How to Transition From Landscaping to Digital Marketing

For this week’s newsletter, I had a productive conversation with Brigham Hughes ( @brighamhughes ), the owner of two successful businesses: Feedbacker Digital Marketing and Quick Cuts Lawn Care. Feedbacker Digital Marketing is a marketing agency that focuses on lead generation for home services businesses, while Quick Cuts Lawn Care is a landscaping company that offers lawn care, installation, and irrigation services to homeowners and businesses.

In my conversation with Brigham, we discussed starting Quick Cuts, how to respond to adversity, why he started a digital marketing business, the key to great Facebook Ads, and more.

The 11 Key Takeaways

Below are the 11 most essential insights from my conversation with Brigham that you can apply to your home services business.

1. Why landscaping?

Brigham was exposed to working outdoors and landscaping throughout his childhood. He grew up on a farm, made extra money mowing lawns, and spent a summer working at a water reclamation plant.

After college, Brigham got a tech sales job and realized it wasn’t for him. When trying to determine what to do instead, he returned to his roots and started cutting grass. Eventually, this side hustle eclipsed his tech sales salary, and he was able to go full-time.

“After college, I worked in tech sales and hated it. I had bosses who would check if I was active on Slack in the middle of the day and text me if I was offline; I hated things like that. I grew up on a farm with many animals and wanted to be outside more, so I picked up a couple of cutting clients. I did that for a while; then, I landed a big commercial client that essentially paid for my tech sales salary. I decided to run with it, and I’ve been doing it full-time for a couple of years.”

— Brigham Hughes (@brighamhughes)

2. Starting a landscaping business

When Brigham was ready to transition Quick Cuts from a side hustle to a full-time gig, he knew he needed equipment. In true start-up fashion, he turned to Facebook Marketplace to acquire the following:

Landscaping trailer

Riding lawnmower

Push lawnmower

Trimmers

Blowers

Brigham found someone selling all of the above and was able to get the equipment for well below market value.

“After getting a few clients while working my day job, I wanted to get more serious about the business. I went to Facebook Marketplace to look for landscaping trailers for sale. I needed a riding mower and a truck to pull the trailer. I found one listed for $8,000 and got the seller down to $4,000 since we had some mutual friends. It was a trailer, a couple of trimmers, blowers, a stand-behind riding lawnmower, and a couple of push lawnmowers. It was perfect for getting started with a small crew.”

— Brigham Hughes (@brighamhughes)

3. Getting landscaping clients

Even though Brigham had old equipment, he knew he had everything necessary to grow Quick Cuts. His early sales approach focused on cold-approaching gas stations, and he was able to win business from a few of them.

Brigham now had the precious momentum that many entrepreneurs seek. With the confidence provided by having a full equipment trailer and a list of active clients, Brigham pursued his biggest job yet: a water park.

Brigham’s brother-in-law worked at the water park and introduced Brigham to the property manager. This job was $3,500 monthly, allowing Brigham to quit his tech sales job.

“My brother-in-law worked at a water park here in Utah County. I called him and asked if he knew who decides on the landscaping provider, and then he put me in touch with them. I went to the water park to meet him, and it came down to me and another guy. I offered the best price at $3,500 per month. The water park and all my other clients pushed me over my tech salary of about $60,000 per year. After talking with my wife about it and, this is a plug for having a great spouse, she encouraged me to go for it. I lept and haven’t looked back.”

— Brigham Hughes (@brighamhughes)

4. How to respond to losing clients

Anyone will tell you that business is not all sunshine and rainbows. Brigham experienced this firsthand when he lost a large chunk of his revenue after a partner informed him that his biggest contracts were not renewing.

This loss resulted in a 60% decrease in Quick Cuts revenue, and while Brigham felt the sting, he recognized that experiences like this were part of the game of business. This experience also made him realize he may need to diversify his revenue.

“I have a local church leader here in Utah who is a decent-sized landscaper but is primarily interested in doing snow removal. When he picks up big contracts, he wants to focus on snow removal and subcontract my lawn care. Last month, he notified me that many of his big contracts did not re-sign. Losing these clients was a big hit as these contracts were about 60% of our expected revenue this summer. $10,000 in revenue disappeared overnight. That was tough, and I wish it hadn’t happened, but that’s part of the game.”

— Brigham Hughes (@brighamhughes)

5. Transitioning from landscaping to agency

In Utah, the landscaping season ends around November when it gets cold, the grass dies, and the snow starts to fall. Brigham tried various businesses during previous off-seasons, like pouring concrete and laying gravel, without much luck.

With 60% of Quick Cut’s revenue gone, Brigham knew he needed to make something work. Brigham had been running Facebook and Google Ads for Quick Cuts and figured he could help other businesses do the same. Just like that, Feedbacker Digital was born.

“The winter is the off-season for landscaping here in Utah. I’ve tried many different businesses during this time to supplement my income from the landscaping business. I poured concrete one winter, but it got so cold that it wouldn’t set properly. I also tried doing gravel and xeriscaping, but it’s slim pickings. This past winter, I decided to try an ad agency since I did Facebook and Google ads for my business. Initially, I helped a few friends with their companies, and now we have a dozen clients”

— Brigham Hughes (@brighamhughes)

6. Facebook & Google Ads for home services

Brigham’s agency, Feedbacker Digital, uses Facebook and Google Ads to generate new leads for home services companies. Brigham mainly works with new businesses and offers his clients a done-for-you service. He designs the ads, sets up the campaigns, responds to the leads, and schedules qualified appointments for his clients.

Brigham’s key differentiator is his “speed-to-lead” service. He and his team often call leads less than 60 seconds after they submit their information on Google or Facebook. This urgency helps Brigham win more business from his clients and stand out from the competition.

“We collect all the information and have mastered our ‘speed-to-lead’ service. We call the lead as soon as they come in, ensuring no opportunity is missed. If they’re qualified, we’ll book the appointment on our client’s schedules, streamlining the process for you. We don’t work with two businesses in the same city as we don’t want to buy ads against ourselves. Our clients include roofers, garage floors, epoxy coating, and landscapers.”

— Brigham Hughes (@brighamhughes)

7. How to make winning Facebook Ads

Within Feedbacker, Brigham is the Facebook Ads expert, while his partner is the Google Ads Expert. Brigham says that Facebook and Google are best for two different parts of the marketing funnel:

Facebook is best for generating demand

Google is best for capturing demand

The thing that sets the best Facebook Ads apart from the rest is the offer. Brigham suggests offering a specific dollar discount on your service instead of a percentage. Offering a dollar amount, such as $10 off or $100 off, catches the eye much more than 10% off.

“The other thing that makes Facebook ads successful is the offer. Some businesses offer an offer based on a percentage, like 10% off, but that won’t move the needle for most customers. We recommend using a specific dollar amount. One of our roofing clients offers $1,000 off any estimate generated from our Facebook ads. We generate 4-5 weekly leads for him, which are valuable since roofing is a high-ticket industry. If the best you can do is 10% off, figure out what the average customer spends with you, and then offer a dollar discount equal to 10% of that.”

— Brigham Hughes (@brighamhughes)

8. The winning call-to-action for Facebook Ads

The call-to-action on Facebook Ads is key. What are you asking your leads to do? Brigham, similar to Alex Lathery at Blue Collar Builds , recommends having your call-to-action correlate to your service’s urgency. If you replace popped tires, make the CTA “Call Now”

Brigham’s roofing client uses a $1,000 discount offer and the CTA “Get A Free Estimate Today.” Brigham calls them immediately once the leads submit their information for a free estimate. Brigham recommends that all businesses do the same—driving urgency is key.

“For example, let’s use my roofing client with the $1,000 discount offer. Their call to action on their Facebook ads is “Get A Free Estimate Today.” When a lead responds to that ad, they fill out a Google Form pushed into Go High Level, and my team calls that lead immediately. Yesterday, I was calling leads and called one less than a minute after they submitted. The lead answered, pleasantly surprised at how fast I was, and we booked the job. Calling people immediately is crucial.”

— Brigham Hughes (@brighamhughes)

9. How to budget Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads, like all paid advertising, require money. Brigham recommends starting with at least $20 per day and aiming for a return-on-ad-spend of 5x. So, if you’re spending $20 per ad, your goal should be to create $100 worth of business from that budget. If $20 is too much, Brigham suggests trying a less capital-intensive marketing channel.

Do Facebook Ads sound expensive? Try door-to-door sales. Learn how to do door-to-door sales with Casey McDaniel, Owner of King Pest Solutions. theworkbench.beehiiv.com/p/casey-mcdaniel-1

Learn how to do door-to-door sales with Casey McDaniel, Owner of King Pest Solutions.

theworkbench.beehiiv.com/p/casey-mcdaniel-1

“Table stakes for Facebook ads is $20 per day. $20 per day is the bare minimum. If you can’t spend $20 per day, you’re better off doing something that requires less capital, like knocking on doors. The critical metric for Facebook ads is the return on ad spend, a.k.a ROAS. If you’re spending $20 per day, hopefully, you can return $100 on that, which is 5x ROAS. If you’re only getting 1x ROAS, you don’t have good enough ads or enough appetite for your service.”

— Brigham Hughes (@brighamhughes)

10. Feedbacker & Quick Cut’s tech stack

Brigham keeps things simple on the tech side for Feedbacker, using three main pieces of software to power the business:

Go High Level

Monday.com

Slack

Brigham keeps things similarly simple for Quick Cuts Lawn care:

Go High Level

Jobber

Quickbooks

Google Suite

“We use Go High Level like Feedbacker does. We use it for lead capture and getting reviews and other things. We use Jobber as our CRM, Quickbooks to track time, and Google Suite for a few things. We keep it simple.”

— Brigham Hughes (@brighamhughes)

11. What the future entails for Brigham

While Brigham started out running his own home services company, he’s most excited about the opportunity to help other business owners with the digital aspect of their business.

Quick Cuts Lawn Care isn’t going anywhere tomorrow, but Brigham plans to focus on scaling Feedbacker Digital.

“Feedbacker has shown me a lot of promise so far. I’ll keep growing the agency for the foreseeable future. Landscaping is tricky, especially the type I do, just cutting grass. Each employee depends on a specific machine; if they don’t have one, they’re not helpful. Growing a landscaping business requires a lot of CapEx and human capital. My personal goals align more with the company’s digital side, so I plan to focus more effort there. If the landscaping business grows initially, I’ll keep building it. But, most of my attention is on advertising for the next few years as that’s what I’m most passionate about.”

— Brigham Hughes (@brighamhughes)