New Year, New Marketing Opportunities

It’s 2021... finally! Read more for the January marketing theme and how you can stay top-of-mind to The Fredericks this time of year. Plus, take a sneak peak at the 2021 Brand Plan Strategies.

It's the new year! Finally, 2021 is here. What is the marketing focus for January, you ask? Well, some of you are knee-deep (or deeper) in snow, and for some, winter lends itself to a variety of services to provide dormant turf and plant care to customers. Speaking of customers... we know they are notorious for waiting until the last minute to renew their lawn contracts or book spring services prior to the spring rush. These consumer and seasonal trends will be the foundation of the Q1 theme (January through March) of our Annual Marketing Calendar*.  

Through social media channels and blog posts on the website, the Q1 national strategy to build the brand is to provide helpful tips and engaging content around winter maintenance for our followers and gentle reminders that spring will arrive sooner than they think (it always does).  

Every year, we publish an Annual Marketing Calendar that illustrates the national strategies supported by the MAP Fund (aka The Brand Marketing Plan). Look for this and more detail in a coming communication. We are currently making the final touches for you to have as a resource and to be aware of all the initiatives that are supporting your business. 

Let’s Get Social – Why and How? 
Our social media strategies in 2021 have slightly changed from years prior. This year, we are shifting the sole focus from driving traffic to the websites to engaging our online audience (The Fredericks) with content they will want to interact with (like/share/comment). It is all about keeping The Grounds Guys top-of-mind and fun/interesting to follow. When The Fredericks are ready to book a lawn care service, those fun and engaging posts they saw on Facebook will cause them to think of calling you first.  

You play a major role in helping us fully accomplish this goal and grow our brand's social media engagement. If you opt to not engage locally with social media (Facebook and Instagram), you are missing out on low-hanging fruit of free/low-cost targeted engagement. 

In other social media news, we are excited to let owners know that Instagram content will now be posted on local pages! This capability only applies to those Instagram accounts linked to SOCi. If your Instagram Business Page is not linked to SOCi yet, or if you want to create an Instagram Business Page, reach out to Keith Sims (keith.sims@nbly.com). 

"Engagement" is one of the three major strategies of a successful marketing funnel: "Promote, Engage, and Retain". For most, your local budget should be focused in the Promote (lead generation) and Engage (targeted engagement) categories, with Retain (retention/upsell) consistently turned on, as it is lower cost and profitable to market with a healthy balance of all three. 

The "Engage" strategies can be overwhelming at first to manage. We get it. That’s why we have SOCi, a tool available through your FranConnect Single Sign-On Links, to manage and schedule out your social media posts all in one place.  

We are also in the process of building out a local social media calendar to assist you with themes to focus on, providing examples of posts, and easy how-to information when managing your posts on a weekly basis. More details to come in a future communication, so keep an eye out! 

But Social Media Alone Won’t Cut It  
In 2020, we created 7 (more to come this year) local opt-in packages on XpressDocs to support building route density at a high return through targeted engagement online AND offline. These packages are designed to complement the social media content we run nationally, the themes in the marketing calendar, and our recommendations guiding you locally. Why? So your consumers see you everywhere and call you OVER a local competitor. It works. 

Just Give Me Easy Next Steps To Follow... 
So, now what? Back to January and the fresh start of a new year… oh yeah! Here are three easy ways to get started today: 

1.  Make sure your digital campaigns are squared away. Meet with your digital vendor to ensure your campaigns are at the necessary budget needed to meet your lead volume and schedule out your next month in SOCi for your social media channels. Busy season is right around the corner so make sure you get this completed early. 
   
2. If you are trying to improve your density, ordering and implement the Full Package Kits on XpressDocs is a great way to accomplish this. You can find all of the Package Implementation Guides here. 
   
3. Retain your current customers! The “Retain” portion of the marketing pyramid is crucial, but often overlooked. Utilize thank you cards for customer appreciation: handwritten, every project customer/every time and every maintenance recurring customer/every quarter. Another important part of “Retain” is upselling your current customers. Sending out a post card to a current customer list is a great way upsell and increase revenue per customer.  

Ready to go deeper with a full 2021 marketing plan? (Yes, it’s that time already!) Our local marketing superhero, Keith Sims is ready to help. Give him a shout: Keith.Sims@nbly.com. 

Want more information about the national plans we have for this year? If so, you are my new favorite franchise owner. (Don’t tell the others.) This information is coming very soon to an inbox near you. In the coming weeks, I will share our Annual Marketing Calendar and an overview of the 2021 Marketing Plan. Something more urgent? Ping me: Natalie.Walker@nbly.com. 

Monthly Food for Thought: You are an inspiration to someone, maybe several people in your life. Your positive attitude and passion for growth inspires your team to follow you in achieving your goals, so lead them. Start today… Set your goals and show the way for 2021! This is YOUR year. 

"Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible." – Tony Robbins