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Chris Lonergan
Before we had AT&T business wireless coverage, our delivery GPS wasn't the most reliable. Once our driver had to do a 14 point turn to get back on route. A 14 point turn. An influencer even livestreamed the whole thing. Not good for business. Now with AT&T business Wireless, routes are updating on the fly and deliveries are on time. And the influencer did get us 53 new followers though. AT&T business Wireless connecting changes everything.
Paul Jamison
Hello and welcome to the Green Industry Podcast, your go to guide for building a more profitable and thriving lawn care and landscaping business. Your host Paul Jamison is the author of five best selling books including Cut that Grass and make that Cash and his latest, Level up your Money, all available on Amazon and Audible. Now get ready for more expert insights and practical strategies to boost your business and level up your life. Here's Paul Jameson.
Welcome back to today's episode of the Green Industry Podcast. Our special guest today is Chris Lonergan from Orlando, Florida and he works with Footbridge Media. He is always on our podcast because he's our kind of in house marketing expert, keeping me on my toes, making sure that I'm getting customers, finding customers and not doing my yellow page ads anymore. So without further ado, welcome back to the show. Chris.
Chris Lonergan
Thanks so much Paul. Thanks for having me back.
Paul Jamison
Back in the day Yellow pages they would have like companies would name their self like a lawn care because that would put them in the yellow pages under the sections it was alphabetic order like a. So times have changed since then. Now we have AI and the world wide web and what's what's new out there in these technological times. Chris.
Chris Lonergan
I mean so much of what contractors have to deal with now is that is dealing with the fact that there are so many more ways to find out about a home service pro before an entire marketing budget could be so let's spend $20,000 on getting that really good yellow ads placement and then you're done. Now there are so many more different paths for how people come to find you so many different ways, whether it's referrals online. So that's the thing now is as a business owner, not only do you have to keep up with the business itself and your customers, you also have to keep up with every single way that someone might find you. And it's really daunting to have to think about do I have to manage every single path or what path is the right way for me to focus on. And AI can help with a lot of that, thankfully. So it's a Dual edged sword AI helps us, but it makes way more sense pathways for people to find us too.
Paul Jamison
Yeah, we're going to dive deeper into how we can be using AI efficiently and effectively. But broader picture, if you own a lawn care business, you need to constantly be recruiting new customers because if you're doing this for a while, Chris, customers unfortunately pass away. I remember the first time that happened to me, I was like, oh man, like I cut this guy's grass. I started in 2010, maybe 2011 and then I think it was 2019. He passed away just an old man. You know, he just, he was old when I started mowing his grass and then he is very old and you know, they told me passed away and I was like, oh man, it was sad. But if you run a home service based business long enough, you may lose customers to that. And then another big thing is people are moving all the time and they move out of your service area. And so you could be doing the most perfect job in the world. But if the customer is no longer alive where they moved outside of your service area, they need to be replaced and we have to be constantly getting new customers. So if you started a lawn care business, Chris, Chris's lawn care business, what would be your marketing plan in 2026?
Chris Lonergan
I think it's basically a three prong approach is especially if I'm starting off, I don't have a lot of cash. My Google business profile is the very first thing that I set up because that's something that pays dividends over time. That way when you get that first customer, you know whether that's a friend that lets you mow their grass and you charge them five bucks. So technically they're a customer and then they can leave you a Google review. They need a place to leave the Google review. So Google business profiles are huge for visibility. It's such a low cost way for a lawn care pro to get eyes on their business. And depending on the market that you're in, if Google reviews aren't super competitive, it might only take five or ten reviews for you to be in the top three. So definitely number one, I would do Google Business profile, get that set up. Number two is my website because again that's my long term play there. Your website at the end of the day will get you the lowest cost leads possible over time. It's also really important because people are going to Google you when they find out about you. No matter how, whether it's through marketing, whether it's through referral, they're going to Google you. So they're going to need to find something. If you don't have a website, they're not going to go any further. So many. It's so easy to have a website now if you don't have one. You look like you're flighty, like you're not really a business, like maybe you're just a conversation.
Paul Jamison
No, I agree. I recently moved and I'm looking for moving companies and you don't have a website. It's like, oh, you know.
Chris Lonergan
Yeah, it's at this point a basic expectation. It used to be a nice thing. Now it's just a basic expectation to have that website set up for yourself. And again, it doesn't have to be crazy. When you first start off, it's always best to think long term, but have something up. At least have your domain bought and have your phone number there and your logo and deform or someone can reach out to you. Hugely important. And then to kind of power all of that, I would say you need to have some sort of purposeful referral system. So word of mouth, we always talk about word of mouth and that can work for a lot of businesses. But word of mouth is something you can't really quantify. You can't really track word of mouth. If you have a referral program, you can track that very easily. And it's something that is again, has to be purposeful. Kind of like when you get reviews, you can't just accidentally hope for reviews. You'll get some, but you won't get as many as you should. The same goes for referrals. So think less word of mouth, more. I need a referral program in place. How am I going to reward a customer for telling their neighbor about me? And it's super simple. There are so many ways for you to incentivize it. Even it's especially for lawn care, for repeat service. Hey, if you refer your neighbor, I'll cut your grass for free next time. Or I'll take 20 bucks, 50 bucks off your bill next time. Such an easy win because if you get the neighbor next door and they talk to the neighbor next door, now you've got a whole neighborhood. Now you've got crazy route density. You've got way more paying gigs in one area. You're not going to drive all around town for it and you had to do nothing for it. You only pay that person or give that person that spiff. If they give you the referral and they say yes. So it costs you $0 to have a Referral program in place. You're just kind of paying Peter to pay Paul, robbing Peter to PayPal at that point, and moving money around.
Paul Jamison
I always get paid Peter pays me. Rob Peter and pay me, baby. I like my name being Paul. That one works out in my benefit. But to Summarize, Chris's top three things if he started a lawn care business in 2026, number one is you build your Google business profile. You get real customers to leave real reviews. Number two, you build a nice home website, where it's kind of like home base. You have a nice website. And then number three, do a referral program, which you can offer many things to your customers. But I think it's important they have to know what the referral program is. So telling your customers, hey, Mrs. Smith, if you refer any of your neighbors on the street, we'll give you your next service for free. Or you could be even more generous than that. And, you know, if you're doing, like, a monthly program, if you really want to go crazy, you could say, hey, we offer one free month. If you refer to somebody on the street and they sign up, we'll give you a whole month free. Or if you want to just go baby steps, your next service will be free. And then keep letting them know that through your email marketing, through talking to them in person. And I would like to say they have to be on the street or they have to be in the neighborhood, because what you don't want is Mrs. Smith to be like, oh, I talked to my sister, and she'd love to have you come out. And she lives, you know, 10 miles down the road. Because for those who listen to my podcast, Chris know, I talk about just really having a dense neighborhood area where you focus on just, you know, this cul de sac, this street within this neighborhood. Like, you don't want to be having windshield time where you're driving all over Orlando or Tampa or worse, from Orlando to Tampa. I mean, we live in these cities where it's like, my buddy was like, hey, you want to go golfing? And I'm like, sure. And then the next thing you know, it takes like, 45 minutes to go three miles. And they're like, where are you at? And it's just if you don't know, you don't know. But if you live around here, we got traffic.
Chris Lonergan
Oh, yeah. All day long. It's. It's. That's kind of my joke is it takes me anywhere. It takes at least 30 to 45 minutes anywhere in Orlando. Yeah. And I Don't. If, especially if I'm not getting paid for that time. That's not time I want more of.
Paul Jamison
Yeah. Well, you mentioned something earlier that I think is going to be changing in the days to come. You mentioned. Just. They'll Google you. And I did something interesting. Um, last week I had. I went to the racetrack gas station, and they have a tire station there where you can fill up air in your tires. So I have a little PSI gauge thing I put in my tires and I, I get the psi and, and three of them looked good. And I don't check my tires, like every week. I just, I got, you know, my gas is pumping. I was like, I might as well check my tires. Well, I noticed one of my tires was low by about 5 or 6 psi lower than it should have been. So I go over to a little tire station and I fill it up, and I'm like, okay, everything, they're all the same now. So when I go back to fill up my gas the next week, by the way, it's like 175 bucks to fill up your truck right now. It's crazy, but I'm checking my tires again, and the, the, the tire pressure and the. This specific tire on the passenger side dipped again. So I'm like, okay, there's something wrong with this tire. And I'm, like, looking everywhere for a nail or like, I don't see anything. But the, the tire pressure on my gauge keeps showing me that this one tires low. So I didn't Google this, but I, I Gemini it. I. It. And I just, I have. What's this thing called? Whisper flow connected to Gemini. So I'm talking to my computer and I basically say, hey, my. My tires flat. I don't see a screw in it. I don't know what's going on. I. I think I need to take it to a tire shop for them to professionally look at it, because I can't diagnosis what tire shop in the area has the best reputation, the highest reviews, the best reviews, the most reputable. I don't have time to be dealing with some, you know, crazy people. Like, I just need someone who can fix my tire fast. And then it gave me a list, and it's like, this one is X amount of miles away, and they have 4.8 star reviews or whatever. So I call them, I drop it off, they're like, you know, we'll get back to you soon. And then they call me back in a couple hours like, hey, your. Your vehicle's ready. So I go back in and the guy hands me my keys and smiles at me. And I was like. He's like, have a nice day. And I'm thinking, all right, you don't gotta tell me twice. Like, thank you. Have a nice day, too. And I go out and, you know, they. They fixed my tire for free, and it was fast. I was like, you talk about the best service ever. Now, if I ever need tire work again, I'm going back there. They. They were. They literally didn't charge me anything. He. He fixed it. And so anyway, I used AI and I found a service that truly wowed me. I mean, they fixed my tire fast and free, and, you know, hopefully I don't have tire issues for a long time, but when I do, I'm going back to that place for sure. So with that being said, I used AI and it came through and helped lead me to a tire shop. That was phenomenal customer service. So what are your thoughts about people using AI now to find their lawn businesses, fertilizer businesses, landscaping businesses?
Chris Lonergan
Yeah, I think more and more we're going to see that, especially as, number one, it becomes more ubiquitous. It's at this point, no matter what type of phone you buy, there's some sort of AI built into every phone. So it's easier than ever before, even if you don't have some sort of paid membership or paid access. So I think it's going to be a huge thing and one of the big points for how you can get in front of people. And like you said, you know, if you're busy, you're going to search it this way. If it was something you were making a really important decision on, you probably would take more time to do it. If you're looking up what truck to get, or if you're looking up something about a specific piece of electronics that might be expensive, you're going to spend more time. But if it's something like, I need my grass cut, I need my bushes taken care of, I need a fence put up, those are the types of searches you're going to outsource to AI. And how AI works in those moments is kind of like how Google Local SEO works, where it understands the prominence and relevance of businesses. AI kind of does the same thing. AI tries to learn about the context of a business based on what other people are talking about. So for Footbridge Media, for example, we found something really interesting. We try to get published in a lot of trade publications, you know, Turf Magazine and all these kind of different publications. Well, we did that work for, for A couple of years. And then we noticed probably for the last six months to a year we've had an increase of people saying, hey, I looked, I was on ChatGPT and you guys were recommended as, as a lawn care marketing client or a contractor marketing client. And we can kind of tie that back to timeline wise. When there was more chatter about us. Our Google reviews were also going up at the same time. So it's interesting to see how LLMs kind of also work off of referrals and reviews. All those AI models understand the context of a business, which is why it's important to have an online footprint. If you're really well known in your community, that's great if people are talking about you. But if there's no place where it's documented, no one's posted about it on Facebook, no one's left you Google reviews. Maybe you have a BBB page set up and someone put a nice accolade there. The more places where you're talked about online, the better chance AI has to understand you and your business and include you in that conversation. So I'm going to guess that tire shop you talked about probably had really strong Google ratings, really good Yelp reviews. They probably still also ranked well organically. Google Gemini specifically tends to pull from the top, let's say 1 to 100 organic search results as kind of contributing seed information for those types of searches. So even AI visibility still depends on some traditional old school marketing tactics. But it's basically think of it as instead of you having to go do that work, it's AI going out there and doing that work. AI is doing those types of Google searches and figuring out the reputation of businesses in the area to give you the best answer possible. So yeah, I think more and more we're going to see AI based search for contractors. It's happening faster than I thought it would, honestly. I said, I think two years ago I said that contractors were going to be fairly well insulated because of the local nature. But now that's just out of the water at this point. AI has gotten so good so fast, we're going to see a lot more of those kinds of searches. Yeah.
Paul Jamison
How are you personally using AI? I mean, I'm talking about for Footbridge Media or for your business purposes. But like, is it a part of your daily life and if so, which AIs you know are you using and how are you using it? Because I know you're kind of cutting edge in all of this.
Chris Lonergan
So I use a balance I've got. I use ChatGPT, depending on the prompt. I use Claude for more automation stuff right now. And just the other day I used it. I've got a tree, a huge oak tree on my, on my front yard here and parts of it are hanging over my roof. So I took a couple of pictures of it and I put it into Claude and said, hey, how worried should I be about the health of this tree? How imminent do I need to worry about tree trimming? It gave me a quick overview response, things that I could Google and double check as well. But it's such a great replacement for quick research. In that moment, I wasn't looking for tree service necessarily. I'm thinking about using a tree service. So I'm already going to use AI to figure out whether or not that's appropriate for me right now. How big of an emergency is it now? I know I've got more time, so now I'm probably going to use Google and traditional search methods to find that, that next contractor. But if it was a really big problem, if it said, hey, this is, you know, your tree's going to fall down next week if you don't do something, I probably would have used Claude or ChatGPT to find a contractor. For me, it's those little moments, those little integrations of, you know, you know, Orlando over the winter had a hard freeze. So I was taking pictures of all my landscaping, saying, what do I need to do to make sure my plants don't die in this hard freeze? And it gave me good answers. It didn't work at the end of the day because it was so windy that night. It blew off all of my plant covers. But aside from that, it told me the right information that I needed to know just for those little moments. I think that's where AI is kind of going to slowly infiltrate more and more into people's lives when they do searches for businesses or when they need just a little bit of information. AI is going to be faster than a Google search for a lot of folks.
Paul Jamison
Real quick. Before we move on. If you're tired of buying equipment blind or running your crew the same way, hoping something changes, get yourself to Equip Exposition this October in Louisville. Test drive the best equipment from every major manufacturer in one place. Come see me at the morning show. Check out Equip's every education sessions built for guys actually running crews. Use my code Paul at registration to save 50% on your pass. The link is in today's show notes. Most jobs go to the first contractor that picks up the phone. But you can't answer the phone when you're on a lawnmower. So here's a solution. It's called Voice Assist by CallRail. I'm going to show you how it works. I'm going to call a pest control company that uses voice assist to take a listen.
Betty (Virtual Assistant)
Hi, thanks for calling the pest patrol. I'm Betty, a virtual assistant. What's bugging you?
Paul Jamison
Hey Betty, I wanted to see if you could schedule somebody to come out, take a look at my property and give me a quote for pest control. I was looking for yearly service.
Betty (Virtual Assistant)
Sure, I can help with that. Do you have any questions about our services before we get started? Collecting some details.
Paul Jamison
What would it cost to come Once
Betty (Virtual Assistant)
a quarter, we offer a quarterly service plan with four treatments per year. The cost typically ranges from $350 to $480 annually. Keep in mind, final pricing depends on an in person evaluation.
Paul Jamison
Yeah, let's get one scheduled.
Betty (Virtual Assistant)
Can I have your first and last name please?
Paul Jamison
Paul Jamison.
Betty (Virtual Assistant)
I've got several openings. For example, on Thursday, March 19th we have 10:00am 10:30am, 11:00am and more throughout the afternoon. Would any of those work for you?
Paul Jamison
Yeah, 10am Works.
Betty (Virtual Assistant)
Your appointment is confirmed for Thursday, March 19th at 10am and a confirmation email has been sent. Could the address of the location where you'd like to service?
Paul Jamison
Sure. It's 1234 Main Street.
Betty (Virtual Assistant)
Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
Paul Jamison
Oh, that's it. Thank you so much, Betty.
Betty (Virtual Assistant)
Thank you for your call.
Paul Jamison
Well, did you hear that? That's CallRail's Voice Assist. It's so good, it speaks for itself. You can qualify more leads, book more jobs and stop losing opportunities to businesses down the street. Try for free@voice assist.com Again, that's voice assist.com. That's good. We talked about websites earlier. How are you predicting websites when AI takes over? Are they going to be more important? Least important? The same. How does all of that intertwine?
Chris Lonergan
I think there's still going to be a big part of importance there because you still need a place to deliver your own information first using Gemini or Google AI based search that AI experience type search. Those still refer to websites. So if you do a search and for example, if you ask about contractor marketing, it might mention Footbridge media and then link off to our site within the citations of that AI prompt. So Google still needs that source information. It will get it from other places outside of your website. That's very true. But it still needs a place for someone to ultimately go back to, to look and see whether that's AI or a person. So I think you still need to have the website. It's still going to be important whether that's the primary channel by which people come to you. That might change, especially as AI gets more and more crazy. And we're going to have Chris's AI bot. I'm going to have an AI bot that's my home services bot that takes care of my house. It's going to go search for other AIs, use AI systems to schedule things for me. When we get to that point, I think there'll be less emphasis on human research, but at all if there's any human research whatsoever. If I'm looking for a lawn care pro, I might get the source information from an AI search and then do my own deeper research because I want to be a little more thorough about it. That will mean looking at a website and that human is still going to be influenced by pictures of your work more than AI will be so still going to be a part of it no matter what. I think it's still hugely important now because that's where AI gets its information is from essentially the web and how people exist on the web. That's where it pulls its data from. So right now websites are still a pretty significant part of having a good marketing and setup and having good visibility overall.
Paul Jamison
That's one of the on ramps I had to footbridge. Media is my friend Jason Krill. We're out golfing and I was griping and complaining of how I was going through different website companies that one of them was just, they overcharged me and what they delivered was underwhelming and I, I, and it took them a long time to finally build this website that they duct taped together. And I was like just talking to Jason, you know, you're out golfing and, and I'm just so mad about this. I'm just like, man, I paid all this money for this raggedy website that took them forever. And you know, I didn't, I found out these guys are basically crooks, but I didn't at the time, I didn't know. And I got screwed. And he, he was like, oh, I just had my Alabama long pros website redesigned by this company down in Pensacola, Florida and they did a fantastic job and, and they were, you know, very professional and everything. So that's how I, I met you guys and we started having you on the program and everything. But you make world class websites for landscapers, for lawn care businesses, for pressure washing Businesses for the trades, really. So explain to me how you go from thinking about getting a website to actually starting the onboarding process to actually being on the world Wide web.
Chris Lonergan
Yeah, it's fairly straightforward. We try to make it as easy as possible because we know at the end of the day you are busy as a lawn care pro, as a tradie. So if you're out there working trades, we try to streamline that process as much as possible. You sign up on the website, you're introduced to Sam, she's great. She's our onboarding manager here. She's the one who basically takes you 0 to 360. She takes the time to learn about your business. We'll ask about the services you offer, the areas where you want more work. You get pictures of your truck, pictures of your work, your logo, all that kind of stuff. And we put together basically a one page sample of what you propose the website's going to look like. Once we get the thumbs up from you there, then we build out the entire site for you, we write all the content for you. You can always obviously give us stuff about you, about why you started your business, things that are important to you, maybe your specific methods. We'll take all that information, do all the heavy lifting as far as the content creation goes and we publish the site live for you. A whole bunch of stuff happens at the same time. We help you with your Google business profile, we help you with review management, we help you set up with our communication dashboard, how we communicate with our contractors, and ultimately you're introduced to your marketing consultant as well. They're basically your go to person here at Footbridge Media. So if you've got any questions, concerns about not even just the website, but marketing overall, they're your go to person. So it's a really quick process overall. Now this is all we do all day long, so we've got it fairly well streamlined so we can get you from signing up on day one and generally speaking, about four to five weeks later, assuming some timely communication happens, there's five to six weeks, you're launched live with your new brand new website. And then you can put that on your business cards, your yard signs, you know, linked up to your Google business profile and you're good to go.
Paul Jamison
Let's go. And you do monthly payments. So whereas I paid, I don't even want to say because I might have to call my therapist afterwards, I'm going to announce what I paid to these crooks to build this raggedy website, but I paid them a Large amount up front, like a dummy. And it was, it was just embarrassing. But you guys have very reasonable rates and even bigger discounts for my audience. And it's just monthly. So if at any time you need to cancel, there's no strings attached, you can just get out. Unlike me, they had me like a spider web. They had me wrapped up in their, their scheme.
Chris Lonergan
Yep. Yeah, normally most, the way most agencies work is that there's a big punch when it comes to the website and then a retainer fee to keep you on after that. For us, we have no, there's no signup fee, there's no design or build fee. Basically, normally it's $2.49 a month for Paul Jamison listeners. If you scroll to the bottom of Footbridgemedia.com, you'll see the Paul Jamieson logo. If you Click there, it's $199per month instead. And that's not like an introductory fee. It's 199 for as long as you're a client with us and you choose to maintain that setup. $199 per month gets you through the build process, gets you the review. Management gets you that marketing consultant. Yeah, it's, it's incredibly fair priced for the industry for having people actually working on your stuff fairly regularly and having someone you can talk to about marketing and business questions.
Paul Jamison
So good. And Mr. Producer will put the footbridge media link in today's show notes. Make sure you guys don't do the 249amonth plan. If you're listening in real time, it's 199 for Paul Jameson listeners. And Mr. Producer will put the, the footbridge media link in there. But Sam is fantastic. I met her when I was down there visiting and she'll get you onboarded and then you got to do your due diligence to turn in the pictures and you know, hopefully you got some good pictures of your actual lawns. And I, you know, I can't stand go on to someone's website and I see the same stock image of the, the random guy laying sod and then you know, some fake smiling people that aren't even your employees. Like you want pictures of your team members, your crew working your mulch installation that you did, your beautiful stripes of the yard that you mowed and you know, just send those images and everything over to Sam and you guys, you're very clear of how to do that and what you need. But if you're on top of your game of sending the assets to Footbridge. You guys have this thing so streamlined where you'll get this thing launched live and ready to go in a little over a month.
Chris Lonergan
Yeah, it's a very quick process from design approval to site launch, generally speaking is like three to four weeks for just that step. So it's incredibly fast. And I always say the best time to have your website set up was yesterday. It's so important to have that time on for a website. So the faster you get that set up, the better as far as making sure that you've got visibility today, but also visibility well into the future for your brand.
Paul Jamison
And you can charge more. When a customer looks at your website and you look, perception is so important. Your perception is, oh, my goodness, like, these guys take care of really nice houses. Look at, they do great work. They look like they didn't just get out of, you know, prison. I hired a moving company one time and these two guys, you know, look like they just got out of the prison. And the one guy did, yeah, I just got out. He's moving all my stuff and I'm like, oh. But anyway, I got stories for day Chris, but I gotta, I got, I gotta get going here. But your perception is everything. And if you have a website where you are perceived as, wow, these guys look like they're, you know, I don't even know if they're gonna want to do our yard because these guys look like they, you know, they're the world class web, you know, world class lawn care business. That's the perception you want to have if you want to charge premium pricing. So you, you want to be perceived as the best and, and online, you want to be perceived as the best. And in real life, you want to be perceived as the best. When you show up, your vehicle's wrapped and looking sharp and you got your uniform on, even if it's just a polyester spandex T shirt that's comfortable, it's, it's, you know, got your company logo on and all of that. So anyway, I have the crazy schedule today where my, my time's all booked up here. So I, I have to end this now. Chris, is there anything we're leaving out that needs addressed?
Chris Lonergan
I think that's it. I think we, we hit the big points and you gotta, at the end of the day, you got to do the marketing stuff now to get the better web and AI visibility. You gotta take the steps today to get that done so you can be better visible tomorrow.
Paul Jamison
Hey, it's Marty, producer of the Green Industry podcast. This episode is over. But check the episode notes for links to products and services that you heard about during the episode. And thanks for listening.
And, Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on
Chris Lonergan
car insurance with Liberty Mutual.
Paul Jamison
Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show. Hey, everyone. Check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date? Oh, no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married.
Chris Lonergan
Me to a human, him to a bird.
Paul Jamison
Yeah, the bird looks out of your league. Anyways, get a quote@libertymutual.com or with your local agent. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty.
Episode Title: Building a Professional Online Presence That Wins High-Paying Bids
Host: Paul Jamison
Guest: Chris Lonergan (Footbridge Media)
Date: May 25, 2026
In this episode, Paul Jamison welcomes back marketing expert Chris Lonergan from Footbridge Media for a deep dive into how lawn care and landscaping businesses can build a professional online presence that attracts premium clients and wins high-paying bids. The conversation spans must-have marketing strategies, the growing impact of AI on how customers find services, the enduring importance of a great website, and practical steps to outshine competitors both online and on the job.
"As a business owner, not only do you have to keep up with the business itself and your customers, you also have to keep up with every single way that someone might find you."
— Chris Lonergan [01:57]
“Google business profiles are huge for visibility. It's such a low-cost way for a lawn care pro to get eyes on their business.”
— Chris Lonergan [04:10]
"If you don't have a website, they're not going to go any further."
— Chris Lonergan [04:48]
“Think less word of mouth, more I need a referral program in place.”
— Chris Lonergan [05:29]
"I used AI and I found a service that truly wowed me... I'm going back to that place for sure."
— Paul Jamison [11:35]
“All those AI models understand the context of a business, which is why it's important to have an online footprint.”
— Chris Lonergan [13:42]
"It's such a great replacement for quick research... For me, it's those little moments, those little integrations."
— Chris Lonergan [16:08]
"It's still going to be important whether that's the primary channel by which people come to you. That might change, especially as AI gets more and more crazy."
— Chris Lonergan [20:55]
"We put together basically a one page sample... Once we get the thumbs up... we build out the entire site for you, write all the content for you."
— Chris Lonergan [23:59]
“Your perception is everything... online, you want to be perceived as the best. And in real life, you want to be perceived as the best.”
— Paul Jamison [28:45]
On adapting to the new marketing environment:
"It's a dual-edged sword. AI helps us, but it makes way more sense pathways for people to find us too."
— Chris Lonergan [01:57]
On moving from word-of-mouth to structured referrals:
"You can't just accidentally hope for reviews... The same goes for referrals."
— Chris Lonergan [05:24]
On the value of action now:
“You've got to do the marketing stuff now to get the better web and AI visibility. You gotta take the steps today to get that done so you can be better visible tomorrow.”
— Chris Lonergan [29:49]
| Timestamp | Segment Description | |-----------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:34 – 03:56 | Why Yellow Pages are Dead—Modern Marketing Challenges | | 03:56 – 08:56 | Chris’s 3 Essential Steps for Building a Lawn Care Marketing Plan | | 09:07 – 12:17 | Paul’s Personal Story: Using AI for Local Search and Customer Loyalty | | 12:17 – 15:33 | How AI is Changing Contractor Visibility and Customer Searches | | 15:33 – 17:36 | Chris’s Everyday Use of AI; The Role of “Little Moments” in AI Integration | | 20:24 – 22:07 | The Future: Why Websites Still Matter Even as AI Takes Over Search | | 23:31 – 28:03 | Step-by-Step: Getting a Professional Website Quickly and Affordably | | 28:27 – 29:49 | Power of Perception: Charging Premium Prices Through Professional Online Presence | | 29:49 – End | Final Thoughts: Take Action Now for Long-Term Visibility and Higher-Paying Clients |
For lawn care and landscape professionals who want bigger, better clients, the path is clear: invest in your Google presence, build a professional website with real, local images, establish a quantifiable referral program, and make sure your reputation is visible across the web. This is the foundation for both AI and real humans to find—and trust—you. Start today for tomorrow’s high-dollar contracts.
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