How best for businesses working in the trades to rise up and shine above their local competition.

Many businesses rely heavily on word of mouth marketing to generate referrals and bring in more work, but perhaps the industry that relies most heavily on this are tradespeople. Now, whilst we understand that this marketing method is incredibly powerful. There are so many other avenues that need to be explored if a trades business wants to dominate their local market.

In this blog, we’re going to take a look at 5 of the most effective ways for those working in the trades to adapt their marketing strategy beyond the traditional word of mouth and bring in far more clients than their competitors. 

• Make Sure They Have A Website

Websites have all but replaced the traditional shop front as to where customers will see and recognise a business. But, around 40% of small businesses still haven’t invested in a website, and of that 40% one of the most common industries to not have one is those working in the trades business.

Whilst cost can be seen as one of the major factors for not setting up a website, there are now more SME friendly agencies who are able to provide websites for a much lower cost than they have ever been. 

Getting a website allows a trades business to very quickly appear ahead of their competition simply due to the fact that many won’t have a website themselves. Of course, once a website has been created there are many other doors that open but we’ll get to them shortly.

• Google My Business & Directory Listings

Google My Business has become one of the best ways to start appearing locally in front of customers who are searching for a specific business. It’s a simple process to sign up, simply input company information here and wait for a verification letter to be sent to the business address. Once completed the profile can appear in search results & on Google Maps to people in the local area searching for trades services.

Something else that will help put the business in front of people is online directory listings. Whilst it’s uncommon for people to search these directories themselves, listing the business here allows Google & other search engines to better understand where the business is based and what it does. With this new found authority the directory listings can help to push the business’ website higher on search results pages.

Assured Marketing’s Top 3 Directories for Trades Businesses Would Be:

Yell.com

Business Directory UK 

RatedPeople.com

• Build A Strong Social Media Presence

One of the most powerful tools for getting in front of new customers and being able to visually showcase the amazing work being done by tradesmen is Social Media. Facebook & Instagram as platforms are immensely beneficial to trades businesses in generating new leads. A recent study by Simply Business has found that 71% of UK homeowners use Facebook to find construction and trade workers in their local area. 

Using these platforms is simple and costs nothing, making them incredibly profitable avenues for any business. If you’re unsure where to start as a tradesman we recently published an in-depth guide to Facebook Marketing that you can read here.

• Local Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

A website may well be a great place to start in getting the business noticed, but if a trades business wants to dominate its local area then it needs to be above its competitors in every area possible. This means putting some time and effort into SEO to make sure that the business’ website appears above the competition on local search results. 

The first place to start is to ensure that the content on the website is well structured to include relevant phrases (often called keywords) to rank highly for these search terms on Google. For example a landscape gardener in Hull would look to include phrases on their website like “Hull’s premier landscape garden service” so that people searching for these terms will begin to see the business appear in front of them.

Then there are the secondary parts of SEO that include optimising the back-end of a website and generating citations & backlinks to start rising above the competition for these search terms. However, we understand that this can take a lot of time to learn and carry out for any business owner. If you’re willing to learn these skills then there are guides by people like TradesPeople Online available here. Or you can contact a local marketing agency such as ourselves to help carry out the work on your behalf. 

• Generate Reviews/ Feedback & Share It

People want to trust any business before they buy from them. However, the level of trust needed before someone commits to hiring a tradesperson for home improvements is perhaps higher than in most cases. After all, there are many horror stories and ways that jobs can go wrong that put people off hiring people they’ve not used before.

The best way for a trades business to combat this is to make sure they get as much feedback, photos and proof of their outstanding work from their customers. Then by adding this to the website and social media profiles any new prospective customers can have their mind put at ease by the quality that they can see before them. After all, social proofs are by far the best way to convince someone to buy into a business/person. 

So if you’re a tradesperson with a passion for what you do and the drive to build a business that carries authority locally then by utilising these 5 steps alongside carrying out the amazing work you do should stand you in good stead to becoming a well recognised and trusted local business.