This is a list of obvious yet majorly overlooked ways to market your Trades business and get more clients. Many tradesmen out there struggle to get work in the door so I've decided to put out a blog post giving you a list of solid actions that you can take to get more work in the door for your trades business.
Not all of the ways to get work in the door listed in this blog post are going to be free, some of them will cost you a few quid as they're streams of advertising and marketing.
Its also important to note that just because something didn't work for you in the past doesn't mean it wont work for you now.
So without further ado let's get into it.
Table Of Contents:
1. Online Marketing:
In this section we're going to run through all of the ways that you can get work in the door using the internet and social media profiles belonging to you and your business.
1. Do You Have A Website?
Your website is a great place to show and tell your prospective customers what types of services you offer. It also shows that you take your business seriously which in turn shows a level of authority to your prospect clients.
2. Are You Running Google Ads
Sometimes your website will struggle to get to the top of Google search engine and that’s ok, this is where Google Ads can come in and help you get in-front of your prospects.
Google ads is a paid platform which allows you to target specific keywords that a prospective client might type into Google in order to get a job done.
i.e. “Gutter Cleaner’s Clondalkin”
3. Facebook Ads
Running ads on Facebook is a great way to generate a bit more work for your trades business. Almost everybody is on social media nowadays and using Facebook Ads you can push out an advertising campaign to your ideal customer.
Facebook Ads can be a bit tricky so what I tell my clients to do is boost their most successful organic post from their business page and see how it goes.
You can get in to a lot more finer details by using the Facebook Ads centre and this is something that I run through with my clients in our 52 Steps To A Better Business mentorship group.
4. Are you organically posting what you do on your Facebook page?
Posting organically on your Facebook page is a great way to keep followers of your page up to date with your business.
What I find works best is posting images of your latest work and giving it a short caption about what the client wanted, what you’ve done, how well the job went and how the customer was satisfied.
5. Running Promotions
Offering discounts for short periods of time can help you fill up your pipeline during a dry patch where you have no work on.
What I tell my clients to do is value add instead of offering discounts.
This is where you'll throw in a bit of extra work for no extra charge but still charge full price for the initial work.
For example if you're a painter struggling to get a bit of work in the door, you could promote something like "Book your Living Room decorating job Today and get the Box Room painted free".
6. Instagram
Much like Facebook, Instagram can be a great place to show off some of your latest work.
Just remember to give the images a good caption before uploading them so your prospect client knows what they’re looking at when they see your product/service on their Instagram feed.
7. Sell Your Stuff groups on Facebook
Buy and sell groups are all over Facebook and are a great place to promote your service’s.
Find your local buy & sell group on Facebook and join it as your business profile.
Just make sure you check the groups community guidelines before you start posting as some groups may not like business’ posting about their services in the groups.
And make sure you do not spam the groups with posts about your business.
Spamming can damage your reputation in local groups and cause prospect clients to avoid dealing with you.
8. Facebook Competition
Running competitions on Facebook is a simple enough thing to do but it is not free.
Over the years I have ran many Facebook competitions and giveaways to drive more traffic to my Facebook account and get more followers on my page and it worked a treat.
One of the main competitions I ran was a giveaway of a Drill to anybody that liked the post, tagged a friend in the comments and shared the video to their own page.
You can easily run a competition giving away something to your prospect clients but I believe it’s always best to giveaway something related to your product or service.
For instance, if you run a Door company you might run a competition giving away a new hall door to somebody that Likes, Comments and Shares your video.
If you have a small audience you might want to run an Ad on your competition video because you want to get as many eyeballs on your company as possible.
The Ad doesn’t have to run constantly, once it gains enough traction from the Ads you can stop running the Ad and allow the snowballing effect to take place.
2. Traditional Marketing:
In this section we're going to take a look at traditional means of marketing your business to prospective clients.
9. Are You Using Flyers?
Flyers can be very hit and miss but if you know how to target them correctly you may be able to drum up a bit of extra work for your business.
We will touch on this when we speak about – Door to Door Sales
10. Local Trade Stores
Getting permission to leave a couple of flyers or business cards in your local trades store can be a great way to drum up a bit of extra work.
You may end up getting a call from another tradie that needs a hand finishing a job or better yet a normal Joe Soap that walked in off the street and was planning on going D.I.Y until he saw your flyer.
11. Sponsoring Local Events/Clubs
Sponsoring local events is a great way to get some good will with people in the local community. If you are willing to sponsor an event the local community puts on (which sometimes comes with your brands logo being displayed around the event) or even sponsor the local sports team be it GAA, Soccer, Rugby etc. it can be a great way to get your business’ name out there.
Much like having your van wrapped with your company name, you never know who might see your company name and come to you to get a job done.
12. Business Cards
When was the last time you handed out your business card to somebody?
Business cards tend to be something that people don’t just throw out and hold on to for a bit longer than say a flyer.
13. Local Newspapers
Using your local newspapers for advertising or getting a feature done on your company can get a bit of work for your business from residents in your local area.
When I ran my building company insurance works we used to use our local paper to get a bit more work in the door for ourselves. Sometimes it would work and other times it won’t but it is always worthwhile giving a new way of marketing a go.
14. Events and Exhibitions
Events and Exhibitions can be pricey and you will have to physically go to an event (in some cases) with an example of your product or service and ready to talk to prospects and promote your goods and services to them.
Just be sure to bring lots of promotional materials such as Business Cards, Flyers and other promotional gifts to giveaway if you have them i.e. branded pens, branded notepads etc.
15. Radio Ads
When I was running my building company we used to use radio ads and I found that they worked quite well to get us some extra work in the door.
Nowadays radio Ads aren’t as expensive as they used to be and a lot of radio companies here in Ireland tend to do good package deals for their radio Ads.
3. Cold Call Marketing:
In this section although we say Cold Call Marketing because we are mostly relying on using your mobile phone for this, however, it's not cold calling in the traditional sense. We will be mostly ringing people that you know and already have some form of relationship with.
16. When Was The Last Time you’ve Been In Contact with Your Past Clients?
As we all know, people that bought from you in the past are more likely to buy from you again, but when was the last time you checked in with a past client?
Reaching out to a past client and reminding them that their boiler may need a service soon etc. can be a great way to get a bit more work in the door for your trades business.
17. Ring other tradesmen you know
Some Tradesmen will have way too much work on to fullfil their pipeline and may be willing to give some work over to other tradesmen they know and trust in their field.
It is always a good idea to have a few numbers handy that you can send a message to when work starts drying up for your business.
18. The Contacts In Your Phone
Your phone most likely has hundreds of numbers in it and some of those numbers will be people that will be willing to give you a bit of work if they need it done.
What I tell my clients is make up a list of people in your contacts that you know would possibly give you a bit of work and just give them a call. You never know who has a job coming up.
19. Referrals and Commissions
Referrals especially if you have done a great job for someone is always going to be the best way to get new customers in the door and fill up your pipeline. But how do we get these new customers in the door in the first place?
A simple tactic that you can use is offer a small commission to customers that refer you on to your next client. Doing this will entice your past clients to pass your details on to their friends and family looking to get similar work done and as we all know, word of mouth is the best form of marketing.
20. Word of Mouth
At every opportunity tell everybody exactly what you do.
When I was growing up I was always taught, “Never tell anyone your business”, but now I believe that is the exact opposite of what you should do.
Every person that knows who you are and what you do is 1 person more that knows about you and your services and they might contact you themselves for a job to be done or pass your information on to somebody that needs a job done.
21. Door-To-Door sales
When working in a specific area you should be knocking into people and having a chat with them and offering a small discount when you’re already working within an area.
This works great with handing them your flyer also after your brief but informative conversation.
22. Local Authorities
Reaching out to your local authorities such as your local county councils, can be a good way to get a bit of work sent your way from them.
For instance one of my clients who is a horticulturalist and runs his own flower gardening business has a contract with his local county council to supply and fit flowers all around his local town.
For a list of your Local Authorities go to:
23. Complementary businesses
Joining forces with a complimentary business is always a great way to keep your pipeline of work filled.
All you need to do is find a business that is complimentary to your business, speak to the owner and agree a deal that you will send work his way if he sends work your way.
For instance, let’s say you’re a a painter, if you join forces with a plasterer who will recommend you to his clients you are in with a chance to get every job that he gets without putting in much marketing effort.
You can do this even if you can’t send work back their way, but just make sure that you have some sort of arrangement in place even if it’s just giving the other business owner a small commission for putting you on to the job.
4. Display Marketing:
24. Is your logo on your van?
Adding your logo to your van is a great way to advertise your company while out on the job or even just out travelling to a job.
You never know who might see it and decide to give you a bell because they too need your services.
25. Bandit Signs/Gorilla Marketing – **This can get you fines**
Running around town putting up signs and stickers without permission is an illegal form of advertising. Some people still continue to do this type of marketing but it can get you fines.
Check out this interview where Mattress Mick tells me about his former Gorilla Marketing campaigns:
5. Other ways:
26. Subcontracting for other people
Subcontracting is something that many tradesmen do to get a bit of work but I always think you need to be cautious of this.
Look at the bigger picture and see if it’s definitely going to be worth your while to subcontract onto a job before you do it.
27. Becoming A Specialist
A secret key to opening the door to more work for yourself can sometimes be specialising in an area around your work instead of being a generalist.
As a generalist you can spread yourself too thin by trying to do too many tasks all at the one time. The main issue with generalist work is that it doesn’t usually pay very well.
As a specialist however, you can go after the exact work that you know makes you a good profit and focus all of your time and energy into producing a great result for your clients. Once you have a name as Mr. (Insert Your Specialty) you will find yourself getting more work through non-commissioned referrals and word of mouth.
Conclusion
If you've given all of these tips in this article a go and you're still not succeeding with your business there may be something more seriously wrong going on with your business that just hasn't come to surface yet.
If you find yourself still struggling with getting your business to operate properly I would highly suggest taking a look at my 21 Day Business Turnaround business training.
The 21 Day Business Turnaround business challenge is a 21 day intense business training program where we deliver a video to you at 5am every morning for 21 days teaching you everything you need to know about running a successful Trades Business.
If you would like to sign up to my 21 Day Business Turnaround business challenge mentorship course click the button below:
See You At The Top.