When the topic of social media marketing comes in any group of contractors, the feedback you’ll hear ranges a distance greater then from earth to the moon.
You’ll have some contractors saying a it’s a waste of time, while others swear that it’s the bloodline of their business.
So what’s the truth?
No matter your trade, social media is a key element of your marketing, that should not be excluded.
And what explains the radical differences in experiences?
Most contractors don’t have a big picture objective to their social media, nor a practical guide line to their social media efforts. This leaves them making random posts, sporadically, which generally results in failed efforts while a few people get lucky.
If you want long run, strategic success keep reading. I’m going to explain the 3 ways in which you should be using social media in a chronological order.
Before we go any further... what do I know about social media for contractors? I'm an exterior contractor located in SWFL, and my success with Facebook Advertising has been featured on one of the top rated marketing podcasts on Itunes; Perpetual Traffic.
The Background Check
Nearly all consumers use social media as a 'background check. Think about you own use when shop for anything. After discovering a possible option, for a large purchase, you Google the company. Home service customers do the same thing.
They want to see that the company they are considering
is an active company.
is actively making customers happy.
Is proactive with their reputation.
A company with no social media presence will generally be axed. Passing the background check doesn't require a significant effort. A simple post every week on Facebook is enough to check off the list above.
EVERY contractor should be doing this.
Going beyond this point involves paying for ads. Yes, you might get some organic exposure and a few shares, but largely as all social media platforms are driving businesses into paying for exposure.
While you do hear success stories of an organic post that 'viral', those are few and far between. And even fewer for a local service business as...
A) Our content is only engaging to a small audience of prospective customers.
B) Even if you do create something that is 'hyper-engaging' on social media, it doesn't hit an audience of people that are likely to buy. For example, I once ran a post with a dog in a screen enclosure. It got a bunch of quick likes and shares, but no business.
Quite frankly, you're much better off spending the $5/day I outline in the next section then trying to find content that will go viral.
Relationship Building
Relationship building with social media takes the 'background check' a step further. Rather than just publishing a little bit of content to be found, relationship building proactively uses paid ads on social media (namely Facebook and instagram) to get your content in front of leads and past customer. The budget is small for this with $5/day being suitable to nurture up to 2000 leads + past customers (rule of thumb).
Ready to have a company create the content for your each week, and do this relationship marketing thing for you, along with blogging and email marketing... all for a simple flat rate fee? Check out our services (The Connected Contractor).
Essentially you want to be the company that pops up in your customers feedback as soon as they request an estimate, and stay there for live. To pull this off you will need to use Facebook the pixel to identify an audience of those in your sales process and past customers.
This content should build trust and authority by showing projects that were recently completed, and will inspire your past customers to purchase other services you offer.
This will lead to:
Turning more leads into sales (at higher prices.
Earning referrals and repeat business from past customers.
Now to be effective with this, you must always have new, unique, and different ads. You don't want your advertising targets to be saying "eh here's this flooring company ad again". With that, different people will respond to different ads. So use the ability to change up your ads easily to your advantage! As a general rule of thumb create 3 new ads each week.
This is currently the biggest opportunity in contractor marketing. Reaching this audience is low cost (relative to new lead generation), and is wildly effective at turning 'tire kicking' leads into premium customers and earning coveted repeat and referral business.
Ready to have a company create the content for your each week, and do this relationship marketing thing for you, along with blogging and email marketing... all for a simple flat rate fee? Check out our services (The Connected Contractor).
Any business that is paying for advertising and looking to grow should be doing this. Within 6 months of implementing this in my business our ultimate closing rate (no qualifying, purely leads divided sold count) increased over 40%. One thing we often over look is just how much 'fall off' there is in our sales process.
Lead Generation.
This is the one that gets everyone excited!
Unfortunately I'm going to burst a lot of bubbles here. Generating leads on social media is not easy, and requires extreme patience. Results can also vary wildly by try trade and location.
My suggestion on this is to create 1 new video per week following my framework for a lead generation video. Then test it with a small audience within 2 miles of the job site. Spend $10/day on it.
Now We Have Context!
Without context you'll be taking advice from others who are aimlessly pulling levers with no shot at a measurable, consistent return. You'll hear feedback from people trying to get leads while being weak on the 'background check'.
There's really no option for not 'doing' social media, it's a must do. But to what extent is the question you need to decide for yourself. Follow the objectives above in order!