Essential Marketing Tips for Residential Contractors

Marketing can seem like an impenetrable black box, but its importance to the success of your business cannot be oversold. It’s how you find new customers, build lasting relationships with the ones you already have, and grow your reputation as a first-class choice for the services you offer. And, while marketing can be expensive, affordable marketing for your contractor business is within reach. The Resources page will help you find low or no cost tools to help you along.

So the only question really is: “Where do I start?” We’ve worked with a number of industry veterans and experts to compile a list of marketing tips and strategies you can start implementing today to achieve your sales goals. Whether you’re just getting your business off the ground or you’ve been in business for a while, you’ll learn what you need to know to start your own successful marketing campaigns.

The resources below are grouped by the stages of your marketing journey. Begin with some fundamentals, expand your knowledge, and follow up on your accomplishments. You’ll also find handy downloadable resources to help you, and you can grab the single  folder of all the downloadables in the Resources section.

Start with Some Contractor Marketing Fundamentals

To successfully compete in tough local markets, you need to have a grounding in the basics of marketing theory and practice. This knowledge will be instrumental in your success, so dive in and start from the beginning. 

• Inventory & Prioritize Your Marketing
  Start by looking at what you do today, and determine what works and what doesn’t.
• SWOT Analysis (downloadable)
  Quick first marketing project to help you decide where to focus your efforts.
• Identify Your Customers & Define Your Audience
  Identifying your ideal customer to narrow your marketing focus.
• Identify & Nurture Quality Leads with a CRM (downloadable)
  A CRM is a software tool that lets you track a lead from first contact to close and beyond.

Marketing for Contractors - Theory into Practice

Now that you’ve got a good grounding in marketing theory, it’s time to get tactical. Your website and social media presence are essential tools in your contractor marketing toolkit. If you can sell yourself before your customers even ask for a quote, you’re more than halfway home.

Go Local for the Greatest Returns

Your contractor business is the ultimate small, local business. You interact with a wide variety of residents, giving you an edge in marketing. While this may seem obvious, understanding your audience on this level is a huge asset. Who are they? What questions do they ask? What are their concerns? Knowing these answers is half the battle.

This section will show you how to secure your listings on ratings and reviews sites, followed by a primer on local Search Engine Optimization (SEO). 

Ready to Grow? A Marketing Agency Can Help.

Finding an agency to handle your marketing needs (including graphic design, website design, social media posts, marketing collateral, paid ads and more) can satisfy your business’s endless need for fresh content. Be careful, though - just like your customers, get multiple estimates, research ratings and reviews, and interview your short list thoroughly.

Just beware - hiring outside your company to market it doesn’t absolve you of learning about marketing. If anything, it becomes even more important. To get your money’s worth, you need to understand what you’re asking the agency to do so you can gauge their effectiveness.

This section gives you the tools to evaluate and select a marketing agency while keeping an eye on their progress.

Social Media Automation - Keeping the Train on the Track

You’ll notice quickly that social media can eat up your marketing time to a ridiculous degree. At the same time, social media is one of the most (if not the most) essential tools in your marketing arsenal.

We’re going to talk about how to automate your social media production, how to run reports and how to use them, and how to create a fresh stream of content.

Evaluate, Revisit, Retool as Needed

Congratulations! You have a great starter marketing practice. So how do you keep the wins rolling in? Constant evaluation of tools and processes.

Learn how to generate reporting, how to evaluate it, and what you should do if something isn’t working (and how to get the maximum benefit from the things that do).

Master Resources List

Go here for a list of free and low-cost options for tools that will help you grow your business and perfect your marketing strategy. 

You can also grab all of the resources in one downloadable file for your convenience.