How I found TOO Many Customers! AND YOU CAN TOO (Step by Step)

[BLC7]

But before we get to that, let me introduce myself, so please bear with me. I just started a Lawn Mowing business. I have 1 account from last year, a commercial account that includes 8 yards. The only problem is that the yards are an hour away, and the route is 87 miles… and that’s AFTER I get there. So each mowing is approximately 200 miles… for 8 yards, 3 times per month. This was just a side gig last year, and I took it for sentimental reasons.. plus I learned that I enjoyed the heck out of mowing the yards. The real story is that I’m not a lawn guy, I’m really an SEO/Internet Marketing guy, and this is what I mean by “I Found TOO Many Customers – AND YOU CAN TOO!” WARNING: I AIN’T SELLIN NOTHING, SO DON’T EVEN ASK I live in a pretty small town and picked up a Dental Practice locally as one of my clients 15 months ago. The long of the short of it is when I began working with them, their parking lot was literally empty every time I went by for a meeting. And by empty I mean zero to 2 cars at any time I went by to pick up a check or drop off data reports. As the months went by, I noticed there were constantly more and more vehicles in their parking lot… The past 6 months it has gotten to the point where it’s difficult to even get a parking spot when I go over to pick up my check. I tell you this story, because…. they just fired my butt..... Sort of. It turns out, they’re so booked up, they can’t take any more patients…. Well, they “can”, but they’re going to be selective, and are tired of turning people away that I send to them… so they want all of my marketing to be shut down for the time being. Sounds good to me.. If they can’t handle the volume, then it’ll just hurt their reputation if every new phone call they take ends up in “sorry, we can’t take you”. So, anways… ONWARD. Last year I had the 1 commercial account, and it was fun, but a pain in the butt to drive to every 10 days because of the distance. Over the past month or so, I’ve been contemplating starting up a service here locally to see if I could do it. Well, after my Dentist fired me this week, I got some extry time on my hands! And I’m going to use the EXACT same strategy I used for their practice for my lawn service. 100% Online. It may or may not work, but I’m going to lay it out, and if you want to follow it, cool. If you want to copy it, that’s cool too. I don’t really care. Just thought that I would give back to the community, because I’ve taken away a few nuggets from you guys that I think will help me as far as the business side of things. PART II Step by step: I’m going to use this thread to describe the process I use to generate leads from the interwebs. Here’s what I’ve done so far. 1) Registered website: December 27, 2012 http://BruinLawn.com 2) Signed up & Confirmed Google Places/Maps page: http://Google.com/places 3) Created Youtube Account: Today http://youtube.com/NatchezLawnCare 4) Created Facebook Account: Today http://facebook.com/natchezlawncare By doing a search for “Lawn Care Service Natchez” I can already see that I’m listed in the maps for that search term and about a dozen others. I put a lot of stock in the maps listings, because folks that use a phone to search out a business, MAPS always pops up at the top of their phone during a search. Everything is created that I need so far, so I’m starting first by building out youtube videos to get them to show up in the Search Engines and build citations within each video to strengthen my Maps listings. Youtube: I’m building and uploading a video for EACH keyword I plan to target: Lawn Care, Grass Mowing, etc. and the video will be near duplicate. The only difference will be the title and tags of the video, and the video length, so that Youtube doesn’t take it down for being a duplicate. Different title & keywords = different video as far as youtube is concerned. Here’s the video that I will use as a template for every video created for this account: XXXXXX <**- will update link as soon as it's processed Each video thereafter will have 3-5 seconds added to it to ensure no duplicates. That’s what I’ve done so far, and like I said, I’ll update as this project moves forward. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. And like I said, I ain’t got nothing to sell, I’m just using this as a way to give back to the community.

---

Last edited by BLC7; 01-11-2013 at 02:21 PM.

[BLC7]

Lawn care business tips

For some reason, I'm not able to edit my original post to include the live Youtube Video, so here it is: Video 1: http://youtu.be/rxxW3M6AM1M Video 2: http://youtu.be/XH6QkysOmtM Again, I will be duplicating this video over a dozen times changing only the length and title of the video before re-uploading to youtube.

---

Last edited by BLC7; 01-11-2013 at 02:39 PM.

[BLC7]

Video 3: Lawn Mowing Service

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3FReXLLOgM

Video 4: Lawn Service

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpoBxiBbWNs



You can actually see these videos beginning to rank on page 1 and 2 of the different search terms, which is pretty crazy considering I've done nothing but upload the videos.

Check by typing any of these search terms:

Lawn Care Natchez
Lawn Care Service
Grass Mowing Service Natchez
Lawn Mowing Service Natchez
Lawn Service Natchez

Some of the keywords have the video on page 1, and some of the keywords have a video listed on page 2.

Pretty silly, but this is real time, guys. Just check the upload date & time on my youtube channel:

http://youtube.com/natchezlawncare


Think that's all I'm gonna do for today.. if you have any questions, just let me know.

Later.

[dpld]

i fully understand what you are talking about and i don't have any disagreements but the only thing i would change or critique is being the vidoes are really just pictures with your business info i would think it should be fairly easy to use different images in the video's to at least make them appear to be different.

i know it may not be a deal breaker but some people would be turned off by seeing the same thing over and over again each time they click on the link expecting something different.

[BLC7]

Originally Posted by dpld

i fully understand what you are talking about and i don't have any disagreements but the only thing i would change or critique is being the vidoes are really just pictures with your business info i would think it should be fairly easy to use different images in the video's to at least make them appear to be different.

i know it may not be a deal breaker but some people would be turned off by seeing the same thing over and over again each time they click on the link expecting something different.

Agreed. Though, the videos aren't expected to be watched all by the same person. The idea is to get the video ranked for dozens of different keywords, so that the contact info is seen.

I don't know many folks who are looking to watch "Lawn Care" videos or videos on how to mow grass, and those that are will more than likely only be information seekers to improve their own lawn care skills, not a potential client.

The object is

1) to spread it over a large volume of keywords

• Consumer searches "Lawn Care" (or whatever keyword), gets the info and calls
  
• It's highly unlikely that the same consumer is going to search 10 different keywords to find someone to mow their grass, especially if they find what they're looking for on the first search.
  
• That's the goal, allow them find you on the first search, not on the 5th

2) Build up authority on the Google map listings by listing the citation on each of the videos.

That's really all the video is used for: an additional tool to get the contact info out and to build authority for the Maps listings.

In the end, video will only be a small part of the overall strategy in taking over Google as Google generally only shows 2 videos per page of search results.

[BLC7]

Originally Posted by dpld

i fully understand what you are talking about and i don't have any disagreements but the only thing i would change or critique is being the vidoes are really just pictures with your business info i would think it should be fairly easy to use different images in the video's to at least make them appear to be different.

i know it may not be a deal breaker but some people would be turned off by seeing the same thing over and over again each time they click on the link expecting something different.

Also, using different pictures for each video isn't a bad idea, I just choose not to at the moment.

A google search of - Grass Mowing Service Natchez - currently shows my information 3 different times:

• #1 Map Listing
• #2 Map Listing
• Organic Youtube Video Listing - Lawn Mowing Service

Tonight, I will begin syndication of an article across 1200 directories which will contain links to my site for Organic Placement.

Mid February, I'll begin a google adwords campaign to take up additional listings in the search results.

From now until mid-February, I'll strictly work on building out the website & use article syndication for Organic Search position and Youtube Videos for Search & Map Listings.

[Mayor of Mow Town]

It is interesting to follow someone implementing some tactics and seeing the results in real time, so thanks.

I'm curious to understand more about how your efforts to rank well in Google fit into your overall strategy - both short term and long term.

1. Do you expect these rankings to drop off over time?

2. Do you also plan on using videos that offer customers value, whether that be educational, entertainment, trust building/face-to-camera stuff etc?

3. What are your plans for your website and broader business? Getting ranked on Google is only one (debatably optional) part of it. What are your plans on how to build trust and convert rankings to paying, awesome, customers?

[BLC7]

Originally Posted by Mayor of Mow Town

It is interesting to follow someone implementing some tactics and seeing the results in real time, so thanks.

I'm curious to understand more about how your efforts to rank well in Google fit into your overall strategy - both short term and long term.

1. Do you expect these rankings to drop off over time?

2. Do you also plan on using videos that offer customers value, whether that be educational, entertainment, trust building/face-to-camera stuff etc?

3. What are your plans for your website and broader business? Getting ranked on Google is only one (debatably optional) part of it. What are your plans on how to build trust and convert rankings to paying, awesome, customers?

Thanks, those are great questions! I answered below:

1. Do you expect these rankings to drop off over time?

No, in fact, I expect to own 7-8 listings per keyword I target effectively squeezing out any competition that wises up.

2. Do you also plan on using videos that offer customers value, whether that be educational, entertainment, trust building/face-to-camera stuff etc?

Maybe. But not at the moment. The short term goal is to be about the only business to be found in the search listings. Currently there are very few lawn service companies even listed in google in my area where there are at least 20 or more businesses out and about mowing people's yards.

It's exactly the same scenario when I began working with my dental client on their business.

3. What are your plans for your website and broader business? Getting ranked on Google is only one (debatably optional) part of it. What are your plans on how to build trust and convert rankings to paying, awesome, customers?

This comes in face to face time, and the quality of work. And this business is a "side project" that I'm going all in on. Meaning, I'm all in, but I'm not taking every job that comes my way, and I will tell potential customers that up front since I am fortunate enough to have the luxury of limiting the number of customers I work with.

It's basically, "Hi Jane, here's what's going on, this isn't my full time job or what makes me a living... this is what I enjoy doing. I'm not trying to get 100 accounts, in fact, I'm doing this for fun first and for money second. And because there will be a limited number of folks I work with, I'll be able to make sure you're happy with your yard instead of trying to finish in 10 minutes to get to the next yard. If that's something that sounds good to you, then we may be able to work together."

At that point, I will be open to constructive criticism and feedback to make sure they're happy... and most importantly, I will have the time to ensure they're happy and address any special needs they may have.

[BLC7]

Originally Posted by Mayor of Mow Town

It is interesting to follow someone implementing some tactics and seeing the results in real time, so thanks.

I'm curious to understand more about how your efforts to rank well in Google fit into your overall strategy - both short term and long term.

1. Do you expect these rankings to drop off over time?

2. Do you also plan on using videos that offer customers value, whether that be educational, entertainment, trust building/face-to-camera stuff etc?

3. What are your plans for your website and broader business? Getting ranked on Google is only one (debatably optional) part of it. What are your plans on how to build trust and convert rankings to paying, awesome, customers?

Oh... and after reading through the forums the past week, I have to admit, I'm probably the type of guy most of you loathe...

You know, mow, blow, and go.... That's all I really plan to do as that's the type of clients I'll be searching out. If they have other stuff they need done, I'll do it if I feel I can.

I'm not a turf expert like most of you, I just love mowing grass for some reason.

[Cheeze Wiz]

Why not try something like this. http://youtu.be/GRWYv27-TXg Its not real fancy but it shows some of my work gives people some sort of idea of what I do.