Marketing and advertising your landscape design business ; by Lawrence Winterburn

So, you have graduated from a Landscape Architecture Program and now you wonder what to do next to start off your career?



You think to yourself: I need to design landscapes for wealthy people and they will recommend us to all their friends. I will soon be rich and respected in a matter of weeks—or so we think.

I’ll let you in on a secret. The majority of successful Landscape Architects are from wealthy families—they went to the best schools and may have multiple degrees because that’s how it is done. Their connections from school years will serve them well later on. This passive marketing is called networking. It is genetically based.

This article is about how hard the design business actually is without proper marketing. We all believe the same thing in the beginning; build inspired things, design from the heart, put a premium effort into our work and the world will beat a path.

Wrong!

If nobody sees what you do, the work was a wasted effort.

Remember that kid in high school that never studied but aced all the tests and was crowned valedictorian? He worked his butt off. And so did his cool sister. They studied about twice as much as you did… they were just too hip to admit it.

Now, how many Landscape Designers or Architects will admit to doing marketing?

IT is exactly the same principal!

They all want you to believe that they are creative geniuses that people seek out. They don’t have to do marketing. Many companies can get away with word of mouth marketing if they work hard at it. Working hard at word of mouth marketing means getting in touch with every client whenever you can. Asking for references and referrals. Often they reward for referrals with gifts.

In general it is simply a cop out to say, “All my marketing is word of mouth”. Those that do may be fine for a while; they coast along…until they hit a bump in the economy. Many people that claim word of mouth advertising simply can’t afford to do marketing due to a lack of profit. If they did some marketing…they may be able to afford their marketing.

When the economy gets sluggish and folks stop spending like they used to, there’s a lot of architects, designers, accountants and middle managers sniffing around for work. Being in business for about 21 years now…I’ve seen it happen.

Here’s another secret. When you do consistent and steady marketing you will find that you can choose the most profitable jobs and likely demand a better dollar for what you do.

There are tens of thousands of GREAT landscape designers around. Many are doing phenomenal things. Many will never be invited to headline at a major event. Many will never make a television or magazine appearance or get any free marketing whatsoever.

This is a very simple concept. Reserve 3-5% of gross income for marketing. If you are a startup you need to spend a fair chunk more to get the phone ringing. To gain the opportunities for bigger venues you need to get seen! (ask about our Landscape Designer's Group)

Building a successful design office is hard work. It is 7:27 Friday night as I write this. I've taken a break from editing marketing materials… and presently I’m heading back to that.

Anyhow, I wish you a prosperous and satisfying design career!

Lawrence Winterburn is the Founder and Principal Designer at GardenStructure.com . They Design and Build Architectural Garden Woodwork all over North America. Feel free to inquire with Paul Corsetti (my email is located in this blog's profile section) or contact Lawrence at Gardenstructure.com for more information about marketing your landscape design business. You can learn more about Lawrence at his blog, The Deck Business

The value of a landscape design

One of my latest creations below...I had a bit of fun with this one as it was an older home (1960's) in the Greater Toronto Area. The clients have done some work on the interior of the house and are now looking to tackle the outside.


For the landscape project, they were looking for a deck to entertain on and to add a welcoming front entrance which would add to the beauty of their home.

When wondering about your landscaping and what to do... the best thing you can have done is a full yard landscape plan created for your entire property by a professional designer. These clients will now be able to take my plan to several deck companies or landscape contractors and get various price estimates on what it will cost to implement the plan.

A full property plan gives you the greater picture of your yard in detail... having started at this stage, you can now divide the plan up into sections or phases. Then you can take your time to pick and choose materials you wish to have in the landscape. Once you've completed your shopping list you can set a budget on each phase and plan to build things accordingly.

A quick glance at this particular plan and I would estimate a budget of $50,000 to $70,000 to construct the entire project. The cost range will depend on what materials are chosen (i.e natural stone versus interlock or cedar deck versus pressure treated)

If you divide the project into 3 or 4 phases and set it over 5 years or so, in time you will have an amazing looking landscape on a limited budget guided by one single plan.

Stone use in the landscape

There are many ways to use natural stone in the landscape, below is a photo of how not to use natural stone...


Now I can appreciate the type of homeowner that will attempt to do their own landscape work and if they have a creative eye, they can achieve a well balanced look to the front yard landscape. But when I look at this front yard garden, it displays a valid point I try to make with many clients... make sure your contractor is not trying to sell landscape materials you don't need!!!

I know this home was landscaped by a landscape contractor and he is probably someone that knows his construction practice very well... but I give a failing grade for material choice and presentation. Wrong look and wrong use of material here. The stones are way too big and awkward to use in this application.


The attempt of using shims with smaller stones to level the larger ones just makes the wall feature look like junk. Over time, frost will start moving those stones and eventually soil will leak out through the large holes which will invite weeds to migrate into the gaps. In the first photo at the top of this article, on the far left, you will see another common mistake... use of a completely different type of stone (orange/pink coloured granite field stone) in a small garden area like this.

Rockery used in a landscape presentation should always be the same material! Otherwise it looks like a mish-mash of objects without flow.

When you use rustic looking stone like weathered limestone rock, it is best used in a natural looking fashion. Stand back and ask how Nature would do it?

Subtle hints of this type of rockery slightly buried into the earth and inter-mixed with planting would have enhanced the look of the front of this house. The idea is to achieve a look that compliments the front door in a well balanced manner that builds up your view towards the door to say; "This is where you enter!"

Instead, what you notice when you see this house is a pile of rocks on the front lawn...