5 Easy Steps to Improve Your Digital Marketing

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Your busy season is about to begin. How will you handle your business during the 2014 growing season? Do you still go out with your crews even though you know you should be at the office overseeing your business’s growth? Make a plan to start running your business rather than having to run in it or, worse yet, having it run you.

Here are 5 steps to help you get off of the mower and into the office chair:

1. Take the time to evaluate how 2013 worked for you. Did you start a blogging routine only to stop it by May because you got too busy? Did you plan on updating your web content or become more active on Linked In to find that by April you had no time to implement social media into your business development?

2. Plan to consistently increase your social media and web presence. And the key word is consistency. Don’t start a blog if you’re going to stop three months into it. People might lose interest if you stop posting and go to your competitor to get their lawn care and landscape maintenance questions answered.

3. Take a long, hard look in the mirror. Is it time to hire more employees so you can work on the administrative tasks of your business? Do you need to outsource some of these tasks that you don’t have time for? You may want to change your website provider to one who knows how to localize your business and utilize Google to its fullest advantage. You may want to hire a social media expert to consistently post ideas, tips, and updates to your peeps. And you may want to outsource your web content and blog writing needs.

4. Look at your marketing budget before upgrading your website or hiring freelance consultants. How much of your marketing budget goes to a yearly Yellow Pages ad? How much is going to print flyers and door hangers? Is there any way to reallocate some of those funds toward digital marketing?

5. It doesn’t hurt to find out before saying "no". Maybe you don’t think you have enough in your budget to hire a freelance writer or an internet marketing agency. You really don’t know until you ask them. Most consultants and agencies will introduce you to their services as well as their pricing structure. You may be surprised that if you decided to nix that Yellow Page ad this year, you may have enough money in your budget to hire an internet marketing agency or a freelance writer to help your company’s website rise in Google’s rankings.

As Horace once said, "Carpe diem,"or seize the day. And do it while you still have time during the day to make calls and compare prices. Rethinking how you run your business may help you get to the next level of your company’s growth.

What are your company’s growth goals in 2014?

About the author: Wendy Komancheck blogs and writes Web content for the lawn care and landscape industries. You can learn more about her at http://www.landscapewriter.com or email her at wendy@landscapewriter.com.