Not everyone has huge, disposable income after the overhead costs of running their contractor business, but with a little budgeting and some ingenuity, marketing will become your best friend in the pursuit of your target audience, paying hand-over-fist in relation to its expense.
The wonderful thing about guerilla marketing, or marketing techniques that are not common in your field, is that they capture the attention of your prospective customers by reaching them where they are less likely to have their guard up and often at a lower cost than more traditional platforms.
So, without further ado, here are 5 free (or almost free) marketing tools for contractors!
Networking events. You can find events everywhere, in every town in America, and for contractors, they are essential. You can mingle with the end client, but also you can cross-pollinate and mutually benefit from the services of other businesses and form partnerships that can open unexpected possibilities down the line.
Expert Content. Your skills are valuable and people would like you to share your expertise! A fantastic way to demonstrate your knowledgeable brand is to provide valuable information in the form of content – videos, articles, blogs, podcasts, and so on. Keep the content simple and related to your field of experience, like a how-to video on how to install a faucet, or an article outlining quick fixes for ceiling leaks. Contractors have a lot to share – and people want to learn from them!
Email Blasts. Email blasts are so extremely cheap for the incredible value they can add to your business that you’re losing money by not using email to market your business. Automated email blasts are a great way to nurture relationships with your leads. The good thing about email is it serves different touchpoints, levels of interest, and moments in the sales process. For example, you can remind people of your business with simple DIY guides, or you can convert cold leads into customers with calls to action and enticements like discounts or sales. Best of all, email costs almost nothing and requires very little expertise to set up and get running!
Partner With A Complementary Contractor Or Contracting Business. Partnering with another business owner in a similar classification can pay huge dividends. Not only can you recommend your partner and their services to your existing clients, but you can also leverage each other’s marketing channels – allowing you both to double your reach by using one another’s businesses as a megaphone.
There’s simply no excuse for contractors NOT to be using these free or nearly free marketing tools to grow their business. If you’re a contractor and you’re not marketing, you’re falling behind your competitors in the area – the more you can get your name out there, the more people will come to you looking for help with their construction.
Keep in mind this is the absolute bare minimum you should be doing as a contractor. Investing in marketing is often the best thing you can do to grow your business – because, without customers, you don’t have a business at all!