We are sure that when you started as an electrician, you thought you would only have to focus on the quality of your service and accumulating years of experience in the industry. In 2020, that is no longer the case. When you want to get more clients and have your phone ringing nonstop because everyone wants to book your services, you need an electrician advertising plan.
Right now, you might be asking yourself, why do I need to invest in electrician marketing if I still have a good number of clients? The answer is because you need to get more customers if you want to turn into an industry leader. Yes, being a small electrician company is not bad, but if you invest in an electrician advertising plan, it will only benefit your business.
At the moment you probably have loyal clients who have chosen your company for several years. However, today, earning your customers’ trust even before they hire you, is more challenging than before. People are not going to purchase your services after getting their first quote.
The majority of your potential customers will first look for online reviews about your service, check out your Google My Business comments, and look through your website. If you want to engage this eager customer with good electrician marketing, you should understand the process they go through before making a purchase.
The Online Buyer’s Journey in 2020
In the past, most industries viewed the buyer’s process as following four universal steps: awareness, interest, desire, and action. The problem with that model is that you are not engaging with the customer regularly.
Keep in mind that everyone now has access to the internet either through their smartphone or laptop. If they don’t find your company on Google, the most popular search engine, or in an online directory, there is a small possibility that they will pick your services.
There’s no need to panic because the new buyer’s journey is easy to understand, and it’s going to improve the relationship you have with your customers.
The awareness state is the same as before. Here is where your potential clients realize that they need an electrician. Then, during the interest step, the key is keeping them in a loop.
When people are interested in something, they start investigating, comparing, getting quotes. They will probably spend hours doing this, but if you have a blog where they can find all the information, they will stay on your website.
The last two steps are the main ones that change, compared to the old model, converting into one final step. Once customers are done with their research, they will go ahead and hire your services. Here is where most people will think is the end of the journey, but there is something else you can do.
You don’t want to have one time customers. They should keep coming back. To achieve this, you need to stay in touch with them, and there are different mechanisms for that, such as an email list or asking them to write a review. Now that you know the stages in which you should engage with your customers let’s look at the best electrician advertising ideas.
8 Electrician Advertising Ideas
Several advertising ideas work for most businesses, but here we will focus on strategies that work for your particular industry. However, the ones you choose will depend on your business necessities at the moment and the goals you have. We understand that implementing a new marketing strategy will take time, but it will be worth it.
The best part is that after reading this article you will know where to spend your money and you won’t have to hire an extra employee for marketing. It is essential to clarify that for big companies keeping up with the day-to-day marketing will be overwhelming if you don’t have a team. In case you think about expanding your business, you should add to the budget at least three to five people for the marketing department.
Have a unique website design
Did you know that most people leave a website just seconds after they clicked on the link? We wished this fact was false but unfortunately is true. People have a short attention span, and if they don’t see anything that attracts them to your website, they will bounce back to Google.
In this regard, you have only a flashing moment to make the right impression with a potential customer. Most customers that you will have won’t visit your physical location, which means your first impression will be your website.
The website you create should have specific characteristics if you want to retain the users on your site and lead them to a purchase. First, and the most important step, Search Engine Optimization (SEO). All of the things we will mention below are part of SEO, but various elements fall under this category. If you want to learn more about SEO, look for online guides on the topic.
You should have a secure website, in other words, one that starts with HTTPS. It needs to load fast, or internet users will not wait around, and you need to create a mobile-friendly version of the site. If you think a mobile site is not necessary, think again. People are not using their laptops to look for information. Nowadays, they search on their smartphones.
Have someone dedicated to answering your calls
Even though most people trust websites and are not afraid to give information through an online form to book an appointment, some people need reassurance that your company is real, and there is a person on the other side of the screen.
A way to direct all your clients to your landlines is by putting up your phone number in your online advertising campaigns. Use calls to action in your blog and in the images or videos you upload to different social platforms.
Since your electrical contractor marketing plan will have a substantial part centred around getting more phone calls, you won’t be able to answer all the calls yourself. Hire at least one person who goes to the office every day to pick up the phone and manage all your bookings.
Good reviews can go a long way in electrician advertising
It is not good enough to have a website with all your information. People also need to find you in online directories. This is important because, as we explained above, your customers will do their research before purchasing any products or services.
One element that will be decisive in their process is online reviews. You can get these reviews through different platforms such as Nextdoor or Yelp. We recommend that apart from every online directory, you also create a Google My Business account. This account will appear on Google results and show all your clients comments plus the average number of stars for your company.
Good reviews on Google are better than any publicity you could ever buy, but the same way a bad review could damage your reputation. Every business can get a bad review. You don’t need to worry about that. You should focus on trying to change the mind of that particular customer. Engage with them, apologize and let her/him know you are listening.
A significant advantage of having online reviews is that you can also use those and create a testimonial page on your website.
Create great paid advertising campaigns
Any electrician advertising campaign needs a target audience and location. When it comes to electrician services, people are more likely to pick a company near their area, rather than one in another city.
Among the platforms that offer paid advertising are Facebook, Instagram, Google and YouTube. Depending on the platform you choose, you will have different options to target for ads. Some of them offer a radius map where you can select the size of the area you want. Others will have a series of questions resembling a survey to determine your ad’s ideal demographics. Some platforms may offer you both options.
Apart from determining your electrical advertising audience, you also need to invest time in looking for the right keywords.
Finding the right keywords
Some people just create an electrician marketing campaign without thinking about keywords, which is a big mistake. If you don’t know what we are talking about, we will briefly break it down.
Imagine you open Google because you need an electrician at home, now you might look for “electrician near me” or “electrical services in my area.” Those words you type on the Google search bar are known as keywords.
Various software helps SEO experts determine which of those keywords are the most popular and can put your business at the top of the results. When you target the right keywords in your ads, people are going to find your business quickly.
Once you have a good list of keywords, then you can decide whether you want to focus your ads around one specific topic or a couple of them. Beware that targeting keywords is not an easy task. You need to have specific knowledge about SEO strategies. If you don’t know anything about it, it is better to ask for help from an expert because if you don’t find the right keywords, you are not going to see the results you want.
Create optimized content for organic electrician advertising
If you invest in finding competitive keywords for your ads, you might as well obtain some for your content. Writing a blog is a unique electrical advertising strategy that will win you over the top positions in Google searches with time.
You can write about the topics you know customers want to know about, like some common questions and reviews about services. When you don’t have any more of those topics, look through the list of keywords, and we are sure you’ll find something else to create content about. Remember to include keywords in everything to write and throughout your whole website.
It is essential to clarify that quantity doesn’t matter as much as quality when writing a blog. If in a week, you try to write ten articles that are not well-research and not optimized, this electrical contractor’s marketing plan will not work. Try writing 3 to five pieces that will attract the audience.
Also, because you don’t want your content to fall flat, embed elements such as guides, infographics, and videos.
Email Marketing for Electrical Contractors
The most important part of electrical contractor marketing for email is having a contact list. This part might take a minute if you are just starting your company, but if you already have some years within the industry, take your clients’ contact information and input everything on an excel sheet.
After you have an organized list, create a newsletter. This newsletter can contain the last content you created, updates about your company and even discount coupons. If you are still wondering, is it worth it to use email marketing for electrical contractors? We are going to give you another reason: email marketing is completely free.
Use Social Media Platforms
Using social media platforms to promote your business is one of the best electrical contractor marketing ideas. Many people in the industry are starting to use social media because the new generations, starting from the Millenials, are not even going to Google to look up information. They are logging into their social media accounts.
Depending on your target audience, there would be one platform that works better, but everyone uses Facebook. This platform allows pay advertising with demographics and free post. Could you ask for anything else?
Electrician Advertising: Conclusion
The key to applying all the electrical contractor marketing ideas you find above is being ready to invest time and money. The paid advertising will probably give you more leads at the beginning compared to SEO, but if you compromise and take the time to understand it, you can have a top organic position. Having an electrical advertising plan is not hard. You just need to take the time to figure out what works for your business.
