For years your business has survived through the quality of your work and word of mouth. It was a successful formula. Do a good day’s work, provide the skills and expertise needed, and your clients spread the word. As a result your company grew into what it is today. Like magic the phone would ring and you had your next job or jobs scheduled out for as long as you could hope. Sure there were down turns. But because of the deep pool of referrals you made it thru and as soon as the economy changed the phone started ringing again. OH the good old days!!
The best part, you didn’t have to be that sales guy. Banging on doors or hitting the phones to bring in the business. Your marketing investment, was the yellow pages or what we now call the yellow door stop and maybe a little league team sponsorship. Well, you know as well as I do that that ship has sailed. Part of it is because not every customer is as loyal as they use to be. You know what I mean. You do a great job on project, they rave about your workmanship and then 3 to 6 months later you see another work truck in front of the house. Why? Some people have changed. The world has changed. No one has the same job for 40 plus years and then retires. The question should be are you ready to change?
If so, what should you do? To start you should still provide the quality of work that has kept you around all these years. But, you need to sharpen your sales and marketing skills. I know, I know, not your favorite thing to do. But, if you take advantage of the right technology, you can catapult your business right back out in front of your competition. That’s right! In front of the competition and you don’t even have to be that used car salesman. Better yet, if you adopt an Inbound Marketing approach, the right clients will find you.
As stated in the title of this article Word of mouth has gone digital. It’s true. So true, that if you are not in the game. If you are not present online, you are losing business. Let me say it again. YOU ARE LOSING BUSINESS. So what has to change and what should you do.
1. Establish a competitive digital presence.
You need to make it easy for the customers to find you. Especially the customers that want to rave about you and your company. You need a productive website. You need to provide them the social platform to do so. You need to be visible and participate in social media. You need to have a Facebook account, a twitter account, etc. This will allow the happy and loyal customers to tweet and share about you and make it easier for your potential new customers find you.
2. Grow your business with Inbound Marketing
Once you have a well-designed website and have coordinated it with your social media accounts. Adopt an inbound marketing approach. Doing so will help you generate;
- MORE LEADS
- MORE CUSTOMERS
- MORE BUSINESS
Some of the more common elements included in digitally marketing for contractors are;
- Mobile responsive website
- SEO
- Content creation
- Blog
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
- Clear conversion paths
- Landing page optimization
- CTA and smart forms
By setting up a complete inbound marketing approach with a competitive digital presence. You will begin to acquire leads and customers that fit your business. More importantly they will be finding you. You will be providing the resources, so when they are inquiring about your skills and previous work they can find it. Allow your digital marketing to do the heavy lifting. Allow those loyal customers, the ones you like, and the few that are still out there, to find you. Inbound Marketing is the approach that will bring the results you need.
