturing elements that were important to Gary Duff Designs in their new website and making sure the new website represented the brand, the new website offers a perfect combination of classic sophistication and company info.

As long as landscapers have been landscaping and hardscapers have been hardscaping, we have also been, in our own ways, marketing. Over the last score of years, however, the introduction into the “age of technology” has vastly warped design-build marketing. Businesses, regardless of industry, can barely function on simple word-of-mouth anymore. To show our design-build pros just how far we’ve come in the last decade-and-a-half, and our predictions of the next few years, we’ve developed an “evolution of design-build marketing” timeline.

A customer telling you they told your office manager something that you are now contradicting? Forgot what you promised Mrs Smith? Always looking for random sheets of paper in your trucks, office, and who knows elsewhere? Stop wasting time being disorganized with your daily conversations. While yes, it takes time to organize yourself and start you and your office team to use a CRM - it will save you more time down the road. And help you keep more customers! Watch this video to learn what is a CRM and 5 ways to know it's time for your design/build to get this magical CRM!

As a design build professional, there is probably a specific skill set or passion you had that led you to start a business around it. But along the way, we know it’s easy to get swept up in all the other aspects of the business – probably the aspects you don’t know how to manage and aren’t very interested in. STOP TRYING TO DO IT ALL. Outsourcing is a great way to free up your time and produce quality work. Here's a list of some position that are totally worth it to outsource. 

Put that thing down! Don't do it! Don't you please still use the analytics from five - or even three years ago! People over the age of 50 aren't as non-web savvy as you think. Almost 3 out of 4 of them are on Facebook. That's just Facebook - think about how many of them search online (even on their smartphones!). Things have REALLY changed with marketing effectively to this age group. So don't get suckered into outdated traditional marketing techniques and then wonder why they're not working!

It's long past due for the hardscape industry at the showroom level. The kitchen/bath industry has been doing it for years with a ton of success. There are few hardscape dealers jumping on board and killing it. So how do you do it? How do use your concrete paver and natural stone showroom to bring more people in the door?

Have you ever met anyone who was amazing at everything? Someone who could paint like a pro, prepare architectural drawings, cut pavers, install pavers, run a training workshop, design a brochure, photograph the best angles of a project, write hundreds of words on a specific topic, run social media campaigns, manage a calendar, run interviews, prepare taxes...? I think you're getting the point here. You can't be great everything. It's impossible. But yet you might be doing (almost) everything. What would happen if you delegated what you suck at and did more of what you're amazing at? How would that impact your design/build business?

Mrs. Jones saw a Unilock .. or a Techo .. or some kind of natural stone outdoor living pic in a magazine or catalogue. You (Mr. Landscape Designer, Landscaper, or Landscape Architect - whatever it is you call yourself) promised her she was getting that. It's the same patio - same materials. Same paver patterns. Pretty much the same size. You might even have the similar planting and fence installed. Yet, she's not quite thrilled. Something is missing. Maybe she's telling you that "it's close - you did a good job," or maybe she's hiding it and you're left wondering "is she happy?" Why did this happen? Why isn't she in love with this new outdoor space? After several weeks (or months) of design and landscape construction - what's the missing piece? DESIGN! Interior design is the missing piece to every beautiful home design and remodel - why would you leave it out for the exteriors?