Investing in your digital marketing strategy is vital for home services businesses. Nowadays, your online presence is often the first interaction potential customers have with your brand.
Optimizing these channels–including social media, paid ads, directory listings, and search engines like Google–to attract and convert prospective customers is key to your success. Especially as more and more consumers crave on-demand and online access to businesses.
Here are five actionable strategies to enhance your digital marketing efforts:
- Invest in search engine optimization for your website
- Diversify where you place your online ads
- Prioritize advertising for customers ready to book your services
- Embrace new technologies like artificial intelligence
- Measure the ROI of your advertising campaigns
1. Optimize Your Website for Online Search
There are two main ways to make sure people find your business when they're searching for the services you provide: you can pay to show up in search results, or you can set up your website in a way that search engines naturally want to show it for free.
What Is Paid Search?
Paid search is a type of digital marketing where you pay for users to see and click on your website links. There are two primary types of paid search ads: pay-per-click (PPC) and local service ads (LSA).
What Is Organic Search?
Organic search is all the links that search engines like Google show for free when you type in a search query. Links at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) have typically gone through a process called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to make them show up higher in the list.
Getting your business noticed online involves a mix of both paid and organic strategies. Paid search gets your website seen quickly for a cost, while organic methods like SEO and content marketing take longer but build trust with consumers.
Optimizing your home service business’ website for organic search includes publishing content that your prospective customers are interested in, and using the words and phrases they use when typing in search queries. For example, someone with a burst water pipe might type into Google “emergency plumber in Boston, MA” to find plumbers in their town that offer emergency plumbing services.
IN ACTION:
If you wanted your business to show at the top of the SERP for that search, you would publish a page on your website about emergency plumbing services that includes the locations you operate in. You might also publish a blog post titled “What to do if you have a busted water pipe” with instructions on what consumers should do in that situation (including calling an emergency plumber like you) that links to your emergency plumbing service page.
There are many ways to optimize your website for organic search, some more technical than others. The main goal is to address common questions or concerns from your target customers on your website. By doing so, you not only build trust with potential customers but also gain favor with search engines, leading them to showcase your content without cost. After all, free publicity is the best kind of publicity.
2. Diversify Where You Target Potential Customers Online
Not all of your prospective customers hang out in one place online. Some of them are on Facebook, while others enjoy LinkedIn. Some look at directories like Angi when they need home services, while others go straight to Google or Bing.
What are online marketing channels?
Online marketing channels are the online spaces where businesses talk about their brand and product or service to potential consumers. Channels can be organic (meaning you don’t pay to reach people), paid (where the channel is only available for a fee), or a little of both.
To get noticed by consumers, you need to be where they are. Considering 70% of consumers prefer multiple communication channels, it’s important to have a presence across multiple touchpoints. Diversifying your channels keeps you top-of-mind for prospective customers who may not need your services right now, but will in the future.
IN ACTION:
A pest control company might pay for Google ads during the spring and winter seasons as prospective customers start noticing more pest activities, while also creating social media posts about “the best ways to pest-proof your house,” running television ads, and sending email reminders about routine pest control services.
Engaging with customers and prospective customers in multiple channels increases the chances that they remember your name when they’re ready and searching for the services you provide.
3. Serving the Right Material to Convert Potential Customers into Loyal Customers
Getting a prospective customer's attention is one thing, but turning them into an active customer requires more. Once you have their attention, you need to move past flashy content and focus on convincing them that you’re the right business for the job.
This involves providing robust service descriptions on your website that clearly outline what you offer. Additionally, FAQs addressing common questions or concerns, along with testimonials from satisfied customers, can be highly effective.
Your goal is to remove any doubts or hesitations within the critical four-hour window when 54% of consumers make decisions. We recommend dedicating 80% to 90% of your content marketing effort to developing and optimizing this type of content. Doing so not only helps convert engaged users into loyal customers but also encourages them to spread the word about their positive experiences with your business.
4. Embracing New Technologies to Make Your Life Easier
Change can be scary. New technology can be scarier. But it can also make your life easier if you use it in the right ways.
New AI technologies are changing the way consumers want to search for and interact with home services businesses online. Rather than avoiding them altogether, consider leveraging AI tools to streamline administrative tasks and increase productivity.
AI-driven chat solutions and booking tools are among the simplest AI technologies to integrate into your home services website. These tools can handle basic inquiries, manage administrative tasks, and facilitate booking appointments.
IN ACTION:
A roofing company adds an AI-powered chat like Scorpion’s AI Chat to their website. Because it's powered by artificial intelligence, it can help guide prospective customers to book consultations around the clock.
5. Leveraging Data to Identify New Marketing Opportunities
So you’re spending all this money on paid marketing channels and taking the time to optimize your organic marketing efforts. How do you know if it’s actually working?
Reporting is one of the most challenging aspects of marketing. This is partly because many business owners don’t know what numbers they should be watching and partly because they don’t have time to keep an eye on their dashboards.
The number one metric that determines the success or failure of your home services marketing strategy is your return on investment. Simply put, if the time and money you invest in gaining new customers exceed the revenue they bring in, it's time to rethink your approach. However, calculating this can be tricky.
Your data is siloed in different marketing systems like your field management platform, your email platform, Facebook, X (Twitter), Angi, HomeAdvisor, and more. Integrating digital tools into your daily operations makes it easier to track these numbers, so you can clearly see what’s working and what’s not.
IN ACTION:
An HVAC company is running a promo using Google Ads, Facebook Ads, organic Facebook posts, and email marketing that all drive traffic to their website. They’re tracking their cost per lead (CPL) for their Google Ads in Google and their CPL for their Facebook Ads in Facebook. They’re also tracking click-through rates (CTR) from their emails to their website in their email management platform. Once users are on their website, they’re monitoring how many bookings they receive through another platform.
Collecting all their data with a singular dashboard would allow them to see which of their four channels was driving the most bookings so they’d know where to spend more of their time and money.
Connecting data from different channels helps you identify which marketing activities are driving the most value for your business.
Mastering Digital Marketing for Home Services
First impressions are everything. More often than not now, your consumers’ first impression of your business happens online. You need to optimize your digital channels to put your business in the best light.
Not sure how to get started? Scorpion provides digital marketing services custom-built for home services professionals. Schedule a consultation today to learn how we can help. And while you're at it, be sure to download The Scorpion Pulse for more valuable digital marketing insights for home services businesses.
