In another round of contractor marketing updates, today we’re looking at ways electricians use digital marketing to promote their businesses. These tips are highly valuable whether you are an independent contractor or part of a larger electrician company.
Of course, every situation is unique, but following the general idea here will help get you more visibility online.
Start a Yelp Page
What was once a spot for people to review local restaurants is now one of the largest review hubs online. Set up a free, yes free, Yelp profile to showcase your electrician services and begin collecting reviews from real customers. Yelp is especially helpful for people on the go who have the Yelp app installed on their smart phones. When they are in need of an electrician, they simply look up the service in their area and you have the chance to show up.
While a Yelp account is free, you’ll notice there are a lot of other electrical contractors with Yelp pages too. Try to differentiate yourself with high quality photos of projects, list your services in as much detail as possible and consider Yelp’s paid advertising program.
Subscribe to Home Advisor
Like Yelp, HomeAdvisor is another area where service professionals can list their services and bid for different jobs. A Home Advisor profile is instant visibility for your business and you’ll be positioned exactly where you want to be in front of your most likely customers. According to the home inspectors at Double Diamond Home Inspections, plan to pay around $20 per lead from this service. That may seem expensive, but if you can earn $500 of business from a $20 lead, it’s a good overall return.
Sign Up for Google My Business
As another free online tool from the world’s most popular search engine, Google My Business is a great tool for contractors and electricians. Similar to Yelp, a Google My Business profile allows you to showcase your different electrical services, business hours, key contact information and service area. The difference in this profile is that it can appear in local search results. For instance, if someone searches “Seattle electricians”, you’ll notice a group of listings show up with a map in Google. These are triggered from Google My Business profiles that Google sees as a good fit for the search term.
This is a completely free service that you should be taking advantage of.
Create a Website
While Yelp and Google give you profiles online to showcase your work, why not create a completely custom website that will allow you to show as many photos of projects as you want? Plus you can add a customized contact form, subscribe customers to a newsletter and learn a little more about your customers than you would with a free profile online.
Web design is a bit of an investment, but it helps establish you as a long-term business that will be sure to resonate with future customers.
Create a Branded Facebook Page
Since everyone is on Facebook, it makes sense that your business should be too. While customers might not directly search for an electrician on Facebook, they will see friends and family liking your page and it’s a much warmer referral at that point.
Setting up a business page on Facebook is really easy. You just need a personal Facebook account and about an hour to set it all up. Be sure to set up a header image, add in all of your business’s details and allow notifications so you know right away when someone is talking about your business.
Next Steps
Taking advantage of digital marketing for your electrical business is easy and relatively low cost. In the case of Yelp and Google, you can have profiles set up in just a few hours and for completely free. Use these tips for your electrician business and let us know if you run into any issues. Additionally, we would love to hear about other digital marketing services you may be using.
