Landscaping Marketing: How to Stay Booked Year-Round

88% of local searches result in a call or visit within 24 hours. A homeowner searching “landscaping company near me” isn’t browsing for fun. They’ve got a yard that needs work and they want someone there this week.

The demand is there. The problem is when it shows up. Landscaping is one of the most seasonal trades in home services. Spring and summer are a sprint. Fall tapers. Winter can kill cash flow entirely if you haven’t planned for it.

The landscaping companies that stay booked year-round aren’t luckier than you. They market differently in each season, sell services that fill the gaps, and build systems that generate leads even when the grass isn’t growing.

The seasonality problem and how to solve it

Most landscaping companies earn 60-70% of their annual revenue between April and September. That leaves five months where you’re burning overhead with a fraction of the income. Trucks still have payments. Insurance doesn’t pause. Your best crew members need paychecks or they find work elsewhere.

Solving seasonality means building revenue streams for every quarter, and marketing each one at the right time.

Maintenance contracts create recurring revenue. A homeowner paying $200/month for weekly mowing, trimming, and seasonal cleanups is worth $2,400/year in predictable income. Sign 50 maintenance clients and that’s $120,000 in baseline revenue before you sell a single project. Contracts also give you a reason to stay in touch with customers year-round, which generates referrals and upsells.

Snow removal and holiday lighting fill winter. If you’re in a market that gets snow, this is the obvious gap-filler. The equipment crossover with landscaping is significant, and your existing customers already trust you. Holiday lighting installation is a growing niche that runs November through January with strong margins.

Hardscape projects fill shoulder seasons. Patios, retaining walls, fire pits, outdoor kitchens. These jobs run $5,000-50,000+ and carry the highest margins in landscaping. They can be scheduled in early spring and late fall when mowing slows down, keeping crews productive during transition months.

Read more about seasonal marketing strategies for landscapers and the seasonal marketing calendar that maps when to promote each service.

Start spring marketing in January

Spring is the most competitive season for landscaping leads. Every landscaper in your market is running ads, posting on social media, and trying to fill the schedule. By March, ad costs spike and lead quality drops because homeowners have already booked their spring projects.

The companies that win spring start marketing in January. A homeowner in January isn’t thinking about landscaping yet, but they respond to content about planning a spring project, choosing plants for their zone, or design inspiration for their backyard. By the time they’re ready to call in March, you’re already in their consideration set.

January and February marketing should focus on:

Design-build project consultations. Hardscape and landscape design projects have longer sales cycles. A homeowner who sees your patio gallery in January books a consultation in February and starts construction in April. Getting into that pipeline early means you start spring with projects already sold.

Maintenance contract renewals and new signups. Reach out to past maintenance customers in January to lock in contracts for the year. Offer early-bird pricing for customers who commit before March 1. This guarantees baseline revenue before the season starts.

Content that ranks by spring. A blog post published in January about “best patio designs for [city]” or “when to start lawn care in [state]” has two months to index and rank before the spring search surge. Publish it in March and you’ve missed the window.

Hardscape leads are your highest-value work

Mowing pays the bills. Hardscape pays for growth. A $300 weekly mowing contract is valuable, but a single $25,000 patio installation generates the same revenue as 83 weeks of mowing from one project.

Hardscape customers search differently than maintenance customers. They’re Googling “patio ideas,” “retaining wall cost,” “outdoor kitchen contractor,” and “landscape design near me.” These are longer-tail searches with clear buying intent and less competition than generic “landscaping” keywords.

Build dedicated pages for each hardscape service: patios, retaining walls, walkways, fire pits, outdoor kitchens, water features. Each page needs a photo gallery of completed projects, a pricing range so homeowners can self-qualify, and a clear call to action for a design consultation.

Design-build projects have longer sales cycles but higher value. A homeowner researching a $30,000 backyard renovation might spend weeks looking at inspiration photos and reading about materials before reaching out. Your content needs to be part of that research phase. Portfolio pages, material comparison guides, and project process explanations position you as the expert they’ll eventually call.

Read the complete guide to generating hardscape leads.

Target new homeowners within 90 days

New homeowners within 90 days of moving in are among the highest-converting prospects in landscaping. They’ve just bought a property and they’re looking at the yard with fresh eyes. The previous owner’s landscaping choices don’t match their vision. They need someone to make it theirs.

New homeowner data is available through public records, and reaching these prospects early, before they’ve found “their” landscaping company, gives you a significant advantage. A well-timed postcard or door hanger within the first few weeks of move-in lands when the homeowner is actively thinking about their yard.

The messaging should acknowledge their situation. “Just moved to [neighborhood]? We’ve maintained lawns on this street for 8 years and would love to help you make your new yard yours.” Specific beats generic. Reference the neighborhood, the typical lot size, or common landscaping styles in the area.

Read the full strategy for targeting new homeowners.

Before-and-after photos drive engagement

Landscaping is the most visual trade in home services. A bare backyard transformed into an outdoor living space with a stone patio, built-in planters, and landscape lighting, that transformation sells itself.

Before-and-after photos generate the highest engagement of any content type for landscaping companies. They outperform tips, promotions, and seasonal reminders on every platform.

Document every project. Take the “before” photo on the first site visit. Take “during” shots to show the process. Take the “after” photos when the project is complete, ideally with good lighting and clean edges. Drone shots of larger projects add a perspective homeowners can’t get from ground level.

Use these photos everywhere. Website gallery organized by project type. Google Business Profile posts. Instagram and Facebook. Email newsletters. Even printed leave-behinds for neighboring homes after completing a project.

Referrals and yard signs work together

Referrals are the strongest lead channel in landscaping. A homeowner who loves their new patio tells their neighbor. That neighbor sees the patio every time they walk by. The recommendation carries weight because they can see the finished product with their own eyes.

Yard signs amplify this effect. A sign in the front yard during and after a project puts your name in front of every neighbor, delivery driver, and dog walker who passes by. For landscaping, where the work is visible from the street, yard signs generate more impressions per dollar than almost any other channel.

Ask every customer for permission to leave a yard sign for 2-4 weeks after project completion. Offer a small incentive: “$25 off your next service if we can leave our sign up for a month.” Most homeowners are happy to agree, especially when they’re proud of the finished result.

Pair yard signs with neighbor marketing. After completing a project, send postcards or door hangers to the 25-50 nearest homes. “We just completed a project on your street - here’s a photo” with your contact info and a neighbor discount. The sign gets attention. The postcard gives them a reason to call.

Read more about how yard signs generate calls.

Slow season marketing keeps you booked

The landscapers who struggle in winter are the ones who stop marketing in October and restart in March. Five months of silence means five months where past customers forget about you and new customers never find you.

Winter marketing should focus on services you can deliver: snow removal, holiday lighting, hardscape design consultations, dormant pruning, drainage solutions. If you don’t offer winter services, use the slow season to build the pipeline for spring.

Email past customers in November with a snow removal offer or a holiday lighting package. Email them again in January with early-bird pricing for spring cleanups or maintenance contracts. Email them in February with a design consultation offer for spring hardscape projects.

Your Google Business Profile should stay active through winter. Post about completed projects, seasonal tips for protecting landscaping through freezing temperatures, or before-and-after shots from the past season. An active profile in winter signals to Google that your business operates year-round, which helps rankings.

Read the complete guide to slow season marketing that keeps revenue steady through winter.

Your website is losing leads year-round

The average landscaping website converts 3-4% of visitors. During peak season, that means 96 out of 100 visitors leave without reaching out. Many were comparing two or three companies and went with whoever had a better website, faster response, or more compelling portfolio.

Those visitors found your site through organic search, Google Ads, or your GBP listing. You earned that traffic. Losing it at the last step is expensive, especially in an industry where a single hardscape lead can be worth $10,000-50,000 in revenue.

Identifying who visited your site and what they looked at gives you a chance to follow up while intent is fresh. A homeowner who spent 4 minutes browsing your patio gallery yesterday is warmer than any cold lead from a lead marketplace.

See how landscaping companies are capturing those visitors and converting them into booked consultations.