As mentioned in the introduction to this series, before you can begin to market to your target customers, you must have a clear vision of who your target customers are. One of the reasons that U.S. Lawns has been a leader in its industry for more than three decades is that we have clearly defined our niche. By focusing exclusively on the commercial side of the larger landscaping industry, we are able to effectively target commercial property owners and professional property managers in our messaging.
Why do we focus on commercial properties?
By focusing on commercial properties, U.S. Lawns offers a business model that gives franchisees a roadmap to maximize their revenue potential and create their own sustainable and recession resistant businesses. Here are a few of the things that differentiate the commercial sector and make it the ideal niche of the discerning business owner:
- Working with professional clientele creates an easier relationship to manage.
- Fewer commercial customers are required to create a sustainable business when compared to residential customers.
- These customers are working with a budgeted expense, not their own discretionary income, and are less susceptible to market variations.
- These customers generally sign seasonal, annual or even multi-year contracts to create a predictable stream of recurring revenue.
- Commercial properties are generally designed to be easier to maintain.
How do we target the right customers?
U.S. Lawns’ sales and marketing support helps you develop a clear understanding of who your target customers are. We have developed detailed customer personas that help you understand and solve the problems faced by key decision makers in multiple market verticals when it comes to their landscape maintenance needs.
Using state-of-the-art commercial real estate and business performance data and analytics platforms, our team generates a detailed customer list and market vertical analysis. These lists are inclusive of the number and size of properties in key commercial market verticals such as multi-family housing, retail, office, healthcare, hospitality, and industrial.
Resources such as these tend to cost prohibitive for the typical small landscape business owner, but with the power of the U.S. Lawns network, we are able to leverage platforms such as these for the benefit of our franchisees.
Once the market vertical analysis has been completed our team will work with you to build a plan of attack, focused on developing route density and a well-diversified customer portfolio that will help you avoid becoming overly dependent on any single market vertical. This plan will be monitored and developed over time as it may make sense to adjust focus at different times in your business development.
Because U.S. Lawns is committed to your success, we have a dedicated and experienced team that will leverage the resources that come with our national brand to help you build a sustainable business. This starts with clearly defining your target customers to make your marketing efforts more efficient.
In Part III we will discuss how the U.S. Lawns team helps you develop a multi-channel marketing plan to reach your prospective customers in the awareness stage of their buyer’s journey.