UPGRADE YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY FOR THE NEW YEAR
By Suz Trusty
Te new year is an ideal time to look back at what your company accomplished in 2024 and explore your potential opportunities for 2025 and beyond to develop your marketing plan. Tough it may be tempting to just follow the path you’ve developed in previous years, the marketing arena is continuously changing, and that change has accelerated with the growing influence of artificial intelligence (AI). It’s more important than ever to develop a marketing strategy that is tailored to your company and to your existing and potential customer base.
Tell Your Story
Effective marketing has always been about telling your story—and your story is unique. Your customers and potential customers want to know who you are and what you do. Tough many of those in sod production are family-owned businesses that have expanded into, or moved to, growing natural grass sod from traditional row crop or edible produce farming, livestock production, or dairy farming, why and how you got to that point is specific to your company. With continuing emphasis on “buy local,” your background story has the potential to resonate with your market base and strengthen your ties to your community.
Make it personal. Every great story has a cast of characters that people can relate to and come to care about. Customers want to have that same connection with the companies with which they do business. Consider why you buy from a specific supplier. You know who you are dealing with; you trust them to be open and honest with you; and you depend on them to deliver what they promise. Your story needs to deliver that message about your company.
Spread the word about the great product you offer. Tere are so many benefits of natural grass that extend to safety and health, the environment, the economy, and on the personal level, the emotions and quality of life. Amplify the
#KeepItReal™ story.
Share your background. Why are you qualified to select, grow, maintain, harvest, and deliver that great product? Tout your educational background and the years of experience that have equipped you with the expertise to do what you do.
Tell them that you are a member of Turfgrass Producers International (TPI), an organization with members in almost every U.S. State and over 30 countries who produce natural grass seed and sod worldwide. Let them know TPI
62 TPI Turf News January/February 2025
is dedicated to promoting the global environmental benefits of natural grass through education and research. Tat shows your dedication to your profession and commitment to staying on the cutting edge of the research and technology related to producing the best possible product.
Share the qualifications of your staff members, too. Each person on your team brings unique abilities to the company and fills the role within the business that they are best equipped to perform. Let your customers know all your team members are ready and able to serve them.
With continuing emphasis on “buy local,” your background story has the potential to resonate with your market base and strengthen your ties to your community.
How you operate your business is part of your story, so if you’ve changed your operating procedures in any way, you need to communicate it. What steps do your customers need to take, and on what timeline, to place an order and receive it? Have your hours changed? Is your office open or are you only accepting phone and online orders? Have you gone to paperless transactions? What options do you offer potential customers to get your product: pickup, delivery, installation?
Once you’ve solidified the message, you need to determine who needs to learn about it. Many of you serve a broad range of customers, from homeowners and homeowner associations (HOAs), to landscape contractors, golf courses, sports fields, commercial properties and commercial property managers, schools and universities, governmental agencies, and more. Te services you offer to each of those markets may vary, depending on the needs of those customers and potential customers and your company’s capacity to provide those services. While the basics of who you are and what you do remain the same, the way you tailor your story will vary based on the market segment that you want to reach.
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