One of the challenges electrical businesses face, and most other service businesses for that matter, is the need to continuously attract new clients. Being out on the job means you might not have time to physically perform electrician digital marketing.
Looking to scale or increase your revenue? Marketing is proven to grow your business
Another marketing obstacle is: some business owners have been working with traditional marketing methods for so long, that they either don’t see the value in digital marketing or are too intimidated to invest time and effort into it.
As professional digital marketers, we can tell you that a combination of traditional and digital marketing will help your business grow. The electrical marketing ideas below, or strategies if you will, work for local and national outreach, regardless of your business size.
What Is a Marketing Strategy?
A marketing strategy is a process of marketing products or services using the internet and traditional marketing channels. As an umbrella term, it encompasses different strategies (both paid and organic) such as social media marketing, direct mail, billboards, search engine optimization, and email marketing.
It entails everything from determining who your customers are to designing a sales funnel using specific channels to reach your target audience. A marketing strategy helps you understand the dynamics of the marketplace, including consumer behavior, competitors, and how best to attain specific marketing goals.
A high-performance electrician marketing strategy helps you build a great company brand, provide excellent customer service, expand your client base, and increase sales.
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1. Networking, Connecting with Your Target Audience, and Building Brand Identity
Before deciding how to market an electrical business, we always learn about a company’s goals, determine what budget we have to work with, and then develop strategies to attract clients. You can do the same!
First and Foremost, Set Up Your Business Goals
The routine mistake made by most electrician company owners isn’t a lack of goals, but a lack of specificity. Our electrician marketing clients will often tell us they want to increase sales, but they haven’t yet made their objective quantifiable. By how much? 20%? And by when? The end of the quarter? Or the end of the year?
To set realistic goals, use SMART goal-setting strategies: make your goals Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. With this comes setting your marketing budget and determining what kind of contract work you want to attract. Are you looking for residential repair work or large-scale, new construction projects?
Deciding what kinds of customers you want is crucial as it informs your marketing strategy. It’s normal to have more than one type of customer, so long as you have a clear idea of whom the different segments in your target audience are, and can shape marketing campaigns accordingly.
What Are the Good Marketing Goals for Electrician Company?
When devising an electrician marketing plan we ensure they have sound marketing goals, i.e., SMART goals. As an electrician, your goals might look something like this:
- Specific: This month my business will generate 15 qualified leads through Facebook ads.
- Measurable: We’ll analyze the number of customers who visit my business website but don’t call us.
- Achievable: In six months’ time we’ll average 20 new leads per month through social media advertising.
- Relevant: Generating 15 new leads will ensure the business achieves its profit quota for the quarter.
- Time-bound: My business will run Facebook ads for two weeks and analyze the results after one week to make changes if necessary.
If electrician marketing is somewhat unfamiliar to you, it will serve your best interests and budget to hire a marketing professional that understands the digital landscape and can help your business succeed in it.
Achieve SMART marketing goals for your electrical company with the expertise of Comrade Digital Marketing Agency. Schedule a free consultation.
Set up a Marketing Budget
Electrical marketing success ultimately comes down to planning and budget. New companies between one and five years old should spend 12%—20% of their projected gross revenue on marketing, whereas companies that have been in business for more than five years and have some market share, should allocate between 6%-12%.
We know this might seem like a large chunk of change, to put it mildly, but emerging companies (at least online) have to work harder to capture their share of the market. Once you’re more established and your portion of the market is conscious of your brand, you can reallocate marketing spend.
Reach Out to Your Target Audience
Once you’ve developed buyer personas (research-based profiles that depict your target customers) you’ll know which channels are best to reach them. For instance, if you want to work on big commercial projects, you might reach out to building contractors by attending industry events or sending out email marketing campaigns.
Alternatively, perhaps you service a local area and decide to distribute flyers in mailboxes. Best electrician marketing strategies combine traditional and digital tactics. For instance, did you know that 90% of people use online search to look for local businesses? Therefore, it’s a good idea to have a strong digital and physical business presence.
Improve Your Networking
Networking gives you a pool of experts ranging from competitors to clients and allows to you to offer something to them; hopefully in exchange for their contacts, knowledge, or contracts. The biggest perk of networking is boosting your reputation and profile within your industry.
The more others see your face, learn your name, and know what you bring to the table, the more cloud you build. If people are aware you exist, and you’ve made an impact on them, they’re bound to contact you. Think of a potential competitor who might refer a client to you if their schedule is full, for example.
If you want to know how to grow a small electrician—this is definitely one way to raise awareness and broaden your client base.
Build a Strong Brand Identity
A strong brand identity communicates your brand story effectively. It is the outward expression of your business, in terms of trademark, name, communications, and visual appearance. Think of it as the sum of how your brand looks, feels, and speaks to people.
Most businesses hire digital marketing specialists to assist with developing a company’s visual identity and messaging (tone of voice). Broadly speaking, it entails:
- Researching your target audience and your competitors.
- Picking your business focus and “personality.”
- Developing a visual identity.
- Applying your brand across your business and marketing platforms.
While brand development falls under digital marketing, it should be part of a strategic business plan for electricians as it helps with businesses differentiation, connecting with target audiences and creating positive client experiences.
2. Leverage Your Current Customers’ Trust
Customer trust is key to driving loyalty. Developing a healthy relationship through clear communication and actively engaging with your target audience by asking for feedback drives sales.
Track and Analyze Your Client Base
The systematic analysis of customer data helps electrician businesses identify and target their ideal clients, anticipate needs and ensure their service satisfies these needs. This leads to happy clients and increases the chances of them reaching out again.
Clearly understanding your client’s hiring habits empowers your electrical contractor marketing strategy. Gathering qualitative and quantitative data tells you what you need to achieve each revenue and growth goal. While you can use various analytics tools to track customer behavior online, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for feedback too (See: Reviews and Referrals below).
Reach Out to Your Customers and Offer Bonuses
Bonuses or freebies add value to customer interaction and create positive brand feelings. Freebies make your brand look good. To your customers, it indicates you aim to offer value, sometimes at no cost.
In his book “Predictably Irrational,” psychologist and behavioral economist, Dan Ariely states people are more willing to comply when they’re offered something for free. As far as freebies go, you might offer a free check-up or an e-book on how to fix easy and common electrical issues, encouraging those who have electrical issues to call you.
Ask for Reviews and Referrals
Another way to solve the issue of how to market an electrical business is by providing adequate social proof on your social media channels and website. Over 90% of customers read reviews before buying products or hiring services because they want social proof.
How else do you convince a client searching online to hire you if they’ve never used your services before? By incorporating reviews throughout your content strategy and utilizing them as a tactic to connect with customers, you establish your business as trustworthy and engaging.
Direct customer feedback also offers a goldmine of free ideas to help you better shape your service offerings.
Don’t miss out on the power of positive online feedback! Check out our guide to getting quality reviews and start building trust with your audience today.
3. Use Your Vehicles and Facilities for Advertising
Don’t forget about the power branded vehicles, uniforms, and office open days to increase visibility in your local community.
Invite People to Your Office
Other electrician marketing ideas include hosting events at your office. This is a great way to get immediate exposure from the community you serve. The more exposure your company has, the more business opportunities you create.
The purpose is to invite community members, potential customers, and business associates into your place of business. They can meet you and your employees while learning more about your products and services.
In fact, 86% of businesses in the commercial and professional services industry believe in-person events are a critical component of their company’s success.
Create Unique Design and Put It Out There
Service-based businesses have the opportunity to market themselves on staff uniforms and through vehicle wrapping. Individual vehicle advertising generates between 30,000 – 70,000 daily impressions! That means up to 70,000 people are exposed to your businesses as you go about your day.
Based on this statistic alone, it’s easy to see why small and big business owners have company cars. What’s great about it, is once you have your fleet wrapped, you don’t really have to put extra effort into it. Therefore, this type of marketing for electricians provides a really high ROI!
4. Invest in Digital Marketing
The nature of digital marketing allows you to connect with clients on a personal level, breaking down barriers of traditional marketing, and inviting consumers to build a relationship with your business.
Digital marketing strategies include:
- Having a website, so clients can find you online.
- Starting a blog to capitalize on the benefits of content marketing like increased visibility, ranking higher on search engine results and attracting qualified traffic to your website.
- Implementing pay-per-click advertising campaigns.
- Utilizing email marketing to nurture leads at different stages of the sales funnel.
As expert marketers, we have many electrician advertising ideas to help your business grow through digital marketing. If you want to capture your electrician market share, you need to be online!
Conclusion
Knowing how to invest your time and money in your marketing strategy, while still running an electrical contracting business can be stressful. This is where we can help! Comrade Digital Marketing Agency helps service-based businesses streamline their marketing, boost revenue and achieve growth.
Our award-winning electrical contractor digital marketing company will ensure you’re reaching the right customers at the right time with the right budget. Why not contact us today to find out more about how we can market your business online?
Frequently Asked Questions
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Where do you operate?
“Comrade originates in Chicago, but we worked all around the United States. We can help your business grow and increase revenue whenever you are. We have offices across most major cities in the US. For example, we can offer digital marketing services in Baltimore or Seattle. You can even find our internet marketing experts in Atlanta! If you want to know more about our Madison digital marketing agency or find out how exactly we can help you, contact us via the phone or email.
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