17 Contractor Marketing Tips You Can Use Right Now To Grow Your Business
Let’s talk about these 17 contractor marketing tips - they are important steps you can take to grow your small business and take your online marketing to the next level.
Contractors have unique marketing needs compared to other small businesses - and Footbridge Media has been exclusively focused on contractor marketing since 2004.
1. Set-Up Your Google Business Profile
Google Business Profile pages are important for more than just brick-and-mortar businesses. A well-maintained Google Business Profile increases your visibility in local searches with local customers looking for home services businesses.
Claim or create your listing. Complete your business information accurately, including your categories, services, service areas, and photos.
That’s the first step in establishing your business's local footprint online.
2. Start Your Website Yesterday
Your website is the core of establishing your online marketing presence. It showcases your services and expertise. It’s where you can attract and convert your leads with the most control.
Whether you’re DIYing or hiring a contractor marketing agency, build a mobile-first website and purposely develop your site with organic search engine optimization in mind.
That means your website should have content that is valuable to a prospective customer and it should be easy for your customer, within seconds of landing on your website, to have a way to call or contact you online for more information.
3. Use A Review Management System
Your online reputation is vitally important. Google reviews can influence a potential customer’s decision-making process. Google reviews also improve your local search rankings. But, getting online reviews is a lot of work.
Instead of completing manual outreach only, maximize your impact and time by using an automated review management system. Footbridge Media clients, for example, use Birdeye - which automates email and text messages to ask for reviews.
It also monitors popular review sites for activity so you can address problematic testimonials and reply promptly.
4. Post Once A Day On Facebook For Your Business
Posting on Facebook and social media helps build your brand visibility and paints a better picture of you and your business online.
You don’t have to be a social media guru to get started.
Simply posting pictures of your work and informative content to help educate your customers can be a great place to start. Use a mix of text, photos, and videos in your content to keep things fresh.
5. Take Pictures On Your Job Site
Stock photography is okay for starting, but you need a visual demonstration of your services - a portfolio of the scope and caliber of your work. People want to see what you do, especially for visual businesses like remodelers, painters, pressure washers, and the like.
Take pictures of your work - including before, during, and after photos. You don’t need to be a professional photographer. Your smartphone camera is more than sufficient for this.
Taking pictures of your actual work showcases the quality of your craft and humanizes your business a bit.
6. Actively Ask For The Review
Automated review management is great, but it should start with one person asking another for a favor. Getting reviews works best when there is plenty of open communication to drive response.
Asking for the review should start immediately after the job is over, but it should then be followed up with emails, texts, and automated review management tactics to give customers an easy-to-use review link.
7. Use Doorhangers Around Every Job Site
You’re in the neighborhood anyway, so you know that there is potential for more work like what you’re doing for this particular job.
Before you leave a job site, you can maximize the impact of your presence by leaving door hangers in the immediate area you’re already servicing.
8. Find A Strategic Marketing Friend
Make friends in the industry. Whether it's an informal gathering of contractors getting coffee or formal business development groups like BNI, find and make strategic marketing friends.
Network with other contractors in adjacent spaces so that you can refer each other for jobs. This is a low-cost way to expand your reach as a business.
9. Reply To A Google Review
Replying to your online reviews shows potential customers that you are responsive to their needs and care about your business operations. Google recommends it, and people love to see it.
Respond promptly and professionally to thank your happy customers and potentially convert disappointed customers into your biggest fans.
10. Reward Your Employees
Growing your business can start from within. Taking care of your employees by publicly recognizing them for a job well done and incentivizing solid performance with tokens of appreciation can go a long way in boosting their morale.
Happy employees will stick around for longer and work harder when recognized and appreciated. That means better output for your customers, too.
11. Answer Your Customer Questions Online
Your common customer questions can lead to great online content. If customers are asking the same questions over and over again anyway, you can have the response to their concern on a website FAQ.
This will help you overcome objections and address problems before they start - providing the helpful content people are looking for. It saves you time while helping demonstrate your industry expertise.
12. Update Your Print Marketing Game
Just because you have a solid website and online marketing presence doesn’t mean you do away with paper altogether. Using print materials - from yard signs and business cards to presentation folders and Every Door Direct Mailers - helps reach an offline audience in the neighborhoods or special events you go to.
Leave-behind print marketing materials help reinforce your brand identity and can help push people to your online marketing spaces.
13. Add A Case Study To Your Marketing
A review is great; a case study is better. When you combine project photos, a customer review, and some basic details about the services you offered on a particular project, you’re creating a mini case study.
By featuring your best work and happiest customers, you are talking the talk and walking the walk. You’re building trust with prospective customers, positively influencing purchasing decisions, and showing them why you are the right contractor for the job.
14. Feature Your Reviews In Your Marketing
Your reviews have value beyond your Google Business Profile or Facebook Page. Reinforce your reputation by using your reviews in other marketing materials.
Resharing your reviews on your website, print marketing materials, and Facebook feeds can further build your credibility and social standing.
15. Try A Bit Of AI For Faster Marketing
While AI tactics shouldn’t replace your marketing efforts, you can certainly use them to help push your business in the right direction. Aside from assisting you to better write about your projects and mini case studies online, you can take advantage of AI when interacting with website visitors.
Using an AI-powered chatbot, like the Contractor Lead Chat service by Footbridge Media, you can actively engage with every website visitor to get their contact information more efficiently than just a web form alone.
16. Thank A Customer
Showing a little gratitude can go a long way. Build loyalty amongst your past customers by thanking them for their business.
Sending personalized thank you emails and snail mail is a simple way to encourage repeat business and strengthen customer relationships in the future.
17. Power Your Referral Marketing Game
Maximize the value of your hard-earned happy customers by using a referral reward system. Offer gifts to those past customers who help introduce you to new customers. Make it an easy-to-understand and use system.
Be upfront about the rewards, make the gifts good ones, and make a place on your website to submit referrals. Actively promote your referral program and you’ll tap into networks of customers you may have never had access to - meaning you get more customers without too make hassle on your end.
That’s our 17 contractor marketing tips. Incorporate these tactics into your everyday work life and dedicate some time to building your business with your marketing.
We covered a lot of ground here - if you need help with your contractor marketing, Footbridge Media is always here to help!
About Chris Lonergan
Chris Lonergan has over 12 years of contractor marketing experience with Footbridge Media. With a background in web design, print design, content creation, and online marketing, Chris is focused on providing quality marketing and business solutions in the construction and service industries - helping small business owners to more efficiently manage their companies and grow their operations.
Chris Lonergan has previously contributed to and/or been featured in PM Magazine (Plumbing & Mechanical | Contractors x Engineers), theNEWS (ACHR - Air Conditioning | Heating | Refrigeration), Service Roundtable's blog, inPAINT Magazine, the SMB Marketing Agency Show, and the Green Industry Podcast. Chris is also a past SGI/CertainPath breakout session presenter.
