Now before you say RJ, nobody reads or wants a newsletter or email from their tree service, I want to say you are wrong. Many dead presidents (faces on dollar bills) wrong per month.

When this statement is said to me, I know already know a few things.

One you haven’t tried it. Or you tried and didn’t have immediate success (it takes time). Also, you probably don’t track the results of your marketing efforts. Either one is costing you big money and the stress of not getting leads and business for your tree service.

Problem #1 Newsletter not working.

Most businesses don’t know how to approach creating a company newsletter that gets the results they want. Because they only think of what is in it for them…getting business. When you take this approach to newsletter marketing your customers and prospects can see it right away and that is why they don’t open you email, unsubscribe or worse send it to spam.

An effective newsletter is an extremely valuable marketing tool that can go a long way in educating and persuading your clients and prospects to work with you, give you a referral or call you for repeat business. Your newsletter is supposed to be helpful and add value to the reader’s life is some way. Not be a sales pitch.

To have a lead generating tree service newsletter you want to have these components in every email newsletter. Something local, something personal, something specific to your business that affects the reader.

The goal of your email newsletter is not sales, the goal is engagement. The sales will be a by-product of the engagement.

Something local:

• Include some local charity or benefit. Example: Is it national blood drive month, then list where they can give blood locally. Girl Scout cookie season? Local food drive? Local town Christmas tree decorating contest? Something local. Local news has and always will be of interest. Look at any local Facebook Group, see what the buzz is and include that in your newsletter.
• Talk about a local problem. Example: Do the trees need water in a drought condition? Are the insects killing trees in your area? Maybe a famous local park tree to visit.

Local content always piques people’s interest and is good content to have in your newsletter.

Something personal:

• Did an employee have a child? Did you or an employee win an award, get certified in something? Did you add a new employee or piece of equipment to your arsenal? Explain how this benefits your customers and readers.
• Don’t be promotional, keep it benefit to them focused.

Something specific:

• Problem-solving advice. Example: During mulch season, make sure they know the proper way to mulch around a tree.
• Example would a birdhouse in the customer’s yard promote birds to eat the insects? Would spraying the yard or injecting the tree save it from insect damage?
• Hold a Contest. Example: Hold a FREE tree removal or service for a person in need. Have your list of readers write you an email providing details. Check out how we did it with this tree company social media.

Problem #2: Not getting fast results.

Newsletter marketing takes time and is a long-term game. You aren’t going to blast out a bunch of emails and the lead pour in. Sorry, it doesn’t work like that. The key, be consistent. Give value, give value, give value.

Think of it as planting a garden. Give the plants value (food, water and sunlight) and they will produce in time.

Give your newsletter a name: People associate articles. Look at any successful newsletter and you will see that they name their newsletter.

Examples:

• The “Leaflet Journal”
• The “Blossom Bulletin”
• The “Root of the Matter Monthly”

Give your readers a schedule that your newsletter will be sent. This way they expect it, can look for it and in an indirect way, they see how reliable you are.

Examples:

• The last Saturday of the month.
• The 15^th of every month.
• Every Friday

Stick to this schedule. You may think people won’t notice if you are a day or week late, but some will.

Make sure you have some call to action that you can track.

If you have links, a phone number or even a social media post you are using as a call to action, track it and track who took that action.

Example:

If your call to action is check out this article on our website for ways to trim your trees this fall. If three people click that link, follow up with a call, email or text message with an offer. You will spark sales from doing this.

Note:

I have watched in real time people on my client’s website pages. Sent the client a text message, saying they were getting ready to get a phone call from a certain town, for a certain service soon. With-in 30 minutes, the client calls me and asks how I knew that information?

Which leads to the next part, tracking your data. Data science is an important part of business and marketing these days.

Problem #3: Not tracking your results.

As a tree service marketing company, I am in the business of tracking results. I see them, report them and act upon what the data tells me. But, for most tree service businesses, they couldn’t tell you how many visits they had last month to their website, and/or from where did those visitors come from.

Hell, most don’t know how many calls, emails or contact they had come in. They only know if there is money in the bank or not.

You need to know your numbers, period.

What is the old saying, that what gets measured gets the most attention? For most, the only thing that gets measured is the bank statement, the end goal number. When the well runs dry, it is too late or a stressful time ahead.

If you want to grow that end goal number, you need to focus on the process goal numbers. In this case, how many emails you have, how many opens you get, how many clicks and conversion you get. Which you can track all the way to how much money gets put in the bank.

No matter if you are just starting out or have been doing newsletter marketing to get free leads for a while now, tracking the results are important and will convert you to a believer in email marketing as a way to produce business for your tree service.