The majority of tree care companies aren’t ignoring digital marketing; they’re aware that they need to be doing it. They may have had a website built or built one on their own, have a Google Business Profile, run Google ads, post on social media and likely receive at least some leads online.

Yet, many still head into a new fiscal year unsure whether those efforts are actually working, where their marketing dollars are going or how many jobs their marketing should realistically be producing.

The Digital Marketing Growth Blueprint – which is the title of a strategy I presented at TCI EXPO ’25 – offers a way to step back and look at marketing as a business system. Instead of asking, “Should we run more ads?” or “Do we need to be on every platform?”, the framework helps companies answer more foundational questions.

• What are our actual business goals?
• How many leads and appointments do we need to reach them?
• Where do those leads come from today?
• Where are we losing opportunities?

In the next step, we will go into detail on how to gain more clarity on these important elements of your marketing strategy.

Step 1: Define clear business goals

Everything in the Digital Marketing Growth Blueprint framework starts with goal clarity. Marketing only works when it supports specific business outcomes. What readers should do immediately is identify:

• Average monthly revenue.
• Average job value.
• Typical number of jobs completed per month.
• One clear 12-month goal, such as revenue, crews or capacity.

Average job value will vary from company to company, since some tree- service providers focus on residential trimming and removal, some focus on PHC and some are more aligned with government and commercial contracts. Look at your average invoice value if you do residential services such as trimming, removal and PHC, and look at average contract value if you’re working mainly with commercial and municipal clients.

If you already know, or have a good idea, that you close 60% of your appointments from advertising, and you are generating around 100 new leads per month, you can estimate what type of revenue that will likely produce when you know your average invoice value.

For example, if your average invoice value is $1,500 and you complete 60 jobs from those 100 leads, you can predict that you will produce around $90,000 in revenue from your advertising during normal months. Normal months refer to your busy months, typically eight to 10 months out of the year (or fewer for companies in northern states and colder climates).

This may be in addition to referrals, municipal contracts, HOA maintenance and other revenue streams in your business.

Once revenue goals are clear, marketing math becomes possible. Without this step, it’s impossible to know how many leads are needed. Do this exercise and you will gain more clarity on the direction of your marketing.

Step 2: Work backward from revenue to lead targets

This is where marketing stops feeling abstract and complicated. Let’s say you have a goal of $2 million in revenue this year. Assuming that you already have $1 million coming from existing contracts and referrals, you need another $1 million in revenue to hit your target.

You can work the numbers regardless of existing business, but you need to be realistic about how much revenue you can produce with advertising alone. Longevity in the business will naturally help you grow if you’re doing great work and keeping customers satisfied.

Our clients report that they typically close anywhere from 40% to 60% of new leads from advertising, and upward of 70% to 90% of referrals. A good close rate for inbound leads from advertising should be around 50%, as a benchmark. Any lower, and you may need to improve your on-site sales presentation or consider that your pricing could be slightly high. (Any higher, and you may consider raising prices!)

Using the example in Step 1, you need approximately another $85,000 per month in revenue.
If your average invoice is around $1,500, then you need another 57 completed jobs each month. ($57 x $1,500 = $85,500 in revenue.)

That would require approximately 95 new leads per month if you close 60% of all new leads. (95 x 0.6 = 57 jobs completed.)

You might then ask yourself: How do I get 95 new leads every month? It should be a combination of digital and offline marketing, with the latter referring to tried-and-true methods such as:

• Truck wraps.
• Yard signs.
• Customer referral programs.
• Door hangers.
• Direct mail.

Step 3: Focus on the three parts of the marketing funnel

With the Accelerated Growth Model, another strategy we’ve developed over the years, we break down marketing and growth into three steps:

1. Attract: How do people find you online?
2. Convert: What happens when they reach your website or call?
3. Maximize: Do those leads turn into reviews, referrals and repeat work?

Most companies over-invest in the first step and ignore the other two. Small improvements to conversion – like simple follow-up – often outperform new ad spend.

There are a few things you can do right away to help improve conversion and maximize revenue from incoming leads:

• Is it easy for customers to contact you? Website clarity and calls to action matter.
• Do you answer the phone live, or let calls go to voicemail? The latter will hurt conversion.
• Are you responding to website form requests within three to five minutes? If not, those leads go cold.
• Do you have an automated email or text follow-up system in place for recent leads that haven’t been booked yet?
• Are you consistently asking for reviews after work is completed?

Consider two tree-service companies, A and B, getting the same number of leads per month but with different conversion rates. Improving conversion from 30% to 70% more than doubles revenue from the same number of leads, in this example, $34,500 vs. $80,500.

Company A:
# of leads: 100
Conversion rate: 30%
No follow-up
Jobs booked: 30
100 leads x 30% = 30 jobs
Average ticket: $1,150
30 jobs x $1,150 = $34,500

Company B:
# of leads: 100
Conversion rate: 70%
Automated follow-up
Jobs booked: 70
100 leads x 70% = 70 jobs
Average ticket: $1,150
70 jobs x $1,150 = $80,500

Step 4: Track what matters

Conversion tracking provides clarity, not complexity. Tree care business owners should know where leads come from – website, Google ads, Local Service Ads, Facebook, direct mail, text marketing, etc. – and the cost per lead from each source. They should also know which channels produce booked work.

The best way to track lead sources is through call tracking – using separate phone numbers for different channels. If you are using customer relationship management (CRM) software, you can also tag leads by source to evaluate performance over time.

It’s important to remember:

• Likes, impressions and traffic don’t necessarily generate revenue.
• Knowing your close rate, cost per lead and revenue per channel does.
• All marketing should work together – branding and messaging should remain consistent.

Conclusion

The Digital Marketing Growth Blueprint and the Accelerated Growth Model aren’t about doing more. These strategies are about doing the right things in the right order, with intention, to gain clarity on how to grow your business.

• Do you have clear goals?
• Do you know your lead targets?
• Are you converting and maximizing leads?
• Are you tracking results that actually matter?

Working with hundreds of tree care companies across the U.S. and Canada has shown that focusing on these areas can help you grow more predictably.

Wesley Smith, of Atlanta-based Tree Service Digital, is a marketing professional with more than 12 years of experience specializing in digital strategies for the tree service industry. This article is based on the author’s presentation on the same topic at TCI EXPO ’25 in St. Louis.