Feature Story
An Interview with Landscape New Jersey Tradeshow Marketing Trends for Landscape Contractors
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e’re excited to announce landscape marketing author, podcaster, and YouTuber Jack Jostes as the keynote speaker at the Landscape New Jersey Tradeshow & Conference this February. Read the transcript below of NJLCA Executive Director Gail Woolcott interviewing Jack about what audience members can expect from his keynote, plus immediately actionable sales and marketing tactics you can implement right away at your landscape company. Gail Woolcott: Hi everyone. I’m Gail Woolcott. I’m the executive director of the New Jersey Landscape Contractors Association. Today I’m excited to interview Jack Jostes about how you can get found online by new customers at your landscape company or garden center. Jack is the author of the Amazon bestselling book, Get FOUND Online: The Local Business Owner’s Guide to Digital Marketing. He’s an NALP member with his marketing company, Ramblin Jackson, and will be the keynote speaker at our trade show, Landscape New Jersey 2020.
Should Green Industry Businesses Have An Online Presence (Even If They’re Owner Operators)? Gail Woolcott: Do you think it’s more or as important for these small companies that are owner-operators, as much as the big companies, to have an online presence? Jack Jostes: Well, I think that’s a great question. Do the smaller owner-operator landscape contractors need to have an online presence? And I think it depends on what their goals are. But I will share this. A lot of how much you can charge your customers has to do with how they perceive you in relation to other people in your industry. So if they think that you’re a Chuck in a Truck because you look like one online, you don’t have a website, you have negative reviews, and they check you out and they think, “Oh, this guy’s going to be cheap. Good.” Right? Well what kind of clients are you going to get? You’re going to get clients who want cheap. And there’s nothing wrong with
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being an owner-operator, right? And I think that most people who end up, if they choose to grow a larger company, at one point start out by themselves.
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Jack Jostes: So I do think that having an online presence is important for an owner-operator because it’ll help them charge more and ultimately enjoy a better lifestyle as a result of their business instead of constantly spinning their wheels. It makes you look more legitimate if you do need to hire help if you do decide to grow. So no, do you need the massive online presence of a giant $10 million company? Maybe not as much of a presence. But the cool thing, Gail, is that small businesses can compete online with the big companies if they do these things right. And one of the other cool things is maybe you’re an owneroperator and you take on a limited number of clients, and you do a great job for them. You could become the most reviewed, the highest reviewed landscape contractor in your town. And even though you are an owner-operator, you could be the highest charging of all of them because people perceive you to be the best. Jack Jostes: So if you can’t be the cheapest, second cheapest doesn’t really matter, right? I think in any business it’s better to strive to be the best, and part of that is a perception from your customer. And I want to share a story. I have a client who, a really interesting guy, has been a landscaper for about 20 years. He started out just mowing lawns. That was his summer high school thing. And he’s like, “Hey, I’m going to keep doing this.” He started learning landscaping, started learning construction, eventually
