The snow industry can be risky, but when you know how to grow your snow business the right way, you have the potential to gain high rewards.
If you don’t have these things right in your business, it WILL FAIL:
Once you implement the solutions to these core business functions, you'll be on the right track to growing a profitable snow business.
No matter how many jobs you’ve got, you’ll never grow your snow business if you don’t have your pricing right.
You should consistently be checking your job costing reports to confirm jobs that started profitably remain so. This helps to ensure you’re not overspending or under-pricing your services.
To make sure you’re properly pricing your services, you should consider these factors:
Once you take factors like these into account, you’ll be on the right track to creating a budget and properly pricing your snow removal services.
Click here to read our complete guide on snow removal pricing.
If you want to grow your snow business, you’ll need to dive into some educational resources.
These resources will help equip you with the knowledge you need to make the right choices for your snow business. They help you to:
… This list could go on and on. When you connect with the right resources, the opportunities that’ll be provided to you are absolutely endless.
Click here to real our full list of snow resources to help grow your snow business.
While referrals tend to be one of the slowest ways to gain new clients, it’s also one of the most reliable ways to gain the right clients.
By using referrals to grow your snow business, you’re essentially duplicating your best, most ideal clients.
Once your best clients start referring you, a “snowball effect” begins to slowly (but steadily) increase your number of clients. As a result, you’ll be generating a much more consistent stream of clients than almost anything else you can do.
One of the main reasons most clients hesitate to become your clients is because of a great, big wall of DOUBT.
A good referral will:
Here are some tips to start generating referrals ASAP:
Even if the client is right, and the offer is perfect, your client still may not refer you if your timing isn’t right.
Don’t ask for referrals when you:
Always ask for referrals when you:
Here’s the key: Ask for referrals when your clients are at their happiest with you.
This is one of the most successful strategies to generate more referrals, because it’s offering an incentive to refer you.
The offer can be something as simple as, “Get $25 off your first plow!”
Honestly, it doesn’t even matter what the offer is… just as long as it’s something that’s worth their time.
For every successful referral, be sure you send “Thank You” cards in addition to following through with your offer.
You’d be surprised how far a simple “Thank You” will get you. Plus, when your clients feel appreciated, they’re more likely to keep referring you to their friends and family.
First off, you might be asking yourself, “What the heck is multi-channel marketing?”
And that’s okay, because most snow businesses don’t use this money-making marketing strategy… which is why many of them fail or suffer from stagnant growth.
With that said, the most successful snow businesses THRIVE on multi-channel marketing.
In short, multi-channel marketing just means you’re distributing your message or offer across various marketing channels in a coordinated effort (AKA a marketing campaign).
Your marketing mix can include both online (digital) and offline (print channels).
When properly used, you can quickly reach your most ideal clients in a shorter amount of time.
On average it takes 7 to 13 touches to convert a lead into a client. So when you use multi-channel marketing, you’ll be reaching your clients on different platforms - all at the same time.
Ideally, this means you’ll convert your leads into clients in a much shorter amount of time. Plus, the shorter timespan between touches means they’ll be more likely to become a client.
At a minimum, you’ll need to use these platforms:
Here’s how you’ll use each of them:
At SA6 (our annual SA Conference), our Marketing Campaign Manager (Lisa Marino), gave attendees the perfect email campaign to start using in their multi-channel marketing.
And while I can’t give away all of her secrets from this workshop, here’s a quick overview of some of her best tips…
Even though this can seem super intimidating, it’s not as hard as you might think.
All it comes down to is you convincing them:
Once you convince them of these things, you’ve got yourself a client!
First off, here are the steps you’ll go through in order to create your emails:
Next, take a look at an example of what your email campaign might look like for your new clients:
And here’s an example of what your campaign might look like for former clients:
DON’T FORGET! Lisa recommends you always check the Current Worldata Calendar to find out which days your email should be most effective.
Depending on the services you provide, you might promote these services in your emails:
If you need help with your multi-channel marketing, here’s how Lisa recommends you find someone:
And before you hire a professional, first find out if you can afford it. Ask yourself these questions:
And finally, Lisa recommends you predict how many leads you’ll bring in and convert. Even though you have to spend money to make it, the last thing you want to do is hire someone you can’t afford to keep.
Click here to get our full email marketing guide for your snow business.
You should promote the same offers your emailing on Facebook too.
This might sound repetitive or redundant, but that’s actually a GOOD thing.
Remember how we talked earlier about how it takes 7-13 or more times to convert a lead into a client? … Well that’s why we marketers don’t mind be “repetitive” in a multi-channel marketing campaign.
In fact, that’s our goal. To create an offer that you see EVERYWHERE, and eventually you’ll want to take advantage of it.
Unlike traditional ads, when you use Facebook Ads, it allows you to directly target your ideal clients. In other words, instead of everyone seeing your ads, only the people you’re targeting will see your ads.
Plus, you can set your daily budget so that your ads will stop appearing once your ad budget is reached for the day. So not only are Facebook Ads a very affordable option, but it also allows you to control how much you’re spending.
Take a look at our complete, three-part Facebook guide to find out more (plus, there’s a free social media calendar inside!): Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Unlike Facebook Ads, Google Ads isn’t as “hyper-targeted”. In other words, you can’t directly choose who sees your ads.That said, Google Ads are targeted by search terms, so you’re looking at getting in front of an audience that is ready to buy.
While you can’t choose who sees your ads, you can set a daily budget for your ads So once you’ve reached your daily limit, the ads will stop showing.
If you’re looking to gain new clients, this is probably going to be the most effective way to spend your money.
Here’s why…
People on Facebook aren’t necessarily looking for a solution to their snow and ice removal problems.
However, people on Google are actively searching for a solution to their problems.
In Google Ads, you can choose which keyword searches you want to target, so your ads will only show for those keywords. Plus, you can choose whether you want your ads to show at the top of bottom of the search.
Click here to check out our beginner's guide for Google Ads!
By far, using the right software is the most vital part of growing your snow and ice removal business.
The right snow software can help you:
When you use the right software for your snow removal business, your growth opportunities are absolutely endless.
Unlike other software solutions, Service Autopilot is the only proven software solution specially created to meet the needs of the snow industry.
When you choose Service Autopilot as your snow software, you'll get:
Instant invoicing
Better scheduling
Manage your clients and employees all in one system
As you're ready to expand your snow business, it becomes increasingly important to utilize the right knowledge and resources.
Plus, when you begin to pinpoint your business’ biggest bottlenecks, you’ll be better able to choose which solutions to implement into your business.
At the end of the day, YOU are the most important resource for your business. No one is going to care about your snow business as much as you do.
Since this is YOUR baby, it’s your responsibility to find the right solutions for your business and ensure they’re implemented.
Related: Snow Marketing: The Complete Guide
Originally published Jan 7, 2020 7:00 AM, updated Jan 19, 2021 2:06 PM
Tags: Business Operation
