JT Atkinson & Sons have teamed up with award-winning digital marketing agency Integrity Search to bring you the best marketing tips to help grow your business. We are starting with social media, we all know we should be using it but for many of us that is easier said than done!
No doubt you’ll be fully immersed in uploading photographs from your nights out and family onto Facebook and Twitter but did you know how profitable creating a business page on these social media sites can be for your business? We have found that more and more tradesmen are seeing recommendations made through social media. In fact, a recent survey found that 42 per cent of self-employed tradespeople rely on social media when it comes to advertising their services.
We have put together a useful guide to help you crack digital marketing and grow your business.
What platform should I use?
When it comes to social media there are lots of different avenues to go down, the main channels are the best place to start and the most likely to generate new business and awareness. Social media account are free to set up and use, they are a great place to showcase your work.
Each social media platform works a little differently, with different rules and restricted as to what can be uploaded for example, Twitter has 140 character limit on all tweets, this includes tweets containing links, video and images. This means you will need to specifically tailor your content to each platform, this may sound time consuming but truth us, it is very worthwhile.
The most used social media site in the world so a great place to generate mass exposure and awareness. To get started you will need to create a business page, this will need to link to a personal Facebook page, once you have done this you can begin inviting friends of yours to like the page. You can post a variety of content types on Facebook such as, photographs, video, text and polls. We recommend uploading predominantly visual content as this is more likely to stand out in your follower’s newsfeeds plus photographs to showcase your work are far better than text descriptions - your followers want to see with their own eyes how good your work is not read about it and take your word for it!
Facebook is a great place to engage with other Facebook users as there are plenty of groups that you can share your page in, answer questions and offer your services. Facebook is great way to interact with clients and prospective clients on an informal basis although you must try and remain professional at all time, a slip up in professionalism could be very costly to your reputation.
Once you have created a business page you can encourage clients to leave reviews on your page, these will be public and are a great way for other Facebook users to see genuine reviews of your services. People are more likely to use your company if they can see genuine, honest reviews from satisfied customers. Facebook in a nutshell: A great allrounder platform that allows users to create business pages, upload images and videos of their work, engage with customers and share all the latest industry news.
Similar to Facebook in the way you can create a business account and share a variety of content types to a mass audience. Twitter is great for getting involved in local hashtags (#) in order to market your business. A hashtag is a tag that users use to talk about a specific words or phrases for example, #NorthEastBuilders users can click the hashtag and find all of the tweets containing that same hashtag.
If using Twitter try to get involved with local accounts and hashtags that will get your business in front of the right people. Twitter can be a great place to communicate with influencers within your industry, you will find a lot of tradespeople communicating via Twitter and sharing tips, tricks and advice. There is a character limits on the length of tweets which is currently set at 140 characters, expect to have less in depth communications as opposed to those on Facebook. Twitter have recently reported that they will be getting rid of their restrictive character limit within the near future.
Twitter is a great place to keep up to date with industry news and product releases within your industry.
Twitter in a nutshell: Great for creating an online presence for current and potential clients which can position your business as an industry leader and helps to make you more approachable. Twitter is also a fantastic place to engage with brands and industry figures who may influence your sector.
Google+
A relatively new player in the social media game but a great one for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)! Creating a Google+ page is great for local SEO and getting your business appearing in the Google search engine. A Google+ page will help direct searchers and users to your website. Try adding regular content to your Google+ page and participating within industry specific groups (circles) on Google+. The better your Google+ page the better impression your prospects will make.
Once you have set up a Google+ page you should encourage clients to leave you a review on your Google+ page and this will show up in Google when someone searches your business, reviews are a great way to generate more business.
Google+ in a nutshell: A must have if your business has a website and is looking to boost their local presence within the Google search engine results. Think SEO and social media combined!
A purely visual social media platform that brings users together through similar interests and hashtags. Instagram is more popular with the younger generation but it also acts a great way to bring tradespeople together from all over the world. A great platform for sharing advice and tips with other users in your industry.
As Instagram is a highly visual platform try to take interesting photographs and videos of your work as they are more likely to get noticed if they are a little bit different from the norm. Images posted on Instagram can be linked with your other social media platforms.
Utilising hashtags is very important on Instagram so try and find industry specific hashtags that are likely to get your work noticed. You will find that users may comment on your photographs or videos and it advised to communicate back to them rather than ignore it, unless the comment is spam.
Instagram in a nutshell: An entirely visual content based platform that is used by many for inspiration, tips and advice. Before and after images work well on Instagram as these kind of images show the true skill and creativity that has gone into a project. Your Instagram account can be linked with Twitter and Facebook, further increasing the amount of people who see your content.
Similar to Instagram, Pinterest is another purely visual social media platform. Pinterest allows users to search for specific terms and will show the relevant images that match their search term. If a user finds an image they like they can add it to a virtual pinboard which will then show up on their profile and in the feeds of their followers.
Pinterest is a great social media platform to drive traffic to your website, you can attach links to your images and no matter where your image may end up the link will still be attached. So if you image ends getting pinned onto a board the original link and source will always remain.
Try to be creative with your images and caption them appropriately, images that are interesting and different are more likely to get noticed and pinned.
Pinterest in a nutshell: A virtual pinboard and photo sharing platform that doubles up as a great way to direct users to your website. Used by many people as a source of inspiration, help and advice.
Youtube
A global video sharing platform that allows users to search for videos that match their search terms. If you trade would benefit from video Youtube is a great platform to take advantage of.
You can upload your industry specific demonstrations, adverts, guides and any other marketing material for free, you will just need to make the video! High quality videos are more likely to get shared so try to be as creative as possible in order to showcase your skills and services.
Youtube allows users to share the video URL (link) so if you decide to create a video and upload it to Youtube you will be able to share the video across all of you social media accounts, email and on your website.
Youtube in a nutshell: The ‘go to’ video sharing site for looking up quick tips and how to videos. This is where great tradespeople come in! Sharing on-site snippets of your projects, or uploading how to videos, will really help to prove the high-quality craftsmanship of your work. If viewers can clearly see how great your work is they are more likely to use your business.
Get Involved!
Joining forums are a great way to help tradespeople build valuable relationship with each other. As well as sharing the latest industry news, forums create a great community of professionals who go on to recommend each other’s work, raising the profiles of their peers through the incredibly powerful tool that is word of mouth!
To ensure you keep the jobs coming in and to grow your business we suggest you regualrly update your social media profiles to keep your followers up to date and post on a minimum weekly basis.
For more tips and inspiration visit the JT Atkinson & Sons blog and social media accounts Facebook and Twitter where we will be adding more great Top Tradesmen Tips to help grow your business.