Looking for more work opportunities for your HVAC, plumbing or snow removal company? Word of mouth, print advertising and cold calling can only get you so far. If you’re looking for effective, low-cost ways to generate more business, look no further than your digital presence. 

Sales patterns have changed. According to a webcast by SiriusDecisions titled “The Marketing Organization in 2017,” 67 percent of the buyer’s journey now takes place digitally. This means that your company’s digital presence is more important than ever; it is a living breathing advertisement for your brand that should be taken seriously. Read below to make sure you are doing everything you can to generate leads for your maintenance business.

1. Audit your website

Let’s start with the basics; do you have a website? If yes, are visitors able to provide their contact information easily if they wanted to request a service? If you answered no to either question, let’s first start by saying your website has the potential to become your best sales tool that works 24/7. To start getting your website to work for you, you need quality CTAs (calls to actions) and forms. Make sure CTAs like “Contact Us Now” or “Make An Appointment,” are easily visible to your visitors. When it comes to forms, makes sure to ask only the information you absolutely need. The more questions you ask, the less likely they are to complete and submit your form, meaning the less likely they are to become a customer.

2. Google yourself -SEO 

A quick and easy way to understand how you are doing with SEO (search engine optimization) is to search yourself. Pretend you are a prospects or customer. Do you show up in the first three search results of Google? What happens if you search your trade and area (e.g. plumbing in Chicago)? Does your business show up in maps? How many Google, Yelp or other reviews do you have? How many of them are positive? How do you match up to your competitors?

If your answer to any of these questions is “No” or “My competitors are doing better,” then you have work to do. To start, make sure your company is registered with Google; learn how to create a Google+ Business page here. Once registered, you should become visible on location specific searches and searches happening through mobile tools like Maps (a great source for leads). Next, start asking your customers to review you after each positive service. Reviews are increasingly more important today as they are quickly becoming a bigger part of a potential customer's decision making process. It’s no secret, positive reviews and 5-star ratings directly equates to trust in today’s digital landscape, so start cultivating your online reputation ASAP. Finally, begin the process of understanding the basics of SEO and how creating valuable content will help improve your company’s visibility on search engines. To learn more, Moz.com has a great guide to teach you  the basic of SEO.

3. Get active on social media 

If you don’t have Facebook or LinkedIn pages, create them. Social provides a free way to promote your company where virtually all of your potential and repeat customers are. Once you have a social media presence, start thinking of ways to engage with your followers to build trust; feel free to get creative here! Some ideas to get you started are:

• Taking and posting before and after service photos. Seeing is believing, so show your followers your great work.
• Ask happy customers for written or video testimonials for you to share as a success story.
• Curate and post valuable content or articles from other trusted sources in your industry to communicate you are a thought leader and are staying up to speed with your ever changing industry.

Staying active on social media allows you to be where your consumers are and offers a great way to build trust. If you need help establishing a social media marketing plan, use this social media marketing plan guide from Hootsuite.  Need more ideas on what to post on social? Read our social media content ideas post here.

4. Create content

Start a blog. Developing content or blog posts that are valuable to your target audience is key. This helps customers find you in search engines. Not sure what to write about? Start by making a list of the questions you hear most often from potential consumers. Answer the questions in a blog post, video or infographic. By creating content, it increases the likelihood of people who type those questions into search engines finding you. Hubspot uses the company River Pools and Spas as a great example of how this method works. They used questions their customers asked as ideas for blog content and consistently publish two blogs a week. They now have the most popular blog in the pool industry. Blogging helped increase their website traffic by 300 percent. To learn more about the benefits of blogging read our post here.

5. Traditional marketing

Go back to the basics. Don’t forget about direct mail and advertising, but modernize the tried and true techniques by using email marketing and PPC (pay-per-click) advertisements.

Start a referral program. Offer existing customers a discounted service if they refer you to someone else. Also, leave pamphlets with your existing customers so they can easily share information about your company with their friends and family. Be sure to include reminders to provide online reviews and to follow you social media pages.

Let your marketing strategies work together. To effectively generate and convert leads, make sure to use a good blend of all of these strategies. Make sure to pay attention to what efforts garner the best ROI and do more of those.