How Home Renovation Contractors Can Use Digital Marketing

Owning a home renovation company is rewarding, but it also leaves you with a lot of responsibility. What are the best ways to promote your business? Which marketing strategies give you the biggest bang for your buck? Should you do your own marketing or trust someone else?
To complicate things further, small business owners now have two types of marketing to consider: traditional and digital. Many struggle with deciding which kind to do because they have a small budget to work with.
Let’s go over the benefits to traditional and digital marketing and which one is best for your home remodeling company.

Benefits of Traditional Marketing

Traditional advertising includes direct mail, magazine ads and TV commercials. The benefits to this type of marketing are:

• Reach your local target audience
• Have hard copies of your marketing materials
• Easy for prospects to understand

There are limitations with traditional marketing, however. First, it can be very expensive, especially for locally owned businesses. Running an ad in a newspaper is cheaper, but if you want to send out colorful brochures, you need to hire a design and printing company, plus incur mailing costs.
Second, there is little interaction with traditional marketing. A person might view your ad, but it stops there. Digital marketing leaves more room for engagement, which brings people closer to your brand. Finally, it’s difficult to measure the impact of traditional marketing campaigns. If you don’t know which efforts are working, how can you budget in the future?

Benefits of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing refers to promoting your home renovation company using digital technologies. This form of marketing has become highly popular over the last couple of decades, and for good reason. Here are some of the key advantages to digital marketing, especially for locally owned businesses.

• Target the audience you want – local or international
• Audience chooses how and when they want to receive your content
• Interact with your audience
• Cost-effective – even paid options are cheaper than traditional marketing
• Data and results can be easily tracked, measured and recorded
• Get real-time results
• Develop your brand image
• Level the playing field between small and large competitors

Traditional vs Digital Marketing: Which is Better?
Digital marketing is certainly favored because of the benefits listed above. However, it is recommended to use both channels, though not equally. Because digital advertising allows you to track and measure results, plus control ad spend, you’re better off putting more dollars into these channels.
Traditional advertising can be used to create a well-rounded image of your brand. You might want to launch a website that informs visitors of the home improvement services you offer while also mailing out a postcard with a coupon. Or, hand out flooring swatches at an event and include your website URL. When you successfully utilize both channels, your brand upholds a consistent image – online and offline.
Getting Started with Digital Marketing
As a home improvement contractor getting familiar with online advertising, what types of tactics work best? You don’t want to put all your eggs into one basket, but it’s normal to feel overwhelmed. There sure are a lot of digital advertising options out there!
Ideally, you want a holistic mix of marketing channels so that you can reach a wide audience and develop a consistent brand image. You might not see immediate sales, but as people get familiar with your name and see that you can be trusted, they will think of you the next time they need home remodeling services.
Here is what we recommend starting out with, and you can grow your efforts over time.
 

• Social Media

Facebook and Instagram are your best options. Even Pinterest has opportunities for home improvement contractors. It costs nothing to create a profile, and you can advertise on these channels for a low cost. Better yet, you can reach highly targeted audiences, such as men and women who own homes and are between the ages of 25-55.
Be sure to update your business information, include pictures of your work and ask for reviews/testimonials from previous clients. It won’t be long before your page starts growing, and you can share exclusive offers and discounts for local customers.
 

• Company Website

Today’s websites are streamlined, so you don’t need anything fancy to get your small business a quality site of its own. Include a Home page, an About Us page and a Contact Us page to get your site up and running. Additionally, make sure that your website is responsive, meaning that it adapts to all devices. It’s 2017, and businesses large and small should have a mobile-friendly site.
Also add pictures of your work to give visitors a glimpse of what you do. Before-and-after photos work well for this purpose. Trust seals are also important in this line of work, so consider posting testimonials from past clients, as well as familiar logos of clients, partners or vendors.
Paid Search Ads
Paid search means you pay to have your advertisements appear in the search listings. You can easily control your budget and set a limit for what you want to spend each day. As a local contracting company, bid on long tail keywords. They are usually less expensive because they have less competition, and you can reach a highly targeted audience this way.
Examples of long tail keywords might include “home improvement contractor Fremont CA” or “Fremont CA home renovation specialist”. Working with a digital marketing company is helpful because they can do the proper keyword research and determine which words and phrases your audience is searching for.
Search Engine Optimization
Speaking of keywords, it’s important to use the right keywords in your content. When the proper keyword research is completed, you can sprinkle the keywords naturally in your web content and blog posts. When people search for these words and phrases, they will be led to your content. As you contribute quality, relevant information on a regular basis, readers will learn to recognize your name and trust your company.
Blogging
One last marketing channel to start using right away is blogging. Maintaining a company blog takes time, but it doesn’t cost anything if you contribute your own content. Cover topics that your readers will find valuable.
What types of questions do your clients usually have? You might want to cover the cost of certain home improvement projects, the best flooring types for busy households or DIY ideas for cabinet restorations. All of this informations shows readers that you know what you’re talking about and keeps traffic coming to your site.
Conclusion
WSI Net Advantage has helped many independently owned businesses get familiar with online marketing while being conscious of their budgets. If you’d like to learn more about establishing a presence online for your home remodeling company, give us a call at 510-687-9737 or fill out our contact form. We look forward to speaking with you!