There is a common marketing framework known as the 5 Ps, which are product, price, promotion, place, and people. It’s a framework that guides marketing strategies and keeps anyone working on advertising for a brand in line with the overall vision. In most cases though, this framework is applied to promoting and selling products.
But what happens if you are marketing a service instead?
Marketing for tradies is a pretty different approach than with other brands. Thankfully, there are still ways to apply the principles. Instead of focusing on a consumer-good product, it shifts to selling an experience that you can offer to a consumer.
As a tradesman owning your own service business, it’s vital to know how to market your services so you can attract the right customers and earn their loyalty.
What is a service business?
Unlike products, a service business thrives off the perceived value they’ll provide to customers. It’s about finding a solution to someone’s problem and offering them a service to solve it. The services being provided are intangible, which makes them a bit more complicated to advertise, because it relies on generating enough trust from new customers to try you out.
Tips for service marketing
When building your service or contracting business, there are some key marketing tips to try and implement, which will go a long way to establishing your credibility and earning you customers. These are our leading tips for tradie advertising.
Develop your brand and identity
Your brand identity is your business values, and the mission of what you aim to accomplish. This is all about how you want to service customers, and why. For your own benefit, try to write it out in a clear and concise way so you know exactly who you want to target. Most importantly, you need to figure out how you can help those people most effectively. What are their pain points, and how does your service provide a solution? Figuring that part out is the ultimate key — without that, no service marketing will help.
Build trust
A service business relies on reviews, word of mouth, and support from previous customers coming back time and time again. Words make a huge difference because as a service, you don’t always have physical evidence to support your success, so by focusing on ways to incorporate trust in your brand, it influences customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Building trust can be effectively achieved by showcasing customer testimonials, which demonstrate the satisfaction of your target audience with your services. The greater the number of testimonials, the more likely new customers are to try your services. Additionally, earning service verifications or displaying evidence of your qualifications or registrations reinforces your credibility as a trusted business.
Learn your competition
Understanding the competitors in your local area who offer similar services is essential. You’ll need to analyse what their services are, how they are marketing themselves, and what prices they’re setting their services at. This will help you decide where you can fit in and how to differentiate yourself from each of them. If you have any unique selling points, it’s good to decide what they will be at this stage.
Create an informational website page
Need to find out something you don’t already know? Just google it.
This is how people think, and it is just the same when they aren’t sure who can help them with a leaky pipe or lawn care. Customers looking for specific services will go to the internet first, so having a strong online presence with lots of valuable information will help you attract more customers.
A website is the basis for all digital marketing for tradies. Make sure you put everything that encompasses your business — values, services, prices, reviews, contact information, demo videos. Adding imagery, videos, or links to social media will elevate your site, and give more meaningful touchpoints for customers to check you out. An impactful website should be educational, easy to navigate, and optimised well for search engines.
It’s common for customers to analyse your website against others to help them decide which service fits their needs best, so make sure your page answers all their questions clearly. As a service-based business, putting out a survey to collect information or offering a free demo may help to bring in more leads who could convert to customers.
Promote your service locally
As mentioned, word of mouth is one of the main ways a service business can truly thrive. Get yourself involved in your local neighbourhoods, cities, restaurants — wherever your business fits best. Put your company in a community directory, tape up fliers, or hand out business cards. Start by sharing it with people you know and ask if they can share your services around. By getting yourself connected locally, it will open up a larger network for your business.
Find repeat customers
Loyal customers are the backbone of small businesses. If someone had a positive experience with you the first time, they are more than likely to come back the next time they need another service you offer. People love familiarity and will usually pick a known, trusted service over an unknown, new service. Repeat business gives you a consistent revenue stream, and the more you help a customer out, the more likely they are to recommend you to others.
Unfortunately, not every customer will feel completely satisfied though. While difficult, this can also be a good opportunity to earn their loyalty. If you are able to resolve an issue for a dissatisfied customer promptly and effectively, there’s a good chance you’ll have generated a good reputation for your customer service and care. Getting everything right from the start is great, but correcting an issue and flipping their response can sometimes be even better.
Add a personal touch
Customers want to connect with you, so don’t let your marketing campaign come across as one-sided. They want to get to know you and understand your value. Make sure to not just follow how larger corporations are marketing and instead, stay true to you.
This is particularly important if your focus is very local. Build an authentic presence and reputation that your community will know you for, and when it comes time that they need some help, you’ll be right at the top of their mind.
Don’t spend too much
When you're just starting with your business, avoid spending your entire budget on costly ads that deplete quickly. Without sufficient funds to support them, they won't be as effective. Instead, consider starting with smaller marketing and promotion avenues, like flyers, A-frames or a limited budget for digital ads. It's a more strategic approach for turning a profit and sustaining your business. Once you’ve got the consistency and the revenue, then you can turn to real money makers like radio and TV for your tradie ads.
Effective marketing is important for service businesses in order to compete with your competitors. It can go a long way if created effectively. Try out the tips above and see what kind of impact they can make.
Mira helps tradies to streamline their business services and optimise their client bookings. Get started today.