Have you ever wondered what you should do to market your business?
For most small businesses, marketing is a shot in the dark. They heard from a friend that Facebook Ads would work, or an online marketer told them to write a blog. So they try it for a few months or a year. Nothing significant changes, so they switch tactics. They buy a radio spot, or do some Snapchat stories.
Big businesses, on the other hand, are very intentional about their marketing. Their investors want to know that when they spend money, it’s coming back as sales. So they make sure their marketing works, and they use the same tactics over and over.
You may not have the budget of Amazon, but you can still be intentional about your marketing strategy. When choosing your marketing tactics, it’s important to understand three things:
- What’s your minimum investment (the least you’ll need to spend for success)?
- How much time will it take to start seeing results?
- How much time should we expect to see a successful campaign?
Below is a list of 14 marketing tactics for home service companies. Which ones are best for you depends on your marketing budget, your target customers, and the amount of time you can wait until you get results.
This list is organized by time it takes to start seeing results. Looking for quick sales? Start at the top of the list. Building a longer-term strategy? That’s toward the bottom.
14 Marketing Tactics For Home Service Pros
- Minimum Investment
- Time to Results
- Time to Success
Warm Calls
- Free
- Immediate
- Hours to Days
Calling your past customers is a great way to get immediate work. They already know and trust you. You might do a low-pressure “check-in” call, go directly for a sale, or even ask for referrals. Because you’re making live phone calls, it’s possible to get results within minutes, but it may take some persistence to see significant success with this tactic.
Voicemail Bombs
- 100+
- Immediate
- Days to weeks
If you’re not familiar with SendJim, Voicemail Bombs are direct-to-voicemail messages that you can send to your customer list. To the customer, it can appear that they missed a personal call from you, and some of them will call you right back within minutes. When executed correctly, they can result in an avalanche of work. (To send Voicemail Bombs, you’ll need a SendJim account.)
Cold Calls
- Free
- Hours
- Hours to Days
Most people hate cold calling, but it does get results. It’s a numbers game, and for some businesses those numbers can be pretty bleak. It’s important to be polite, not take rejection personally, and keep pushing forward until you get to the right customer.
Warm Emails
- Free
- Hours to Days
- Hours to Days
Emailing your past customers is a great way to get more work. These people already know and trust you. If you’re working with high-dollar jobs, you should write a personal email to each customer, but otherwise a mass email is appropriate and saves you time. Just upload your customer list to your Drip account, write a Broadcast email and click Send.
Cold Emails
- Free
- Hours to Days
- Days to Weeks
This tactic is popular for B2B marketing. Like cold calls, sending emails to strangers is a numbers game. To improve your success rates, be brief, polite, and to the point. Remember that follow-up is key.
Door Hangers
- 200+
- Hours to Days
- Days to Weeks
Door hangers are some of the fastest marketing tactics to get results, although the full impact of the campaign may take longer to achieve. Many companies hire entry-level workers to deliver door hangers, while others place the responsibility on their full-time staff during slow hours. For businesses in the cleaning and maintenance targeting the right neighborhood, calls may come in before you’ve hung the last piece. If you’re looking for a place to begin, try these door hangers from Prolific Prints.
Online Classified Listings
- Free
- Hours to Days
- Days
Posting an ad on Craigslist or similar classified sites may not seem like a great marketing strategy, but it can be surprisingly valuable. Many lead websites such as Home Advisor or Networx will use classified ads to find leads, which they then sell to you. Why not cut out the middleman and post your own? Remember that these sites list results by date, so re-post as often as allowed for best results.
Search Ads
- 500+
- Hours to Days
- Weeks
Intent-based advertising is a great way to reach people at the right time. Google Ads are the most popular example of this. It’s possible to get results quickly, but an effective campaign can take time to build and test. While you can set up Google Ads yourself, hiring a professional will get you a better return on your advertising dollars.
Social Ads
- 500+
- Hours to Days
- Weeks
Advertising on social networks like Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat is a great way to target a specific group of people. While Boosted Posts and other shortcuts can get results, hiring a professional can help you to improve your return on investment.
Direct Mail
- 2,500+
- A week or more
- A month or more
Direct mail has been around for centuries, and its effectiveness is well-established. Because of the nature of postal deliveries, it can take several days for your direct mail campaign to reach your customers. From there, you may see results immediately, although the most effective direct mail campaigns rely on a series of mailers to get the best response rates. The time to success varies depending on the offer and service provided. Get started with a direct mail campaign from Scout.
Newspaper Ads
- 5,000+
- A week or more
- Months to years
Running an ad in the local paper is a classic long-term tactic. You may see results in the short-term, but overall newspaper ads are most effective when they show up week after week.
Social Media
- Free
- Weeks to months
- Months to years
Building a following on social media is a fantastic way to connect with prospects. It’s affordable, memorable, and measurable. While there are examples of social media campaigns with short-term results, most small businesses get the best results from building an audience over the long-term.
Networking Groups
- Free
- Weeks to months
- Months
Connecting with other businesses who serve your customers is a great way to build a long-term referral network. It may take some time to build trust with others in the group, but once established as a trusted provider it can become a significant source of leads. While some networking groups are free to join, others have membership fees or other costs involved.
Search Engine Optimization
- 10,000+
- Months to years
- Years
Ranking for key search terms is a powerful marketing tactic for home service companies. It’s also one of the most high competition marketing channels. Most SEO companies will warn that it may take 3-6 months to see results. Other SEO consultants say that’s too short-sighted; the real results come after years of consistent work.
What marketing tactics have worked for you? Leave a comment below!
