There are four major ways in which American landscaping firms have used the Internet to their advantage. These are pretty much the factors behind the trend where we have seen the fortunes of these firms improve vastly in the years after the Internet became a widely used tool by members of the public. All this is, of course, against a background where the Internet has either turned out to be a useful tool or a major threat to the actors in various industries. It would seem that, in the case of landscapers in America, the Internet has turned out to be a useful tool – and what we are just about to look at are the specific ways in which the said American landscapers have exploited this particular tool. Without further ado, the four ways in which American landscaping firms have used the Internet include the situations where they have used it for:
Marketing: it is notable, for one, that virtually all landscapers in America today have some sort of presence on the web. Some have websites, others have interactive blogs -- and some have even gone a step further to establish social networking ‘groups’ or ‘fan pages’ for their firms.
Most of these firms also tend to be listed on various online service provider directories.
The aim in doing all these things is, of course, usually to get clients they’d otherwise (without the help of the Internet) not have gotten. And the Internet is useful to the landscapers’ marketing efforts to the extent that it can indeed make it possible for them to hook up with such clients they wouldn’t otherwise have had the opportunity to interact with.
Public education: this is the situation where the landscapers use the Internet to create public awareness on the services they provide, and the importance of such services. You come to realize that these landscapers actually seem to be undertaking some sort of benign ‘propaganda war,’ aimed at making the beautification services they provide come across as ‘essential services.’ And the war effort seems to be bearing results – seeing that we are increasingly seeing a situation where majority of new homeowners feel the compulsion to call in landscapers, to do ‘exterior styling’ for them. Thus, we have a situation where the landscapers are using the Internet as a tool to create awareness about (and hence demand for) their services.
Liaison with clients: it is notable that in this day and age, most communication between American landscaping firms and their clients takes place online, mostly through email. This is also the situation where the landscapers are able to get feedback from their clients, and information on client expectations, by visiting the various online forums where landscaping issues are discussed.
Research and publication: many of the landscapers use the Internet to get landscaping ideas for presentation to their clients. Many of them also use the Internet for research on emerging ‘best practices’ in things like lawn care and tree care, which they then proceed to implement on their clients’ yards, to improve the landscaping results they deliver. Many of these landscapers also publish – through blogs for instance – which in turn helps them come across as ‘authorities.’ Being perceived as landscaping authorities is, in turn, important in the attainment of their bigger strategic goals.
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