SECRETS TO A THRIVING BUSINESS
The importance of social media for any business in today's digital age cannot be underestimated, particularly when it comes to showcasing an online presence for tradesmen.
Understandably, many tradespeople do not work within the digital sector, so may not realise the importance of having a social media presence - and when we refer to tradespeople in this article, we are referring to those who work manual labour jobs such as plumbers, scaffolders, electricians, builders and more.
Not only is social media a great (and often free!) way of showcasing your business to the digital world, but it can also bring in important leads for your business, and help you to attract new customers who may not have discovered your business otherwise.
This article aims to provide a series of social media tips for tradesmen to help improve their online presence and ultimately boost the number of prospective customers they can attract.
The majority of people who will require a tradesman to perform work at their home are likely to first search on Google for a local tradesman.
While traditional methods such as word of mouth and appearing in directories such as the Yellow Pages are still relevant, ensuring that you have a strong online presence helps to draw new customers to your business.
In addition, asking existing customers to leave reviews contributes towards social proof - customer testimonials that you can use and showcase across your social media channels, thus increasing the trust in your brand.
Finally, with billions of active users daily, the exposure on social media platforms is second to none - meaning that it is easily one of the best online marketing strategies for tradespeople to use.
A good start when it comes to choosing the right social media platforms to showcase your work on.
While there are many different social media platforms available, ensuring that you promote engaging visual content for trades across the various platforms is essential.
The various platforms will be discussed below.
With over 2 billion active daily users, Facebook is a great platform from way to grow your business online.
It is very easy to set up a Facebook page, which can include all of your contact details and a CTA (call to action), such as the Messenger function, where prospective customers can message you instantly.
Facebook is also very useful from a social media marketing point of view because customers can leave online reviews directly on your Facebook page.
Showcasing customer feedback on your Facebook page and crafting social media posts around the feedback can be a great way to showcase credibility for tradesmen.
Another incredibly popular social networking platform is Instagram. Based solely on visual content in the form of photographs, reels (videos which are 60 seconds or less) and longer-form videos, Instagram is one of the best platforms to showcase your visual content.
Examples of useful content to showcase are visual examples of your products or services, such as one of your tools in action, or photographs of your employees hard at work.
X, formerly known as Twitter, can also be another useful platform when it comes to digital marketing for tradespeople.
While the character limit is shorter than other social platforms (280 characters), users who subscribe to the Premium feature (priced at £8/$8 per month) can see their posts boosted higher up the 'For You' page as well as able to write longer form posts.
A common misconception about TikTok is that it is an app aimed at schoolchildren who want to perform dance routines for each other - this could not be more wrong!
TikTok is quickly becoming one of the best digital marketing strategies for businesses - especially when it comes to digital marketing for tradesmen.
Accounts such as The Tradesmen show exactly what you can do with a TikTok account to reach out to a community of other tradespeople as well as potential new customers.
At the other end of the spectrum, LinkedIn is a social media platform aimed at networking with like-minded businesspeople. However, this does not mean that it is a social media site solely reserved for office workers.
On the contrary, LinkedIn is a fantastic social networking site where tradespeople can reach out to potential clients, as well as network with each other in dedicated groups.
As you will likely have established, the different social platforms require different types of content, so where do you even start?
One of the best places to start is by creating visual content - with 90% of the information transferred to the human brain being visual. On top of this, visuals are processed 60,000 times faster by the brain than text is, making creating visual content for tradespeople an essential component of your content marketing strategy.
One tactic that works well and resonates with audiences when it comes to social media for tradespeople is 'before' and 'after' shots. These help to showcase how a project looked when you arrived, compared to how it looks once your work has been finished.
Remembering to take these pictures before and after jobs - whether it's a full house rewiring project or simply painting a living room a different colour - are fantastic ways to keep your customers engaged.
Using video content is another great way to create content as a tradesperson - and thanks to the likes of Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and TikTok, you no longer need a full documentary team following you around to capture your day's work!
A few clips edited together with the in-app features on the aforementioned apps can go a long way to creating content for your socials.
Even long-form videos can be trimmed down into segments that are 60 seconds or less and you can post these clips daily on Instagram Reels or TikTok, for example. So for a 5-minute video, you would have a working week's worth of content (5x60-second clips).
Part of showcasing your work on social media is not simply to display your talents to potential customers, but to actively engage with them, too.
Recent studies have shown that customers spend 20-40% more when companies respond and engage with them over social media. The same study also showed that 71% of customers who received positive customer service when engaging with a brand on social media are more likely to recommend that brand to their friends and family.
Therefore, engaging with customers on social media is very important, not just as a business owner or as a marketing tool, but to show that your company or business is approachable and that there are real people behind the screens.
Sharing customer testimonials are also another way to engage your audience, and build up trust with them. Some projects can even be displayed as case studies on your website, which can in turn be shared across your social media channels to showcase your work.
When it comes to engaging customers with your work, good ideas are polls, quizzes or other forms of interactive media which will entice your customers or followers to engage with you.
For customers who regularly engage with your content, your brand will be pushed to the top of their social media feeds, likely making your brand the first thing they see when they open up a social media app.
Moving into the world of paid advertising, sometimes called PPC (pay-per-click) can be a daunting experience for many tradespeople - taking care of your budget is hard enough, let alone without spending money online to advertise.
However, the statistics don't lie: 65% of customers click on PPC ads, making this an invaluable tactic when it comes to advertising your business online.
However, if paid advertising on social media does not sound like something you are keen on, then running promotions online can also be another useful marketing tool.
For instance, you could be running a competition where the winner receives 20% off their next project, a free day's work or even that they win a free branded hoodie - this can work wonders for your engagement. People love freebies from brands, so this could also work in your favour and see your engagement rate shoot up, too.
Promotions are very good tactics for small businesses to use, especially one that can be delivered in your local area.
It's all well and good to post regular content on your social media channels, but how can you be sure that you're doing a good job?
Thankfully, all of the social media sites mentioned above have built-in analytics tools, so that you can compare and contrast what is working and what isn't.
You can also see a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly view to see how your channel has grown. You can also see how customers have found you - such as through hashtags (primarily on Instagram or X), or whether they have come from your website.
Other tools such as social media management sites like Hubspot or Hootsuite have detailed analytics for all of your social channels if you have them running through them, so you can instantly see which channels are working best for you and which might need improvement.
For paid advertising, inbuilt tools such as Google Analytics and Google Ads can help you to measure several metrics such as CTR (click-through rate) and conversion rates.
The most important part starts just after you have decided which lead generation strategy to adopt.
You will need to establish clear, measurable goals first of all - for instance, how many leads do you want to bring in per month? How much do you want to spend on PPC advertising monthly? Do you want to achieve a certain click-through rate from your organic social posts? All of these factors need to be considered beforehand.
Ensuring that you choose the right channels is the next step. Do you want to focus on organic social advertising, or will you be opting for blog writing instead? You can choose the right channels by identifying the most common ways your target audience interacts with you, which can be a good benchmark for creating your lead generation strategy.
Revisiting the idea of "content is king" is also incredibly important - ensuring that you have a good content plan in place - or a team of content marketers - is paramount for lead generation success.
Daily posts on social media channels, weekly blogs showcasing your products or addressing customer pain points can go a long way.
Even longer-form content such as whitepapers or e-books are very useful, as are videos which can be posted onto sites such as YouTube, or trimmed down into short clips to share on apps like Instagram and TikTok.
As has been explained throughout this article, social media is an invaluable tool for tradespeople when it comes to advertising your business online.
Whether you opt to stick to Facebook or branch out onto other social media platforms such as Instagram, X and TikTok, creating compelling, visual content is an absolute must.
Paid advertising is another way in which you can bolster views of your products, but ensuring that you are successfully measuring any metrics while doing so is important to keep track of what is working and what is not.
For any more information, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
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