If you’ve ever felt like your business is one of the best-kept secrets in town, you’re not alone.
Many small business owners spend years perfecting their craft, delivering excellent service, and building loyal customer relationships. Yet when potential customers search online, those same businesses can be surprisingly hard to find.
That’s exactly what happened to Interior Tropical Gardens.
For decades, the Illinois-based company built a strong reputation creating and maintaining beautiful interior plant displays for businesses and homes. Their customers loved their work. The challenge wasn’t providing great service. The challenge was getting discovered by new customers.
When owner Mark Martin realized his business was practically invisible online, he knew something had to change.
Here’s how they did it.
Key Takeaways
- Interior Tropical Gardens increased new leads by 30% after partnering with Thryv.
- The business improved its online visibility and moved from page four to page one of Google search results in less than two months.
- Automated review requests helped grow their online reputation and build trust with potential customers.
- Marketing automation and AI-powered tools reduced time spent on routine tasks.
- A single platform helped simplify lead management, marketing, and customer communications.
Table of Contents
- When a great business is hard to find
- The challenge: More tools, less time
- Finding a better way to attract and manage leads
- Turning online visibility into business growth
- Building trust through customer reviews
- Saving time with automation
- Key results from partnering with Thryv
- Ready to grow smarter?
When a Great Business Is Hard to Find
Interior Tropical Gardens has been helping customers create welcoming, vibrant spaces with professionally maintained plants for nearly four decades.
Like many successful small businesses, growth came through referrals and long-term customer relationships. But consumer behavior has changed. Today, even referrals often turn into online searches before a customer ever picks up the phone.
That’s where Mark discovered a problem.
Despite years of experience and a strong reputation, Interior Tropical Gardens wasn’t showing up where prospective customers were looking.
We had to search just to find ourselves online.
For Mark, the issue wasn’t a lack of expertise. It was a lack of visibility.
And without visibility, growth becomes much harder than it needs to be.
The Challenge: More Tools, Less Time
Like many business owners, Mark was already wearing multiple hats.
Between managing customers, overseeing projects, and running day-to-day operations, there wasn’t much time left to focus on marketing.
The business faced several common challenges:
- Limited online visibility
- Difficulty generating consistent leads
- Few online reviews despite years of satisfied customers
- Multiple marketing tools that didn’t work seamlessly together
- Time-consuming follow-up and marketing tasks
Every hour spent managing technology was an hour not spent serving customers or growing the business.
Mark needed a solution that could help attract new customers without creating more work.
Finding a Better Way to Attract and Manage Leads
Mark had tried marketing solutions before, but the results often didn’t justify the investment.
Like many small business owners, he wasn’t looking for another tool to learn. He was looking for a way to get in front of more potential customers while spending less time managing marketing.
That’s when Interior Tropical Gardens partnered with Thryv.
The goal wasn’t simply to increase website traffic. It was to help the business become easier to find, generate more qualified leads, and create a more efficient way to manage customer interactions.
As visibility improved, so did the number of opportunities coming into the business.
For the first time in years, Mark felt like his marketing efforts were working alongside him instead of creating more work.
Turning Online Visibility into Business Growth
One of the biggest changes Interior Tropical Gardens experienced was improved visibility in local search results. In less than two months, the company moved from page four to page one on Google.
Within less than two months, Interior Tropical Gardens moved from page four to page one on Google.
That improvement meant higher rankings.
It meant more phone calls. More inquiries. More conversations with potential customers who were actively looking for the services Interior Tropical Gardens provides.
As those opportunities increased, so did the company’s pipeline of new business.
The results were significant:
- 30% increase in new leads
- Increased website visibility
- More inbound customer inquiries
- Greater awareness among local customers
For a business that relies on long-term customer relationships, every new lead represented more than a one-time sale. It represented the potential for years of recurring business.
Building Trust Through Customer Reviews
When people search for a business online, reviews often influence whether they reach out or keep scrolling.
The challenge for Interior Tropical Gardens wasn’t customer satisfaction. They already had plenty of happy customers. The challenge was getting those positive experiences reflected online.
By simplifying the review collection process, Interior Tropical Gardens was able to gather more customer feedback and strengthen its online reputation.
As reviews increased, so did customer confidence.
Potential clients could see firsthand what existing customers already knew: Interior Tropical Gardens delivers exceptional service and expertise.
The company experienced a 20% increase in customer reviews, helping create more trust with prospective customers before the first conversation even happened.
Saving Time with Automation
Every minute spent updating listings, posting on social media, requesting reviews, or following up with leads is time taken away from customers and day-to-day operations.
That’s why one of the most meaningful benefits for Mark wasn’t just lead growth. It was efficiency.
Instead of manually managing every marketing task, Interior Tropical Gardens was able to automate many of the activities that previously required constant attention.
Routine tasks that once took valuable hours each week became easier to manage, allowing Mark and his team to focus on growing the business and delivering great customer experiences.
The result was a business that wasn’t just generating more opportunities. It was operating more efficiently, too.
The company increased new leads by 30% while saving valuable time through automation.
Key Results from Partnering with Thryv
Every business owner’s definition of success is different.
For Interior Tropical Gardens, success meant becoming easier to find, creating a steady flow of new opportunities, and spending less time on marketing administration.
Since partnering with Thryv, the company has achieved:
Most importantly, Mark gained confidence that his business was positioned for continued growth.
Instead of worrying about whether customers could find him online, he could focus on serving them once they did.
Ready to Grow Smarter?
Interior Tropical Gardens’ story is one many small business owners can relate to.
You can have years of experience, loyal customers, and an outstanding reputation, but if potential customers can’t find you online, growth becomes much harder than it should be.
The good news is that visibility, reputation, lead generation, and customer communication don’t have to be managed separately.
When the right systems work together, attracting customers becomes easier, follow-up becomes more consistent, and business owners gain valuable time back in their day.
That’s exactly what happened for Interior Tropical Gardens.
And it’s what many small businesses discover when they stop trying to manage everything manually and start using tools designed to help them grow.
Grow Your Business with Thryv
Looking for a better way to attract leads, manage customer communications, collect reviews, and save time on everyday tasks?
See how Thryv helps small businesses work smarter, stay organized, and grow with confidence. Schedule your demo today.
