Do you have a plan for effectively marketing your contracting & home services business online?
When you look at the Online Marketing space, there are a number of channels / mediums to consider for your home service business whether you are a roofer, AC Contractor, Pool Builder, Pest Control Company or some other home service based business. Take a look at the video below:
At first glance it might be overwhelming to consider all of the marketing options available in your online marketing playbook; Search Engines (Organic, Maps, Pay-per-click), Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linked In), Paid Online Directory Listings (Angie's List, YP.com, Yelp.com, etc) and Paid Online Lead Services (Home Adviser, Networx, etc). To maximize your lead flow from the internet you need to develop a PLAN that covers each of these online marketing opportunities. On this post I will outline a plan that is proven to generate results in terms of leads, calls & revenues.
First, you need to understand the various online marketing opportunities that are available to you:
Online Marketing Channels
- Search Engine Optimization (Organic Listings & Map Listings)
- Search Engine Marketing / PPC on Google AdWords & Bing Search Network
- Social Media Marketing (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn)
- Video Marketing
- eMail Marketing
- Paid Directory Marketing (Angies List, City Search, Judy’s Book, Yelp, etc)
- Paid Lead Services (Home Advisor, eLocal, Contractors.com, etc)
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization is the process of getting your company to show up on the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc) in the organic, non-paid listings as consumers are searching or your products or services.
There are three very critical components of Search Engine Marketing that must be understood. The three components are:
- Paid Listings – The area along the top & side that advertisers can bid on & pay to obtain placement in the search engines.
- Organic Listings – The area in the body of the Search Engine Results page.
- Map Listings – These are the listings that come up beneath the paid listings and above the organic listings in a number of searches.
Search Engine Optimization refers to getting your company website to show up in the Organic & Map Listings. These listings account for a majority of the search volume. As depicted in the illustration below, more than 78% of searchers click on the Organic (non-paid listings) rather than the paid listings.
When most people think “Internet Marketing” they think Search Engine Optimization but as you will start to see, SEO is only a piece of the MUCH BIGGER “Internet Marketing” puzzle for Contractors.
Search Engine Marketing / PPC
Now that we have discussed SEO, let’s talk about Search Engine Marketing or PPC (Pay Per Click). Google, Yahoo & Bing all have paid programs that allow you to BUY listings in the designated areas of their site for your keywords.
There are three really important benefits of PPC:
- You can get listed on the search engines for your keywords almost immediately
- You only have to pay when some actually clicks on your listing – hence the name Pay Per Click Marketing.
- You can get your ad to show up for national terms but only in the areas / cites where you operate.
PPC marketing works on an Auction system like eBay. You literally pick the keywords that you want to show up for and bid what you would be willing to pay for each click. There are a number of factors that determine placement which will be discussed in detail in the PPC for Contractors chapter but at the broadest sense, the contractor who is willing to pay the most per click will be in the top position and the 2nd most will be in the second position, etc.
PPC Marketing is a great way to get your company to the top of the search engines right away and to start to drive qualified traffic to your website.
Social Media Marketing
There is a lot of BUZZ around Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube) but how can Social Media be leveraged by a Home Services Contractor? How can you actually use social media to Grow your Contracting Business?
- More than 500 million active users
- 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
- Average user has 130 friends
- People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
So how can you leverage this amazing tool to grow your business? Use it to connect with you your personal sphere of influence, past customers & new customers. By doing so you can solidify existing relationships, remain Top Of Mind and ultimately Increase Repeat & Referral Business.
Video Marketing
Did you know that YouTube is the second most searched search engine on the market? Ahead of Bing & Yahoo? It’s true, millions of people search YouTube everyday. Most contractors are so focused on SEO but totally neglect the opportunity that Video & YouTube provide. Implementing a Video Marketing Strategy for your Business can get you additional placement in the search results for your plumbing keywords, enhance the effectiveness of your SEO efforts and improve visitor conversion.
eMail Marketing
Similar to Social Media marketing, eMail marketing is a great way to remain top of mind with you customers and increase repeat business & referrals. Compared to direct mail & newsletters eMail marketing is by far the most cost effective means to communicate with your customers.
As we will discuss in the eMail Marketing for contractors chapter we feel that eMail Marketing can be used to draw your customers into your social media world.
Paid Directory Marketing
There are a number of Online Directories that are important for contractors:
- Angie’s List
- YP.com
- Judies Book
- City Search
- Merchant Circle
- Yelp
- Kudzu
Paid Lead Service sites
There are a number of services that will sell you leads on a “pay-per-lead” basis or a flat monthly fee.
- Home Advisor
- eLocal Plumber, Roofer, Etc
- Contractors.com
While these leads tend to go to a number of different provides and will be less qualified then other sources, if done correctly these pay-per-lead services can be a profitable online marketing channel for you.
WHERE TO START?
With all of these internet marketing channels, where should you start? I firmly believe that overtime you want to be leveraging each of these different online marketing opportunities, but you want to start with the foundation - your website, organic rankings and Social Media / eMail. Once you have your website setup correctly, it is ranking for your most important keywords in the organic, non-paid listings and you are actively leveraging Social Media then you should then you should start to look at the various paid marketing opportunities. We find that the biggest and most impact-full opportunity is in getting ranked organically (in the non-paid listings). You can then leverage the additional profits in paid marketing to further augment your growth. So once you are ranking well organically and things are firing on all cylinders then you can start to run a well managed Pay-Per-Click Campaign and explore paid online directory listings on Angies List, YP.com, etc.
Would you like to get your hands on a FREE video training that will walk you through this internet marketing plan for your contracting or home services business? Enter your contact information below and I will send you a free video training and copy of our internet marketing guide:
