Are you a tree surgeon who is looking to expand your business through digital marketing? If you have a tree care business, you will know that marketing and growing your business is hard..
One of the topmost challenges for tree services business owners is how to get new customers.
You have to find customers, get them interested in your services and convince them to hire you. And then there are the challenges of getting repeat business and building a strong brand reputation.
We understand how tough it can be for small and medium businesses like yours to keep up with all the latest digital marketing trends while still running your business successfully.
That’s why we created this guide – so that you don’t have to spend hours researching what works best for your company or trying out different strategies on your own.
Our goal is to give you an overview of the types of digital marketing strategies that can be used and how they can be effective in achieving your goals as a tree surgeon. We want this guide to serve as a starting point for all things related to digital marketing.
Whether it’s learning about SEO or social media, our ultimate guide will provide everything you need to know about these topics and more.
By reading this guide, not only will you learn about effective ways to market your business but also discover new ideas that can help grow your business even further than before.
So whether you are a beginner or you have some experience in digital marketing, this guide has something for you. Let’s get started!
Types of Digital Marketing for Tree Surgeons
When it comes to digital marketing, it’s not a one-type-fits-all solution. What may work for one business might not work for another. That’s why it’s important to know the options you have available when it comes to reaching your target audience and then how to convert them into customers. .
In this guide, we will discuss the different types of digital marketing tactics that you can take advantage of as a tree services company and explain how it can address the unique challenges that your specific industry faces.
Contents
- SEO For Tree Surgeons
- Analytics & Attribution For Tree Surgeons
- Content Marketing For Tree Surgeons
- Google Marketing For Tree Surgeons
- Additional Led Gen For Tree Surgeons
- Social Media Marketing For Tree Surgeons
- Video Marketing For Tree Surgeons
1) SEO for Tree Surgeons
The first type of digital marketing that we will discuss is search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is all about optimising your website and content so that you can rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). When someone searches for a term related to tree surgery online, you want your business to show up as one of the top results.
So, how can you improve your SEO? SEO is an ever-evolving field, and the tactics that worked a few years ago may not work today. That’s why it’s important to stay up to date with the latest SEO trends and make sure you are using the latest techniques.
In the section below, we will break down some of the SEO tactics tree care companies like yours can look into.
Building and Optimising Your Website
Because many tree care companies heavily rely on their local clientele, many tree surgeons are still stuck in using old-fashioned marketing tactics like printed flyer distribution, phone books, and word-of-mouth.
However, with the growth of the internet and the world going digital, it’s important that your business has a strong online presence. This means having a website that is well-optimised for search engines and looks great on all devices.
SEO puts you in front of users who are actively looking for your business right now, if you are not listed then you are not considered.
There are a few things that you can do to optimise your website and content for SEO.
Make Your Website Mobile Friendly – First, make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. Over 60% of local searches now take place on mobile devices, so it’s important that your website is easy to navigate on different screen sizes.
Keyword Research – Next, you want to do some keyword research. This involves finding the right keywords that your target audience is searching for and including them in your website content and titles.
Keyword research can be a science in itself but to put it simply, you want to find keywords that have a high search volume (meaning lots of people are searching for them) and low competition (meaning it’s not too difficult to rank for them).
For example, some of the top 3 keywords for tree surgeons in the United Kingdom are:
- tree surgeons – 22,200 search volume
- tree surgeon near me – 22,200 search volume
- local tree surgeons – 1,000 search volume
Optimise Your Website Content – Once you have chosen the right keywords, it’s important to optimise your website. This involves including the keywords in your titles, metatags, and body copy.
Since tree surgeons mainly cater to local customers, it’s important to also optimise for local search. This is to ensure that your website appears in the search results when someone nearby is searching for a tree surgeon.
For example, if your tree surgeon company is located in Bristol, you have to make sure that the keywords “tree surgeon Bristol” or “arborist in Bristol” appear on your website’s homepage. If you are specialising in stump grinding and you want to promote this service heavily in your service area, you need to include “stump grinding Bristol”.
But you have to take note that you cannot just stuff in the keywords for the sake of it. The keywords need to be relevant to your business and website content in order for them to be effective.
Optimise Your Website’s Links – This process includes optimising your website’s internal and external links. This process can also include link building strategies that will help you get links from high-quality websites.
- Internal Links – You want to make sure that your internal links are well-optimised for SEO. This means using keyword-rich anchor text that points to your target pages.
- External Links – You also want to make sure that your external links are well-optimised. This means including relevant anchor text and using nofollow links when necessary.
- Ensure you have the correct balance of topical and local links from external websites.
Maximising Your Online Presence
After optimising your website, you also want to make sure that you implementing tactics to maximise your online presence to improve your SEO. Why is this important? It’s important to have visibility outside of your website because search engines like Google use these as markers to determine your website’s authority.
Here are some of the things you can do to maximise your online presence:
NAP Citations – NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number. Make sure that your NAP is consistent across all of your online listings. This means making sure that your tree surgeon business information is accurate and up-to-date on all the major local directories (Google My Business, Yelp, Bing Places, etc.).
Online Reviews – Online reviews are a major factor that Google uses to determine your website’s ranking. Make sure that you encourage your customers to leave positive reviews on the major review platforms after a tree service has been completed.
Niche Business Platforms – These are local publication websites, industry specific blogs, and other online platforms that cater to your target audience. You want to make sure that your tree services business is actively participating on these platforms and sharing your content.
For example, being listed on findtreesurgeons.com and the Arboricultural Association lists of accredited companies.
2) Marketing Analytics and Attribution for Tree Surgeons
One of the biggest mistakes of small and medium enterprises including tree care companies is that they fail to give importance to marketing analytics and attribution. Most tree surgeons think that they are not “big enough” or they do not have the budget to invest in these aspects of digital marketing.
However, marketing analytics and attribution are important because they help you to track the performance of your digital marketing campaigns. This way, you can identify which campaigns are working and which ones are not.
For example, a tree care company without proper tracking can end up overspending on Facebook Ads that are not delivering the desired results. Or if you are double counting conversions, this could result in having the incorrect understanding of what digital marketing channels are working for your business.
Marketing Analytics
This is the exercise of measuring, analysing, and reporting on the performance of your digital marketing campaigns. By doing this, you can understand how well your campaigns are performing and identify areas where you can improve.
There are now automated marketing analytics tools that make it easy to measure the results of your campaigns. These tools can help you to track things like website traffic, conversion rates, and even social media engagement.
At the same time, if you do not have any experience or background in how to interpret these data, you will need to hire a marketing analyst who can help you to make sense of the numbers.
Marketing Attribution
This is the process of assigning a value to each marketing touchpoint that leads to a customer purchase. This allows you to understand which channels are driving the most sales so that you can invest more in those channels.
Take note, however, that you have to make sure that your marketing attribution efforts are done accurately. Otherwise, you could be overestimating or underestimating the value of certain channels and campaigns.
3) Content Marketing for Tree Surgeons
Content marketing has become a buzzword in the world of digital marketing, but what is it? In a nutshell, content marketing is the process of creating and sharing valuable content with your target audience in order to attract and retain customers.
Why is content marketing so important for SEO? Because search engines like Google want to show their users the best and most relevant content on their search results pages.
This means that if you have a well-crafted content marketing strategy, your website will be more likely to rank high in the search engine results pages when people try to look for tree surgeons in your local area.
There are different platforms where you can implement your content marketing tactics including establishing your own business blog on your website, guest blogging, and creating shareable infographics.
Content marketing therefore forms a huge part of the previously outlined section on SEO.
Business Blog
Do I really need to hire a professional tree removal company? How much does a tree surgeon cost? Can I do stump grinding myself instead of hiring a tree surgeon?
These are just some of the common questions of your potential customers. A lot of times, tree surgeons have a difficult time explaining why it’s important to hire a fully qualified and insured tree surgeon company.
Customers are often apprehensive when they receive a price estimate because they often do not understand that it takes a lot of expertise and specialised equipment to properly execute tree services.
This is where having a business blog can be extremely helpful. Having a blog on your website can help you overcome these challenges by giving your potential and current customers the information they need in order to make an informed decision.
A business blog also allows you to show your expertise on the topic of tree surgery. This is important because it will help build trust with potential and current customers.
Your blog content also gives you a list of pages you can build links to – this will help with your overall SEO strategy.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging involves writing a blog post for another website in your industry. This is a great way to get exposure to a new audience and to build links back to your website.
For example, if you are a member of the Arboricultural Association, you can approach them to see if they will allow you to write a guest post for them.
You can also approach local publications that cater to your target audience, popular home improvement websites, and other websites relevant to your industry.
When you’re guest blogging, make sure that you include a link back to your website in the author bio section. This will help you get more traffic from people who are interested in your business.
Infographics
Many digital marketers and business owners often under utilise infographics in their content marketing plans. For tree surgeons, this is a great way to present complex information in an easy-to-digest format.
You can create infographics that can further educate your target customers about your services. It can also help you get more shares on social media, which will help to increase your reach and attract new customers.
For example, you can create an infographic on how to spot a diseased tree or the benefits of tree pruning. You can adjust the topic or content depending on the service that you want to highlight or promote.
4) Google Marketing Tools for Tree Surgeons
It’s very critical for local businesses including tree care companies to utilise and maximise Google marketing tools. As mentioned earlier in this guide, many customers use online platforms like Google to search for local products and services.
That means if you’re not using Google My Business, Google Maps, and Google Ads, you’re missing out on a lot of potential business.
Google My Business
If you want your tree surgeon company to appear on top of search engine results when customers key in “tree surgeons near me” or “emergency tree removal”, then having a Google My Business profile is essential.
Google My Business is a free platform that allows you to create a business profile and add information about your company, such as your address, opening hours, website, and contact information. You can also add photos and videos of your company’s work.
Make sure that all of the information in your Google My Business profile is up to date and accurate. This will help customers find your company easily and increase the chances of them contacting you for services.
Google Maps
Google Maps is another free Google marketing tool that allows businesses to create a map of their location. This is great for tree surgeons because you can precisely pinpoint your service area and potential customers can see where your company is located.
You can also add photos and videos of your company’s work to your Google Maps listing. This will help customers get a better idea of what you do, your previous tree care projects, and your company’s ethos.
Google Ads
Google Ads is a paid platform that allows businesses to create ads that appear on Google search engine results pages (SERPs). Many local businesses use Google Ads to complement their digital marketing activities especially if there is a lot of competition in their area.
For example, if you are a new tree care company in a city that is saturated with tree surgeons, you can use Google Ads to get your company in front of more potential customers.
You can create ads that appear when people search for specific keywords related to your industry. You can also target potential customers based on their location and the type of device they are using.
We speak with many Tree Surgeons who have tried Google Ads but it hasn’t worked for them. 9 times out of 10 it is down to how the accounts have been setup, and also under performing landing pages.
5) Additional Lead Generation Techniques for Tree Surgeons
Once you are generating traffic from SEO and Google Ads, you need to consider other strategies that can be used to improve your conversion rate and improve your repeat business.
Also, as you venture into social media marketing, it’s good to have a “hook” or “value-offer” that will entice customers to do business with you for the first time.
There are many lead generation techniques that you can use for your tree care business. Some of the most popular ones include:
Sales Promotions
Sales promos are classic marketing techniques that you can use to attract new customers. You can offer special discounts, freebies, or even contest giveaways to get people interested in your services.
One thing to keep in mind is that you should always make sure that the sales promo is relevant to your target market. For example, if you are targeting homeowners as your potential customers, you can offer free tree care consultations that can help them to understand the services that you offer.
Targeted Email Marketing
Email marketing is a great way to reach out to potential customers who have already shown an interest in your services. You can gather email addresses from your website, social media platforms, or even from customers who have contacted you directly.
If you have carried out tree maintenance work at a property, the chances of repeat business are high. Staying infront of these customers is vital, and email marketing is a great way to do so.
Loyalty Programs
It’s a common misconception that loyalty programs are only for big corporations like airlines and department stores. However, even small businesses including tree surgeons can use this marketing tactic to gain repeat customers.
You can offer loyalty programs that give returning customers discounts, freebies, or even points that can be redeemed for future services.
6) Social Media Marketing for Tree Surgeons
Social media marketing is an effective type of digital marketing that tree surgeons can take advantage of to reach new customers. One of the top advantages of social media marketing is that you can combine the free and paid features to get the most out of your campaigns.
For example, you can use the free features of platforms like Facebook and Instagram to share content about your company and services. You can also use the paid features like boosting your posts or running ads to reach more people and build relationships with potential and current customers.
Facebook is unarguably the king of social media platforms. Over 2.9 billion people use Facebook every month, which means there is a massive potential audience for your tree care company.
You can create a Facebook page for your business and add information about your services, team, photos and videos of your work, and blog posts. You can also use Facebook to run ads and campaigns to attract new customers.
With a Facebook page, you can also create groups and events for your company. This is a great way to get potential customers interested in your services and build relationships with them.
Instagram is another popular social media platform that tree surgeons can use to reach new customers. Since Instagram is mainly a visual platform, you can share photos and videos of your work to show potential customers what you do.
This can be advantageous if your tree surgeon business offers tree pruning or hedge maintenance services. Before and after photos tend to work well on Instagram as users can identify with the “before” picture, and want to experience the “after” picture.
It is well worth building a process in which you ensure all of your key projects are documented on Instagram.
Also, be sure it consider hash-tags and how they can impact the reach of your posts with new audiences.
Just like Instagram, Pinterest is mainly a visual social media platform. As a tree care business, you can also take advantage of this to showcase your tree maintenance services as well as to share tips to homeowners regarding tree care.
According to statistics 80% of moms are on Pinterest and there has been a steady increase in home decor boards on the platform. This makes this social media platform for home improvement businesses including tree surgeons.
7) Video Marketing for Tree Surgeons
In recent years the use of video has become more accessible to everyone. Before, you would need to spend a lot of money to use video as a marketing tool. Now, the availability of high-definition video even on mobile phones and different free video platforms has made it easier to create and share videos about your business.
Video is a very powerful marketing tool because it can help you to build relationships with potential and current customers. In fact, research has shown that video can increase the organic traffic from SERPs by up to 157%.
YouTube
YouTube is a free-to-use resource that you can use to let customers know more about your business. Being a local service company, it’s important to establish your credibility in the market and you can do this more effectively by using video.
You can make videos that introduce your team, show your work, or even do a quick how-to on tree care.
Tiktok
If you think that TikTok is just for dancing and singing videos, you are wrong. TikTok is a powerful social media platform for businesses and it can be used to reach new customers.
Do you know that the #treesurgeon hashtag currently have 67.3 million views on TikTok? This makes it an interesting platform to get into and explore when needing to expand and grow your business to target new customers.
Live Streaming
Live streaming is becoming more and more popular as a marketing tool. It is a great way to connect with potential and current customers in a more personal way.
You can use live streaming platforms like Facebook Live, Instagram Live, and YouTube Live to stream content about your work and your services.
Maximising Digital Marketing Strategies for Tree Surgeons
Digital marketing is an important part of any tree care business. By using the right techniques, you can reach new customers and grow your business. Make sure to experiment with different methods and find what works best for you and your target market.
If you are interested to learn more about any of these digital marketing strategies, we can help you jumpstart your marketing efforts.
At Multi Layer Media, we are passionate about helping small businesses grow and succeed online. We offer the fastest solutions for tree surgeons looking to generate more leads and close more sales.
Get in touch with us today and let us help you take your tree surgeon business to the next level!