You must always be bringing in new customers as a home service contractor. You should not depend entirely on recommendations and verbal promotion as your only marketing strategies. In order to draw in customers who may not know about you, you need to make sure you are effectively positioning your brand in areas where those looking for the services you provide will see it. Taking this into account, we’ve got a few pieces of advice regarding digital promotional techniques for home services contractors that you ought to keep in mind while optimizing your marketing tactics for the best results.
Advertising Trends and Insights
Catching customers’ attention has become more difficult than ever. Consumers are inundated with more than 5,000 advertisements daily, making it a challenge to make oneself distinct from the rest and make a difference between one’s business and the competition. Presently, there are numerous points of contact where purchasers observe advertisements. Calculating the figures, it is estimated that individuals are exposed to a fresh advertisement every 17 seconds.
Customers will be exposed to five advertisements and be encouraged to investigate eight influences, with a maximum of four providers appearing throughout the process of their purchasers’ journeys. This creates more than 1.7 million targeting positions! It is crucial to understand the intended recipients of your campaign before you begin reviewing it. You must ensure the timing, placement, and messages correspond with their desires.
With so many different channels, it can be a bit overwhelming, but don’t let all of the options get you discouraged. If you concentrate on just a few channels frequented by your desired customer, you will have more success than if you attempted to reach out to all potential outlets. Today’s customer is more informed than ever before. It’s essential to understand who your intended audience is before you begin to broadcast your messages.
People take three main avenues into consideration when they decide which company to transact with: search engine results, social media accounts, and display advertisements.
Search
Presently, the vast majority of customers begin their pursuit of a product or service on the web. A lot of individuals use famous search engines such as Google or Bing to commence their research. By making use of search advertisements, you can ensure your company’s services will be visible to customers when they make searches, helping them to find your business in their area. Search marketing is an extremely effective method, and is an excellent way to create prospective clients for your business.
Every day, millions of searches are made, providing you with the opportunity to limit your reach to only those who are searching for the particular goods and services you are offering. Scaling from a single search platform to multiple platforms is quite straightforward. First-page ranking really does matter. It is estimated that 95% of all web traffic originates from the initial web page of search engine results; if your site is not present to attract potential customers, another website will take advantage of the opportunity. For each dollar invested in search engine advertisements, you receive an $8 return. Think about that ROI for a minute!
Using paid search will compensate for any gaps that you might have in your SEO or directory-based strategies.
Let’s discuss the large search engines that require payment for advertisement for a bit. Should you go with Google or Microsoft paid ads? The answer is both! Why? Both PPC platforms require payment, but the reach of each is considerably different. Using Google Ads will enable you to reach approximately 70% of people, whereas utilizing Bing, AOL, and Yahoo will afford you access to around 20% of individuals. The earlier platform tends to capture broader demographic whereas the latter usually captures the older population and those with higher income. The amount of competition on Microsoft Ads is reduced, while Google Ads draws many competitors. An ideal way to advertise is to employ both approaches in order to target the greatest number of potential customers who may be in need of your products or services.
Social
Networking on websites like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn is part of the social sphere. You can employ a range of forms, like writing, photographs, and films. Owing to the involvement individuals have with social networks, these websites give you an extraordinary capability to reach your ideal audience and zero in on buyers who can become paying customers. The big advantage of utilizing social networking for your advertising projects is its capability to target specific audiences.
Social is great for several reasons because it helps you:
- Reach specific audiences
- Leverage a variety of a formats
- Nurture leads and sales
- Tap into new audiences
Here’s what you should know about social media advertising:
- There are nearly 2.5 billion active users of Facebook globally
- There are 1 billion people on Instagram
- There are 330 million users on Twitter worldwide
You can target specific customers with the extraordinary features of social media. By taking this action, you are sure to discover potential customers and people interested in your product. People use social media to stay in touch with others or increase their reach, so it’s an effective way of getting leads and making sales. However, it’s important to bear in mind that you will need to communicate with your audience in a different manner than you would with search engine optimization. Using Facebook Ads, for instance, you can reach many people affordably and target them accurately. Four out of five people in the United States log onto Facebook at least once, and more than half of these users check in more than once in a single day. It’s excellent for focusing on particular areas since you can build recognition of your brand without having to spend a lot of cash.
Should you use Facebook Ads or search? Again, the answer is both! Paid search on Google and Microsoft can reach approximately 5 billion people per day, while paid social through platforms like Facebook reaches up to 2 billion active users, so both paid search and paid social should not be discounted. Searching can be very effective when it comes to producing quick sales or leads where customers have the intention to buy a service. Meanwhile, paid social networks can be useful for creating more awareness about a brand, building up the size of an audience, and having the ability to target those who have previously shown an interest.
Display
Show commercials are still extremely essential in digital promotions. When using display advertising platforms like Google Display and YouTube, you can combine attention-grabbing visuals and content in your advertisements. Your ads can be seen on websites that include news outlets, entertainment pages, and blogs with display tactics. This tactic is a wonderful way to make people more familiar with your brand and to introduce retargeting initiatives to ensure people remain aware of your product or service.
Search advertising can be beneficial when attempting to find people who are interested in what you offer, however, it could also be very competitive. Advertising platforms such as Google and YouTube have become popular with advertisers because they provide the ability to zero-in on an intended audience. This can be an inexpensive method of advertising your services to those who are already considering purchasing them. Display advertising is focused on expanding visibility and gathering notice and impacts at minimal expenses per click.
8 Tips for Digital Marketing for Builders Services and Contractors
Your company can exhibit worth to its patrons and gain additional leads by implementing these 5 top suggestions, including utilizing social media and constructing local SEO.
1. Always Show Your Online Contacts
In the past, exchanging business cards was a common practice, and if someone noticed a billboard advertising a construction company that they weren’t familiar with, they would make a note of the company’s name and contact details. Most construction companies strategically position signs around their job sites, but not very many add their web contact information, such as their website and social media accounts.
A website that is aesthetically pleasing and has been properly optimized to rank highly in search engine results is excellent. Each page serves a purpose and encourages customers to make a specific decision, for example, booking a consultation, getting additional information, or signing up for a mailing list.
A website that is constructed effectively should possess features such as clear purpose, usability for users, navigability, attractive visuals, the ability to be edited and have content managed, SEO optimization, and analytics.
2. Build an Effective Local SEO Strategy
You can improve your website traffic and enhance your local SEO ranking by:
- Listing your business address correctly
- Ensuring your Facebook page has your address
- Adding your address to local directory websites
- Asking for customer reviews
- Engaging with social media mentions (search engines monitor feedback and rank websites accordingly)
- Optimize your site for voice search
If your website has not been set up for mobile usage, it could have an influence on your local SEO as Google focuses on mobile-first indexing, giving precedence to the mobile version of your website over its desktop version. If your web page does not function properly on mobile devices, other sites that are compatible with phones may be positioned higher compared to your organization’s.
3. Ask Clients for Reviews
The search engine ranking is affected by the amount of reviews which are answered and not answered. Keeping tabs on online reviews is beneficial on two fronts:
1. Showcasing positive reviews act as a conversion optimization tool
2. Incorporating responses from unfavorable critiques can bolster customer support and merchandise. Checking out reviews on social media is typically an effective strategy when it comes to promoting in the building industry. Some, like Facebook, already have review integrations.
To examine your company’s reputation quickly, you should open an anonymous Google window and enter your organization’s name. Examine the websites that come up on the first page of Google. Make sure to determine what Google My Business features look like, such as star ratings, user comments, customer feedback and pictures taken by users.
4. Follow Up on Old Leads With Email Marketing
A big building firm or a tiny handyman service generally won’t provide services to the same customer frequently. It is wise to pursue aged leads so that chances to make gainful business deals are not overlooked. The optimal approach is to encounter them at their current location. Almost everyone checks their email on a daily basis, making email marketing an especially profitable strategy for businesses with a return on investment second to none.
You can use one email to make customers aware of the services your company offers, as well as announcing any new items for sale. This will in turn lead to an increase in visits to your website and consequently, boosting your Google ranking. Sending out an email marketing campaign has the potential to be a really useful tool for contractors, as it can complete several areas of marketing simultaneously.
5. Engage Your Audience on Social Media
An essential part of contractor promotion is utilizing social media. People who may be interested in your business, as well as those who are already customers, are engaging with your brand on social media, so if you are not communicating on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, then you are missing out on a multitude of possibilities to acquire more customers.
Social media can be used to promote your company in the construction industry as an expert by providing blogs or videos that create valuable content and have the potential to bring people to your website.
6. Don’t Forget About Video Marketing
Around 93% of companies have experienced a boost in clients due to their usage of video content with a branded message. Apart from being the most popular way that people absorb content, video marketing gives an identity to your business, provides social proof, and demonstrates the capabilities of your contractor marketing services. Videos that achieve success on the internet are generally limited to a duration of two minutes or less, delivering an individual concept in a clear and concise way.
Your contractor marketing should bring in leads by making contact with potential customers in a variety of ways at different times during the process, meaning that each video must have a specific goal in mind. Some will be to increase public awareness of the brand, while others may be an aggressive attempt to make a sale. Make sure you have planned your objectives for contractor promotion and that your videos are suitable for every social media site.
7. Cooperate With Other Companies
Relationships are essential for the success of any business, and the same is true for developing a digital marketing plan. Guest blogging is a technique used in content marketing that involves making and posting an article(s) to another site. This method can help to increase your organization’s prominence and generate valuable backlinks, which will enhance your position on search engine results.
Google is giving more and more recognition to not just websites, but also to people who are recognized as influential in the industry. If Jeff Bezos were to craft an essay discussing the future of retail on a website with no reputation, Google would consider it at a more favorable level. The lack of experience with SEO on the website won’t be an issue because the reputation of Jeff Bezos, in itself, would be enough to ensure the article appears on the first page of the search engine’s results.
An additional point to consider when discussing the usefulness of backlinks: An incoming link from one page on the web to another website is a backlink. These signify a display of confidence from one website to the other. Google and other search engines utilize backlinks for discovering and categorizing the most desirable content. Consequently, the greater number of backlinks you possess, the higher your ranking will be.
8. Keep Your Marketing Campaign Going
Tools that are used for marketing analysis can provide the necessary data to adjust marketing plans and to focus on those customers who are most beneficial. Better leads bring more sales and improved ROI. Having precise, up-to-date information enables you to gain a more comprehensive comprehension of client habits and preferences.
As a rule of thumb, you should track the following metrics:
- Qualified leads
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
- Time spent on your construction company website
- Bounce rate
- Return on investment (ROI)
- Customer lifetime value (CLV)
- Conversion rate
- Organic traffic
It is recommended to be cautious when evaluating metrics that may appear attractive to others but don’t supply valuable information to guide upcoming marketing plans. For example, being popular on social media by receiving lots of likes is beneficial because it shows that you are more visible, although it likely won’t result in higher website visits or quality leads.
Conclusion
When you get to expansion, you’re ready to grow. Once you have figured out how to use one channel, it is time to begin using another. Maybe you move from paid search to social. Maybe you start to add videos to the content that previously only had text. Each one of these components cooperate to create potential consumers and assist you in ruling your industry.
