5 Effective Contractor Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

Home contractors consist of many different types of professionals from electricians, plumbers, painters, hardwood floor installers and more. As a contractor you may be wondering the best ways to market to your target audience online? We’ve provided the top 5 tips for effective contractor marketing. Following these tips will ensure your business is gaining exposure online with the target audience in order to increase leads and future sales.

1. Know Your Target Audience

The first step in creating an effective contractor marketing plan is to know your target audience. Whether you are in a niche market, or marketing to a general group of homeowners you need to understand your customers wants and needs. You should also have a good understanding of what platform your target customer is using when searching online.

As a home contractor you could specialize in high-end hardwood floor remodels, or target plumbing services in your local area. Regardless of what your focus is you need to ensure your contractor marketing efforts are speaking to your potential client.

• Who is your target audience?
• What is their demographic?
• What platforms are they most likely to be on?
• What problems are you looking to solve for them?
• What selling points separate you from the competition?

Once you’ve answered these questions and you have a deep understanding of who your target audience is it’s time to create the assets needed to market your contractor business online.

2. Build a Contractor Website

In today’s digital world 97% of consumers are searching websites to search for goods and services. No longer is contractor marketing dominated by word-of-mouth referrals. If you want your customers to know about your contractor business you need to be online!

Your contractor website is the best way for customers to learn more about your business, review testimonials and portfolios, contact you for services and more. There are many professional contractor marketing agencies who specialize in building contractor websites to ensure your company visually looks appealing and is fast enough to compete with the competition.

If you are building a contractor website on your own here’s a few tips to consider:

• Visually appealing website that engages the customer
• Easy to find contact information
• Photos, videos, testimonials to showcase your good work
• Solving problems that your customer is looking for
• Optimized website for desktop and mobile

A thoughtfully produced website gains trust with your potential customers. They will feel more confidence in sending a contact us form or calling you if your website speaks professionalism. In fact, creating a website is the most imperative step in contractor marketing!

3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Now that you’ve created a solid foundation online through your contractor website the next step is to ensure you are being found by your target audience. Home contractors want to come up on SERPs (search engine results pages) in your local area in order to gain business. As a result you need to ensure your website is optimized and is ranking for keywords that are relevant to your business.

When creating a contractor marketing strategy for SEO there are a few components to consider:

• Ensure your web pages are set up with keywords that are relevant to your business
  • • What would your customer likely search to find you?
• Write blog posts with targeted keywords that solve problems for customers
  • • What problems is your home contractor business looking to solve?
• Have a backlink strategy to boost your domain authority
• Ensure the website is mobile-friendly to reduce your website bounce rate
• Ensure your website is user-friendly and easy to navigate for optimal lead generation

Consistently putting work into SEO creates a more effective website which in turn will produce results for your contractor marketing efforts.

4. Local Directories

Local directories are a great place to get the word out about your home contractor company and oftentimes setting up profiles are free! This is an easy and effective form of contractor marketing that allows your company to come up in local searches whenever a potential customer is searching for your particular goods or services.

There are many local directories you can submit your information to:

• Angi
• Nextdoor
• Yelp
• Google My Business
• Houzz
• Local Facebook Groups

5. Social Media Contractor Marketing

Now that you’ve created a strong foundation with your contractor website, and it’s been optimized for SEO it’s time to start marketing your contractor company on social media. There are many options for marketing on social media from Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter and beyond. It’s important to go back to your target audience research to learn more about what platform your audience is using.

For example, if I was a hardwood floor company targeting high-end consumers I would focus my efforts on Facebook and Instagram. Instagram is a great platform to use when posting before/after photos of projects, customer testimonials, and how-to videos for your specific service offerings.

Social media is one form of contractor marketing that should not be skipped. Having a consistent presence on social media shows your potential customers that you are trustworthy and reputable. It’s also a great way to showcase all the good work you’ve done for others to see!

If you need assistance with setting up and running your social media reach to our skilled team of marketing experts. You can also check out this blog post that goes into more details about how to successfully market yourself on social media.

Contractor marketing takes time to gain traction, but becomes more rewarding with time. It’s important to take little steps as often as possible in order to reap the benefits of your hard work. With time and effort you should see the fruits of your labor come to fruition with increased leads and online awareness for your home contractor business.

If you have any questions about contractor marketing for your small business, reach out to our team at hello@youwhodigital.com