A Bouquet of Low-Cost Home Services Marketing Strategy

Spring is a big time of year for home services. You might be a landscaper lining up clients, an HVAC tech ready to maintain comfort for your customers, a plumber preparing to keep everything flowing smoothly, a contractor eager to get building, or any business that keeps your customers’ homes the best they can be.

While you’re planning your marketing, you’re likely thinking about your budget as well. Affordability is a common goal for many businesses, and luckily, it’s a goal that’s well within reach when you’re advertising your home services business. So here are a few low-cost home services marketing tips to help you get the most bang for your buck this spring.

Fresh as a Direct Mail Daisy

What’s the best low-cost option for direct mail home services marketing? Direct mail, of course! Direct mail is incredibly effective and has the highest return on investment of almost all marketing channels. There are a few reasons for this:

TRUST – In a world where every click is risky, most customers are more likely to trust marketing they can touch and keep.

NOVELTY – Receiving mail is a special occasion, and clients take notice when a sleek personalized mail piece arrives, rather than an email they can quickly delete.

CONNECTION – Clients keep direct mail, especially if it includes information they can reference later, such as contact information or tips. Longer exposure gives you more customer attention for a single touchpoint.

IMPACT – Clients are far more likely to remember receiving a piece of mail and, more importantly, recall the company when it comes time to patronize a business.

In addition, direct mail is far from limited to paper and ink. It’s the secret weapon of multi-channel low-cost home services marketing. Combining digital and direct mail can significantly enhance your results. It can be as simple as adding a QR code to your mail piece to help recipients find your website. It’s easy to get started with a budget-friendly direct mail campaign. You can find out more here.
 

Fill a Field with Website Wildflowers

 

Optimizing your website is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to expand your business. Your website can be as simple or as comprehensive as you’d like. Simple designs are best, and make sure the methods of contacting you and the area you service are prominent so your customers can find you.

Your ranking in search engine results will depend on your content. The more high-quality content on your website, the more search engines can learn about you and therefore tell your customers searching for a business like yours.

Website content you can start with:

• Product or service descriptions with pricing (Also helps build trust).
• Blog to share expert advice, thoughts on your industry, or business updates.
• Fields for your customers to send you messages.
• Scheduling request module.
• Frequently asked questions.

It’s important you keep your website updated. Not only to keep your clients up-to-date, but also to tell search engines you’re an active business that it should point users to.

Want to know more about how to get your landscaping, HVAC, plumbing, or other home services business to appear in localized search results? Check out Google’s resources.
 

Stop and Smell the Business Review Roses

Your home is about as personal as you can get. So, when you work with people’s homes, your reputation is essential. Customers gain a lot of insights from your previous customers, so reviews are an incredible low-budget marketing tool that can help you build your reputation and your business in one fell swoop.

Don’t hesitate to ask your clients for reviews. It not only shows you’re always improving and value your customers’ opinions, but also care about the experience of working with you.

Here are a few ideas to grow your customer reviews rose garden:

Keep it simple – Provide a link and ask a few straightforward questions they can easily answer. One large comment field can be overwhelming, so provide a bit of structure.

Don’t wait too long – Ask for a review within a few days of completing services for your clients. Just enough time for them to appreciate the work you did.

Follow-up – Send one low-pressure reminder if you haven’t received a review. Sometimes customers won’t want to send feedback, but sometimes all they need is a little nudge.

Provide platform options – There are many review platforms out there, so don’t limit yourself to just one. Try to provide at least a few different platforms to maximize reviews.

Make it worth their while – A special offer or a discount can help increase your reviews. Just be sure to disclose the fact that it came from a promotion.

Reviews are not only a powerful word-of-mouth marketing approach, but they’re also a cost-effective one. If you’re planning to use a review for marketing purposes, get the reviewer’s permission first.
 

Targeting Tulips, Customer Profile Peonies, and the Data that Helps them Grow

We live in the age of data, and using that data to find your customers can stretch your marketing dollar by quite a bit. Knowing who you’re marketing to is the first step in stretching your low-cost home services marketing budget. After all, it’s the best way to target your marketing to the leads that will be the most likely to work with you. So, you need a customer profile with the data to back it up.

Customer profiles are data-driven, but they don’t have to be super complicated. It can be as simple as digging into your knowledge about your community and your experience with previous customers. If you’re new to the game or just want more data, a customer survey is your best bet. Perhaps you can even make it a special offer in exchange for their feedback.

Once you have your customer profile, you can start targeting your leads by demographic, neighborhood, or property information. For example, customers living in older homes might be looking for new HVAC systems to keep cool as temperatures heat up, and your business is just what they’re looking for to help them out. One of the many ways knowing your customer can help you build your home services business.

Low-cost Home Services Marketing FAQs

Key Takeaways:

Looking for a marketing company? Whether you handle HVAC maintenance, cleaning, lawn care, plumbing, or any other type of home services business, Xpressdocs helps home services companies of all sizes reach their marketing goals and helps you with a low-cost home services marketing strategy. World-class direct mail and print, multi-channel solutions, and flexible billing options mean Xpressdocs is built for your home services business.