As a home repair business owner, you probably want to branch out and see your business grow rapidly. However, if you want to lay a solid foundation for a profitable and sustainable business, it may be best to start small and become the market leader in your area first, the go-to handyman for every aunty and nanna in your neighborhood.
So, how can you achieve just that goal? Below, we’ll show some of the most effective local marketing tactics for your home repair business!
1. Use Targeted Social Media Ads
Paid social media ads are an excellent way to connect with people who have a high potential to become paying customers. And, thanks to smart algorithms, home repair business owners can completely control who sees their advertisements.
Paid ads allow you to engage with social media users based on a variety of factors, including gender, values, behaviors, and, of course, where they live. This suggests that even if you work in a small city or specialize in a very specific niche of the home improvement industry, you can always find people who may require your services.
2. Hand Out Engaging Posters and Flyers
At this point, you might be wondering: Do posters and flyers even still work? Well, the short answer is YES, they still work. Even big businesses still rely on them to inform prospective customers about their products and services. Even better, for small enterprises like yours, they can be very affordable promotional tools.
Posters and flyers are relatively cheap to print and distribute. And, just like social media ads, you can target them to a specific audience. Simply choose a location where your potential clients are and hand out those posters and flyers or make them accessible in local shops or even bulletin boards. Don’t have good design skills? Use handyman flyer templates online and make sure your tangible marketing materials really pop and are easy to remember.
3. Focus on Social Media Engagement
Your paid social media ads do an excellent job of telling people about what you do and offer, but if you want to stay at the top of people’s minds, you must prioritize your social media engagement. This not only makes you appear trustworthy but also approachable, especially given how people interact with businesses today.
It’s actually not that hard to interact on social media. As a home repair business owner, you can begin by creating industry-relevant posts. It could be something like home maintenance tips or a product selection guide. Then, when you receive a comment on one of your posts, try to respond quickly. This also applies to direct messages. It’s all about community building, and the more engaged your followers are, the better.
4. Run Promotions
Special offers and limited-time deals have proven to be an effective way for businesses to attract new customers. They encourage people to act and make a purchase. Nonetheless, you must inform others about them in order for them to work. In your case, you can do it with a variety of tools, including emails and social media marketing.
When writing messages, make sure to use personal and targeted language. With that said, it can be useful to research the type of audience you’re targeting and the type of home improvement service they may require. Your messages should also end with a clear and solid call to action to really drive engagement and action.
5. Leverage Local SEO
While running paid ads is a great way to attract business instantly, it does require upfront costs and when you stop your paid advertising campaigns, the business also stops coming in. It’s a great idea to simultaneously work on both paid and organic traffic. SEO is one of the best ways to drive organic traffic to your website and make your business more sustainable. To be specific, make sure you’re optimizing your website for local SEO to target the very community you’re looking to serve.
6. Encourage word-of-mouth referrals
The tips above are largely focused on acquiring business, but make sure you’re also putting in as much effort in retaining customers. The best way to achieve that is to deliver an impeccable job each and every time. Besides the quality of the work, the quality of the customer service also matters a lot. All these can easily encourage word-of-mouth recommendations even without you trying so hard. If you want to further enhance your customer retention efforts, you can also build loyalty programs, so you can become their go-to expert for home repairs and renovations.
The Takeaway
The home repair industry can be such a competitive domain. However, as long as you keep on refining and upgrading your marketing strategies, you can eventually attract more clients and drive repeat business. There are a lot of moving parts, but with the right approach and dose of consistency, you can grow your client base and stand out in a crowded market.
