The Ultimate Guide to Marketing for Contractors

Google Business Profile Optimization

Do you know why SEO by itself isn’t as effective as it used to be, especially for small local businesses? Business profiles are why. This is the big box of company listings that shows up in search results above all of the company websites. Its the reason that a website ranking #1 for a term that is searched 3,500 times per month, only gets about 1,500 visits per month as a result of that search. Don’t get me wrong, those visits are important but where are the rest going? They are going to companies that have a high quality Google Business Profile. How should you optimize your GBP to ensure its driving leads?

• Make sure it’s complete – Fill out every section, including your services, business hours, adding photos, and make sure you have a detailed business description that aligns with what someone might search when looking for your services. 
• High Quality Content – I can’t stress enough how important it is to invest in content and make sure it stands out. You should upload images of completed projects, team members on the job, and more. Use high quality, professional grade if possible, content to showcase your work and your crew. 
• Keep Contact Info Consistent – Ensure that the business name, address, and phone number (NAP) listed on your Google Business Profile is the same information used in any other local directories or company pages. 
• Regular Updates – you can update your profile with “posts” similar to a social media page. Do this regularly, at least once a week, to showcase your skills and give potential clients something to be impressed by. 
• Reviews – lastly and arguably the most important thing would be your reviews. You need to put a review collection process in place so that you are regularly getting reviews from happy clients. This can be as simple as an email campaign going out to customers after their project completes, or take it a step further and have someone designated to calling customers after their project is over and getting the review personally. Google has put out statements before saying that their algorithm favors companies with a lot of positive reviews so not only will it impress potential clients, but it impresses the algorithm as well. 

Social Media Marketing for Contractors (Organic Growth)

Social media is an excellent way for contractors to build brand awareness, impress potential clients, and above all else, drive leads into your inbox. Ensure that you put out high quality content that will shine a professional light on your company. Blurry cellphone photos with captions that are misspelled or poorly written is not going to be a good first impression on a potential customer. For most contractors I recommend using Facebook for a direct to consumer approach. Engaging in local groups, sharing project updates, and even running the occasional promotion are good ways to leverage this platform. If you’re a contractor that wants to market to other businesses then I recommend LinkedIn. To be clear, I don’t recommend messaging as many people as possible and bugging the crap out of them. It doesn’t look good for you or your brand so don’t do that, and don’t let anyone tell you that it works. Instead, generate content that resonates with the types of companies you want to target, position yourself as an industry leader with experience and knowledge that they can come to when they have a need for your services. 

Content Ideas:

• Project spotlight – some before and after photos or video walkthroughs of a completed project are a great way to engage your followers and get them commenting. If you have someone that doesn’t mind being on camera and talking about the project, even better. People will engage with content more if there are other people in it. 

• Educational posts – This could be something along the lines of DIY tips from a home improvement company, maintenance advice from HVAC experts, etc. The idea is to provide useful information that a client will remember when the time comes that they need your services. 

• Testimonials – Post reviews that clients give you to show that you provide results that make your customers happy. Written reviews are great but if you have a customer that is willing to give you a video testimonial, those can be much more engaging, so get them when you can. 

• Behind the scenes – Photos of your crew working, team introductions, and progress photos/videos are also great ways to engage with your audience. 

A lot of people say that consistency is key with social media. While I agree with that for the most part, I also think that consistency paired with quality is the best strategy. One high quality post with solid content is going to produce a lot more traffic than multiple posts that are made out of some graphic on Canva with info that nobody cares about. Invest in a professional photographer/videographer or put a little money into a decent camera for yourself if outsourcing it isn’t in the budget yet. What you put out there reflects on your company, make sure it reflects well. 

Google Pay Per Click (PPC) ads are the most common type of Google Ad, but recently they also started offering Local Search Ads for company types that qualify for it. While organic marketing like SEO and social media can take time before you see results, paid ads are a good way to get fast results by putting your business in front of people actively searching for your services. 

• Keyword Research – similar to SEO you will pick out terms that you want to target with your ads and then when someone searches those terms, you show up at the top. You should use the Google Keyword Planner for this just like you would SEO. Try to identify terms that have a low bid price but still get searched regularly, especially if you’re on a small budget. This video by Google Ads expert, Ben Heath, gives some great information on how to do Google Ads the right way when working with a small budget.

• Goals & Conversion Tracking – I’ve never seen great success with a general google ad campaign “to just see what happens” and you send people to your website’s home or contact page. You might get lucky and get some leads out of it but I prefer to have a specific goal for a campaign (i.e. a general contractor wants to book more new home construction projects). Once you have a goal in mind its time to do the keyword research and find things that people looking for your target service would search for. In addition to strong keyword research I would also create an extremely relevant landing page that has relevant information, photos, and testimonials specific to the service we are trying to target. You can also give these landing pages their own contact form which you can easily use to track the effectiveness of your ad along with Google’s conversion tracking. 

• Monitoring & Adjustments – You should analyze the performance of your campaigns regularly and adjust them as needed. Your targeting, keywords, and budget will likely need some adjusting before you find the right groove for the campaign. You should also be sure to monitor the analytics of your landing page to see how things are converting once they are off the google ad and land on the site so you can make adjustments there as needed. 

Successful marketing for contractors requires a hybrid approach, using multiple different strategies and the topics laid out in this article are the ones I would start with. By dominating search rankings and having a strong social media strategy, you will create a powerful online presence that drives high quality leads. For additional questions regarding marketing for contractors please head to our contact page and submit the form when any questions you may have.