Two different customers arrive: one wants recurring maintenance at a monthly price, the other wants a project quoted. Most landscaping sites merge them, publish no figures for either, and show photographs that could belong to anybody.
The visitor you are actually designing for
Two of them, with almost nothing in common.
The maintenance customer. Wants the lawn cut, the beds tidy, and the leaves gone, on a schedule, at a predictable monthly cost. Deciding largely on price and reliability, and they want a number.
The project customer. Has a yard that does not work and a budget in mind. Deciding on whether you can execute what they are imagining, and on whether they can afford it.
A site that runs both through one enquiry form serves neither. The maintenance customer wanted a rate and the project customer wanted evidence.
The pattern, and what each fault costs
Photographs that could be anyone's garden
Wide shots of finished landscapes with no context, indistinguishable from stock, and frequently including one or two that actually are.
What it costs: the local proof. A project in a street somebody recognises, on a lot the same size as theirs, is worth more than a magazine-quality image of somewhere unidentifiable.
No maintenance pricing
Contact us for a free quote on a service priced almost entirely by lot size and visit frequency.
What it costs: the easy half of the business. A homeowner wanting fortnightly cutting is comparing three firms on a monthly figure, and the one that publishes a range for typical lot sizes is the one they call.
No project range either
Understandable, since projects vary, and still leaving the customer unable to place you. Somebody with fifteen thousand to spend cannot tell whether that is your smallest job or your largest.
What it costs: the qualified enquiry, and it produces the unqualified ones instead.
A seasonal business that reads as year-round
No indication of when you are booking, what you do in winter, or how far out the schedule runs.
What it costs: bookings during the fortnight everybody calls, and enquiries in the months when the calendar is open.
Nothing about what happens to the property
Whether equipment goes across the lawn, what happens to debris, whether the neighbours are affected, and how the site is left each day.
What it costs: the hesitation of somebody about to let machinery into their garden.
Design and build presented as one thing
Where you offer design, customers frequently do not know it is a separate paid stage until they are told, which reads as an unexpected charge.
What it costs: trust at the quote. Stating the design fee, and whether it is credited against the build, resolves it up front.
No mention of what plants actually do here
Generic planting advice that could apply anywhere, on a site serving a specific climate and specific soil.
What it costs: the expertise signal. Knowing what survives local winters and what struggles in local soil is the thing a national supplier cannot claim.
What the rebuild changes
- Split maintenance from projects, with separate pages and separate enquiry routes.
- A monthly maintenance range by typical lot size and frequency.
- A project starting figure, even as a from number by project type.
- Local photographs, with the neighbourhood named where the customer allows it.
- Before and after from the same position, which this trade is unusually well suited to.
- A booking window statement, saying which month you are scheduling into.
- What winter looks like, whether that is cleanups, snow, or a closed season.
- What happens on site, including access, debris, and how the property is left.
Why this produces enquiries
The mechanism, stated precisely.
Both customers arrive already wanting the work. The maintenance customer has decided to stop cutting their own grass and the project customer has been looking at their yard for two years. Neither needs persuading that landscaping is worthwhile.
What stops them is being unable to place you. Without a figure, neither can tell whether contacting you is worth the effort, so they contact the firm that gave them something to work with.
The rebuild does not create demand for landscaping. It removes the reasons somebody who already wanted it could not tell whether you were the right call.
The photograph point, expanded
Worth dwelling on because it is the largest single opportunity in this trade.
Landscaping is one of the few trades where the before and after are both dramatic and easy to capture, and where the work is permanently visible in the neighbourhood you serve.
Most firms photograph only the finished result, in good light, from the flattering angle. The pair that persuades is the tired yard in March and the same view in July, taken from the same spot on the same property.
Checking your own
Read it as a homeowner who wants fortnightly cutting, then again as one with a yard to redo.
Could the first find a monthly figure. Could the second tell whether their budget is realistic. Could either tell when you could start.
Most landscaping sites fail all three, and the fixes are two pages and a rate table, which is the same publishable-units argument that applies in what a fencing and decking website needs.
Frequently asked questions
Who visits a landscaping website?
Two customers with little in common: a maintenance customer wanting a predictable monthly cost, and a project customer wanting to know whether their budget is realistic.
Should maintenance pricing be published?
Yes. It is priced almost entirely by lot size and visit frequency, so a range for typical lot sizes is what a homeowner comparing three firms is looking for.
What about project pricing?
A starting figure by project type. Somebody with a set budget cannot otherwise tell whether that is your smallest job or your largest, which produces unqualified enquiries.
What photographs work best?
Before and after from the same position on a local property, ideally with the neighbourhood named. Most firms photograph only the finished result from the flattering angle.
Why mention winter?
Because a seasonal business that reads as year-round loses bookings in the fortnight everybody calls and gets no enquiries in the months when the calendar is open.
Why state the design fee?
Customers frequently do not know design is a separate paid stage until they are told, which reads as an unexpected charge at exactly the wrong moment.
West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.
One enquiry form serving two completely different customers?
We split maintenance from projects and put a figure on each, so people can tell whether to call you.
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