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By: John Devlin
Social Media
Neither is it a channel for just staying abreast of the latest events.
It has, in the last 10 years or so, moved past the simple novelty stage. Instead, it is today a business necessity.
It is obvious that social media for tradesmen don’t attract clients in the same way as most other industries.
In most cases, you get new businesses through the word of mouth referral after an impressive job done for your clients.
Other people type up the service you offer on a search engine like Google to search for that service in their local area.
If your website appears higher on the search results, they click on the site, see how it looks like and if they are impressed by it, make a contact.
Here’s my tradesmen SEO guide if you want to go down that path.
The point here is that people do not pick on a service professional by chance.
Also, they are less likely to select a professional without a strong customer base or without a solid web presence. And here is where social media comes into fray.
Local social media advertising can not only can it help tradies to attract new clients to their fold but it can also help them build better relationships with their current customers.
And since most of the social media marketing for tradies I discuss can be done for relatively cheap, you can easily see why this form of marketing remains one of the newest trends for trade professionals in 2021.
For you to harness social media in the best way, it is important that you first understand its main benefits.
Knowing these benefits, you will be able to customize your efforts so as to get the best out of them.
The first and maybe the most important benefit of social media to tradesmen is the fact that it gives potential clients access to current and important info about their businesses.
The best social media channels will display
If a client visits your pages and is unable to easily find how to get in touch with you, that social page has no use being there.
Additionally, if you want to rank higher in Google search results, then search engines expect to see even small local businesses with clean and fully completed social profiles.
Another benefit is that enables you to build a stronger rapport with their clients and at the same time help them to establish the online brand image that they prefer.
Attractive, well-maintained and professional tradesmen social media pages make a great image of you and also your business in the minds of your potential customers.
Actively engaging with your customers (for instance replying to their comments) will make them consider your business if and when they require a service that you offer.
Attracting new customers is the biggest advantage you’ll get from using these platforms.
Lastly, social media marketing enables you to keep track of your competitors.
By visiting the pages of other tradies and contractors in your local area, you can easily know what they are up to.
The info you get here can help you to add more value to your audience.
You may also use this information to figure out what works for other businesses in your niche and what doesn’t work.
When it comes to your online media presence, bigger is better.
This would mean that you utilize as many channels as you can to market your business.
The reality though is that it takes a great deal of time to effectively use multiple platforms.
Right from the onset, you need to understand that quality is way better than quantity.
If you cannot afford enough time for social media marketing, I recommended using only Facebook.
But if you have more time on your hands, you may want to use other platforms as well, like LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest.
Whatever the number of accounts that you decide to open, make sure you have adequate time for them.
These are the two most common when tradesmen use social media channels.
Today, they are nearly a necessity for service professionals to use.
The best thing is that setting up attractive accounts of these is very easy.
Both of these networks also give you many tools for connecting with new prospects and seeing the kind of content that does best.
Facebook as a social media platform for tradesman is the only one I’d recommend serious investment in.
To see how we managed to generate 297 leads with FB Ads for a contractor business it’s here.
LinkedIn may not be used as widely as Twitter and Facebook, but it’s fast gaining popularity among tradesmen.
LinkedIn tends to be a more professional networking site in nature.
Your LinkedIn profile looks like a professional CV and offers a fantastic way to link up with young professionals.
Pinterest and Instagram may not be necessarily essential channels for tradesmen.
However, if used correctly, they can be quite effective.
On Instagram and Pinterest, more so than Twitter and Facebook, a deep understanding of your audience is absolutely critical.
If you post the wrong kind of content on your Pinterest or Instagram account, it will do more harm than good to your business.
You need to thoroughly understand your target market before you dive in here.
Recently, there is a trend among tradesmen to use YouTube as a marketing channel.
Again, YouTube is a hit or miss opportunity of tradesman and home improvement companies..
If you are a tradesman that likes providing value to your audience (for instance educative how-to videos) you will find that YouTube is indeed a very effective tool at driving traffic.
Probably not local traffic in your area that may buy off you, but certainly traffic that will boost your online reputation
But if you only focus on providing overly sales videos, you won’t find this channel a very important one.
The most important thing is not to have social media accounts.
Rather, it is to know how to use them correctly.
In order to attract new potential customers through social, there are many things that every tradesman should adhere to.
They include the following:
Your content must not only be engaging but also provide value
The kind of content you post is very important.
The main reasons to use social networks are to connect with your customers, provide them with useful information and create good relationships with them.
If your pages are overly spammy, they will only push your customers away.
If you come across as only caring about money and attracting more customers, people will be discouraged.
Most users prefer it when they can view image-laden contents on social media.
Visual content is what engages them. Such content gives users the interest to know more.
As a tradesman, you can create visually appealing content by posting short videos or images of your recently completed works.
For instance, a landscaper could post pictures of landscaping projects that they completed recently as garden makeovers attract attention.
On the other hand, if you post pictures of you tearing out shrubbery or digging a hole, which is basically steps in a landscaping process, it isn’t going to elicit the same interest or reaction.
There is nothing more annoying to a customer than an outdated page.
When a client visits your page and realizes that it has not been used for a long time, they won’t see you as serious and won’t certainly consider hiring you for any work.
This is why you should post content regularly on your social accounts.
You could start by posting content on a weekly basis.
The original intention of creating social platforms was to help people interact with one another, not necessarily a chief tool of advertising.
Instead of only selling to your community, you should use your pages to interact with people.
To interact with customers, make sure that you respond thoughtfully whenever a user posts a comment. Even just simply saying thank you will suffice, but a more detailed response is always better.
Not only does engaging with viewers create a better image of your company in their eyes but it also projects you positively in the eyes of other people reading the thread.
Influencer marketing is one of the most underused strategies in social media marketing.
Influencer marketing, just as the name implies, is a kind of marketing that involves teaming up with an influential and popular business or person in your niche.
When the audience of your influencer sees your post and if it provides value to them, they will trust you since they trust your influencer.
This increases their chances of visiting your page.
If you are a landscaper, for instance, you may want to link up with a well known local interior designer.
Your business is not under any threat if you guest post on the designer’s website. In fact, it parades you in front of his audience and can make your business grow online.
You should strive to stay professional at all times. This is not only true for tradesmen but also for any other business using social as a marketing tool. Your pages are the representatives of your business and you should take them very seriously.
Do not post any unprofessional content.
Even when comments are negative, listen to the customer feedback and try not to post any negative responses.
Lastly, make sure that you proofread each one of your posts.
As a tradesman, the best way to use social media marketing is to get right in and be started.
You will learn a lot of things, and it is much better to learn along the way than attempting to grasp everything before you start.
Facebook is probably the best places to begin.
Take some time working on these, and see what’s being done by other service professionals in your area.
In the same breath, it is very important to study what your target audience wants to see and hear.
If you simply don’t have time you could always hire a company to do Facebook marketing for you. A company like Red Rag offers free consultations.
There is a shocking inadequacy to find tradesmen who are active on the social.
It appears as if most of these professionals don’t think social media marketing for home improvement companies is helpful or even is necessary.
Other contractors simply don’t have the time.
But if you look at tradesmen using social media correctly, you can easily see that this form of marketing is successful.
They allow you to attract new customers, nurture better relationships and even promote their ventures for free.
Social Media
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