Want to learn how to market a service business for free (or really cheaply?) We’re here to help with 5 expert tips to market your service business. Learn how to get more work and get the phone ringing- fast!
Tip #1 Turn your home service site into a money-making machine
Does your Home Service website have these 7 money-making elements? Here are the 7 things that will make your home service website into a hardcore, money-making machine, resulting in more calls, jobs, and money every month.
1a- An easily visible phone number
Make it easy for your customers to get in touch with you by making sure your phone number is “upper right, big and bright.”
1b- Personal photos of your team
Whenever possible, use actual photos and videos of your team instead of stock photos. This not only makes your site more personal but assures your customers – by showing them exactly who is coming into their homes to provide them with service.
1c- Clearly list the services you provide
Clearly list the services you provide on your website -as well as on your homepage – so customers can easily understand if you’re a good fit for their needs.
1d- Clearly list your service areas
Make sure to clearly list the areas that you service. This lets potential customers know if you’re local and able to come to their location to provide service.
1e- Add an Online Booking Form
Some customers will always prefer to book services online.
Make sure to add online booking to your website, Facebook, or Yelp page to help you make money while you sleep and market your service business (Workiz can easily help you do this.) This way, when a customer schedules a job, it’s automatically added to your live schedule.
1f- List Your Hours of Operation
Make it easy for your customers to understand when they can reach you. Clearly list your office hours and whether or not you provide emergency services. (Acute Heating and Cooling do an excellent job of this.)
1g- Show Positive Customer Reviews
Wondering how to market your service-based business? Make it easy for your customers to see your positive reviews. While it’s one thing to toot your own horn, positive reviews let your customers do the talking for you and create trust – and help you make sales.
Tip #2 Make money in your sleep with Online Booking (even if you don’t have a website)
Many customers want the convenience of booking a service online without having to call and talk to anyone. They might be booking services at work, or maybe they’re just more comfortable finding services online. Marketing your service business was never so easy. Give your customers what they want – online booking – whether or not you have a website. Online booking = money while you sleep and is a must if you want to grow your service business.
With Workiz field service software, your customers can book online services from your website, Facebook page, Yelp page, etc. This way, when a customer books a job, it’s automatically synced with your business calendar and added directly to your job schedule.
Here’s how it works:
- Add a booking form to your website, social media page, or Yelp page.
2. Let your customers book a service 24 hours online.
3. New jobs are automatically added to your business schedule in Workiz = money while you sleep.
Tip # 3 Know where to advertise
Until you’re able to operate just off of repeat clients and word-of-mouth recommendations, you need to get the word out by marketing your service business. So, you’ll need to invest a few bucks into advertising (that is, if you want to – we also have free advertising options included in this list.)
Here are your options:
3a. Your personal website:
Your site should look professional, have your number easily visible as well as your services, your areas of coverage, positive customer reviews, and an online booking form.
Building a professional-looking website with SEO in mind is an investment upfront but is well worth it in the long run. A site on Google will start to rank after a few months, and you can advertise your website on Facebook, Google, and paid ad channels that link back to your site.
3b. Google Ads:
After you’ve built your website with SEO in mind, your Google ads should lead back to your website. If your website is built with customer conversions (=sales) in mind, it’ll encourage customers to call your business or book a service with your Workiz online booking form.
3c. Lead Generation Sites: (Yelp, Home Advisor, Angie’s List, etc.)
There are a ton of lead generation sites that will help your home service business find more work (here’s a great list of over 50 to get you started.)
With lead generation sites in general, it really depends on who you ask. Some service pros have a positive experience with one and a negative experience with another.
The short answer: There’s no other way to learn how to market a service business than by actually doing it!
You’ll need to do your research, test the lead gen site you’re interested in, and measure your results (you‘ll learn more about this in Tip #4 in this article.) This is the only way you’ll know if a lead gen site is “worth it” or not – otherwise, it could end up leaving you in the negative.
3d. Craigslist and Groupon:
Many service businesses start by listing their services on Craigslist on Groupon. Craigslist is free to list your services but attracts price-sensitive customers (i.e., customers that want a deal.) Groupon is free to list your services, but they collect 50% of the sale of each voucher – and that’s a whole lot of coin. So, just keep that in mind if you’re interested in going this route.
3e. Facebook Organic and Paid Ads
If you have a lot of followers on Facebook, you can start off by posting Facebook organic posts (posts on your business Facebook page that go out to your following, which are free.)
But, if you’re looking to reach a broader audience and get new leads, you’ll need to throw a little money into your Facebook posts on their ad platform. You don’t need to be an expert or hire anyone to help you with this – here’s a great free guide to help you get started on your own!
3f. Yard signs and truck wrap-ups
Truck wrap-ups can bring in thousands of dollars of revenue for your service business. The wrap-up doesn’t need to be fancy or cost tons of money. But, you’ll need to make sure your business name, website, and phone number are large and clearly visible.
Tip #4 Measure your advertising and stay in the green.
If you’re in the advertising game, you have to measure your results, or you could be out thousands of dollars every month! With Workiz field service software, you can easily do this. With Workiz, you can purchase a unique phone number for every ad source or campaign and measure your results.
Let’s say you’re advertising on Google PPC. When the phone starts to ring from your Google PPC ad, someone in your office gets it, and a job is created.
In Workiz, the job will automatically show the source it came from (in this case, Google PPC.) You’ll also get reports which will show you very clearly how much you spent on your Google PPC campaign, how many jobs you got from this PPC campaign, and how much profit you made from it.
This lets you decide if it’s worth it for you to kill the campaign or double down on it.
Here’s how to track your advertising campaigns with Workiz:
1. First, purchase a Workiz number and assign it to each ad campaign.
2. Next, get the results from your advertising, including the ad source, number of jobs completed as a result of the ad, and profit or loss amount.
3. Now, take a good look at your results.
See what’s working and what’s not, and decide which ad sources to continue investing in and which to kill.
Tip #5 Grow your service business with positive client reviews
Here’s how customer reviews work. Positive customer reviews work to “borrow trust” from past clients – and prove to future clients that you’re right for the job. Getting customer reviews from happy clients is also a must if you want to grow your service business.
Customers will always stop to read customer feedback on your website, social media page, Google Local profile, or Yelp profile. This means you’ll need to make it a priority to collect those reviews.
Workiz makes it really easy to do this with automatic notifications.
Here’s how:
1. Automatically send a review request to a customer after a job is done by creating a customer notification in Workiz (or you can turn this off and manually send this to customers that you’re certain to have had a positive experience.)
2. This sends the customer a message by email or text message that looks something like this. You can customize the text and the link to your website, Facebook page, or your Yelp profile.
3. Sit back and wait for the positive reviews to roll in.
Important: You’ve gotta handle negative customer reviews
While it’s important to collect positive customer reviews, it’s equally important to respond to any negative customer reviews that you receive. If you don’t respond to negative customer complaints, it looks like the customer was correct, or your business doesn’t care enough to respond. And you don’t want that…
(Here’s a great blog post on how to respond to negative customer reviews if you need help with that.)
Next steps: Getting started marketing your service business
There’s no other way to say it – you must learn how to market a service business if you want to get more work. Unless you’re swimming in word-of-mouth referral, you’re going to need to spread the word about your service business.
The best way to do this is by:
1. Building your online presence with an awesome business website that’s built to convert.
2. Letting customers book jobs online with an online booking form (which you can use whether or not you have a website.)
3. Trying out a few Advertising Channels and Lead Generation Sites
4. Measuring the Results of Your Ad Campaign
5. Growing your service business with positive customer reviews.
Need more assistance getting started?
No problem! We love helping out service pros. Let us know if you need any assistance with any of these tips by reaching out to us or signing up for a live demo.
At Workiz, we’re experts at getting your service business streamlined, and we’re happy to help you implement any of the marketing tips mentioned above.
