Essential Marketing Tips for Entrepreneurs: Growing Your Electrical Contracting Business in 2020
As professionals, electricians usually overlook the marketing side of their business, depending heavily on things like recommendations. While in the past, that might have been a great way to drum up business, today’s market is an entirely different affair. COVID-19 has made face-to-face marketing a hazardous matter, so where are electricians to turn for getting in touch with their audience? SEO Tribunal mentioned that in 2019, there were over 5.6 billion searches every day. Electricians and electrical contractors in 2020 need to take stats like these as a guide as to how to tap into the most valuable consumers for their business. Here, we’ll look at the essential marketing factors that electrical contractors should be aware of as they attempt to grow their business in 2020.
Understand Your Business
Social Media Today highlights how important knowing the audience you’re aiming for is to achieve your marketing goals. Throughout the COVID-19 situation, electricians can take the opportunity to develop an idea of their core audience. A brief look at previous clients that you’ve worked for might reveal a trend in who hires you and help you to figure out who’d be the people you want to target with your marketing.
Getting in touch with the people in your core audience is a different matter. You can join local Chambers of Commerce or industry associations to help you connect with people, businesses, and organizations who’d be most likely to need your services. Sponsoring local organizations or events also allows you to benefit from getting your name out there for the audience to see. Attending events or conferences (even remotely!) can help you connect with other people or businesses who may need your services down the road.
Build a Website and Design It for Usability and Engagement
We already touched on how many searches happen online. Putting together a professional website isn’t as tricky as it was in the past. Landing pages and blogs provide useful content to bring in users and keep them coming back.
If you already have a website, you should ensure that the contact page has accurate information. This will help clients connect with you more easily. Additionally, you could hire an SEO consultant to help you make your page more searchable for local clients and so that your business shows up in local maps.
Don’t forget about the design of your website either. A professional-looking website that is easy to navigate and adapts to both mobile and desktop use will boost prospective clients’ confidence in your business’s capabilities even before they speak with you or a representative.
If you haven’t invested in a top-notch website yet, this downtime is the perfect window of opportunity to put one together to prepare for when society gets back on its feet.
Social Media Marketing
SEO and websites are just one of the ways that electrical contractors can connect with their audiences. The problem with this method of contact is that it’s unilateral. Social media allows a business to have more give-and-take with their audience. In times like these, where a physical inspection is potentially life-threatening, social media can serve as a means of interacting with clients safely.
A social media account for your business can give out helpful advice and increase your company’s sense of expertise. Social media accounts can help you promote your business and establish the personal side of your company. More and more buyers and clients are looking to social media to vet service providers, and the same is true for electrical contracting businesses. Referrals may also come from social media so it’s important to keep your accounts up-to-date.
One of the uses of social media that many businesses overlook is garnering customer reviews. By linking to former clients on social media accounts, companies can leverage their experience as testimonials. All of these elements make social media a marketing technique that electrical contractors shouldn’t overlook.
Use Infographics in Your Marketing
People prefer to connect with images, and if you put together an informative infographic, it may get lots of shares. Videos are also good ideas, and educational tutorials will remain relevant for years to come. You can share them on the website blog or social media account, allowing them to get traction among the core audience, directly through the existing network. These bits of content help establish the business as an expert in the field, raising the company’s profile and reputation. It’s important to note that these visuals should be relevant to your core audience — whether they be facility managers, building project managers, or subcontractors. It’s about offering them answers to questions they may have.
EMail Marketing to Pursue Leads
While your website is important to capturing the attention of potential leads, email marketing can help you pursue these clients. Now is a good time to put a strategy in place for email marketing campaigns. You’ll need specific campaigns that are tailored to the various stages of the buying process. Having these strategies in place can help you send targeted offers and relevant information to potential clients.
Don’t Overlook Local Businesses or Partnerships
In tough economic times like these, other local businesses might be a great way to attract new business. As an electrical contractor, looking at related companies such as plumbers or building contractors to partner with is an excellent idea. Clients don’t like having to go to multiple service providers, and offering a package deal works well for both you and your partner’s business, making both supremely attractive for buyers. Everyone likes a package deal, after all.
Additionally, supporting other local businesses by offering them discounts or helping them promote events or services can go a long way in the eyes of potential clients. Plus, the businesses you support may refer others to your services.
A Little Goes a Long Way
As an entrepreneur, you always want to retain customers, where you can. Business 2 Community notes that it costs five times as much to develop a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. Customer retention doesn’t have to be complicated. Giving your customers or clients notes or tokens of appreciation goes quite a way to keep them loyal. People tend to remember the businesses that demonstrate they care. Walden University made mention of how important gifts and promotional items were to building customer loyalty and retaining buyers to small businesses in North Carolina. Electrical contractors should keep this in mind when trying to retain existing customers.
A Changed World Requires New Tactics
It is often said that the only thing constant in the world is change. COVID-19 has created a completely different world, and if entrepreneurs intend to navigate it, they will need new tools. Marketing is no longer a question of doing a good job and getting recommendations from your clients. It’s about actively seeking out those consumers. Your audience needs to know who you are and what value you can provide to their lives. Hopefully, these tips will help you come to grips with the changes in marketing for electricians in 2020 in time for society’s grand reopening.
About the Author: Bobby Lynn is the Owner of LiveWire Electrical, a fully licensed and insured residential and commercial electrical company serving Charlotte, NC and surrounding areas. Bobby has been in the electrical industry for over 20 years and has a vast knowledge of all things electrical.
