Guest Blog: The Tools You Need to Grow Your Trade Business! Make a Simple Plan & Execute it. PART 2

17 Sep Guest Blog: The Tools You Need to Grow Your Trade Business! Make a Simple Plan & Execute it. PART 2

Welcome to Part 2 of Consultya’s 2 part blog “The Tools You Need to Grow Your Trade Business”. In Part 1 we went over the importance knowing your Buyer Persona and Customer Journey. We also spoke about the difference between Inbound & Outbound Marketing and how to Attract New Customers and Retain Old ones. In Part 2, we will talk about how Digital Marketing can help grow your trade business and how to make and execute you plan.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing can feel like a whole new world, but it’s easy to make the internet work for you, not against you when you know how to harness the power of the internet and your buyer persona. The first step in successful online marketing is to look up the construction industry’s SEO keywords using a website like wordtracker.com. Simply type in your ‘seed word’, (in this case, construction), and you will receive a list of words used in your industry. Pepper these through your company’s social media posts and you’ll see your online traffic grow.

Another way to identify keywords with the greatest reach is to do a little research on industry relevant hashtags. If you’re not sure where to start, you can Google it or take notice of the hashtags on competitor’s posts. You can check a hashtag’s popularity by typing it into the search box of your social media account and it will show the number of times it has been used. Make sure to try a mix of popular ‘industry standard’ hashtags, some niche hashtags that are more specific to your offering and also some that mention your service locations. That way, when potential customers are searching and type in or click on a hashtag that you’ve used, your posts will come up on the list.

Next, make sure you have some sort of blog on your website to produce quality content (and insert SEO keywords!). This doesn’t mean every blog post needs to be a book, but you should aim for educational content your audience wants to engage in. This will give your potential customers greater confidence in your business and showcase your understanding of your industry. In addition to consumer engagement, blog posts can be shared on social media platforms and will boost your search engine presence.

Finally, make sure you focus on building your online presence with social media platforms. Social media accounts allow you to connect with both potential and established customers and engage with them via comments and direct messages. All social media platforms allow you to create ads as well, which can be helpful when coming up with a marketing strategy. A word of warning: remember to only take on as many platforms as you can handle, which usually means 2-3 accounts for the average business. Also, ensure that the platforms you choose are the same ones your customers are using! Facebook and LinkedIn are usually better suited to the construction industry than Instagram or Twitter for example.

Make a Plan

Finally! We’re ready to come up with a marketing plan. What marketing strategies are best suited to attract new customers to your construction business?  As we’ve established, you’ll likely have a social media plan, but you’ll also want to consider how else you can market. From Google Ads and GDN to other online marketing platforms, you will want to decide how to make the internet work for you. In our experience, we have been able to help clients on LinkedIn getting the phone to ring daily! LinkedIn has been adopted by the construction industry like a storm – and has become a go-to place for construction players to connect and look for services.

Finally, look at ‘offline’ ways you can market. Good old printed advertisements, flyers, discount vouchers and the like are still effective and you may decide to focus more of your efforts on traditional advertising mediums, or utilise a combination of print & digital. Remember that every business will have a unique marketing plan based upon their needs, goals, and buyer persona, and it’s important to consider what your business needs, not just what works for a competitor.

Execute Your Plan

It may sound simple – but the number of clients we speak with who wanted to get started but never took any action are more than you can count! And it’s for a good reason, they don’t trust their plan and they worry they’re going to be wasting money – fair enough. That’s why, before you begin executing, you need to set up the right KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) – the measurements and tracking that will help you understand if you’re trending the right way.

For example – we typically start with 2 campaigns at least as this allows us to test and trial the market. Within a week or two, we get rid of the one that didn’t work as well and keep the one that’s working best. We continue to refine it further and further over the coming weeks until we reach a point where we are spending the least amount of money for maximum exposure in the market! This is what optimisation is all about.

Therefore:

• Make a simple (yet well researched) plan
• Set your milestones and completion dates
• Establish your metrics and how you will measure success (ring ring ring!!)
• Continue to iterate and refine your methods (optimise)
• Watch your business grow!

Picking the right strategy to grow your business can feel difficult and time-consuming, especially if you don’t have a background in marketing.  That’s why we see successful construction players (small or large) outsourcing their marketing – for a small fee – to ensure they keep the jobs coming in!

However, we hope you found this guide helpful in pointing you in the right direction when creating your marketing plan. If you’re looking for an extra hand, Consultya would be happy to take your construction business to the next level by giving you expert guidance and working together to come up with a plan that is tailored to you and your needs. And remember – we don’t just come up with plans, we can execute the plan and we deliver real tangible results!

Want to get the conversation started? Schedule a no-obligation free consultation to know your options! Contact Consultya on 0428 20 40 50 or [email protected]. For more information, visit our website www.consultya.com.au.