Jack Jostes [00:00:00]:
So one of the things that you could do is like a seasonal marketing campaign where you market a spring cleanup, and there's some sort of incentive to sign up for a spring cleanup before a certain date and get a gift. It doesn't have to be a discount. Forget about Facebook. I don't care if people like you on Facebook, unless you're paying Facebook, like 2% of the people who follow you would even see it. Whereas, if you get a Google review, way more valuable.
Michelle [00:00:27]:
And that was one of the key things that I learned here from you, was that Google is more important than social media. We spent $350 in boosted ads and sponsored ads. We got lots of page likes on Facebook. Do you know that far as website traffic, we got five. And I will never pay Facebook again.
00:48 – 75 Years Strong: Meet Michelle Lane
Jack Jostes [00:00:51]:
Hey, everyone. We're here at Belgard University in Southern Pines, North Carolina. And I just met Michelle from Wedgwood, and she was taking notes, and she's been in business. She won the Longest in business contest. Her family's business has been in business for 75 years, so.
Michelle [00:01:10]:
75 years this year.
Jack Jostes [00:01:11]:
You're doing so many things well. You brought your print things that you hand out. So I just wanted to.
Michelle [00:01:16]:
I wanted your opinion. I knew about you ahead of time.
Jack Jostes [00:01:19]:
Okay.
Michelle [00:01:19]:
I googled you.
Jack Jostes [00:01:20]:
You Googled me?
Michelle [00:01:21]:
I did.
Jack Jostes [00:01:21]:
What did you find?
Michelle [00:01:22]:
I found very interesting information, and I was very excited to meet you because we had just redone our website and everything. And the fact that you focused marketing on the niche of landscaping for me was more appealing than just a broader company that just handles everybody, because I felt like you probably had a better pulse on our needs than just a run of the mill marketing agency.
Jack Jostes [00:01:49]:
Well, we'll see.
Michelle [00:01:50]:
I'm hoping to see.
Jack Jostes [00:01:51]:
We'll see. So what. So you brought some things. First of all, tell us a little bit about your background. So what's your.
Michelle [00:01:58]:
My background is very varied, so I won't bore with that. But as far as our family business, it started in 1951 by two military retirees from World War II, one of which was my husband's great grandfather.
Jack Jostes [00:02:13]:
Cool. And the original business was a flower shop.
Michelle [00:02:17]:
It was. It was a roadside flower stand in Norfolk, Virginia, on Little Creek Road. And it started on the location of where our first garden center started about 15 years later.
02:31 – From Flower Stand to Full-Service Landscaping
Jack Jostes [00:02:31]:
And then what did the business evolve into? Was it a garden center?
Michelle [00:02:35]:
We had two retail locations for over 40 years. One in Norfolk and one in Virginia Beach. When the big box companies started getting really, really popular with their garden centers. You know, it Kind of really took a big chunk of our market share.
Michelle [00:02:51]:
So my father in law at the time had to kind of evolve and roll with the punches and we dealt with some financial things in the business with that. Which caused us to decide to close down our retail operations so that we could focus on the services that our customers were calling us for the most, which was landscaping, installation.
03:11 – Door Hangers, Legacy Clients & Referrals
Jack Jostes [00:03:11]:
Well that's cool. So 75 years in business and what stood out from the presentation today?
Michelle [00:03:19]:
Honestly, the things that we are the lowest scoring on, having the need for to make sure that our customers are leaving our reviews. Having our customers spread our name out there in a positive manner is excellent for us and our customers are our legacy. And with that we have third and fourth generation customers in addition to third and fourth generation owners, which we feel is, that is such a strong thing to have in our industry. So setting ourselves apart from that, we try to make sure that we have our marketing material. And when we go to do jobs, our employees are required to put our door hangers on properties at least 10 on a street that we do a house because they see our trucks out there, they see our guys and our logos and then they see this on their door and then they talk to their neighbors and now they have our information. They've had a firsthand account from a neighbor who's dealt with us, had our services, they see our final product, they see we're listed in the newspaper, they see we're winning awards and now they get to deal with us right from the start and know our processes.
Jack Jostes [00:04:25]:
I love it. We do direct response marketing, which is a big part of that is multimedia multi touch marketing. So exactly what you're talking about. So the media could be print, it could be a door hanger, it could be a postcard, it could be a video, it could be social media, email, all of these little touch points and then you meet people in person and then part of what they do is they do Google you. So you googled me?
Michelle [00:04:52]:
Yes, and I googled our business.
Jack Jostes [00:04:56]:
Okay, so this is what I liked. You googled yourself during my talk and you realized you only have three reviews.
Michelle [00:05:03]:
Right now for a 75 year business.
Jack Jostes [00:05:05]:
Thousands of customers, that you have three very high paying clients over 75 years. Right?
Michelle [00:05:12]:
Yeah.
Jack Jostes [00:05:13]:
So anyway, so it's not a good picture. It's not. But I would approach asking for it the same way that you're already doing this. So maybe you have a print leave behind that you give people that asks them to leave you a review. And on it there could be Is.
Michelle [00:05:30]:
It that one or is it. No, it's this one. But this one is Facebook.
Jack Jostes [00:05:35]:
Oh, Facebook review. Ooh. Like us on Facebook and receive a free gift card.
Michelle [00:05:40]:
And I learned from you that although that's good, Google would be better.
Jack Jostes [00:05:46]:
Well, so there were some fun percentages that I threw around. One of them is that you only. Do you remember what percentage of people you ask to give you a Google review will do it?
Michelle [00:05:58]:
Yes. You said if you ask 100, you get 10.
Jack Jostes [00:06:01]:
Yes. So 10%. So I was joking with you kind of about getting to 300 reviews. Now, this might take many years, but hopefully you're on the podcast years from now and you have it because you're like, oh, yeah, well, we have 3,000 customers that we've worked with. Like, maybe not all of them even have a Google account. Or I mean, if you've been in business 75 years, maybe not all of them are alive.
06:28 – Branding Woes: Wedgwood vs Lane
Michelle [00:06:28]:
Well, part of, you know, what made me realize is that. So that is just for Wedgwood. My husband's a sole proprietor of Lane Landscaping Services, which is listed below here. This company has done over 1000 homes in the last 13 years just doing builder landscape packaging, where they grade and anything that's been disturbed during the building process.
Jack Jostes [00:06:52]:
Okay, wow, that's. That's significant. Do they need to be separate businesses?
Michelle [00:07:00]:
They are for the sake of. My husband started one as a sole proprietor and he has a partner on our corporation, family business because of a family thing. So until that is no longer a partnership, those have to remain separate.
Jack Jostes [00:07:17]:
Okay. Because I shared some examples. I've worked with many nursery or garden center businesses that also do landscaping. And I think there's an opportunity to cross sell the garden center customers to buy landscaping and the landscape customers to buy garden center.
Michelle [00:07:36]:
If we still have the garden centers, we have to remember that we had to transition and close our retail. So now we buy everything from the growers in our area.
Jack Jostes [00:07:46]:
Oh, okay. Well, so that's where I'm a little confused because this still has Wedgwood Garden Center.
Michelle [00:07:51]:
And that's what I wanted to ask you about. How confusing is that to our customer base? If our legacy customers know us as Wedgwood Garden center and then we have two companies. One is Wedgwood Garden Center Incorporated and one is Lane Landscaping Services. And. And were marketed as Wedgwood and Lane.
Jack Jostes [00:08:07]:
What is the word Wedgwood? What is the meaning of that?
Michelle [00:08:10]:
How was it picked geographically? Because where the flower stand was located, that area of Norfolk was called Wedgwood.
Jack Jostes [00:08:17]:
Okay, well, so that's. What about Lane?
Michelle [00:08:20]:
Lane is the family name.
Jack Jostes [00:08:24]:
Hmm.
Michelle [00:08:25]:
It's a conundrum.
Jack Jostes [00:08:26]:
Yeah.
Michelle [00:08:26]:
And we're aware of it because the business was started without the family name in it, and it is known that the Lanes own it. So it's a difficult thing, and it's something that I've struggled with for the last four years when I took over.
Jack Jostes [00:08:41]:
So there isn't a garden center, but the business is called Wedgwood Garden Center. Do you get calls for garden center type stuff?
Michelle [00:08:48]:
Yes, and my answer to that is. I'm sorry. I know that that sounds very confusing. However, just because we don't have the retail space to have it, we still do have. We do still have the items that you want available.
Jack Jostes [00:09:02]:
If it's growing material, what size projects do you want to sell from the landscape service? In dollars. Do you know the budget for these projects?
Michelle [00:09:13]:
I am not the person to ask for that because as far as the business goes, I don't do anything outside anymore.
09:19 – Chesapeake Bay Rules & Regulations
Jack Jostes [00:09:19]:
Well, so, I mean, because there's a lot of services here. There's grading, landscape design and installation, erosion control, site cleanup, BMPs, sod drainage.
Michelle [00:09:31]:
Okay. So BMP's in our area. What they require is that you have to have mitigators, because we're in Chesapeake Bay, so we have the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area. It is highly regulated. Very, very regulated. We are registered land disturbers in the state as well. Because you have to. You have to show them that you're not damaging to the waterways.
Michelle [00:09:59]:
Because I don't know if you know a lot about our area in the Chesapeake Bay. It's a massive body of water, and it touches so much land and there's so much sediment and runoff that can affect it. And the estuaries and the crab population, it is highly regulated in our area.
10:15 – What Michelle Really Wants to Sell
Jack Jostes [00:10:15]:
Which of these things. If we could leave the podcast and I was like, here you go, here's a bunch of one of these. Which of these services do you think you'd want new customers for above the others?
Michelle [00:10:27]:
Oh, the higher dollar, hardscaping stuff.
Jack Jostes [00:10:29]:
Okay. I thought so. Because we're at Belgard U. I would spend more time thinking about this before finally deciding. But my initial gut sense is to go with something. I mean, you've got Wedgwood and Lane and maybe add landscape design. Wedgwood and Lane Landscape Design.
Michelle [00:10:55]:
Oh, shoot. Is that not. Because all of our other branding, it does say landscaping, but that does not. And I never realized that. That I took it off of the logo, the word landscaping. Because the word landscaping is underneath of our logo big,
Jack Jostes [00:11:13]:
Okay.
Michelle [00:11:14]:
It's just not in any of this.
Jack Jostes [00:11:17]:
Well, yeah.
Michelle [00:11:18]:
I wish somebody was out here with a our our clothing because it shows our true logo.
Jack Jostes [00:11:21]:
Well, yeah. So. And this is. This is normal, especially with a business that's been around for 75 years, that there would be like five different logos.
Michelle [00:11:30]:
That has evolved through time.
Jack Jostes [00:11:32]:
A bunch of logos, a bunch of business names, a bunch of email addresses. wedgwoodlandscaping.com. I'm glad that you own that. I'm going to Google you real quick. Wedgwood and Lane Landscaping. One other fun thing is there is a Google listing out there called Wedgwood Garden Center Inc. Landscaping Office.
Michelle [00:11:53]:
I know, and I've been fighting with Google to get that changed, and I don't know how to get that changed.
Jack Jostes [00:11:57]:
Okay. Yeah.
11:58 – Fighting Google Listings & Name Confusion
Michelle [00:11:58]:
They say we're not a legit business. Yeah, we are. We're 75 years old. Why aren't we? Because when Google researches our business, it's conflicting to them because they find Wedgwood Garden center, they find Wedgwood and Lane. They find Lane Landscaping Services.
Jack Jostes [00:12:14]:
I'll give you a hint that one of the things that often is the crux of this is the phone number. So you may have a phone number in your business that has been used for a long time, and if it's associated with one business name on a certain Google listing, and now you have a different Google listing with a different business name and it has the same phone number, that can be a red flag to Google. Like, we're not really sure about this. We're going to. You have this duplicate listing issue. So look into that and find sites that mention your phone number and the old business name and change those mentions to the new business name. So you. Basically, there's all these other websites that need to be consistent to have the result of showing up for your brand name on Google.
Jack Jostes [00:13:14]:
I don't want to get too far down that rabbit hole, but I can see that this is confusing to customers and that you would get garden center phone calls. Do you have any petunias? No. Well, kind of. I mean, we could help you with a landscape project, but we don't have any for sale. But I like what you're doing. I mean, I like that you. I mean, I love this. We call this the cloverleaf strategy.
Jack Jostes [00:13:41]:
If you imagine a cloverleaf and you go to the four houses around your customer, you're doing 10. That's even better. One idea would be to have an offer on here.
Michelle [00:13:52]:
Okay.
Jack Jostes [00:13:53]:
So there could be so. One of the things we do with our clients is seasonal marketing campaigns. And so do you guys do landscape cleanup?
Michelle [00:14:01]:
We do. We do storm cleanup, we do snow removal. We do all the standard.
Jack Jostes [00:14:08]:
You could market a spring cleanup during January, February, March and have some sort of offer for spring cleanup. So one of the things that you could do is like a seasonal marketing campaign where you market a spring cleanup and there's some sort of incentive to sign up for a spring cleanup before a certain date.
Michelle [00:14:28]:
Okay, great.
Jack Jostes [00:14:29]:
And get a gift. It doesn't have to be a discount, but that would create some urgency to reply to your thing. And then during the fall or the end of the summer, you have a seasonal postcard that you give out that's.
Michelle [00:14:43]:
Aerating or winter pruning because these are.
14:45 – “I’ll Never Pay Facebook Again”
Jack Jostes [00:14:45]:
All this is good. I mean that you're doing this alone is great. And adding an offer on there could make it even more attractive. And then forget about Facebook. I don't care if people like you on Facebook because the last time I.
Michelle [00:15:03]:
Looked, it's not working.
Jack Jostes [00:15:05]:
Yeah, well, here's the reason why. Facebook reach. So of the let's pretend you had 100 people that liked you on Facebook. 2% of them would even see your posts when you make them. So unless you're paying Facebook like 2% of the people who follow you, roughly last time I looked into it, would even see it. Whereas if you get a Google review, way more valuable.
Michelle [00:15:33]:
And that was one of the key things that I learned here from you, was that Google is more important than social media. And I'll give you a little statistic on what we have spent and what we have received back from it. We spent $350 in boosted ads and sponsored ads. We got lots of page likes on Facebook. Do you know that far as website traffic, we got five. And I will never pay Facebook again.
Jack Jostes [00:16:04]:
Well, they've kind of designed it to keep you in Facebook. Right. So that's the deal.
16:09 – Marketing Help + Jack’s Final Take
Michelle [00:16:09]:
Well, Michelle, you're doing a lot. Really well. Congrats on 75 years in business. You have awesome photos.
Michelle [00:16:15]:
Thank you.
Jack Jostes [00:16:15]:
I saw them. And you guys go get those reviews and let's figure out your business name sometime. Cool?
Michelle [00:16:24]:
Yes, absolutely. It was a pleasure meeting you and valuable information.
Jack Jostes [00:16:28]:
Yeah you too, thank you.
Michelle [00:16:28]:
And I hope to see some more stuff from you guys in the future at these events. It's great.
Jack Jostes [00:16:32]:
Thank you.
Michelle [00:16:32]:
Work with you guys hopefully.
Jack Jostes [00:16:34]:
Thank you.
Michelle [00:16:34]:
Thank you so much.
Jack Jostes [00:16:36]:
I love talking with family-owned businesses like Michelle's who've been in business a while, who have gone through changes they've changed their business name. And hey, if that's like you, if you've changed your name, if the services you're offering have evolved over time, we'd love to help you figure out your marketing strategy from SEO to your business name to your logo and putting together all the pieces in between. So reach out to us for a 15-minute marketing brainstorm at landscapersguide.com/brainstorm. I'm Jack Jostes. See our show notes for a link to that landscapersguide.com/brainstorm, and I'll look forward to talking with you next week on The Landscaper's Guide.
Show Notes:
Watch the full episode + see the transcript at: https://landscapersguide.com/podcast/
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???? Connect with Wedgwood & Lane Landscaping:
Website: https://wedgwoodlandscaping.com/
Email: landscape@wedgwoodlandscaping.com
Phone: (757) 587-4481
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