If you own a home services business, digital marketing is the best way to get found in today’s crowded marketplace. In fact, online marketing has become so crucial that a whopping 63% of small businesses increased their digital marketing budget in the last year, often hoping to keep enjoying the high ROI of a great campaign.
However, the biggest budget in the world can’t help your brand if you don’t have a plan in place for using it! If you’re throwing your marketing dollars at trends and tactics on a whim, you may as well be throwing money in the trash.
Digital marketing for home services gets much easier once you’ve outlined your path forward. If you haven’t already sat down to create an online marketing plan, here’s what you should consider.
Define Your Digital Marketing Goals
Before you begin structuring your plan, outline your goals. How do you want your home service company to grow?
You may want to get more conversions, build brand recognition, or improve visitors’ website experience, for example. For many home service companies, local SEO is also a crucial focus.
From there, identify the metrics you need to track. Things like bounce rates, conversion rates, and search traffic can help you understand how your brand is performing.
Next, set some SMART goals. Consider your desired timeline, and make sure your goals are attainable within that timeline.
Define Your Target Audience
If you haven’t done so already, define your target audience. Who do you want to attract?
Most home service brands are hoping to attract residential customers within a certain area, but you can often narrow your focus even further with analysis. Look at your past customers and identify the types of people you usually serve. Are these your ideal customers, or are you hoping to attract a new crowd?
As an additional step, consider creating one or more buyer personas. These personas can help you better understand your audience’s needs, goals, and pain points as you move forward. They’re also helpful for audience segmentation.
Analyze the Competition
Competitor analysis is a crucial part of any digital marketing plan.
What audiences do your competitors attract? What marketing strategies are they using, and what are their weak points? What kinds of content do they post, and how do they differentiate themselves?
This analysis can help you find opportunities to help your brand stand out. Identify what sets you apart, including your unique selling propositions. This can help you create and share messaging that better resonates with your audience.
Calculate Your Budget
Take some time to decide on a budget before moving further. The budget for most home service brands will vary by location, goals, revenue, and other factors.
On average, businesses allocate around 8.7% of their total revenue to marketing. Small businesses may spend anywhere from $5,000-$15,000 per month on marketing.
Identify Your Marketing Channels
Based on the goals you’ve established, what marketing channels should you focus on? Most home service businesses will use a range of platforms. Here are some to consider:
- Social media
- Website content/SEO
- Local SEO
- Blogging
- Video Marketing
- Advertising
- Word-of-mouth marketing
- Event marketing
- Affiliate marketing
Some companies also jump onto digital marketing trends like podcast marketing or influencer marketing. However, these channels are often harnessed after you’ve set up a few foundational marketing channels.
For home service businesses targeting clients within a specific area, local SEO is particularly important. This includes setting up local listings and your Google Business Profile.
Outline Your Marketing Strategies
This is where you’ll start deciding on specific tactics to use online.
If you’re focusing on SEO, research the keywords you’ll be using and how you’ll use them across your site. If blogging is one of your goals, what kinds of content strategies will you use? If you’re creating a presence on your social media platforms of choice, decide what kinds of topics you’ll focus on and the tools you need.
Depending on your goals and marketing channels, there are plenty of digital marketing tips for creating powerful strategies. Be sure to do your research!
Create Compelling Content
For most of your marketing needs, you’ll need to generate some type of content to connect with your clients. From written content to images, graphics, logos, animations, and videos, it’s crucial to find ways to catch your audience’s eye. Focus on telling your brand’s story and creating content your viewers will want to engage with.
Don’t forget about the call to action! No matter the content type, the right call to action can help viewers understand their next steps and move down your marketing funnel.
Create an Editorial Calendar
Consistency is the key to marketing. Without consistent efforts, it’s easy for even the best strategy to fall by the wayside. This is especially true for channels like social media, as most platforms’ algorithms only showcase creators who update consistently.
An editorial calendar can help with this. Map out the content you’re hoping to publish in advance. You may want to create a new calendar for each upcoming month or plan your entire year in advance.
Measure and Adjust
Creating a marketing plan isn’t a “one-and-done” procedure. Once you’ve got your strategies in place, you’ll need to track your results.
Measure the metrics of your current campaigns. Are you on track to reach your goals? Have you spotted weak points you need to revisit?
Optimizing on the go should be a crucial part of your marketing efforts. This helps you improve your results, jump onto new marketing trends, and ditch initiatives that aren’t working well.
Get Digital Marketing for Home Services
The right online marketing plan can make or break your home services brand, so make sure you sit down to construct one before you forge ahead! Creating and tweaking this plan can help you monitor and reach your business goals.
If you’re new to the world of marketing, we’re here to help. Optic Marketing Group specializes in digital marketing for home services, and our experts can walk you through every step of the process. Contact us today at 1-844-700-4781 to learn more.