Michael Epps Utley {kind=image/jpg}
Marketing for commercial trades used to be all about referrals. Do a great job for a client, and they’ll likely tell friends, family members, and other business owners about your services.
To be clear, referrals can still have a big impact on business. But as people have gotten busier and conduct more business online, the flow of referrals has begun to dry up for many commercial trades companies.
That’s why more and more organizations have no choice but to generate leads to continue operating.
The question for most commercial trade organizations is this: What are the best ways to generate leads?
This guide explains the most efficient lead-generation strategies and tactics for commercial trades businesses.
The Most Efficient Lead-Generation Strategies and Tactics for Commercial Trades Businesses
Websites and Landing Pages
At the center of all lead generation efforts are landing pages and websites optimized to generate leads. They should deliver optimal experiences to visitors, explaining your brand and what makes it unique. It should be easy to learn about your work, see samples of your best projects, and view testimonials from happy clients. Your calls to action (CTAs) must be clear and actionable so people who want to do business with you can easily become leads.
The ideal way to optimize your website and landing pages is to monitor Google Analytics to ensure they’re loading quickly, that people are spending adequate time on them, and they’re following the paths you want them to take from page to page. Also, leverage tracking software like HotJar to go beyond numbers and actually see what people are doing on your landing pages and site. Monitoring your digital properties consistently will help you build an online lead machine, ensuring a consistent flow of business.
Social Media and Content Marketing
Developing blog content that’s helpful to the people you’re targeting and distributing it through social media is a great way to stay top of mind with current and past clients and prospective customers. It can inspire people about how they could partner with you while demonstrating your expertise in your specific trade.
Helpful content could include design ideas, strategies to manage projects efficiently, information about contracting best practices, and project portfolios.
Social Media Ads
Organic social media is excellent for staying front and center of clients and followers. So, how do you break out of that closed loop? Targeted social media ads offer a great way to get exposed to people interested in hiring you.
Start by selecting the proper social media channel for your business. If you target businesses, you will likely find company decision-makers on LinkedIn. If your operation is more creative and on the design end of the skilled commercial trades, you could target homeowners on the visually-centered Instagram. If family homes are your bread and butter, targeting people on family-friendly Facebook could help you find new clients.
Tailor your messages to the people you want to reach and make it clear what benefits your brand can provide to them. Consider adding an offer to encourage clicks. Start small and monitor results. It will help you build effective campaigns to generate a dependable flow of new visitors to your website.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Google wants to send prospective clients to your website for free. All you have to do to earn this traffic is prove your site delivers a top-tier user experience.
You do that by optimizing your digital properties for search. Search Engine Optimization helps send signals to Google that your digital experience is a quality one.
Some critical aspects of SEO include:
Ensuring your pages load quickly and perform well on smartphones.
Including keywords that explain what makes your business unique.
Structuring your pages properly so subheads are easily scannable by Google.
SEO is a complex topic, and the rules are always subject to change. Check out our complete guide to ensure you get it right so you can attract all the free online traffic your business deserves.
Google Ads
If you’re not leveraging Google Ads to bring prospective clients to your website, you’re likely losing out because your competitors are probably advertising on the platform.
Google Ads is a cost-effective way to increase traffic to your website from people who want what you offer. When they’re searching for the services your business provides, you want to ensure that your organization not only appears on top of the organic search results — you also want your company to top the ads. With the vast majority of searches happening on smartphones, if your organization doesn’t appear on the initial search results screen, it may as well not exist.
Email Newsletter
It’s cheaper and more profitable for commercial trade companies to do more business with current clients than bring in new ones.
It only makes sense to distribute your helpful content to people on your email list through a newsletter. It will keep you top of mind when they need your services again. Consider adding an offer to your newsletter content when times are slow to help drum up additional business.
Reputation Management
The final step most people take before providing their contact information to commercial trade businesses is to check online ratings and reviews. That’s why organizations must practice reputation and relationship management. The critical components of it are to have a process in place to encourage happy clients to provide five-star ratings and rave reviews. In addition, you must make it a point to respond to negative comments. No company is perfect, but resolving issues in a public online review forum demonstrates your commitment to excellent customer service.
Lead Generation for Commercial Trades: The Final Word
Generating leads is a necessary part of doing business for commercial trades companies today. However, it takes getting a lot of strategies and tactics right to ensure a constant supply of new clients.
The good news: Dodgeball Marketing offers proven, cost-effective packages that can help jumpstart your lead generation program. Check out our options and contact us today to find out how we can help.
