Unless they already have industry connections, beginning general contractors have to advertise their services and build a customer base from the ground up. Fortunately, there are many ways of attracting high-quality customers, and getting started isn't as hard as it might feel at first. Today, we'll look at how you can market yourself as a contractor and what tools you'll need to succeed.
1. Offline Marketing
If you're looking to work in a certain area, you could start by advertising your services directly to your target neighborhood. Design flyers you can leave in people's mailboxes, put up posters in local shops, and put an ad in the community newspaper. While these advertising efforts might seem old-fashioned, they can be effective, especially since they are likely to reach an older and more affluent customer base.
2. Building a Website
Advertising your services offline can be a good starting point, but it's expensive, and the ROI is often low, especially at the beginning when you haven't yet built up a strong reputation in your community. If you want to reach more people with a smaller investment, consider building a website that explains who you are, what you can do, and where you work.
A good website that shows up in Google's search results when people look for general contracting services in your area can provide you with a continuous stream of leads. With the help of home service software like ServiceBox, you can make sure that your website is effective. What's more, if you're not sure how to get started, we can design your page from scratch. That way, you can make sure it's easy to navigate and search engine optimized.
3. Social Media Marketing
Countless businesses around the world have made a name for themselves on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or Pinterest. These networks are excellent marketing tools because they're free to use, so you can advertise your services without having to spend any money. Unfortunately, most companies don't maximize their social media profile, so they lose out on a lot of business.
If you want to make the most of the platforms, you have to post relevant, engaging, or amusing content at least once a day. Since this takes up a lot of time, you'll need a tool to help you manage your accounts. With ServiceBox, you can automate posts. Thus, you can write them all at the same time, for example, once a week, and then schedule them at strategic times in the week. You can also analyze your performance, so you know what you need to improve.
4. Maximizing Customer Reviews
Because many advertisements are full of empty promises, most people no longer trust what companies say. Instead, they look at other customers' reviews to find out whether the service provided is excellent. For this reason, focusing on getting positive reviews from your existing customers is one of the best things you can do for your business.
Encourage everyone you worked with to post a short review on Google or other platforms. You could also have people write testimonials and send them to you, so you can use them on your website. ServiceBox comes with a review generator, which automatically distributes your positive reviews to various platforms, where people might be searching for your services.
5. Providing an Amazing Service
Once you've found some customers, change your focus to providing them with the best service possible. Remember, you can't get positive reviews, repeat customers, or referrals if the homeowners or businesses you worked with weren't happy with your work. Make sure everything your team does is of the highest standard possible, and regularly review your contractors' performance.
In addition to providing high-quality work, you can focus on improving your customer service. Always answer emails and phone messages as soon as possible, focus on being friendly at all times, and follow up with customers after a project is completed to find out whether your work lived up to their expectations. When you go above and beyond, your customers will remember you for years to come, and they might refer you to others in their network.
6. Building and Managing a Great Team
A general contractor can only provide good work when their team is excellent. For this reason, an important part of building up a positive reputation is putting together a great team. Always conduct thorough interviews and background checks before taking anyone on, and keep communication channels open at all times, so your staff can speak to you about the tasks they are working on.
With home service software, you can manage everyone's schedule in one place, and you can update tasks or customer information in real time. For example, if one of your employees speaks to a customer, they can make a note in the system, and everyone else will instantly know what was discussed. This improves your customer service and therefore increases the likelihood of good reviews and repeat business.
7. Starting a Customer Referral Program
Advertising is expensive, and it can cost you a lot of time as well as money. So, why not ask your customers to do it for you? By starting a referral program, you can gain access to your customers' networks, and you might get new business more quickly. In addition to providing excellent service, you can offer incentives for referrals.
For example, you could give everyone who refers a customer to you a 10% discount on the next project, or you could offer them an exclusive additional service. You could also partner with other businesses that offer complementary services. They might be happy to pass customers on to you, as long as you do the same for them.
General contractors can market themselves in multiple ways. They can post offline advertisements, design an attractive website, build up a social media following, and distribute reviews from previous or current customers. The easiest way to coordinate all your marketing efforts is to get home service software. Contact us at ServiceBox to find out more about our program or to start your free demo.
