There are essentially two ways to boost your bottom line: Attract more clients or charge higher prices for each job you do get. Either approach can work, but charging more for your services is obviously the more attractive option.
Of course, the trick is being able to charge more without scaring away potential customers. Fortunately, there’s a surprisingly easy and effective way to do exactly that: Improve your branding. In fact, this is one of the first things we typically recommend to the tree services that partner with us.
However, this suggestion is often met with a fair bit of skepticism. Many business owners simply fail to see the way investing in better branding allows them to raise their rates. So, we’ll outline a few of the ways better branding helps here.
First Things First: What Does “Branding” Mean for a Tree Service?
Before jumping into the ways polished branding will help you raise your rates, it’s important to ensure we’re on the same page. Most people tend to think branding is just about having a nice logo, but it is about much more than that. Branding is the complete impression your business makes, and it includes everything from your visuals and messaging to the way your crew presents themselves on-site.
The basic aspects of tree service branding usually include your:
- Logo
- Fonts/Typography
- Color Palette
- Website
- Printed Marketing Materials
- Truck Wraps
- Crew Uniforms
- Messaging Tone
Ultimately, your brand serves as the overall impression customers get from your company. The stronger and more consistent that perception is, the easier it’ll be to charge premium rates.
7 Ways Strong Branding Helps You Raise Your Tree Service Rates
Now that you have a clearer understanding of the things involved in branding your tree service business, we can share a few of the most notable reasons professional branding can help you raise your average job pricing.
1. Perception Equals Value
When you have a sharp logo, a professionally designed website, and well-marked trucks, you start making an impression before you even answer the phone or shake a hand. Potential customers interpret these visual clues as evidence of your professionalism, credibility, and competence — all qualities they’re willing to pay more for.
On the flip side, sloppy or inconsistent branding has the opposite effect. It causes would-be clients to question your professionalism and skill, despite the skill and experience your crew may actually have.
2. Building Trust and Authority
Tree work is serious business that involves chainsaws and heavy equipment, not to mention the fact that it often takes place 100 feet above the ground. Homeowners and commercial property managers recognize that it’s hazardous work, which presents real risks for people and property. So, they often preferentially seek out companies they feel like they can trust to get the job done safely — even if it means they have to pay a bit more.
Strong branding helps communicate your dedication to safety, reliability, and accountability before your crew even sets foot on the job site. It also helps reinforce your authority and helps convince customers that you know what you’re doing, you can handle complex jobs, and you’re worth the higher rates you charge.
3. Standing Out in a Crowded Market
You undoubtedly have plenty of competition in your service area, and you’re all driving your trucks down the same streets and leaving flyers on the same doors. Obviously, you have to stand out in these situations, and that’s exactly what consistent, recognizable branding allows you to do.
Consistency in branding — including everything from your crew uniforms and vehicle wraps to your logo and website — demonstrates your stability and thoughtfulness, unlike the company down the street sporting three different versions of the same (weak) logo.
But in addition to standing out, strong branding helps you escape the “race to the bottom” pricing model, and it gives you the chance to win customers who are looking for the most professional, safe, and trustworthy service, rather than the one that provides the cheapest quote.
4. Reducing Price Sensitivity
If your tree service is packaged like a bargain-basement option, your customers will treat you like it is. They’ll expect you to wow them with a low price rather than unmatched service. Even worse, when customers start thinking this way, they’ll often focus on nothing more than price and start going over every line on your bid, pushing for price reductions at every turn.
But if your branding projects professionalism and quality, you can attract clients who don’t consider price to be the only factor in their selection process. You’ll start being able to pitch clients who ask, “Who do I trust with my property?” rather than “Who’s the cheapest tree service around?” This shift will give you the room to charge what your services are really worth, rather than what bargain-hunting customers will pay.
5. Professionalism Across the Board
Potential customers notice almost every detail of your business, even if they don’t consciously realize it. And these various details — from your business card lettering to the way your website looks on their phone — all combine to demonstrate how much you care about your business and how professional you are.
When you project a polished image across all of your marketing materials (including things like your crew uniforms, which serve as marketing assets, even if you don’t think of them that way), you reinforce your credibility and give customers the confidence they so desperately desire. And they’ll be more willing to pay higher rates for this peace of mind.
As a quick aside, we should point out that customers aren’t the only ones who notice polished branding; Google also takes notice. A consistent, refined brand helps improve your local SEO, making it easier for new customers to find you online.
6. Better Branding Builds Better Long-Term ROI
On average, you’ll spend up to 25 times as much to attract a new customer as you will to retain one you’ve already landed. That’s why winning tree care companies (including the ones who are able to charge higher rates) pull out all the stops when it comes to keeping customers coming back in the future.
Once again, strong branding helps you do this. When you implement consistent branding, your customers will continue to recognize your logo and colors and keep you in their minds. This will help make you their “default choice” for tree care, and they won’t be as likely to even consider alternatives.
Over time, the customer loyalty strong branding help create gives you the freedom to raise your rates incrementally without fear of losing business.
7. Premium Services Deserve Premium Branding
In all honesty, establishing your credibility isn’t important for every job. If a customer is simply seeking some stump grinding or storm cleanup work, price is likely to be an important factor in their decision-making process. But credibility is critical in other jobs, like complex pruning jobs, tree-saving plant health care services, and crane-assisted removals.
These kinds of jobs require more expertise, and you’ll get to charge more for them. But to win these kinds of high-ticket jobs and charge the higher fees they command, your brand has to convey authority and competence.
You won’t even get calls for this kind of work if your logo is sloppy or your website looks like it was built 20 years ago.
But if you implement polished and professional branding across all of your marketing materials, you’ll convey the kind of expertise homeowners and property managers are willing to pay higher rates for.
Get the Branding Help You Need to Raise Your Rates
As you can see, there are a variety of reasons that building a great brand for your tree service will help you increase your rates. But there’s another reason you should invest in your branding, even if it won’t directly influence your bottom line: It’ll help you feel more pride in your business, which will make it more fun to jump in your truck, check your social media accounts, and hand over business cards to potential customers every day.
We’d love to help you step up your branding game and start raising your rates. We offer a complete slate of branding services, ranging from logo design to color palette curation, which will help give your business the polished persona it needs to thrive. Contact us today to get started!
Sources & References
Harvard Business Review — The Value of Keeping the Right Customers
Harvard Business Review (HBR), a general management magazine, was established in 1922 and is published six times a year by Harvard Business Publishing, a non-profit corporation affiliated with Harvard Business School.
Source: https://hbr.org/2014/10/the-value-of-keeping-the-right-customers
Search Engine Journal — How Branding Supports Search Engine Marketing Success & ROI
Search Engine Journal (SEJ), founded in 2003 by Loren Baker, is an online platform offering news, interviews, and guides on search engine optimization (SEO) and digital marketing.
American Marketing Association – What Branding Really Means
The AMA offers a robust perspective that understands marketers are expected to provide both solutions for today and solutions for tomorrow.
