10 Electrician Marketing Tips, Ideas and Strategies
May 18, 2021
Are you an electrical contractor who needs to up your marketing and lead-generation game? Here are the electrician marketing fundamentals you need to have in place, along with excellent tips that will give you a competitive advantage.
#1: Develop a conversion-based website
You know you need an electrician website, but don’t forget why.
Your website is there to help you generate leads — to convert. Your website must be designed around that goal.
It’s more important to have your contact information, service areas, value proposition and an estimate form, all visible on your homepage than it is to have a big stock photo of a guy holding some tools.
Sounds logical, but many business owners forget this when they have a website designed.
Our website templates are all conversion-based designs.
Make sure your website is mobile responsive, so it formats correctly on smartphones, where many leads will be viewing your site.
There’s nothing fancy about this, though it’s clean and professional. But it gets the job done. This website converts.
Make sure what you do, where you do it and what you want visitors to do are central to your electrical contractor website design.
#2: Master search marketing
Electricians are not a service people use frequently. Some homeowners and businesses go decades without calling an electrician.
This means that when they do have a need, they’ll go to Google to search for local services. You want to be all over page one. There are three ways to dominate the search results.
The first is pay-per-click advertising. These ads are run through auction-based systems, like Google Adwords and Bing Ads. The main advantage here is that you show in the top positions (reserved for paid ads) and that you can control the ad copy and landing page. For example, you might want to run an advertisement for wiring hot tubs. Your ad and the page it goes to on your website can match that offer.
Next, you need to set up and rank for Google My Business. This is the maps listing and review platform Google uses for geo-targeted searches. It’s a free listing you can optimize with your descriptions and by getting customer reviews.
Then you have the organic website listings. These are also free clicks, with ranking gained by optimizing your website for keywords, gaining links, getting social media traffic and adding content to your site and blog.
If you do this right, you’ll show up in three places on page one:
Pro tip: Sign up for Local Service Ads
In 2017, Google began running a paid advertising platform for home service professionals, called Local Service Ads. Electricians are one of the businesses this type of advertising is most effective for.
LSA is a pay-per-lead platform where rankings are determined by the business’s ratings and reputation. You have to apply and go through a screening process to become a Google Guaranteed Business.
If LSA is running in your area, get in it. It’s based on your Google My Business profile, so sign up for that right away if you’re not on it already.
#3: Build a strong reputation
As you can surmise from LSA, reviews and online reputation play a big role in lead generation for electricians.
Today, most prospective clients will check your online reviews. Their decision on who to hire often rests on the impression reviews create.
Having a great review profile starts with your work quality and customer service. Make earning great reviews a priority, and remember that any time you cut corners, it can affect your business in the future.
But it’s also worth it to reach out to clients to make sure happy people take the time to rate you. We use email follow-ups and have great success getting more reviews.
Templates like this link to review platforms or open a feedback form (if their experience was not good).
If you don’t have many reviews on Google, start there because it will help you with LSA and local organic search. If you have very few reviews or a lot of negative reviews, start using reputation management software to shore up your ratings.
#4: Use videos and visuals
Today’s fast-moving online consumers respond well to videos and visual content.
Start by developing a video that explains the value of your offering quickly. For example:
If you need to explain a service in detail, try using an infographic.
Post your videos on YouTube, and share infographics or other images on Facebook.
#5: Create a Facebook Business Page
Many potential electrician leads are on Facebook, so there’s no reason you shouldn’t be.
Create your Facebook business page. It’s free, and you may find it to be a better source of leads than you’d think.
When you set this page up, you can create a call to action to request a quote, and use Facebook messenger so leads can reach out to you directly. Be responsive to these inquiries — they’re hot leads.
This page is like a second website specifically for Facebook users. It’s another place to add reviews, videos and updated content about your business.
Don’t worry so much about trying to attract followers or get likes to your organic posts. As a contractor business, you won’t get much of that activity.
But people can recommend you, and many leads will look you up on Facebook instead of your website. It’s worth it to be there for them.
#6: Draw people back in with retargeting
You can advertise on Facebook and Google with retargeting banner ads.
Retargeting ads display to people who’ve previously visited your website or Facebook page. These banner ads remind them of your brand and motivate them to come back to your site:
Retargeting works well because people online tend to hesitate and get distracted. These ads are a gentle reminder that they need to hire an electrician and that you’re the electrician for the job.
#7: Partner up
Electricians can get a lot of qualified leads by partnering up with other local contractors, like painters, plumbers, handymen or roofers.
Make an effort to reach out to other local contractors and propose a lead referral program. Meet at local networking events, and connect on LinkedIn.
When you work on a home or business that needs a plumber, refer your partner. Get the ball rolling, and they’ll return the favor.
This is a perfect, low-cost way to generate more leads. There’s no need to do it all on your own.
#8: Maintain a competitive edge
Unless you’re the only electrician in your area, you need to be aware of what your competition is doing and compare your offerings to theirs.
Many contractors ignore this step, but in doing so, they miss out on the steps their leads are taking.
Put yourself in the lead’s position. Compare your offer, reviews and presentation to your competition’s.
Then be honest. Would you choose you?
If not, you can be certain you’re losing leads to competitors.
- Think about developing a more competitive or specialized offer
- Build your review profile so you look like the most reliable electrician in the area
- Make sure your marketing material is professional and communicates clearly
#9: Have an effective intake and phone sales process
If there is anything that’s frustrating for us as a marketing company, it’s when we help an electrician generate leads through the steps we’ve outlined here, then they drop the ball because they’re unresponsive to web inquiries and ineffective at phone sales.
We can generate leads for you, but you have to close the deal. Make sure you get back promptly to forms from Google, Facebook and your website. If you make people wait, they’ll choose someone else.
And work on your sales skills. Your trade is electrician, but you’re also a business person who has to close deals. If you’re a good listener and clear communicator who puts people at ease, you’ll have an advantage over the gruff, aloof contractor people would prefer to avoid.
#10: Use marketing software and services
The days of just putting a listing in the print Yellow Pages are long gone.
Digital marketing opens up a lot of opportunities to connect with leads, but it’s also more complicated and time-consuming. Even smaller local businesses, like electricians, have to use multi-channel tactics and track data on what works.
The truth is most SMBs find this a daunting process.
So get some help. Marketing 360® is an all-in-one marketing platform with an app for everything, from social media management and content marketing to reputation management and email marketing. Plus, we have a team of marketing professionals, including Marketing Success Managers, ad specialists, content writers, social media managers, designers, video pros and more, who can help you take your electrician business to the next level.
It’s a time saver and the best way to ensure a steady flow of leads for your business. See our plans and pricing.
Originally published 4/25/18
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