Tag: marketing tips

Marketing Tips For Your Service Business

Scott Asai2 Comments

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

Competition for customers is tough. Service-based businesses need to step up and sort out a marketing strategy. Word of mouth is a great way to get clients, but it will only get you so far. You need to do it soon before your competitors do, or you will be playing catch up. 

If you want to give your service business the edge, take a look at these marketing tips. 

Focus on local SEO

Service-based SMEs often operate in a limited geographical area. That’s why it’s so important to optimize your online presence for local.  Start by claiming and updating your Google My Business listing in order to be easier to find by people searching in your local area. Optimizing your website in order to appear higher in search engine results. SEO leads for HVAC companies and services can be a valuable source of business. 

Define your differentiator

Your unique selling point (USP) needs to be the core of your marketing message. You may choose to base it on value for money, experience, customer service. Whatever makes you the best at what you do. It can be tempting to try and be all things to all people but you risk losing your message in all the noise. 

Customer reviews

Good reviews are a fantastic promotional tool. Many people look for recommendations online before they even contact a company. Always seek reviews from your customers and use them on your website, social media and other marketing. Reviews can be collected on Google, scial media or a third party review system 

If you get a few bad reviews, make sure you respond to them in a professional manner rather than getting defensive of starting an argument. Other potential customers will be looking at these reviews and if you act unprofessionally, they won’t want to do business with you. 

Don’t ignore social media

Many service companies avoid social media, as they aren’t sure what benefit it has for the business. Using social media well can attract people to your social media pages to engage and eventually, when they are in need of your services, they will think of you. 

Do your research on your audience and find out where your potential customers are.  If they are on Instagram, there’s no point focussing on Snapchat. 

Measure your marketing activity

Not tracking your activity is a huge mistake. Anecdotally attributing increased sales to your increased marketing is not a good idea. At the very least, you need to track where all of you customer enquiries have come from. Using this data you know where you can afford to invest more. Good metrics to track include: 

  • Lead source
  • Social media engagement
  • Organic traffic 
  • Cost per lead 
  • Cost per customer

Conclusion

The service sector, especially ones that are based in a small geographic location, often neglect the marketing basics. It is an industry where word of mouth has previously ruled but increased competition and the changing habits of consumers means it needs to update its’ marketing practices.

7 Marketing Tips For Local Businesses

Scott Asai2 Comments

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

If you run a business that relies on the local community to survive, you probably know how difficult it can be to market your products in such a competitive environment. With well-known competitors in your area, it’s important you’re doing everything you can to marketing your business to local customers. Whilst you may not know how to do that, getting started couldn’t be easier. With that in mind, here are 7 marketing tips for local businesses:

– Use PPC To Target Your Advertising Locally

One of the best ways to ensure you’re reaching people in your area is to use PPC to target them. This means thinking about the specific areas you want to target and setting them as your parameters and a search or social advertisement. Whether it’s Google Ads or Facebook Ads, any content you target will only go to people that could become a potential customer. For more information when it comes to using PPC as a marketing strategy, you can visit this site here.

– Advertise In Local Papers And Magazines

If you’re thriving off of local community, the chances are your customers are too. Think about all of the local papers and magazines that are published and analyze whether or not you think your target market is likely to read them. If so, you may want to consider advertising your business and services there Whether it’s a full page ad or an ad in the classifieds, getting your business in front of local people who are interested could make the world of difference.

– Attend Local Events

Depending on the type of business you’re running, you may find attending local events extremely beneficial. Whether you’re selling crafts or baking cakes, the locals will love that they get to see your face at local events. Start making it known that you’re going to attend and soon people will start to request that you get involved in more and more activities – even if you weren’t invited.

– Or, Sponsor Local Events

If you don’t think attending an event is for you, perhaps you could consider sponsoring it? Whether you don’t have physical products or physically can’t attend every single event, sponsorship is a great way to continue to get your name out there. Although it could be quite expensive if you start to sponsor every single event, the more people start to see your name, the better.

– Use Google Maps Marketing

If you are a business that relies on people using Google to search for you, Google Maps Marketing should be a key part of your strategy. Whilst people often focus all of their efforts on SEO when it comes to the content of their site, it’s also important to optimize your business for Google Maps. The best way to do this is to ensure you have your business services turned on. For more information, you can visit this Google Maps Marketing Guide here.

– Get A Registered Business Address

Another great way to ensure your business is respected within the local community is to ensure you have a registered business address. Not only does this make your business look a lot more professional, but it gives people a contact point should they need to direct an enquiry to you. Although having a home business address may work for you now, as your business grows it’s important you address grows with it. For more information about registered business addresses, you can visit this site here.

– Learn SEO To Target Your Content

Finally, ensuring the content on your site is search engine optimized for the area you live in is vital. Whilst there may be a lot of competition, ensuring you’re regularly updating your content and focussing on strong keywords will ensure you’re in the top ranks. If you’re stuck, you can always hire a marketing agency or content writer to assist you. Not only will they be able to teach you how to use SEO for your business, but they’ll also be able to carry out the work that you need done if required. It’s definitely a more expensive approach, but it’s one of the best ways to ensure you’re ranking at the top of Google searches when people search for keywords relating to your business. For a guide on learning the basics of SEO yourself, you can visit this site here.

Are you looking to improve your marketing when it comes to your local business? What changes can you make to your strategy? Let me know in the comments section below.