You’ve decided to launch a home service business. What now? How should you go about marketing this new venture?

Home services are growing faster than ever before. This growth has resulted in thousands of homeowners who want someone else to perform various tasks around their homes throughout the United States. As a result, these businesses are experiencing huge demand and opportunities. However, they also face high startup costs, customer expectations, and competition. This is where you come in.

You must create and promote a successful brand as a home service-based business provider. Here are some effective ways to build awareness of your home service-based business if you are located in the United States.

21 Tips on How to Market a Home Service-Based Business

With all these options available, how can you successfully sell your home service business online? Here are some tips to help you market your home-based business effectively.

Add Your Business to Online Listings

Showcase your trade or business activity online at platforms that offer a ready-built audience. Sites like Hire My Mom, Elance, and Mediabitvro let you list your service-based business, resume, and portfolios. These sites also give you a business opportunity to market yourself professionally. You can create profiles, collect reviews, and list your services, experience, and skills. Posting jobs is another way to showcase what you can do for others.

…And to Local Listings Too

If you own a local business, your first thought might be to promote it on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. But what about local search results? Local search results differ from regular search results because they show businesses near specific locations.

For example, if you search for “cleaning services” in New York City, United States of America, you’ll see cleaning services companies listed. Such listings will appear at the top of the page, above organic listings like Amazon or Yelp. So why should you care about them?

If someone is looking for a cleaning service company in New York City, chances are they are looking within a few miles of that location. That means you could get a client if you’re located nearby.

To optimize your trade or business listing, here are five business activity tips to consider:

  • Use photos
  • Include contact info
  • List your hours of business use
  • Add reviews
  • Be consistent
  • Include any trade or business activity worth mentioning

You’ll be ready to launch any trade or business activity. But when the customers start coming, you’ll be glad you took the time to promote yourself.

Avail Free Promotional Tools

Free promotional tools are great for getting started. It would help if you always started simple and free before committing to expensive tools. Free tools are also useful when starting because you can get a feel for what works best for your loyal audience and see whether you’ll need to upgrade later. If you’re already using paid tools, you may not need to spend money on other services. However, it’s worth considering upgrading to paid tools if you want to increase your conversion rate or boost your sales.

Be Active on Social Media

Social media is an important tool for a small home-based business. If you haven’t already, make sure you create accounts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter if you haven’t done so with your social media manager. You are free to join these sites, which are easy to use. You can also use them to interact with current, and potential clients, so you know you have an online presence. On Facebook, you should share anything that will help your client base grow. For example, share pictures of happy clients and events at your place of business. Post links to articles about your industry and other relevant topics.

On Instagram, you should post pictures of happy clients, special promotions, and other content that you think will appeal to your target market. On LinkedIn, you should update your profile regularly and add information about yourself and your home-based business. Finally, on Twitter, you should follow the companies and people you admire and engage in conversations with them.

Create a Website

Marketing is incredibly important today. Make your online presence known by having a website. You may think that hundreds of other companies are doing the same thing as you. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t invest in building a website. Your website is not just a space to show everyone your services. It’s an extension of your brand. More importantly, it can act as a very effective acquisition tool. Websites can help you reach a wider audience, increase sales, and get more customers through advertising.

Create a Referral Program

If you want more customers, you should consider offering a referral program. Offering a discount, gift, or other perks in exchange for referring new customers. Those referred to you are more likely to have a great customer experience. These referrals also increase your brand awareness and loyalty.

Create Sustainable Packages to Keep the Business Afloat

As service-based business owners, you must focus on providing high-quality customer service. It’s better if you showed them why they should choose you instead of another provider. To do this, you must know what your competition does, what they offer, and how they market themselves.

Once you understand this information, you can determine how to differentiate yourself. If you are not doing anything different than your competitors, you may not see much change in your sales. This is because any trade or business activity becomes less significant. However, if you can provide a unique product or service or offer a higher level of service, you may increase sales.

It would help if you always kept an eye out for what other companies are doing. If you see something that works well, try to mimic it. You may not get the same benefits, but you might get some. For example, if you notice another company offering a special promotion, you could offer the same thing. You would stand out from the crowd, giving you a leg up when it comes time to compete for sales.

Design Your Logo

Start by creating a mood board. A mood board is an image collage that includes images of colors, fonts, textures, etc., that will inspire you. You can also add text labels if you like. Once you’ve found a few ideas that catch your eye, you’ll need to narrow down the choices. Start by choosing two or three different concepts. Then, choose one concept and create a mood board around that idea.

Develop a Press kit

A presskit is a marketing tool that allows you to create a press release that will help journalists discover your digital products and services. A press kit includes a short bio, a picture of your product, and an informative press release. Presskits are often distributed through social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

Don’t Forget the Power of Word of Mouth

Delighting customers can have a huge impact on your business. It would help if you always strived to provide an amazing customer service experience. Reviews, testimonials, and recommendations all help to increase your brand awareness and drive sales. Your customers would more likely purchase again if they feel you’ve made them happy.

Have a Pre-Order System

Pre-ordering products in bulk allows companies to increase sales while keeping customers happy. Likewise, pre-order discounts allow you to keep current customers while attracting new ones.

Integrate a Booking System

You may need to contact customers if you own a local customer service business. You could try using an online booking system to book appointments online. If you’re a dog groomer, you could offer the pet owners a pickup and delivery service. Your clients wouldn’t have to leave their homes to use your services.

Invest in Ads

Ads on Google are great if you know exactly what type of target audience you’re targeting. However, if you’re unsure who your ideal customer is, you should try out social media ads. Social media users are often younger and likely to purchase products in bulk, especially handmade products related to fashion or lifestyle. When you advertise on social media, you get lots of eyeballs for cheap. You won’t be reaching everyone online, but you will reach more people than you could hope to through Google.

Know Your Ideal Customer

Remember that marketing isn’t just about selling your homemade products or services, it’s also about helping potential customers and loyal audience solves their problems. So, first, you need to figure out what those problems are and how you can help solve them. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be ready to start marketing.

Launch a Trade or Business Page on Social Media Platforms

The most important accounts for locally operating businesses are Facebook, Yelp, Google’s business feature, and Google Maps. High ratings on these sites will help increase your authority online and rank your website higher in search results. To start, you can create an account for free on each site and upload photos. Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to ask potential customers to rate your store on each site. When you reach certain thresholds, you’ll earn badges and other rewards.

Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks are great ways to connect with people. You can also use them for marketing yourself and your Ecommerce business. Use them to post about upcoming events, special offers, and promotions. People who like what they see may come back to check out your store later. If you’re not sure if something works, try it out with friends and family first.

Market What Sets You Apart

Too many service-based businesses tend to focus on replacing services. While routine replacements are important, they aren’t enough to keep clients returning. Instead of focusing on replacement, you should be looking at ways to create value through the customer experience. To get repeat customers, you need to become a proactive company. Providing great customer service will help lead to word-of-mouth recommendations. Finding ways to ask questions that lead to the conversation will help you stay ahead of the competition.

Look for means to differentiate yourself from your competition. For example, when marketing a service-based business, a company may often settle for a lower price point to win the advantage. However, the true advantage comes from how the product is designed and delivered. Are your employees trained well in the ideal customer interaction and service delivery? Do you go above and beyond the regular requirements of providing digital products or services?

Don’t stop your overall marketing at just the basic aspects of what your homemade product or service-based trade or business offers. Instead, look for ways to expand your marketing outreach by incorporating things in your advertising that create repeat business.

Offer additional value through bundling your services together to give a package deal that appeals to customers. Add preventative services and maintenance to your offerings to help customers avoid replacement costs. With the service-oriented industry being so competitive, looking for ways to add value, attract, and market to specific consumer needs is an excellent way for companies to sell products in bulk and services.

Nurture Leads with Email Marketing

You must keep your customers engaged and interested until they are ready for your services. Email marketing is a great way to nurture relationships with current and potential buyers. Send personalized emails about upcoming sales, special offers, and events. And, if you’re looking to grow your mailing list, try offering a freebie—like access to exclusive videos or tips—in exchange for contact information.

Serve Your Clients via Video Conferencing

Video conferencing platforms like ZOOM allow you to connect with clients remotely. These platforms also let you serve multiple clients simultaneously. For example, if your personal trainer doesn’t need to see you in person, she can have a few clients join her on a Zoom session to go through a home exercise routine together.

Start Blogging

Blogging can improve traffic and increase brand awareness. Blogging can also help position you as a thought leader in your industry. You can create a free blog using a simple website tool. Even if you only post once a week, it can benefit your website’s search engine optimization and help educate your potential clients about why they should trust your eCommerce business.

When you write an article or post, you can add a link to your social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. If you click the link, they will be taken directly to those accounts where they can sign up to follow you. You can also create a form and collect contact details for future marketing purposes.

Start Your YouTube Channel

Try to consider starting a YouTube channel. YouTube has undoubtedly become the second largest search engine, so starting a video channel helps you reach a larger audience. In addition, you can create a wide range of topics depending on what type of service you provide. If you don’t have spare time to do some video marketing, you can always hire a virtual assistant to help you with this.

Update New Ecommerce Business Events

Should you need to move your local service company completely online but have previously served customers locally, use this as an opportune time to tell them about your new fresh approach. It’s much easier to acquire previous customers to make a purchase from anything new you have to offer versus getting completely new ones. If your service has been able to be productized, this could be a trade or business opportunity for you to get your first few purchases.

But, when you’re running a small business, time is money. To get ahead, you must ensure you’re spending your time wisely. If you’re working too hard, losing sight of what’s important is easy. You may even resent that you’re doing all the work yourself. And if you’re not careful, you could burn out. That’s why ensuring you’re taking care of yourself is critical. Sometimes, that means refusing projects that aren’t aligned with your goals. It might mean stepping back from your business altogether. But, whatever you choose to do, remember that you’re not just helping others—you’re also helping yourself.

To End

Service-Based Businesses are all about helping people. No matter what, people will still need your services. But you could get lost in the shuffle if you’re not careful. Be strategic with your marketing efforts and know-how to create multiple streams to keep your company thriving during uncertain times. Do you need help marketing your trade or business online? ITD Webdesign has a professional team ready to help you. Call us to know more.