What Is Home Services Marketing?
Home Services marketing is the process of promoting and advertising your business offering services for homes, such as cleaning, landscaping, plumbing, roofing, or any other type of home improvement services, to reach more potential customers. The goal of home services marketing is to make your business stand out and attract more targeted customers that need your services. When it comes to marketing in the home services industry, it is important to have a clear, concise, and effective strategy that will help you connect with potential customers and build your brand.
The competition for home services businesses has become increasingly stiff, making it challenging for businesses to stand out and thrive. By following the tips in this article and trying out the following home services marketing strategies, you can grow your business and stay competitive in today’s quickly changing landscape.
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Why is Home Services Marketing Important?
Home Services marketing helps businesses of all sizes, from small local enterprises to large franchises, gain greater visibility among potential customers, reach wider audiences, and establish a recognizable brand identity. This can include both traditional marketing strategies and digital marketing strategies. The benefits of home services marketing are numerous and varied, but the most notable include improved brand awareness, boosted customer base, increased revenue, and higher conversion rates.
Firstly, home services marketing helps improve brand awareness, which is critical to making customers aware of your company’s existence. By creating a robust brand identity and deploying a targeted marketing campaign, businesses can establish a strong presence in their local market and compete effectively with larger, more established brands. Effective marketing also enables businesses to differentiate themselves from their competitors, giving them a competitive edge, and attracting potential customers.
Secondly, a well-executed home services marketing campaign can help businesses expand their customer base, leading to increased revenue. By targeting specific customers who need their services and offering attractive promotions, businesses increase their chances of converting interested prospects into long-term customers. This not only drives growth but also helps businesses establish a stable revenue stream, which is critical to remaining financially viable in the long term.
Finally, home services marketing increases conversion rates by targeting customers who are interested in your services and ready to make a purchase. When businesses implement effective marketing strategies, they can engage with customers at various touch points along the customer journey and guide them through the purchase process from start to finish. This leads to higher conversion rates, which, in turn, boosts revenue and creates a loyal customer base.
1. Hone your audience.
If you’re unsure where to start marketing your company, keep it simple. Remember that the focus of your marketing efforts is to reach past and potential customers to maintain and develop relationships.
Think about who you’re marketing to. While your audience is probably broad, you need to think about who is actually purchasing your services. It’s likely not every homeowner. It might be mostly women or a certain age demographic. Similarly, if you’re skilled at installing historically accurate windows, you want to focus on people who have historical homes.
Narrowing your target audience doesn’t cut down on potential customers. Instead, it makes sure you focus on what the majority of your customers actually need. Invest in some market research and analysis to make sure who you’re targeting with your website copy, ads, and other marketing promotions is the right audience. And look for ways to hone in on any niches that exist for your business.
2. Focus on SEO and customer communication.
Now that you know who your ideal customer is, you need to make sure they can find you. That’s where SEO, or search engine optimization, comes in. Make local search a priority in your yearly marketing strategy. Incorporating keywords on your website and social media profiles makes it easy to find you on the internet. Reviews can greatly improve your SEO, so focus on gaining reviews on Google, Yelp, and home services-specific sites, like Thumbtack.
After your customers find you, you need to be easy to contact. Make sure your contact page is up to snuff and that your business listings on Google search and other search engines and directories are updated. This not only makes it easier for customers to reach you, it also signals to Google that you are a reputable business. Make sure to respond to messages promptly—using an automatic response, if necessary—to let them know their message is received and when you’ll respond.
Many home services businesses have found that adding an online chat function to their website is also super helpful in converting new customers and assisting busy clients who need fast, reliable customer service.
3. Use digital marketing tools for better customer service.
Now that you have your customers’ attention, you need to seal the deal and keep them coming back. You can achieve this not only by providing prompt customer service but also by educating your customers about their home maintenance needs.
Publish relevant and timely posts on home maintenance topics on your website’s blog. Send a newsletter each season with ways your customers can keep up their homes. Send automated home maintenance reminders or ask for customer feedback via text. Provide answers to common questions through online chat and FAQs. When your clients need help in your area of expertise, you’ll be the first business they think of.
You can also use Podium to help ensure customer interactions don’t slip through the cracks. The interaction platform helps you keep tabs on your customers every step of the way. It’s the place where you can schedule all your appointments, answer questions, respond to concerns, and more. With this kind of help, you’ll never forget a customer’s text message again. That means better customer service and happier customers.
4. Collect customer feedback and reviews.
Personal referrals are important, but they shouldn’t be the primary focus of your business plan. Your marketing strategy must include online reviews, testimonials, and customer feedback. How are you currently collecting reviews and customer feedback? Is it difficult or time-consuming for your staff? These are a few things to think about.
Potential clients will undoubtedly read reviews before hiring you. They want to know if you show up on time, do good work, are honest, and clean up after yourself. What will they find when they search for reviews? Make sure that there are plenty of customer testimonials for them to browse by requesting reviews and feedback from your customers promptly after you interact with them. This is much easier with an automated system in place, like Podium.
Aside from maintaining your online presence, reviews and feedback also helps you run your business smarter, with a better grasp of real, current customer experiences. Gathering the information you need becomes much easier with an automated system in place, like Podium. You can have a birdseye view of employee performance, customer satisfaction, and general business processes. This allows you to have context for improving your overall marketing strategy.
5. Streamline cross-platform communications.
Interacting with customers online is easy…right? It seems like it, until you take into account that your employees must track messages on various communications platforms, and must keep customer information and past interaction in mind. This customer data (if it even exists) could span back years. Unless you have an online database that is easily accessible and a communications software solution that brings all communications platforms together, your staff and customers will likely be frustrated.
Incorporate as much automation and cross-platform communications as you can in your marketing plan. This ensures that your staff can provide top-notch customer service at all times, and from all locations—very important for home services teams that may be working remotely.
You can also streamline communications between managers and service technicians, as this is just as important as customer communication. Using modern software solutions helps your management team deploy employees in a timely and organized way. It also allows employees to give customers live updates when their arrival time changes or when they must reschedule.
6. Be yourself.
Remember: the goal of your home services marketing is to win new customers and keep the ones you’ve already earned. Your customers want to know who you are and how you run your business. And they’ll look you up online to find out. If you’re nowhere to be found, they’ll likely keep moving and choose another provider.
Help your online reputation shine with reviews, testimonials, online educational resources, updated web design, and well-filled-out local business profiles. Once you make the initial connection with customers, it’s only a matter of maintaining relationships with them.
You’ll find this much easier to do if you stay organized and touch base when they might need your help through text messaging, online chat, and other marketing technologies. Simplify your marketing by bringing all of these business goals together, on a software platform like Podium.
7. Consider pay-per-click and local services ads.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is an effective strategy to drive traffic to your website. Essentially, you place an ad on a search engine such as Google and you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. By targeting specific keywords relevant to your business, you can attract potential customers who are already searching for your type of services.
Similarly, local advertising on platforms like Yelp or Angie’s List can help home service businesses attract customers in their local area. By claiming your business profile and listing accurate information, such as contact details and services provided, you can improve your visibility and accessibility to potential customers.
PPC and local advertising are cost-effective methods to increase visibility and drive targeted traffic to your website. By being visible where your customers are searching, you can increase your chances of converting website visitors into leads.
These methods allow you to compete with larger businesses by targeting a niche audience with less competition. By tailoring ads to specific service areas or services, you can effectively attract leads without the huge marketing budgets of larger enterprises.
8. Create texting campaigns.
Text messaging is a highly effective way to communicate with your customers—and many (46%) customers actually prefer it. Podium’s platform offers a messaging solution that allows you to send reminders, promotions, and updates to customers directly to their phones. This ensures that your messages are seen quickly and that customers have a convenient way to reach out for any questions or concerns.
Plus, text messaging has a high open rate, with 98% of messages being read within the first few minutes of receipt. This means that your message will likely be seen by your customers, leading to higher responsiveness and better customer engagement.
9. Consider social media marketing.
As social media has become a key part of modern life, it has also become an important space to advertise and reach customers. By creating social media pages for your business on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, businesses can share their services, promotions, and news to a wider audience.
Social media offers an accessible and cost-effective way to get in front of potential customers in an engaging and interactive way. As social media algorithms prioritize highly engaging content, creating a compelling social media page can help to grow your fan base and attract new customers.
10. Get referrals and improve customer retention.
One of the most effective ways to grow a home service business is through referrals. By providing high-quality services and building relationships with customers, businesses can generate positive reviews and referrals that will help widen their customer base.
By providing excellent services and building relationships with customers, your business can generate valuable referrals without spending a dime on marketing. This will help you grow your reputation and customer base organically.
11. Use a web chat tool.
Adding a web chat feature on your business website can provide customers with an easy and quick way to get answers to their questions and make appointments.
Web chat allows customers to get instant answers to their questions without the need to make a phone call. This can help reduce wait times and improve customer satisfaction. It also allows businesses to capture lead information in real-time and respond to inquiries in a timely manner.
Interested in giving it a try? Learn how Podium’s Webchat tool can help you generate more leads from your website.
12. Make the most out of business listings.
Listing your business in directories like Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Angie’s List can increase your visibility online and improve your SEO. Customers can easily find your business information, read reviews, and learn more about your services. By optimizing your listings with keywords and updating them regularly, you can improve your chances of attracting new customers and generating leads.
All-in-One Home Services Growth & Communication Solution
Ready to take your online presence to the next level? As customer expectations are constantly evolving, businesses need to keep up with their ever-changing needs. Podium helps businesses like yours modernize the way they interact with customers along their buying journey. From review invites to website chats to text campaigns and payments, Podium will help your team save time, and improve the customer experience.
In short, Podium is a game-changer for businesses looking to grow and succeed in today’s highly competitive market.
Ready to give it a try? Let us help you grow your business and boost your bottom line.
FAQs
1. What are the 7 Ps of services marketing?
The 7 Ps of services marketing are:
- Product: The home services offered, including the quality of workmanship
- Price: The cost of the service considering the value it brings to the customer
- Place: The ease with which the service can be accessed
- Promotion: The marketing efforts you undertake to create awareness and interest in your business
- People: The staff and professionals that deliver the service
- Process: The systems and processes involved in delivering the service
- Physical evidence: Tangible elements that demonstrate the quality of the service such as images, reviews, testimonials, etc.
2. How do you market a home services business?
Marketing a home services business involves both online and offline techniques. Here are a few tips:
- Get your business listed on online directories like Yelp, Google Business Profile, and Angie’s List.
- Offer promotional discounts or coupons to attract new customers. You can use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to promote your offers.
- Run paid campaigns on search engines like Google AdWords and Bing Ads to reach potential customers who are searching for home services.
3. What are the best channels to market your home services business?
The best marketing channels for your home services business depend heavily upon your specific goals, products, and services. With that in mind, we’d recommend taking advantage of online marketing by listing your website in directories like Google Business Profile and Yelp. You should also try social media, text, email marketing, content marketing, local SEO, and referral marketing.
