The service industry is booming; according to a report by Deloitte, it accounted for around 79% of the total U.S. value-added economy. As such, starting or running a service-based enterprise can be an exciting and rewarding opportunity. Unfortunately, the huge boom in the industry also means an increase in competition, making it vital for business owners to find effective marketing techniques to promote their business. And where marketing is concerned, digital marketing tops traditional advertising techniques by a huge margin. Therefore, if you’re looking to promote your enterprise, below are some top tips on digital marketing for service-based businesses.
Use SEO to Rank Higher on Google
SEO is an important factor in digital marketing for service-based businesses. Good SEO strategies can help optimize your business’ website, allowing it to rank higher on search engine results. And according to a survey by Backlinko, the top three search results on Google receive up to 54.4% of all clicks. Therefore, investing in SEO can help your service-based business attract a lot of web traffic, which you can convert into sales.
Keyword targeting is one of the top SEO techniques that can improve your website’s search engine ranking. For example, say you operate an automatic garage door repair business. In such a case, you can target keywords like ‘garage doors,’ ‘garage door repair,’ and ‘garage door repair near me.’ Therefore, anyone searching for these terms on search engines will come across your business, bringing you one step closer to converting them.
You can find several other SEO techniques to improve your website’s search engine rankings and offer other bonus benefits. For example, you can invest in backlinks, which can bring quality traffic to your website. Or you can leverage tactics like faster page load times and easier navigation, thus improving user experience and lead conversion rates.
Leverage Social Media Marketing
Social media can be an essential element of digital marketing for service-based business owners. According to Smart Insights, over 60% of the global population uses social media. Therefore, investing in social media marketing can help your enterprise increase its market reach and generate many new leads.
Social media marketing can also be an effective way to improve your customer service. For example, if you’re a container rental service business, you can use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to quickly respond to potential customers inquiring about your services. You can also use these platforms to resolve disputes with your existing customers or receive feedback and suggestions about your services.
Your service-based business can enjoy several other benefits when you invest in social media marketing. For example, regularly using social media can increase your brand’s visibility and recognition. In addition, engaging your existing customers through social media platforms can increase brand loyalty and customer retention rates, leading to more sales and revenue. Other benefits of social media marketing include increased conversations about your brand, market research, a better understanding of customer interests, competitor analysis, etc.
Use Quality Content to Engage Your Audience
Content is the backbone of digital marketing for service-based business owners. That’s because you need content for any digital marketing strategy, from SEO to social media marketing, pay-per-click advertising, email marketing, etc. On top of that, quality content will help to attract the audience, engage them, generate leads, and improve conversions.
Website content is one of the top examples of content you can invest in for your digital marketing strategy. For example, you’re an emergency roof service business. Then, you can create and share content on your business detailing what the services you offer involve. This way, any potential user visiting your business website will find valuable information, making it easy to convert them into customers.
Besides website content, you can use several types of content to market your business. For example, there’s video content where you can share videos about your business, its services, and employees, thus generating a lot of interest in your brand. You can also use blog posts, eBooks, and webinars to share tips, guides, facts, and other interesting information about topics related to the services your business offers.
Create a Google Business Profile
Creating a Google Business Profile is another effective digital marketing technique for promoting your service-based business. The profile adds your business to Google Maps, which can greatly increase your brand’s visibility. And according to Google Cloud, the maps have more than one billion active users every month, thus guaranteeing your business a lot of free exposure.
A Google Business profile can also help you increase your local customer base. For example, if your business offers metal fabrication services, having a profile on Google Maps will allow customers near your location to easily find you. These customers can then call your business, visit your office in person, or check out your website, where you can easily convert them.
The other top benefit of a Google Business Profile is that it allows you to engage with prospective customers. For example, you can add keywords to your profile, thus increasing your business’s ranking on Google Search and Google Maps results. You can also list your services, add photos, answer users’ questions, indicate operating hours, and add other crucial details that can improve user experience and satisfaction, leading to more leads and conversions.
Use Your Website to Showcase Your Brand
Using a website to showcase your brand is another top tip when investing in digital marketing for service-based businesses. Such a move can create a deeper and more meaningful connection with your website visitors. Consequently, this can make it easier to convert them, leading to more sales and revenue.
Highlighting your services is one of the top ways to showcase your brand. For example, if you offer restaurant upholstery repair services, you can use the services page to highlight what your business does. You can also use your website to create and share a portfolio, thus showing off your organization’s finished projects, skills, and experience to potential customers.
Besides services, you can also use your website to show off your employees. For example, you can include their bios, skills, and experiences on the About Us page. You can also share behind-the-scenes photos and videos of your employees doing their jobs. Doing this can personalize your brand and create real connections with existing and prospective customers, increasing brand loyalty and trust.
Invest in Email Marketing
Email marketing may seem like an outdated way to promote your business, but it’s very effective. According to Statista, email marketing has an average return on investment of $36 for every $1 invested, with some industries enjoying ROIs of up to $45. Therefore, if you want to invest in digital marketing for service-based businesses, you should highly consider email marketing.
On top of the high ROI, email marketing allows your business to develop a personalized marketing campaign. For example, you can include a customer’s (or prospective customer’s) name in each email you send, thus creating a stronger connection with your brand. You can also target different segments of your market demographic by creating individualized content for each segment, thus increasing your marketing strategies’ effectiveness.
Lastly, email marketing can help you to increase your customer engagement. For example, if your business offers industrial welding services, you can use emails to contact your existing customers. And you can keep them engaged by sharing industry news, news about your company (or its services), offers, and promotions. This can help to increase brand loyalty, higher customer retention rates, and more sales (and profits).
Leverage the Power of Social Proof
Social proof is a crucial factor that can boost digital marketing for service-based business owners. That’s because of its power as a motivation tool, which can influence consumers into making a favorable decision. For example, it can encourage consumers to visit your website or buy your services, thus increasing your sales and revenues.
One of the top ways you can use social proof to promote your brand is by sharing feedback from your existing customers. For example, you can share positive reviews and testimonials about your commercial cleaning service offerings on your website, social media pages, or Google Business Profile. Consequently, this can improve potential customers’ trust in your services, increasing sales.
Besides customer proof, you can leverage other forms of social proof to promote your company. For example, you can publish case studies, reviews from industry experts, media mentions, or awards and certifications on your website. This can significantly improve your brand trust and credibility and make targeting and converting potential customers easier.
Offer an Excellent Customer Experience
According to a 2020 report by Zendesk, around 50% of customers will switch to a competitor due to a poor experience. On the other hand, 52% of customers will repeatedly buy from a favorite brand that offers a good customer experience. From these statistics, it’s clear that customer experience is essential for the success of your business’s digital marketing strategies.
Your business website is one of the top areas where you should invest heavily in quality customer experience. For example, say your business offers meat slicing machine repairs. Then, you must have an easy-to-navigate website where visitors can quickly find all the information they need, like what your repair services involve and your business contacts. You also want a fast-loading website that will not waste your potential customers’ time, thus driving them to click the ‘back’ button.
Collecting and responding to feedback is another excellent strategy for improving customer experience when using digital marketing to promote your business. For example, you can add live chat tools to your website, where your customers can raise issues and receive prompt help from your support team. You can also use your social media pages to receive and quickly respond to customer complaints.
Monitor Your Digital Marketing Performance
Performance monitoring is a must-have when investing in digital marketing for service-based businesses. Monitoring helps to identify strategies that are working and those that aren’t. And as a result, you can modify your marketing efforts, leading to better results while avoiding wastage of resources.
You can use several indicators to track the performance of your marketing strategies. For example, say you’re a gutter cleaning service company that uses a website for promotion. In this case, you can track marketing results by looking at conversion rates, click-through rates, the number of returning visitors, and the average time users spend on your website. From this data, you can tell whether your website is performing well or needs more optimization.
However, the results of your digital marketing strategies aren’t the only metric you need to look at. Instead, it would help if you considered other factors like customer acquisition costs and the ROI of each marketing strategy. This way, you can find out the best-performing strategies and techniques where you can invest your resources, thus guaranteeing your business a better bottom line.
Hire Marketing Professionals for Your Business
Hiring professionals is another excellent idea when considering digital marketing for service-based businesses. One of the top benefits of working with professionals is that they can provide you with more marketing tools, resources, and networks. Consequently, this can guarantee a better outcome for your business, for example, by increasing your sales or improving your competitive advantage.
The other benefit of working with marketing professionals is that it saves time and money. For example, say you run a general contractor service business; then, executing a digital marketing campaign by yourself will take you away from vital day-to-day operations of your business. On top of that, without marketing experience, you’re likely to make several mistakes that can be costly. Therefore, you’re better off hiring a professional marketer who will save you time and money.
Lastly, hiring professionals can make your marketing strategies more efficient. For example, thanks to their years of experience and in-depth market knowledge, marketers can help you choose the most suitable digital marketing platforms for your service-based business. They can also offer you more accurate and advanced ways of monitoring the results of your digital marketing campaigns.
The robust growth of the services industry makes digital marketing for service-based businesses more important than ever. However, you must invest in the right digital marketing strategies for your enterprise to benefit. Fortunately, with the above tips, you can improve your brand’s marketing efforts and enjoy fantastic benefits like increased sales and better brand visibility, loyalty, and trust.
