When it comes to marketing for home services, many businesses don’t know where to start. On the surface it seems expensive, and you really don’t know what results you will get. This is why many business owners get overwhelmed, and ultimately give up on creating and executing on a strong home services marketing plan.
In this article, we want to discuss the process we have honed at Brightbeam, specifically tailored for the home services sector. This process has helped us transform companies with little to no online presence into high growth local brands.
Our approach has consistently proven successful, often doubling the revenue of many clients in just a few months. It’s a meticulous seven-step strategy, each step built upon the last. But before we dive into these steps, there’s a crucial component that must be underscored – the importance of tracking.
Understanding where your sales are coming from is essential. Many, or even most, marketing companies track conversion rates, but not all the way through to sales. Without tracking sales data back to its marketing source, you’re essentially navigating in the dark. So it’s important to track your marketing dollars all the way through to the sale in order for these strategies to work.
So, with that, let’s look at these seven transformative steps for marketing home services businesses.
Step 1: Create A Simple Website – Marketing For Home Services
The first step in marketing for home services is getting a simple, effective website. This initial website should be a landing page style platform. It’s affordable, quick to set up, and does the job. Save your money. You don’t need something elaborate here.
This website should focus on showcasing your work. Include glowing reviews and clear contact information. Make it easy for visitors to reach out or leave their details.
The goal here is practicality and a cost-effective option. Just something to get you started and give your customers a place to convert into leads. Later, when you see revenue growth from other channels, then the website can be further updated. But for now, save your money to invest in generating revenue.
Step 2: Get a Google My Business Profile
The next step is setting up a Google My Business (GMB) profile. For local businesses, this is just as important as having a website. A well-optimized GMB profile puts you on the map.
It’s also important to have a physical location with a commercial address. If you don’t have a physical business location, you may want to get creative. If you have a friend or family member with a commercial business address, you could use a room in their building to be your headquarters. Or rent a cheap, affordable office space that can serve as a location for now.
Why is this so important? In our experience working with local businesses, about half of their customers come directly from GMB. That’s a significant chunk of your potential market. And the other half? They find their way to you through your website, often from the GMB profile.
You need both a robust website and a strong GMB presence to capture the full scope of your audience.
A GMB profile is a powerful tool for visibility and customer acquisition.
Step 3: Start with Google Local Services (LSA) Ads
Once your Google My Business profile is up and running, it’s time to get some immediate lead flow. The best place to start is with Google Local Search Ads, also known as LSA ads.
Why start with LSA ads? The answer lies in their efficiency. For many businesses, these ads offer the best cost per lead compared to other marketing methods. They are designed to connect you with customers who are actively searching for the services you offer.
Beginning with LSA ads serves a dual purpose. Firstly, it boosts your business’s visibility to a relevant audience. Secondly, it’s an investment strategy. The revenue generated from these leads is then reinvested into other marketing areas to grow your business even further.
There’s no better starting point than Google Local Search Ads as a primary step when marketing for services.
Step 4: Expanding Reach With Google Search Ads
After seeing results with Local Search Ads (LSAs), the next move is to invest in Google Search Ads to build your business. While LSAs focus on local service offerings, standard Google Search Ads provide a broader platform. They may cost a bit more, but with the right approach, they offer good value and potential for profit.
Google Search Ads managed by an expert agency, will extend your reach to more customers and keywords. LSA ads only offer so much traffic, so Google Search Ads help your business tap into a wider audience.
These ads work quickly, bringing in leads and revenue for your business.
Typically, after a few months of revenue growth, business owners feel more comfortable that the process is working. As your revenue grows and your marketing processes become more streamlined, it’s time to invest in building a long-term strategy and a brand.
Step 5: Upgrade Your Website – Marketing For Home Services
With a proven business strategy in place, it’s time to build a robust website with a focused strategy. A strong website serves two critical purposes. First, it helps convince potential customers to choose your business. Second, a proper SEO friendly website will get more traffic from Google, bringing more potential customers to the site.
For Your Customers: Building Credibility and Converting Visitors
A professional website design gives your business credibility. Customers seeking your services need detailed information that not only informs them about what you do but also gives a sense of trust and comfort. By showcasing reviews, photos or your work, and introduces your team members, customers feel like they know what they get.
This can significantly increase the conversion of visitors into customers, especially those who might have been on the fence initially.
For Google: SEO-Optimized Website for Greater Reach
Google loves details. An SEO-optimized website means more than just having the right keywords. It’s about creating dedicated pages that showcase your services in all the cities you serve. This approach helps in casting a wider net and reaching more potential customers who are searching for what you offer in various service locations.
For these two reasons, investing in a new website at this point is well worth the benefits.
Step 6: Implement Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
In this step, we focus on local SEO strategies to deepen your online impact. This involves three key areas: optimizing your Google My Business profile, content creation and link building, and technical SEO improvements.
An effective search engine optimization agency will include these three strategies in their services, but you’ll want to make sure.
Optimize Your Google My Business Profile
A strong Google My Business profile is so important to success with SEO and Google Map rankings. This should include.
- Consistent Optimization: Make sure your GMB listing is fully optimized for local search. This includes accurate and updated business information and keywords that tell customers, and Google, the services you offer.
- Regular Posting: Keep your GMB profile active with regular posts about your business, offers, and updates.
- Getting Reviews: Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews. Positive reviews boost your visibility and credibility in local search results. Also, replying to these reviews is an important signal for Google, so make sure to respond to every customer review.
Building Your Website Authority
Next, you’ll want to focus on strategies that build your website’s authority. Here are some strategies for accomplishing this.
- Create Relevant Content: Develop content that resonates with your audience on a regular basis. Blog posts should address customer questions and needs while showcasing your business services.
- Update Current Pages: Keep service and other pages updated and make sure they reflect searches your clients use to find your services.
- Build Quality Backlinks: Focus on building backlinks from reputable sites. This enhances your site’s authority and improves search rankings.
Technical SEO: Enhance Site Performance
Lastly, technical SEO is important for Google and how search engines read and organize the content on your site. This includes:
- Schema Markup: Implement schema markup to help search engines understand your content better.
- Site Speed: Optimize your website’s loading speed. Faster sites provide a better user experience and are favored by search engines.
These strategies, when executed well, can significantly elevate your online presence, making your business more visible and attractive to potential customers. They aren’t one time services, but must be done overtime. However, as your business grows, SEO strategies will snowball, making it more difficult for new or existing customers to catch up.
Step 7: Test Additional Marketing Platforms
As your business grows, your final step will be looking beyond current strategies and testing new marketing sources. There are many options, and they work well for different types of businesses. But when they work, they can help accelerate any business marketing for home services.
Here are a few of these alternative marketing options:
- Facebook: Good for targeted advertising, Facebook lets you tap into a strong user base with detailed demographic data. It’s an ideal platform for finding a broad audience and marketing services.
- Yelp: This is also a good option to add when marketing for home services. Yelp is where customers often turn for reviews and ratings, making it a valuable tool for attracting local clientele.
- Nextdoor: For a more community-focused approach, Nextdoor is another good option. It connects you directly with local neighborhoods, offering a more personal and targeted reach.
- Print Mailers and Valpak: Traditional print mailers and Valpak offers may also be beneficial, particularly for reaching demographics less active online.
Exploring these platforms can help further build your brand in the mind’s of your customers and grow revenue for your local business.
Increase Growth With These Marketing For Home Services Steps
These steps will help grow your home service business in a smarter way. By showing results, then investing more, business owners avoid spending a lot of money upfront, before seeing results.
However, without proper tracking, you will never know what your real result are. Whether you’re optimizing your Google My Business profile, engaging through Google Ads, using traditional mailers, or incorporating advanced AI strategies, tracking is the core to analyzing and making decisions when marketing your home services business.
By following these steps and keeping a close eye on your performance metrics, you’re in a better position to make informed decisions, and grow your business effectively.
About Brightbeam: Your Partner in Digital Marketing Success
At Brightbeam, we specialize in turning digital marketing strategies into remarkable success stories for home service businesses. We understand that navigating the digital landscape can be overwhelming, which is why we’re here to guide you every step of the way.
Our team of experts is equipped with the knowledge and tools to elevate your online presence. We take a data-driven approach, so you can make the best decisions for your business with real data.
We help businesses with an approach that makes sense. Small upfront investment that grows with results. The way it should be.
Contact Brightbeam Now and start getting real results.
