A buddy shared a masterclass in marketing he got from his landscaper.
But first, some quick context…
If you live in a home in Phoenix, you’re a prey animal for landscaping companies. At least two or three times a month, you’ll get some sort of solicitation: door hangers, postcards, those annoying rock bags, etc.
Advertising like this is an uphill battle.
Switching is a hassle, and price and deliverables are all pretty much the same, so staying put is the path of least resistance. Companies are just banking on picking up a few customers who are either mad at their current vendor or new to the area—unless they’re willing to get creative.
Which brings me back to my friend (also a marketer). He got home to find a business card wedged in his door. On the front was hand-written: “I fix broken sprinklers. $15 each.” On the back was a name and a phone number. That’s it.
He’d had a broken sprinkler in his backyard for months and kept forgetting to tell his landscaper. It just wasn’t annoying enough and was only obvious a few minutes a day if he happened to peek outside at the right time. The landscapers never checked, so it stayed broken.
He called on the spot. By the end of the day, he had a fixed sprinkler and a new landscaper. Everyone with a yard has let a broken sprinkler stay broken for too long.
The problem with small problems is they’re too small to seek solutions for—until someone makes it easy.
Even more interesting: My buddy (now impressed at having been “got” as only a good marketer can be) began paying more attention to the solicitations other landscapers were leaving.
Almost all of them had “sprinkler fix” or “drip irrigation fix” on the long list of services they advertised.
That was the mistake: It was buried under a pile of bullet points which resulted in “banner blindness.” The landscaper that ultimately won his business figured out the broken sprinkler was the most likely small problem most people would have and chose to focus on that specifically.
Obviously, that’s the lesson. Zoom in. Niche down. Get specific.
What is your customer’s broken sprinkler?
I know a web maintenance company that used to solicit people by offering to update the copyright date in the footer of their websites. (This was before dynamic plugins got big.)
And, guess what happened once they made that update? They became the obvious choice for future maintenance requests. They already had access to the site and had proven themselves the path of least resistance.
With a few seconds of work they’d earned a new customer.
This is applicable in almost every service-based business.
Instead of advertising handyman services, advertise leaky faucets. House cleaning, dirty ovens. Pest control, ants (or whatever pest is in season). Mechanic, headlight restoration. House painter, front door makeover. You get the idea.
Your turn! What’s your customers’ broken sprinkler?