Every landscape professional is familiar with the basic concept of drip irrigation: regular measured doses of water delivered precisely to each plant to sustain healthy growth. 

Drip marketing is the same concept applied to your customer relationships. By steadily engaging your clients, its goal is to make sure your company name, reputation and list of services are firmly rooted in your customers’ minds.   

Drip marketing keeps customer relationships alive and flourishing. Our firm’s surveys consistently show that about 50% of customers leave a service provider because they stop receiving the attention they feel they deserve. Often this occurs when the homeowner develops a relationship with the owner of the contracting company, but later finds that owner is too busy to provide personal attention as in the past. Many contractors forget about loyal customers as their business grows. Keep your customer relationships thriving by applying drip marketing, showing that you care and keeping customers from switching to the new kid on the block.

Drip marketing also promotes healthy customer growth. Because you keep your company name “top of mind,” when loyal clients are ready to make their next purchase or recommend providers to a friend, your name is the first to roll out of their mouth. Because they have heard from you recently, they can quickly recall your company and how to reach you. Drip marketing also works wonders with on-the-fence prospects by demonstrating your interest and building your credibility, so make sure to include undecided customers in your campaign as well. 

Like drip irrigation, a good drip marketing program is precise, steady and effective and works best when well planned in advance. Your goal should be to reach each customer on a regular basis, ideally once a month, with information on your products or services. Both the mechanics and the message should be crafted in a formal schedule, the same way magazines plan articles for their upcoming issues. Things to share in your messages: information on new services like landscape lighting, water gardening, pavers, statuary, and holiday lights; case studies of successful projects or installations; seasonal tips to guide clients on what  projects to complete that month; and special promotional offers. The goal is always to focus each communication on your customers and move them to their first purchase or the next sale.

Delivering your message regularly can rely upon a variety of marketing tools. We often recommend e-mail newsletters to contractor clients that are looking to get started with drip marketing. Your marketing expert can set you up with a handsome template that you can populate each month with new information and photos and then send with the click of a mouse. E-mail newsletters are also very low cost because there’s no postage involved. If you do not have e-mail addresses from your customers yet, you can still turn to the proven reliability of direct mail postcards, flyers or a printed newsletter to deliver your drip marketing messages.

Editor's Note: Jeff Carowitz is a leading expert in marketing for the green industry and assists manufacturers, distributors and contractors in developing practical marketing programs. He can be reached at Jeff@StrategicForceMarketing.com or 760-532-7034.

12/06