You’ve worked hard to build a solid foundation for your digital marketing efforts, but how often are you updating your website? Depending on your goals, refreshing your website might be as simple as uploading some new pictures to your portfolio—or it could be as comprehensive as a complete rebrand.
Whether you’re looking to ignite your conversion rate or drive more landscaping leads to your website, you need to harness the power of content marketing to keep visitors coming back for more. Why? According to HubSpot, 82 percent of marketers use content marketing. And if your content strategy is just an afterthought, you’ll end up losing mountains of valuable leads to the competition.
Of course, your content strategy shouldn’t end with static blog posts and service descriptions. To differentiate your landscaping business from the rest, you’re going to tap into professional pictures and videos. After all, your website visitors are 80 percent more likely to read content if it’s paired with an image and 64 percent more likely to remember what they read.
So, how can you tell when you need new content for your landscaping website? Here’s how to ignite your content marketing strategy with attention-grabbing visuals.
Let’s face it: Technology moves fast. Your competitors are constantly updating their websites, posting new blogs, and driving new leads. Google is always updating its algorithm to improve search results. If you’re not staying top of mind with a winning content strategy, you risk falling behind.
That’s where multimedia content comes into play. Multimedia elements (think: pictures, videos, GIFs, infographics) can instantly upgrade your website and keep your visitors engaged. They’re also a great tool to break up text-heavy areas of your website. Sure, 1,000-word blog posts tend to perform pretty well in search engine results, but your website visitors might have a hard time following your post from start to finish.
When you use multimedia elements to break up blocks of text, you’re giving readers a break and encouraging them to spend more time on your website. And the longer people stay on your website, the better you’ll perform in search engine rankings.
At the same time, content marketing is a powerful tool for nurturing leads. It can help you build trust with local homeowners, resonate with their pain points, and show them why you’re the best landscaper for the job—and that might just make the difference between a lost lead and a loyal customer. So, what’s the catch? To win at content marketing, you’re going to need to update your website consistently with high-quality content. From refreshing your landscaping portfolio and FAQ page to publishing new blogs, regular updates help you highlight your professionalism and position yourself as an industry expert.
Your new landscaping website has been up and running for a few months, and you’re starting to notice that certain blog posts aren’t entirely accurate anymore. But you just did a redesign a few weeks ago. Do you really need to refresh your website already?
Well, it depends. You should update your website as often as it needs updating—whether that’s once per month or once per quarter. You might need to make minor website updates a few times each week (think: publishing a new blog post or optimizing older content for SEO), while a full website design revamp might come every few years. As long as you’re checking up on your website regularly, you should have a solid idea of when it needs to be updated.
You need bold visuals to set yourself apart, but where should you start? Whether you’re prepping for a major rehaul or just refreshing your website with some basic updates, here’s how to upgrade your landscaping website with a standout visual strategy.
Maybe you’re already using stock photos for your landing pages, but it’s time to take a different approach. You need to keep it real to build credibility with local homeowners—and that means investing in photography for your landscaping company.
Why? You need to set your business apart from the competition. And if you’re using the same stock pictures as your competitors, you’ll miss out on the opportunity to make a strong first impression. Meanwhile, when you impress website visitors with professional photos, you’ll take one step closer to converting them into leads.
Need some fresh photo ideas? Try shooting pictures of your actual team members, products, projects, or customers. If your budget allows, hire a professional photographer to capture what matters to your brand. It might be tempting to upload smartphone pictures to your website, but high-quality content can paint a clear picture of your brand’s reputation from the start. Here, your main goal is to showcase your talent and expertise so you can show local homeowners exactly why you’re worth hiring.
This is more of a “nice-to-have” than a “must-have,” but it’s worth incorporating your brand’s color scheme into your visual content. Chances are, you’re already creating web pages with your brand colors to match your overall web design. Why not add pictures and videos with those colors, too?
When you maintain consistent branding throughout your website, you’ll make your brand more memorable to potential leads. At the same time, you’ll build a cohesive and visually appealing website. If you’re not sure where to start, you can use websites like Canva to create branded templates, banners, infographics, and more. When it comes to videos, you’ll want to add text that matches your brand’s colors and include your brand logo within the first few seconds.
Look: Your website visitors don’t want to play Where’s Waldo? when they’re scrolling through your landscaping website. Instead of creating visual noise and distracting potential leads, stick to pictures and videos with easy-to-digest visuals.
After all, your web pages (and their visuals) should follow the best practices for negative space. When you leave space around an element, you emphasize its importance. The same rule goes for the subjects of your images and your images themselves. This way, your visuals aren’t competing with any other elements of your page for your viewers’ attention.
Negative space can also help you create a visual hierarchy on your landing pages so you can draw your viewers’ attention where you want it to go. Our eyes naturally follow an F or Z pattern when viewing websites, and it’s harder to view a straightforward pattern when visuals don’t have a clear focal point to track.
Why should you be picky about your visuals? It’s simple: They impact your conversion rate. Studies show that images affect our choices, and the visual cortex holds major decision-making power. Those decisions might include filling out a contact form, downloading gated content, or picking up the phone to call your business.
What does that mean for your content strategy? You need to prioritize quality over quantity. It might be tempting to upload hundreds of pictures from your latest gardening project, but you don’t want to overwhelm your visitors. Instead, stick to high-quality pictures of your best projects to build your portfolio, upgrade your blogs, and make your website valuable to your viewers.
Your visual strategy shouldn’t end with pictures, either. Professional video marketing can be a game-changer for your landscaping business, and the numbers back this up. According to marketing statistics, 66 percent of people would rather learn about products and services through short videos. Not only that, but 95 percent of viewers absorb a video’s message.
The best way to boost conversions and engagement? Think about your visitors. What type of content do they want to see from a local landscaper? What kind of expertise are they looking for? Your website should create a seamless experience that answers their questions and makes their lives easier.
Let’s take Petitti Garden Centers as an example. We wanted to be extra creative to ensure the company’s new website served as a comprehensive gardening resource for customers. By adding interactive elements, informative gardening videos, and dynamic content, Company 119 created an intuitive experience to help answer customers’ questions.
From location hours to gardening tips, new digital tools on the website guide users to exactly what they’re looking for. Shortly after the new website launch, Pettiti Garden Centers saw a 113-percent increase in website users and a 60-percent increase in the average duration of site visits.
Building a professional website is a great start, but your hard work shouldn’t end there. Once your website is up and running, you’ll need a steady stream of visual content to differentiate your brand and keep visitors coming back for more.
Ready to invest in photography and video for your landscaping company? We’re here to help. Reach out to our team today to elevate your website with scroll-stopping content.
