The 2016 Digital Marketing Guide For Home Services Contractors

Transcription

1 The 2016 Digital Marketing Guide For Home Services Contractors

2 Contents Introduction Local Search Essentials Lead Capture & Nurturing Reviews Program Social Media Participation Paid Advertising Lead Generation The 2016 Digital Marketing Guide For Home Services Contractors

3 Introduction Take a look at all the marketing methods available today, and you ll spot the clear winner: digital marketing. Online strategies to attract, engage and convert customers have grown to dominate the market, meeting potential customers where they are already. With 40% of the world s population online, connecting with users is often easier and more effective when done by digital means. Digital marketing has become more mobilefocused than ever to keep up with the 80% of Internet users who own smartphones. When you consider the online landscape, it makes sense that an increasing percentage of budgets are being allocated to digital. But competition is fierce, and it can hard to keep up if you re not a marketing expert. As a home service contractor, your business needs sales to survive and maximum ROI from your marketing efforts to thrive. 3

4 Don t worry! We ve created an actionable guide just for you! However, with heavy obligations and the nature of your business, a hodge-podge, scattershot campaign is simply not going to work. Instead, your focus is best placed on identifying which marketing outlets will deliver the best ROI. We ve created this guide to help you hit your target. You ll find the most effective strategies and tools, selected through our own extensive experience with digital marketing for home service contractors. We ll begin with steps for mastering local search and finish with paid advertising techniques, making stops to master social media, lead nurturing and more along the way. 4

5 Local Search Essentials Priorities for businesses are shifting when it comes to making their online marketing campaigns successful. The focus is now on local establishing an online presence in your community to attract leads, convert them into customers and in turn, increase sales. The results for local searches on Google have their own distinct look. When you search for a local business or service, you ll see ads, or sponsored links, at the very top and the sidebar. These are links that have been paid for by businesses to snap up prime marketing space. This year Google rolled out an update for their local search results. When users search for a local business, they ll only see 3 businesses, instead of 7 businesses, below the map. This coveted 3-pack position has generated immense competition for businesses to get and stay visible. The 3-pack tends to favor businesses located near the center of town. Getting in the 3-pack isn t easy but can be done with organic SEO. 5

6 SEO- Website Optimization To optimize your site, think like a potential customer. What keywords would a user search for to find you? If you re an HVAC contractor in the North Shore, people are likely searching with keywords such as air conditioning repair + north shore or heating and air + north shore + Louisiana. Use Google s Keyword Planner through an Adwords account to study which keywords are being searched for in your area. The ones you decide to focus on should be artfully sprinkled throughout your website. As you optimize, add fresh content with keywords by building out your services pages. The idea is to have a page for each unique service you offer. A roofing company would want to have pages for each type of roofing they offer e.g. metal roofing, roof repairs, built up roofing and flat roofing. 6

7 Local Profile Setup You ll find thousands of local directories online, all of which could potentially send you traffic. The big 3 search engines to check out are Google, Yahoo and Bing. Local directories include YellowPages, InsiderPages and Manta. Save yourself the time of searching, and check out HubSpot s guide, The Ultimate List: 50 Local Business Directories. For social media profiles, get started with Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Houzz and Google+ Make sure you ve claimed your business and updated the local profiles with your information, website, locations, hours of operation and photos. But remember: the more accurate and consistent your citations are the better. Fill out a form or spreadsheet and use the same data from one place to another. To keep new leads coming in on a regular basis, get on Angie s List and Thumbtack. These sites introduce homeowners to contractors and allow you to send quotes as well as discuss project details. 7

8 Blogging Project-Based Content Program Search engines love fresh content especially when it s the kind of material users search for. Blogging regularly is an effective way to optimize your site and keep its ranking up. But you don t have to produce how-to posts or guides every week to keep visitors coming in. Instead, use project-based blogging. Alternate your problem-solving and explanatory blog posts with information about the projects your business has been working on. You can showcase before and after photos of a remodeling job or display the step-by-step process of a roof repair. The content is dependent on your services but focuses on highlighting your results, expertise and hard work. And here s the bonus: project-based blogging can be repacked in a nice case study or shiny portfolio. It also works wonders on social media. 8

9 Tools for Mastering Local Search If your website was established in WordPress then you ve got plenty of handy plug-ins at your disposal to master local search: Local SEO Plugin by Yoast Local Spotlight Local Business SEO For automated solution, Local Market Launch takes your business s information and distributes it to local discovery portals including directories, social media sites and mobile apps. Besides covering 98% of local searches, it also allows you to monitor your business s reputation by analyzing online reviews. 9

10 Lead Capture & Nurturing Now that your website is bringing in plenty of local visitors, it s time to move the next stage: lead capture. When users land on your website, they re in the search of information. Sometimes they ll find enough on your site to make a decision and give you a call (or otherwise get in touch). But if you re just having leads fill out a simple contact form or give you a phone call, you re losing out on insightful data. With a lead capture and data collection program on your website, you can mine that data, study behavior patterns and easily follow up with new contacts. A lead capture tool shares your lead s publically available information and data about their behavior on your website. Plugins like LeadIn connect easily with tools such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact. This allows you to follow up with contacts through marketing. 10

11 Sales Funnel Once leads and customers are on your list, you can move them through the sales funnel with carefully campaigns. On MailChimp, you ll find resources and guides like the Marketing Field Guide to help you setup, design, test and measure the results of your s. Constant Contact has similar features to create personalized s to segments of users and schedule series ahead of time. For advanced users, there s HubSpot, which integrates with your lead generation tools to segment your list to up 1000 different criteria. HubSpot s detailed analytics and integration with your current marketing channels make for a streamlined campaign. No matter what kind of marketing tool you decide to go with, look for one that allows you to automate, personalize and measure easily. 11

12 Reviews Program Once you have all those great leads coming in and conversion rates going up, you ll have the opportunity to gather new reviews for your own website and other online portals. While reviews might seem like a nice-to-have, they re actually a must-have for your online reputation. Here s why: your potential customers are already sizing you up online through reviews. Customers don t just ask for a handful of referrals from friends and family anymore. And even when they do, they validate the recommendations with online reviews. Chances are you do the same yourself when looking for a specific product or service. Statistics back up the importance of reviews. BrightLocal s 2015 Local Consumer Review Survey reveals that 92% of consumers read online reviews, and 40% determine their opinion of a business from just 1 to 3 reviews. 12

13 Reviews Program The relevancy of reviews matters as well. Newer reviews are more trusted so you ll need a solid program to maintain a steady intake. Before we go into how to nurture reviews, let s get one thing out of the way: reviews from family and friends are not what you re looking for. You want real, accurate reviews from clients to bring in more clients. Start by updating your Google+ profile. Google has a My Business page where you can include your business s contact information, location(s), hours of operation and photos. But what s really important is its reviews section. Google is, of course, the go-to search engine for most users. Once your page is established, users will see it on the right-hand side of search results when they look for your business. If you have reviews, quotes pulled from them will appear under your contact information. 13

14 Reviews Program You can start by following up sales with requests for reviews from clients. (Just be sure to check the portal s policy. Asking for reviews is a no-no with some sites such as Yelp). Once you ve gained a bit of traction, it makes sense to automate the process. Customer Lobby works with your customer data and accounting data to send follow-ups and thank you notes to customers. When a transaction is completed, customers receive a friendly prompt for a review. Guild Quality works in a similar way, using automated communications to collect surveys. These surveys are personalized for home services contractors. Businesses can also communicate with customers online about their projects and join their Find a Member directory to connect with more homeowners. Having a way to streamline the reviews process and keep them coming in regularly is ideal. 14

15 Social Media Participation People love interacting with businesses through social media. And they know it s an effective, convenient way to get their questions answered. However, businesses who do social media best do more than answer questions. Instead, they build a strong foundation online by using the profiles more relevant to their industry. Just as we ve seen with local SEO, it pays to specialize. Businesses typically don t have the time or resources to build a strong profile on each and every social network. In the case of home services contractors, it s to your benefit to focus on 3 profiles in particular: Facebook, Houzz and Pinterest. Facebook, you likely know already. It s the premiere social network, which has morphed into the right arm for businesses looking to interact with customers. Houzz functions as a home remodeling and design platform, bringing contractors and homeowners together. And finally, Pinterest is a digital corkboard, used to save ideas, images and information. 15

16 Social Media Strategies Your strategies for the 3 networks will overlap. As you build your profiles on each site, follow these best practices: Post pictures of your team and office to keep things light Use a friendly, conversational tone Drive visitors to your site by sharing your educational content to the networks Track the results of your projects for visitors to follow Showcase before and after photos 16

17 Facebook Advertising Facebook advertising makes boosting your social ROI easy. It s been so successful because it s possible to launch a campaign in a matter of minutes and see results. But surely, you want to make your campaigns as profitable as possible. To build audience numbers, take advantage of Facebook s audience targeting options for advertising. Once you ve made your ad, target your audience through location, age, gender, interests, behavior and other demographics. The idea here is to raise market awareness but to the people who are mostly likely to fit the traits of your ideal customers. Facebook measures engagement by the analyzing the percentage of people who saw your posts or ads and liked, commented, shared or clicked on them. Studying the engagement rate of posts will tell you which techniques are working and which ones aren t. 17

18 Social Media Pro-tip Use videos, photos and questions to raise your engagement rate. As you might imagine, contests and discounts are also popular with users. Just as social media has progressed so have the tools designed to manage them. Hootsuite functions as an umbrella for social media management, allowing you to streamline operations by connecting your profiles. On the Hootsuite dashboard, you ll be able to separate your social media accounts and tasks into streams, or channels. The setup is user-friendly, so you ve really got nothing to lose by giving it a try. 18

19 Paid Advertising Once you have a great inbound marketing plan setup, you may begin to wonder if you need to directly advertise to users anymore. While users are apt to ignore traditional, hard sell techniques, paid advertising methods still fit into the equation to marketing success. In fact, for your website to perform at its peak, you need a campaign to generate both organic and non-organic clicks. In the case of paid advertising, we re looking at non-organic clicks, which are gathered through sponsored links on search engines. When you search for just about anything (be it a service, product or something else altogether), you ll see sponsored links at the very top, usually denoted with the word ad to the left or right of the link. This is prime real estate, which parks your website and business s information in front of the eyes of scores of users. 19

20 Retargeting Pay-per-click, or PPC, campaigns allow users to bid for their ads to be placed in that hotspot. You ll pay a small fee each time the link is clicked, but it s a small price to pay for higher conversion rates and better sales. Start with Google AdWords to get a feel for PPC. They ll give you a step-by-step process to follow to set up your first ad and help you create your first ad groups. Once you get the hang of PPC, it s time to raise your visibility by retargeting (or remarketing) visitors you attracted to your site both organically and non-organically. With retargeting, you can use data on user behavior to show your ads to them after they ve visited your site. As for budget, Google AdWords works with budgets of all sizes. But you ll want to consider how you ll divide up your budget between PPC and retargeting. Allocate the majority of your budget to PPC campaigns, which generate faster results and only take payment when a link is clicked. Set 20% aside for retargeting to snag those potential customers who are still making a decision. 20

21 Lead Generation Sites To maintain a steady flow of leads, you ll need to combine your reviews program, local SEO strategy, and paid advertising efforts with lead generation sites. These sites function much like the lead generation setup you ll create on your own site. The difference is that they have the potential to tap into a wider audience and generate even more referrals. To understand how lead generation sites like Angie s List and Thumbtack work, let s first review how they function for the consumer. Consumers head to Angie s List to read reviews about local businesses. It s different than Yelp or Google+, however. Angie s List requires a paid membership, which eliminates anonymous reviews and relies on certified data collection. The most attractive aspects of an Angie s List membership are the Fair Price Guarantees and Service Quality Guarantees. 21

22 Thumbtack works in a similar way. Users are introduced to local professionals to compare and receive quotes for services. Thumbtack offers easy communication, price transparency and a range of services to its users. Now that you understand how these sites work for the consumer, it s time to learn how to make them work for your business. The guarantees offered by Angie s List make it an optimal source for paid advertising. Once you re signed up and listed, you can select from monthly advertising options to feature your business. Paying for ads will boost your visibility and generate more leads from the site. Be sure to work on getting good reports (reviews) on Angie s List, and choose your most profitable areas for advertising zones. With Thumbtack, your only option is to pay per bid. Contractors pay to buy credits, which are then used to respond to customer quotes. The amount of credits needed varies per quote but are, as you might have imagined, cheaper when bought in bulk. While you do pay for each quote sent, once the customer accepts no commission is taken, meaning you get the full payment on the completed project, future projects with the same customer and referrals. 22

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