I differentiated my regional landscape design business through messaging that articulated my almost-spiritual connection with the natural environment of the South Carolina Lowcountry.
Apart from the cost of hosting and domain renewal, I’ve spent nothing on marketing my regional landscape design business, Lowcountry Vistas Native Landscape Design, since 2017. Despite the fact that I’ve done little to the Lowcountry Vistas website since finishing the last of the content writing & copywriting years ago, it continues to bring a steady stream of customers who want their properties designed by a South Carolina Lowcountry native who specializes in native, low-maintenance landscape design concepts.
As I noted on the project pages for the International Tech Support Company and the International Logistics Company, “the internet is forever”. Once I create a sales funnel, it’s open forever.
The Lowcountry Vistas website is proof of this: Boasting a 90% conversion rate (as defined by sales made per contact forms sent) since 2017, it’s allowed me to put marketing on autopilot for the last several years.
Lowcountry Vistas’ messaging has branded me as the native landscape designer of record for the South Carolina Lowcountry…despite the fact that I’ve in been operating the business from South America for some time.
Despite the fact that I’ve been living abroad for some time (which allows me to keep my content writing & copywriting rates competitive), Vistas’ website continues to effectively brand me as the native Lowcountry landscape designer of record.
Despite the fact that the Google’s spam filter capriciously removed 11 of Vistas’ 22 five-star reviews during the “Great Google Reviews Purge of 2022-3“, Vistas’ strong messaging continues to bring me a steady stream of customers who are compelled by the six value propositions I communicate:
1) I’m a rare South Carolina Lowcountry native who conducts business in a region whose majority of residents are “transplants” from other parts of the U.S.
2) I’m an extremely rare native Lowcountry landscape designer who conducts business in a regional industry that’s dominated by transplants from other parts of the U.S.
3) My extensive knowledge of Lowcountry horticulture comes from extensive real-life experience: I started tilling the Lowcountry soil when I was 9 years old.
4) I have an eye for design and an abundance of creativity that can’t be taught in school.
5) I have a graduate-level business education that helps me manage projects effectively and helps me make the most of customers’ budgets.
6) My passion for enhancing the natural beauty of the native Lowcountry environment is unmatched: I share the late Pat Conroy’s spiritual connection to it.
One of my business school professors used to say that there are “riches in niches”. Heeding his wisdom, I carved the “native” niche in the Lowcounty’s landscape design industry.
When researching the opportunity to create a landscape design business in the Lowcountry, I was shocked to learn that no existing business defined clear value propositions. In fact, none of them showed much in the way of differentiation at all.
What’s more, most of the landscape designers in the area weren’t actually from the area…they were transplants, as alien to the native Lowcountry natural environment as their (now our) newly-retired customer base.
Like sunsets over spartina salt marshes, Lowcountry Vistas’ value propositions shine through the site’s content writing & copywriting.
Through the creation of core web pages, blog posts, and other forms of content writing & copywriting, I made the compelling value proposition that I’m not just the native Lowcountry landscape designer of record, but I’m also a dual creative/analytical thinker (“an artist and an M.B.A.”), who helps his customers get the most out of their budget in terms of aesthetics AND practicality.
As is generally the case in business writing, the effectiveness of my content writing & copywriting for Vistas can be measured in terms of R.O.I.
Although I haven’t updated it in years (I have content from a zillion projects to upload…I just don’t have the time), the Lowcountry Vistas website continues to bring a steady stream of customers and continues to yield a 90% conversion rate, as defined as sales made per contact forms received.
The site is so effective at messaging that 9 out of 10 potential customers who contact me have already decided that they want to hire me. (Which is fortunate, as I’m a terrible salesperson.)
Although I’ve been running Vistas remotely from South America for some time, the site still convincingly communicates to potential customers that I’m the native Lowcountry landscape designer of record.
After all, the iconic spartina salt marshes of the Lowcountry will forever call out to me…just like they will forever call out to Lowcountry legend Pat Conroy.
