Written by: Jon Dale | @smallfishcoach
Trades business marketing is specific and should be directed towards making your business be the one people find when they go looking for a trade.
People look for a tradie in a few ways – asking other people (referrals); looking in directories (Yellow Pages, True Local, Google, local newspapers); looking in their own personal database (the magnets on their fridge, their phone contacts).
Quickly: Tradies can stimulate demand – I’ll talk about that later but you can definitely encourage people to want, say, a new bathroom or a new kitchen. For now, let’s focus our thinking on being found when somebody has a need – because something is not working or because they’ve already decided they want their bathroom or kitchen or fence or floor.
You need to be where they go looking. It sounds obvious but it’s easy to forget. I call this Find Me marketing.
So you need a website that is found by Google and Bing when people search for your trade in your local area. You need to be visible in Yellow Pages online, True local and any other directories. Your SEO provider should be able to do this for you.
Advertise in the trades section of the local paper, be in the chamber of commerce and in their directory, print and deliver fliers regularly; give out fridge magnets and business cards and email your details to people as a vcard so they can put it in their contacts easily.I’ll discuss project marketing next week.If you can’t wait, call me.