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When was the last time you looked at your photos on google, or your social media, or even your website? Was it 3 to 5 years ago when you last updated your website? In today’s video, we’ll be talking about the 3 questions you need to ask yourself to make sure the photos you have online convey the right message and don’t look like death!
1) Do your photos look like death?
If you’re a landscaper, this is a big question you need to ask yourself. Do your photos show off your landscapes in the Spring or are they showing a ‘Winter Wonderland” of dead trees and dormant shrubs? If you want to look the best online and attract top paying customers, you need to be taking pictures in the Spring and Summer when the trees are green and plants are flowering.
Now, I know what you are thinking… Robert, that is my busiest time of year. How am I going to get photos of my projects in the Summer if I already can hardly handle the workload? It all comes down to planning! In the Spring when you start filling up with jobs, think about which designs are going to best show off what you do. Before you even start on the job, make sure you have time blocked out to go and get photos of those jobs when you finish them. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but trust me, it will be worth it the following year when you wow the top paying customers and get more of the RIGHT jobs.
2) Do your photos show off the work you do now, or the work you did 10 years ago?
When was the last time you updated your portfolio page? Probably when your website was made, right? We see this all the time, a landscaper with an outdated portfolio getting the wrong kinds of jobs. It’s probably because you are showing off work that is no longer your most profitable jobs. Maybe 5 years ago you were happy to get a small hardscaping job, but now you are doing design/ build for customers willing to pay $25,000 or more! You need to convey that on your website’s portfolio. If you are showing the pathways you built 5 years ago, you are going to get calls asking for you to build a pathway.
3) Do you have photos of your staff online?
Trust is a big part of getting hired on for a job and if your customers don’t know who is coming to their house, they aren’t going to have as much trust in you. You need to show off your team and your equipment to build the trust of the most profitable jobs. A good way to do this is building out an “About” page on your site that has professional headshots of your team members as well as groups shots with your equipment or on a job. If you can build trust before you even start a job, I can guarantee you will get more of the projects that you want to do!
Overall, having great photography comes down to planning. If you know you have a big job coming up, plan to get out there and get some photos when the project is finished. Just like having a plan for demolition, construction, planting, and clean up. Implement photography into your processes and you will be getting more of the right leads by next Spring!
Next week we’ll be in San Antonio for the TNLA’s Nursery Landscape Expo! Jack will be presenting the Keynote, Going Digital: A New Era in the Green Industry, so if you are going to be there, make sure to join us on Friday, August 17th at 8:15 AM. AND as a bonus, we are sharing an unedited clip from Jack’s rehearsals. Click here to watch the video now because we will be taking that video down on August 16th!
