by Moe Bedard | Apr 25, 2022
Video marketing is the most effective and profitable way for contractors to get more leads and dominate their local market.
Here’s why.
It’s no secret that people enjoy watching videos for entertainment and information.
All the statistics prove that demand is only growing exponentially.
According to a survey by Optinmonster, marketers who use video receive 66% more qualified leads per year.
A study by Animoto found that 93% of businesses obtained new customers due to a video on social media and 72% of customers said they would rather learn about a product or service by way of video.
Companies that use video for marketing grow revenue 49% faster than companies that don’t use video.
Video helps simplify the process of making sales because it allows you to build trust with your ideal prospects so they warm up to the idea of doing business with your company.
You do this by providing valuable information in your videos that help people solve their problems while promoting your business at the same time.
Video can help increase conversion rate and sales
They provide easy-to-digest information about your service as you build trust.
For example, video on a landing page on your website can increase conversions by 80% and including video in an email leads to 200-300% increase in click-through rates.
Video is great for SEO.
Search engines like Google now include video as part of their search results and give preference to websites that include video content on their landing pages.
They help your potential clients find you by increasing organic traffic to your website and help them stay longer which increases engagement — a key ranking factor with Google — as well as conversion rates.
Search engines can’t read and interpret video content alone, so it’s important that you optimize your videos and their content for search engines by including relevant keywords within your titles, descriptions, tags and transcripts.
You can make target areas and cities that you want to work in by including the city in your title and description.
How to get started
First, decide on what type of video you want to make. You may already have an idea in mind, but if not here are some suggestions:
Introduce your company
A short introduction about your company and what it does. This could include short interviews with key people within your business and maybe even customers giving testimonials about your business.
Testimonials
Testimonial videos from current customers who are happy with your service are great for building trust. These videos don’t have to be long; just 30 seconds is plenty if they say something positive about your business and why they like it.
A day in the life
Showing the work you do and how you do it is a great way to demonstrate how good your company is at what you do.
Follow your team through a typical day on the job, showing them at work and interacting with each other or customers and suppliers.
For example, if you’re a home remodeler, show videos of the before and after of the kitchens, bathrooms and homes you renovate. Show the demolition crew tearing out the old stuff and your carpenters cutting wood, and putting cabinets together.
If you’re a plumber, show yourself working on repipes, toilets and sinks. If you’re a roofer, show videos of yourself repairing roofs and installing gutters.
Make guides or how to projects
Produce a step-by-step guide to some aspect of your business that will be useful to customers or potential customers.
YouTube and Social Media
These videos can be posted on YouTube or other video sharing sites and embedded on relevant pages of your website. They can also be shared on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter or sent via email.
Equipment Needed
No matter what kind of video you want to make, there are a few essentials every business will need.
Camera: smartphone, DSLR camera, or webcam
A camera that can shoot HD video is the obvious first choice for your video production kit. You don’t need a fancy camera or expensive software.
You might be surprised by how easy it is to make videos with your smartphone.
If you have an iPhone or Android device, you already have everything you need to create professional-looking videos right on your phone.
The iPhone is a popular choice for many videographers because of its great built-in camera, ease of editing and sharing options. But there are plenty of other smartphones that shoot high-quality HD video too.
There are also lots of inexpensive point-and-shoot cameras available now that can capture great HD video on the cheap.
If you want to step up your quality while staying within budget, consider buying an interchangeable lens camera or DSLR that shoots video.
You’ll be able to upgrade your equipment over time as you invest in better lenses and other accessories, but the initial investment won’t empty your wallet.”
Tripod: smartphone tripod or DSLR tripod
Camera shake makes for an unpleasant viewing experience, so it’s important to keep your camera rock steady. A tripod can help with that.
Stabilizers are helpful too, particularly if you’ll be shooting lots of “run and gun” footage where the camera is moving around constantly (like vlog posts).
Lighting: natural light, softbox light kit
Good lighting can make or break your video content.
Natural light from windows is great for capturing candid shots of people talking in an office setting (as long as your subject isn’t sitting with his back to a window).
For more polished videos that involve indoor shots, multiple people or require staging, consider investing in lighting equipment.
Microphone: external microphone (if using smartphone), lav mic, shotgun mic
A microphone is an essential part of any production because audio quality makes a huge difference. The audio on your videos will be just as important as the visuals.
A wireless or lavaliere microphone is great when filming will allow people to move around freely while still being able to capture their audio clearly.
Tips for a Great Video
There are a few things that you need to do in order to make sure that your videos are great:
1. Make sure that you have good lighting.
It’s better to shoot in natural light than artificial light.
If you’re indoors, take advantage of windows and skylights to let in natural light and illuminate your subject matter. If outdoors, look for open areas that are well lit by sunlight.
2. Get a tripod.
Holding the phone steady while recording video can be challenging — especially if you’re walking around while shooting — so consider using a tripod or other stabilizing device if available.
3. Don’t hold the camera too close to your face when recording the video.
This will cause distortion and make it hard for people to understand what you’re saying or seeing on screen. Instead, hold the phone at arm’s length from your body so that it is easier for viewers to see what is going on in front of them and understand what you’re talking about.
4. Don’t talk too fast or mumble when speaking in front of the camera because this can make it hard for viewers to understand what they’re saying or seeing on screen.
It also means that they won’t be able to hear as well either if they’re watching your video through earphones instead of speakers because their ears will be blocked by their own hands as well as any headphones that they may be wearing while watching their favorite shows online
Conclusion
It’s my firm belief that those contractors and home service businesses that use video has part of their overall marketing strategy will dominate thier local markets.
The companies that don’t, will be fighting over the left over scraps.
by Moe Bedard | Mar 30, 2022
Contractors and home service businesses can easily spend a lot of money trying to attract new customers and clients.
Your marketing strategy is what ultimately determines the success of your business.
The right tools and processes will help you pick the best tactics to reach the right customers, generate leads, and focus on what works.
But, how much should you be spending each month on your marketing?
There are lots of things when it comes to marketing ideas for a contracting business that you can try and test out: Google ads, website design, search engine optimization (SEO), landing page templates, email marketing, Facebook ads, etc. The list is huge!
All these methods are great and they can definitely help grow your business, but how do you know how many resources you should allocate to each of those areas?
The first thing to understand is that your marketing campaign isn’t an expense; it’s an investment in future sales and your ability to get more customers.
Your budget should be guided by your overall goals and objectives. but there are some general guidelines that contractors and home service businesses can follow when setting the amount they’ll spend on marketing each month.
The general benchmarks you can use to decide how much you should be spending are: the size of your company, the size of your market, the size of your budget, your goals, and how crowded your particular category is.
The amount you should spend on marketing your contracting business generally depends upon five things:
What is your revenue?
If you figure out what your revenue and profit are, you have a good idea of how much cash you have to spend.
A good rule of thumb is that 10 percent of your gross revenue should go toward marketing.
For example, if your company grosses $500,000 annually, you should be spending $5,000 per month on marketing. But what companies actually spend varies.
We know a lot of contractors who are actively growing their companies are setting aside 7-15% of their gross monthly revenue as their budgets. But every business is somewhat unique depending on your service niche and the location of your business.
For example, U.S. marketing executives devoted on average between seven and 10 percent of their company’s revenues towards marketing budgets, according to Statista. As of February 2020, this figure grew to 13.2 percent.
The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends that the average small business with annual revenues less than $5 million should allocate 7-8 percent of their revenues to marketing costs.
In our experience, contractors and home service companies should spend between 7 and 15 percent of total revenue on marketing, with 10 percent being about the average.
Let’s say that if you go by an industry average of 10%, you will need to figure out your yearly revenue and then divide it by 12. Then multiply that number .10 to get 10% as a monthly figure for your budget.
Where is your business located?
Businesses can get pretty expensive to market depending on where you are. Marketing your contracting business in large cities is more expensive than in smaller cities.
This is because larger cities have much more competition than smaller cities do.
In order for potential customers to see your ad, you need to make sure that it stands out from the crowd. In large cities, this can be very difficult to do.
In large cities, there are many businesses competing for the same dollars and attention of the consumer. The consumer has choices and they are actively choosing whom to purchase from.
If you aren’t in the top five choices, you will be out of luck.
In smaller cities, there is less competition and fewer choices for consumers. It’s easier to get into the top five or even the top one or two in a smaller city than in a larger city.
You can get a disproportionate share of the market with fewer dollars spent on advertising and marketing.
For example, take a city with roughly 10 million people (New York). A simple Google search shows that there are over 20,000 general contractors in New York City alone!
If you’re an HVAC repair company in New York, you’ll likely need to spend more than 15% just to stay afloat.
If you’re just starting out and don’t have much competition in your area, you can probably get away with spending less than 10%.
What are your main service offerings (business niche)?
A contractor’s business niche is a specific type of service offering that they focus on.
When you break down services offerings into categories, you can look at what kinds of customers are in each one.
You can also see how many customers there are in each one and how much money they spend.
It’s often helpful to think of a niche as a “category” (I often use these terms interchangeably).
For example, the plumbing category would contain all types of plumbing services – from drain cleaning to installing new water heaters.
The electrical category would include things like rewiring homes and installing new electrical panels. The home remodeling niche would include kitchen, bath and entire home remodels.
Each of these services has different competitive factors and a different price point and this will affect the cost of your ad spend.
In general, the more competition there is in your niche – meaning, the more businesses offering similar products or services – the more you’ll have to spend on marketing.
What ROI are you getting on the marketing tactics you use?
It really all boils down to the ROI you receive on your investment.
ROI stands for “return on investment.” In the case of marketing, it’s how much money you make from a given investment.
For example, if you spent $100 on printing flyers for your business, and those flyers generated $200 in sales over a two-week period, then your return on investment was 40 percent ($100/($200-$100)).
Monitor your results over time so that you can set goals for improvement — just like in any other business. In order to measure the effectiveness of your efforts, you need to constantly be monitoring how your marketing methods are performing.
You’ll need to track everything from cost-per lead, sales (and profits) to customer feedback to get an accurate picture of your marketing tactics and how well they’re working.
The best approach is to test different strategies to find out which methods work best for your business.
A lot of this will come down to the metrics that are important to you and your business.
Here are some things you should consider:
Volume of traffic – How many people are visiting your site? Are they returning? How often?
What’s their average order value?
It’s impossible to get detailed data on visitors if you don’t know their names, but there are a number of free ways to estimate the amount of traffic you’re getting from search engines, social media, email lists or other sources.
Leads generated – Are your salespeople generating enough leads for you? If so, then how many customers are they talking with each month?
These days, most businesses have access to analytics software that can help them track their sales pipeline and identify where their leads are coming from.
What is your cost per lead?
How much does it cost for a potential customer to contact a salesperson and be put through to a sales rep?
This is one of the most important metrics you need to measure and dial in at 110%.
If you are doing SEO, for example, you will want to monitor your website traffic before, during, and after you start your campaign.
You can’t just assume that increased traffic is translating into increased sales; instead, make sure that’s happening by tracking the results of your efforts using analytics tools like Google Analytics or web analytics software.
For a video SEO campaign, you should track the number of views and clicks those videos get. That way, you can determine which types of videos get the most traction and which don’t.
If you’re running Facebook ads, you should measure how many people in your local market see the ads — what percentage of them click on them?
If you’re running Google Ads campaigns, you need some way to monitor how many leads you are generating and much money in sales those tactics are bringing in.
As long as you’re measuring your progress on a regular basis, don’t be afraid to make adjustments if you see things aren’t working out as well as expected
Bottom line, if you follow this advice and you’re very strategic in how you spend your money on marketing, you can get a great ROI.
by Moe Bedard | Mar 22, 2022
Contractors have lots of competition when it comes to marketing themselves and their services. The good news is that the online world offers a lot of opportunities for contractors to differentiate themselves from the crowd, like with content marketing.
Content marketing draws in and retains audiences by sharing relevant content such as videos, photos, infographics, articles, and podcasts that are relevant to your field of expertise. You then publish them on your blog or other social media platforms to attract traffic, rank well in Google, and convert that traffic into leads and customers.
This technique helps establish awareness, trust, and authority for your company and the services you offer. You want to be the go-to guy and company in your niche for information.
This also allows you to establish a personal connection with your audience to help you break through the noise and create long-term relationships.
With that said, contrary to popular belief, content is still king.
If you want to win on Google and with your potential customers in your local market, you must implement it as a tactic for your company’s overall marketing strategy.
It’s not like every contractor is using content marketing.
Even among those that do, the quality of their content depends on the company. However, if you do it right and on a consistent basis, it’s a proven way to market construction services and beat your competition.
If you’re a contractor who’s struggling to grow your business and get leads, here are some great tips to help you develop a solid plan.
RESEARCH KEYWORDS FOR YOUR NICHE
Before you start creating content, you will need to perform keyword research to find good opportunities to create content for your website that people are searching for to get your company more leads and business.
The idea is to search for the keywords and phrases people are using in your local market to identify the best keywords to target.
Knowing what topics you need to cover on your website will allow you to create great content around these keywords, which is an essential part of a good search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. It will help your rankings in the search engines and drive potential customers to your business.
Here are my top 3 free keyword research tools that you can use to get the job done.
1. Wordtracker
2. Wordstream
3. Google Keyword Planner
CREATING GREAT CONTENT
Ask yourself the question, “What type of content works for your audience?”
For contractors and home service businesses, educational and informative content works best.
For example, if you have a home remodeling company, you might consider creating content like articles and videos that feature before and after photos of your remodeling work and share them on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. Show how to install cabinets, tile, or how to properly waterproof a shower pan.
You can create informational content based on what people are searching for online to help them get ideas before they remodel. To do this, you will need to perform keyword research and start creating content around these searches. You will find that people are searching for “how much does it cost to remodel a bathroom?”, “how much does it cost to remodel a kitchen?”, and “bathroom remodel ideas on a budget”.
If you own a painting company, you might create a video that shows how to properly paint the exterior of a home or patch cracks in stucco. “How much does it cost to paint the exterior of a home?”, or “How much does it cost to paint the interior of a home?”
The idea is to create educational and informative content that deals with the services you offer and helps educate your target audience. Aim to create long-form content that is at least 500 – 1500 words and create content that is much better than your competition.
Don’t write the same style as everybody else, and don’t try to be an author for everybody.
Try to write as you speak in your own unique style.
Here are some bonus tips for creating great content and other marketing ideas:
1. Start with the reader in mind and what they want
2. Think of how you can help solve your reader’s needs
3. Make it easy for the reader to consume your content
4. Establish a natural and original voice, style, and tone
5. Utilize various publishing, editing, and AI tools such as Grammarly or Writer
6. Make it easy for the reader to consume your content
7. Create articles that you can make into a book and give away establishing you as an expert
DO NOT SELL WITH YOUR CONTENT
Content marketing for contractors takes time, dedication, and strategy. Doing it the wrong way will leave you frustrated and little to show for your efforts.
What makes it an effective marketing strategy is its ability to generate leads for your business without seeming pushy.
In fact, it is important to not “sell” your services at all when using content marketing. Instead, your goal is to create valuable, entertaining, or educational content that addresses your target audience’s needs.
In a nutshell, your content should inform, educate, and inspire. If people can get value from your content, then they will be more likely to follow you on social media, visit your website, and become paying customers.
This approach is extremely useful for making your company top of mind when it comes to when people will need your services.
It’s the perfect combination of education, marketing, and sales.
BUILD A COMPANY BLOG
Company blogs are a great platform for content marketing. If you have a blog on your main website, you can write about topics that interest your target market and write about the services you offer.
It is a great way to use keywords and phrases surrounding your niche and services in your content that will help
You should always first place your content on your main blog and then share and distribute it to social media with a link back to your website so you can drive traffic and get more leads. This also helps tremendously with search engine optimization (SEO).
The look and feel of your website is extremely important. After all, this is how your content is presented in your visitor’s browser.
In other words, if your content is good but the design is subpar, then you are going to lose business.
HELPS WITH SEO
For Google to rank your website and give you more website traffic, it needs to detect that your website has high-quality content.
When you’re successful with content marketing, you won’t just help educate potential customers, you will also help your SEO and help your website become a trusted local resource for this information.
Use the right keywords and phrases in your content and on your website and blog. Using Google Analytics and search engine optimization, you can see what phrases people are using to find your services, and create content on those topics.
This is one of the most important elements of digital marketing because search engines use the content as a ranking factor for your website.
So, the more you engage and interact with your audience and provide high-quality content, the more likely it is that you’ll be found in the search engines and increase your website traffic.
CONTENT PLAN (CALENDAR)
The most common mistake is not having a consistent plan or a calendar to create new content. Without a plan, it’s hard to make decisions about what you should do to grow your online platform.
Too many people start a blog and then stop after a while because they lose interest. But the reason they didn’t stick with it was that they hadn’t created a consistent schedule and plan to follow.
You should plan your blog like you plan anything else in your life. By planning, you’ll know what to write about, how often to write, how to promote, and how to market your blog.
A simple plan is to create content at least once or twice a week and share your content with the world on your social media channels. The key is to do it consistently.
SHARE CONTENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
In addition, you can also make your content shareable. This will attract a lot of social media traffic. You will want to use social media to share your content and drive traffic to your website.
With social media, you will be able to reach a larger audience and your potential customers. Visitors from social media are also likely to convert, as they are already engaged.
When you combine content marketing with SEO and social media marketing, you create a powerful marketing approach that drives traffic to your website, and helps your website SEO.
GUEST POSTING
You can also write guest blog posts on other blogs in your niche by reaching out to bloggers and website owners in your niche.
Guest blogging is a popular marketing tactic for several reasons. First, the guest blog post acts as a reference to your business and services.
If a consumer reads a blog post and it sounds interesting, he or she will click on the author’s name to see what else that person has to offer.
It also helps with your website SEO by driving backlinks in order to improve your ranking in search engines, so it is a very effective method of link building, as well as a great way to drive traffic to your site.
Guest posting can be a great way to get your content in front of new eyeballs, but it’s also a great way to build relationships with other bloggers. That’s because guest posting can often open up the opportunity for cross-promotion. Cross-promotion is when someone from one blog or website promotes the other’s blog on their website.
To get started, you will need to find other bloggers in your niche that accept guest posts. Make a list of 10-20 websites with their criteria for submitting articles.
Most legitimate websites with SEO authority want only original articles that are 500-1500 words long or more, and they usually allow only one link in the author bio back to your website.
LEAD CAPTURE & MAGNETS
When you create educational content, the idea is to educate but also brand your company and the services you provide.
As I mentioned, you do not want to be selling. But you should always have a link back to your website and a small teaser or offer at the end of your content to drive traffic back to your main website.
Write blog posts with all of the main landing pages in mind, and make sure they’re written with a specific call to action. You should have an opt-in form at the top and bottom of every blog post, as well as consistent CTAs throughout your post.
You can also use a call to action buttons – make sure they’re clear and easy to see. Make sure it fits naturally with the content and doesn’t feel forced.
You can also create sales funnels with educational content if you provide a free and valuable lead magnet, like a free course. You then get people into your sales funnel and you can offer additional courses, or services.
So make sure every blog post and all your content inspires action of some kind or another.
DO YOU HAVE THE TIME AND EXPERTISE?
Like any marketing strategy, content marketing for contractors takes time to build and perfect.
First, you have to research keywords, make a plan, and create great content. Then, you need to distribute it, promote it, and create a proper sales funnel before you can analyze the results and implement changes for better results.
It takes a lot of time and expertise. This can be a real challenge for busy contractors who are looking for marketing tactics that maximizes ROI.
That is where a digital marketing agency for contractors like ours can help your company at a fraction of what it would cost to hire an in-house marketing expert.
If you would like a consultation or free estimate, please reach out to us and we would be glad to help!
by Moe Bedard | Mar 10, 2022
In order for people to find your company, properly setting up your Google My Business (GMB) listing is one of the first and best things you can do for marketing your contracting or home service business.
It is an essential part of your digital presence because it is often the first place your customers are searching for the services you offer.
Recent statistics show that approximately 97% of all internet users have searched online to find a local business and 54% are making these searches at least once a month.
These are Google searches that consist of people searching for businesses in their local area or within a specific service area.
In working with our contractor clients, we have found that when a homeowner is planning on getting their home remodeled, they will want to research local home improvement companies to see their past work and reviews. When your company has a nice online profile and great reviews, it will give your business more local credibility and visibility, which leads to trust.
When someone searches on Google, for example, a “Los Angeles or San Diego kitchen remodel”, or “kitchen remodel Austin,” after the advertisements, the next thing people will see is the 3 -Pack of Google My Business listings.
This is called the local Google Local 3-Pack.
These listings generate a lot of clicks and traffic. You can get high-quality leads without spending a dime on ads.
A recent study showed that the 3-Pack ranks in the #1 position in 93 percent of Google searches. Research conducted by Search Engine Watch discovered that 68 percent of searchers prefer the local 3-Pack, 27 percent trust the organic search results below the 3-Pack, and only 10 percent prefer the paid advertisements.
As you can see, 93 percent of local searches will show the 3-Pack listings and 68 percent of these people will click on one of these businesses to inquire about a service or product.
For marketing purposes, the end goal with your Google My Business listing is to make it into the 3-pack, optimize your profile weekly, get more great reviews, and do what it takes to stay there.
I promise that it is the best way to get more leads and business.
How much does it cost?
Creating your company profile on Google is 100% free. Once you create a profile, you will be able to manage your business from Google Search and Maps to customize, enhance, and optimize your profile.
How do I set up my profile?
Visit the Google My Business official page and click on “Manage Now.”
Then enter your business name and address into the search box and click Add Your Business. Google will then ask you to verify your business by mail or text.
Google does not allow you to list a PO Box of virtual office as an address. This is a quick way to get your listing suspended or banned.
But if you do not have a physical office or warehouse, you can list on your profile that you only serve people in their homes and/or offices.
Google My Business allows you to pick one primary category for your business and up to nine secondary categories. Make sure that you set it up with your main service offering as your primary category and then list your other services as your secondary categories.
Google will also give you the option to pick your service areas. You will want to list your main city you do business in and possibly 3-4 areas surrounding your main service area.
How important are reviews?
Today, 90% of people read reviews before making a purchase decision.
Nothing will get a potential customer to contact your business more than a lot of great reviews. On the other hand, bad reviews or no reviews will hurt your business and turn away potential customers.
How to optimize and get top rankings for your Google My Business profile
As I mentioned above, your goal should be to get on the first page in the Google 3-Pack. To do so, you will need to choose the correct category for your main service offering and choose the right keywords.
Next, you will want to make sure that your company profile is 100% finished with your logo, cover photo, hours of operation etc.
Google allows you to add posts and images to your profile, so go ahead and regularly post updates by adding quality content to your GMB listing so you can stand out from your local competition.
Start asking and collecting reviews ASAP from your happy clients. The more glowing reviews you get, you will have a better chance of making it into the local 3-pack and getting more leads. Also, do your best to respond nicely to your reviews.
Make sure your website is mobile and SEO-friendly and connected to your Google My Busienss listing via a link.
Last but not least, make sure that you keep your profile up-to-date.
If you are a contractor or home service business that needs help listing and or optimizing your Google My Business listing, please contact us.
We can help you set up your listing and optimize your profile to collect reviews and local citations.
by Moe Bedard | Mar 5, 2022
Today, I’m going to show you 12 of the best marketing ideas that have a proven history of success for contractors to get more leads and business.
It doesn’t matter if you are a general contractor, HVAC company, home remodeler, roofing contractor, painting company, etc. – these tactics are applicable to most trades.
The first thing I would like to explain before I get into the details is that there is no magic bullet or secret online sauce when it comes to marketing your business.
Like remodeling a home, repairing a 3-gable roof, or installing a new HVAC system, it takes expertise, talent, and hard work.
Creating a successful marketing campaign for your company does not have to be difficult. You could pick 2-5 ideas from this list below and learn how to do them yourself or if you are too busy running the business operations, you could hire an agency like ours to handle the work for you.
That way you can focus on your talents, sales, and leading the company.
The end goals with any marketing campaign are to:
1. Create the best digital marketing profile for your business online
2. Brand your business to the right customer base
3. Create great content on your specialty and service
4. Get more traffic to your website and calls
5. Get more leads and business
6. Maintain a great reputation in your community and online with good reviews from past customers
7. Rinse and repeat
After reading this guide, you will learn about some of the best modern marketing ideas for contractors that will get you new business. By no means do you have to employ all of these strategies. You can choose 3-5 of these ideas to implement and test and then add more as you progress.
Once you have some experience and results, pay attention to what’s working and what is not. Then you can double down on the proven methods that are generating the most leads and revenue.
Let’s get started!
1. Modern Website Design
Approximately 97 percent of consumers search for information about local contractors and businesses online before making a buying decision. That is why the first thing that any contractor needs is a domain name and professional-looking website that is SEO (search engine optimized) and mobile-friendly.
Homeowners or your target market will be visiting your website for a closer look at your company. This is where people can learn about your company, services, and easily contact you online.
Your website is your digital business card, brochure, sales tool, and portfolio all in one. It can generate organic traffic and also act as a funnel for advertising and other marketing campaigns.
To get your website built, you will need to create content about your company to educate, brand, and sell potential clients on your services. At a bare minimum, you will want to build a home page, service page, about page, and contact page. You can also create a blog page where your articles and videos can be displayed.
This content should be search engine optimized (SEO). Meaning that it is written nicely to educate people and is also optimized properly to rank in the search engines.
Your website design should make it easy for people to navigate and contact you. You will need to have your phone number and contact forms displayed prominently where people can easily see them above the fold and in other locations on your site.
Having some original photos and/or videos of you and your employees at work will help build credibility and trust. It will also make you stand out from your competition.
2. Google My Business
Properly setting up your Google My Business (GMB) listing is one of the best things you can do for your business.
When someone searches on Google, for example, a “Los Angeles or San Diego contractor near me”, or “kitchen remodel Austin,” after the advertisements, the next thing people will see is the three-pack of Google My Business listings. These listings generate a lot of clicks and traffic. You can get high-quality leads without spending a dime on ads.
In working with our contractor clients, we have found that, for example, when a homeowner is planning on getting their home remodeled, they will want to research local home improvement companies to see their past work and reviews. It will also give your company local credibility and visibility.
Google My Business allows you to choose one primary category and up to nine secondary categories. Make sure that you set it up with your main service offering as your primary category and then list your other services as your secondary categories.
If you need help listing and ranking your Googler My Business listing. Please let us know. We can set it up properly and optimize your profile to assist in collecting reviews and local citations.
3. Paid Advertising and Google Ads
Paid advertising is also sometimes called biddable media or PPC advertising. PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click advertising because you normally pay every time someone clicks on one of your ads, which is called Cost Per Click (CPC). Most advertising platforms such as Google, Bing, and Facebook use the PPC model.
Google Ads is one of the best online marketing channels for contractors. It can be competitive and expensive, but it can be a great way to bring in consistent leads and business if you know what you’re doing.
You can set your daily and monthly spending budget on the maximum amount of money you want to spend, and Google will not exceed that. As you see results, you can increase your spending to drive more traffic to your website.
Google Ads optimization focuses on maximizing “conversions” or “conversion value,” which can be a lead form submission, phone call, or email to your business.
Google assigns a quality score to your ad, which is dependent on CTR (Click Through Rate), relevance, and the landing page your ad sends traffic to. This quality score factors into the bid rate. Higher scores will lower bid costs and a lower score will raise them.
If you utilize proper ad optimization, search criteria, and on-page SEO, you can bring your ad costs down over time.
Google Ads offers three campaigns – Search, Display and Remarketing.
Search campaigns show ads to people who are searching for products and services in real time, which normally drive the most leads, sales and revenue. We recommend that contractors focus most of their Google Ads budget on search.
Display and Remarketing campaigns work along with search ads by displaying your ads on 3rd party websites to people who may have clicked on your ad but they did not contact your company or they visited your website, but were not 100% ready for your services right now.
These campaigns keep your company in front of their eyes when they surf the web and will build familiarity and authority for your company. When they are ready to use your service and you have done this correctly, they will contact you because of your remarketing efforts.
4. SEO – Search Engine Optimization
SEO is an acronym for “search engine optimization.” Contractors often overlook SEO in their overall marketing, but as a business owner, you can’t afford to neglect SEO.
The reason why is because 90 percent of consumers search online for a product or service prior to making a purchase.
If you do not have a website with proper SEO, it will not show up in the search engines and you will lose out on a lot of potential new business.
Google’s algorithms favor local companies in its search results to deliver highly relevant search results. A well-planned SEO strategy targeting your main keywords will put your website at the top of the search engines, which will equate to increased organic traffic and leads.
For most contractors and home service-based businesses, you will need to create what is called “local SEO” and this means that you optimize your website to make sure people who live in your service area are able to find your website when they are searching for the services that you offer. Determine the main service offerings that you want your business to rank for. This will be based primarily on the services your company offers.
The two main goals of local SEO are to rank for the services you offer and outrank your local competitors. If you can do that, you will get what is called organic and free leads. They are the best exclusive leads that you can get.
Bottom line – Local SEO will help increase your company’s visibility online to residents in your service area to drive your potential customers to your site in order to get more leads, better conversions, more sales, and more revenue.
5. Content Marketing
Content, as it relates to digital marketing for your business, is either the written word, video, or audio. For your website, you will want to create pages that are mainly the written word and use SEO to build them properly so they rank in the search engines.
This content will detail information about your company, the services you offer, and contact information. You are using this content to educate people who find your website and are looking for your services. The idea is to convince them that you are the best company for the job so you can convert them into a customer.
When you create the pages for your website, make sure that you write for your potential clients. You know your customers best so you will want to address the services you offer, but also your potential clients’ pain points and the solutions your company offers.
You will need to create quality content that is well written and is detailed in order to rank in the search engines than your competition.
You can also add embedded videos to your pages for people who like to watch videos and also for Google who loves videos as well. This will also improve your SEO.
If you really want to stand out from your competition and get more business, you will need to create great content around your company and services on a consistent basis. You should have a company blog with great content, a YouTube channel with great videos, and post them regularly to Facebook and Instagram.
This is what content marketing is really all about.
6. Social Media Marketing
These days, billions of people spend a lot of time on social media. In order for these people to learn about your business, you need to be engaged in what is called social media marketing.
It is one of the most affordable forms of marketing that you can engage in. If you’re willing to invest the time and leverage your social media accounts, they can bring new traffic to your website and customers for your business.
Interacting with consumers on social media helps you build brand awareness and connect with potential and current customers.
The key is to choose the right platforms where your target customers are active and post regular and consistent content with your website link to drive this traffic to your website. For contractors, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram will be the best platforms to use. If you stick to these three and share great content, you will find success.
6. Videos
Researchers have found that the retention rate for visual information is approximately 65% vs. 10% for text-based information. According to HubSpot, 72% of consumers prefer video to text for receiving branded marketing information. 86% of video marketers say video has been effective for generating leads, and 81% of marketers feel that video has a direct, positive impact on sales.
Today, more than four in five businesses are using video in their marketing strategies. Video is simply one of the best marketing strategies that you can use to promote your company and services.
Videos help promote awareness about your company, build trust, and help increase sales. This is part of your company’s content marketing strategy so you will create great videos around your company and services. They can also be inexpensive and easy to produce.
The best place for contractors to host and market your videos is YouTube. This is where most people visit to watch and learn from videos.
7. Email Marketing
Not many contractors or home service-based3 businesses are utilizing email marketing, but they should, and here’s why.
Email marketing to past and potential clients is a great way to get business for a minimal investment.
Most people who visit your website will not contact you immediately. Capturing their contact information for additional marketing and “lead nurturing” is the best way to keep in touch with them until they are ready to use your services.
You do this by having a “lead capture form or magnet” on your website to get their name and email. The lead magnet is a compelling offer on your website such as “Get $250 off new Air Conditioning Installations” and to get the deal they need to leave their name and email address.
These new leads are then imported into your marketing funnel, which is just a fancy way to put them in your CRM to nurture your leads. Lead nurturing is all about sending weekly or bi-weekly emails to these people in order to keep your company in front of them and also educate them about your services or give them free tips and coupons until they are ready to use your services.
8. Coupon Marketing and Coupon Deal Sites
Coupons are a great way to get potential customers to use your company when they are shopping online for services. They can help take someone off the fence who is thinking about using a competitor and then choose your company.
You can have coupons on your website’s homepage and use them in online advertising.
Coupon deal sites like Groupon can help promote your business to massive audiences, grouped by location, to offer limited-time discounts to their members. Please be warned that you are required to discount your service by at least 50%, and at least 50% of the revenue goes to Groupon.
Obviously, this is not a good marketing tactic for every contractor and home remodeler. They work better for home service businesses that have lower-priced service offerings such as HVAC and plumbing repairs companies.
The main purpose for using coupon deal sites is not sales and profits. It’s essentially paid advertising with the goal of getting more people using your services and to get more reviews.
That is why you need to have awesome customer service during and after running your deal.
9. Collaboration and Joint Ventures With Other Contractors
The contracting business is booming and finding good help right now is extremely difficult for most contractors and home service-based businesses. Many companies are short-handed on their job sites and are regularly looking for good companies that they can work with or subcontract jobs to.
That is why collaborating with other contractors can get you some work, new business and help build your reputation. Helping another successful company when you first start out or when your slow can help you do things you could never accomplish on your own.
It’s always best to target businesses in your local area to work out a complementary arrangement that provides mutual benefit for both companies.
For example, let’s say you are a plumbing, HVAC, or electrical contractor. The idea is to simply identify a non-competitor such as a general contractor, home builder, or remodeler and then find a way to help them with your services in a mutually beneficial way.
Many homebuilders and remodelers are almost always in need of good contractors that they can subcontract some work to and will throw you a job to test out your skills and prices. If you do a great job and charge them a slightly reduced fee so they can also make a profit, then you will get more work and referrals.
You can pick up the phone, mail them a nice self-addressed letter or drop by their office to introduce yourself with some of your business cards. You do not want to do this just one time. Familiarity and people skills build trust, so if you do this as part of your marketing efforts, make sure you do it on a consistent basis without being a pest, spamming, or appearing desperate.
You can see results and new business from these contractors pretty fast if you do this right!
10. Join Local Business Groups
Joining local business and meetup groups will give you the opportunity to meet up with other business owners to share referrals and identify new marketing opportunities.
Business groups can be a great way to expand your network around the area in which you live. You can leverage these in-person business connections into joint ventures and profitable partnerships.
This is where you will be developing your long game and these people can become lifelong referral partners if you do great work and give excellent customer service.
They just take some time to be effective and produce results. But if you are patient and you really put in the effort to get to know the members, you will see some great returns on your time investment.
Your local Chamber of Commerce, Business Network International, or BNI, and Realtor groups can be a great source for contractor referrals in your area.
11. Direct Mail Marketing
Contrary to popular belief, direct mail marketing is not dead.
As more of your competitors are focusing their marketing efforts on the internet, fewer of them are utilizing direct mail and this means there is less competition and more opportunity for you.
Like with any marketing strategy listed here, you need to be creative and target the right potential customers who will need your services. For targeting, you need the right list of people to mail to, so you need to make sure that you send direct mail to prospects who are more likely to respond to your offer.
There are some great data brokers who sell targeted direct mail lists.
12. Seasonal marketing
Seasonal marketing is any promotion that businesses create for certain times of the year or sales seasons. These marketing campaigns leverage the monthly and yearly events on a calendar and planning to generate high traffic around specific times of the year, such as holidays, observances, and weather.
There are plenty of weather events and holidays around the year where you can create deals, coupons, articles, videos, social media posts, advertising campaigns, and more.
For example, you can create a holiday email and/or a direct mail campaign to your existing customers wishing them a great holiday so you stay on top of their minds and include a holiday coupon with a call to action, sending them to your website for more information.
You can update your website with a dedicated space for your holiday offers and specials.
Another great method is to create articles and videos that are holiday-centric such as:
HVAC: 11 Tips to Keep Your Family and Guests Warm During the Holidays
Plumber: How to Winter-Proof Your Pipes When You’re Gone for the Holidays
Electrician: How to Save on Your Electric Bill During the Holiday Season
Roofer: How to Safely Hang Your Christmas Lights
You can also share this content on social media with a link back to your website.
CONTRACTOR MARKET PRO CONCLUSION:
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, you do not have to employ all these marketing ideas at once.
Depending on your budget and time, the best method is to choose 3, 4 or even 5 ideas to implement and test to see what kind of results you can obtain. Once you see results, double down on what is working and discontinue what is not.
Remember that most of these marketing strategies take time, effort, and tweaking to see results, so please be patient. Give yourself at least 6-12 months before you discard a strategy.
If you need any help with digital marketing such as website design, Google My Business, SEO, social media, or paid advertising, please contact us today and learn how Contractor Market Pro can create a great marketing strategy that will help you dominate your local market.
