Marketing makes it easier to find new customers. Use these electrical contractor marketing ideas to grow your business and maximize your revenue.

Electrical Contractor Marketing Ideas

No matter how skilled you are as an electrical contractor, your business won't succeed if potential customers don't know it exists. That's why marketing is so important. Unfortunately, many contractors lack confidence in their marketing abilities, leading them to focus on other things. If you want to improve your marketing skills and grow your business, implement these electrical contractor marketing ideas.

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Benefits of a Marketing Plan to Electrical Contractors

You wouldn't hike in an unfamiliar area without packing a trail map and plenty of emergency supplies. A marketing plan is like a map to guide you through the marketing process and helps you avoid getting lost along the way. One of the main benefits of a marketing plan is that it lays out exactly what you need to do to promote your business. It's a lot easier to follow a step-by-step plan than to throw things at the wall and see what sticks.

A marketing plan also helps you maintain your focus. If you're busy with electrical jobs, it's easy to get distracted and forget about your marketing activities. A good plan helps you stay on track, ensuring you have a steady stream of customers. This can help you avoid the feast-or-famine cycle that plagues many electrical contractors.

Finally, creating a plan makes it easier to determine what resources you need to grow your business. For example, if you decide to include video marketing in your strategy, you'll need a camera, a light source, and a script. Planning ahead allows you to budget for your marketing expenses and make sure you have the right people, processes, and equipment in place when you need them.

Planning an Electrical Contractor Marketing Strategy

The first step in creating a marketing strategy is to identify your target audience. Many electrical contractors make the mistake of thinking they should market to everyone who lives in their service area. That's just not the case. You want to market to people who need and have the money to afford your services. If you do residential work, then you need to market to homeowners rather than business owners. If you prefer to do large jobs instead of small ones, you need to think about where potential customers live and how much income they earn.

Once you're clear on your target audience, set some initial goals. Every business owner would like to triple their income or grow their business to $10 million in revenue but try to begin with something more realistic. If you just started your business, reaching $10 million in revenue isn't something you can do overnight. It's better to aim for $50,000 in revenue or five paying customers.

Next, set a budget for your marketing activities. This is where a lot of electrical contractors get stuck. It's natural to want to minimize your expenses, especially if you're just starting out, but you must spend a little money to get results. For example, if you don't have a website, you need to invest in a domain name, website development, and website content. If necessary, start with low-cost marketing tactics and then branch out to more expensive ones.

Finally, develop an implementation schedule or marketing calendar. Scheduling your marketing activities makes it more likely you'll complete them, as it forces you to set aside time for marketing. You don't have to set aside a whole week for recording videos or writing blog posts. Just find little pockets of time between your electrical work and other business activities.

12 Electrical Contractor Marketing Ideas

1. Start a Blog

Blogs have been around for nearly 30 years, but they continue to be one of the most effective marketing tools for small businesses. When you write a blog post, you have the opportunity to speak directly to the people in your target audience. Readers can also comment on your posts, giving you insight into how you can connect with potential customers and convince them of the value of your services.

As an added bonus, blogging also helps with search engine optimization (SEO), or the process of making it easier for potential customers to find your website via Google and other search engines. Every time you write a new post, you're telling the search engines your website has relevant, valuable content. If you use the right keywords, your post may even show up at the top of the search engine rankings for specific queries.

If you're not a strong writer or you'd rather focus on providing electrical services, hire a freelancer to write some blog posts for you. A good freelancer can break down complex electrical concepts and help potential customers understand why they should hire you.

2. Improve Your Website

What's the first thing you do when you need a product or service? If you're like many people, you fire up your favorite search engine and start looking for solutions to your problem. For example, if you need a new pair of boots, perhaps you read online reviews and narrow down your options before you visit a local store. This is how many of your potential customers look for an electrical contractor. If you don't have a website or your website is a single page with a lonely paragraph of text, it's difficult to connect with audience members.

Before you ramp up your other marketing efforts, go through your website and make sure it provides plenty of information about who you are, what you do, and why people in your target market should hire you. Once you have a few basic pages of content, you can think about adding a blog or writing detailed descriptions of each service you provide. The more pages your website has, the more opportunities you have to connect with potential customers.

If you're stuck on what to write, here are a few ideas:

• Publish a professional biography listing your credentials and explaining why you went into the electrical industry.
• Write answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about electrical problems.
• Post a list of past clients so potential customers can see you have a long history of serving your community.
• Create detailed descriptions of each service you provide. Explain what the service is, why it's important, and how often customers should have it done.
• Add a photo gallery of completed projects.

3. Request Reviews

More than 70% of consumers use online reviews to help them make buying decisions. Additionally, many people see reviews as an unbiased source of information about your services. That's why it's so important to solicit reviews from satisfied customers. If you don't feel comfortable asking in person, send a follow-up email after you finish each job. The email should thank the customer for their business and let them know how much you appreciate reviews. If possible, include a link to Google or another review site. The easier it is to leave a review, the more likely it is customers will fulfill your request.

4. Produce Educational Videos

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a high-quality video is worth even more. This is especially true for electricians and other types of contractors, as video marketing allows you to demonstrate your skills and show off your completed projects. Best of all, you don't need to hire an award-winning director or invest in expensive videography equipment. With a smartphone and a good light source, it's possible to create high-quality videos on your own.

Follow these tips to make your video marketing campaign a success:

• Plan ahead: If you start recording without thinking about what you're going to say, audience members will be able to tell you're unprepared
• .Create a script: You don't have to write down every word you plan to say, but it's helpful to have a short outline of talking points to keep you on track.
• Repurpose blog posts and other types of content: When you create a video, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You can take the talking points from a recent blog post and turn them into a video script, for example. 
• Use closed captioning: This has two major benefits. First, closed captioning makes your videos accessible for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing. Second, if you post a video on social media, there's a good chance it will play without sound unless the viewer decides to unmute it. Captions make it easier for audience members to understand what a video is about and determine if they want to listen to the audio.
• Make the introduction as interesting as possible: You only have a few seconds to capture the viewers' interest and convince them to watch the entire video.

5. Implement SEO Best Practices

As explained previously, SEO is the process of making it easier for potential customers to find your business online. Before you develop an SEO strategy, conduct competitor research to find out what other companies in your industry are doing. You don't want to copy from anyone, but competitor research can help you identify gaps in your website content. For example, if three other electricians in your area have a series of how-to videos on their websites, you may want to prioritize video marketing over other promotional tactics.

It's also important to use relevant keywords on each page of your website. A keyword is one of the search terms people use to find your business. For example, if you serve customers in the Albuquerque metro area, you might use keywords like "electrical contractor in Downtown Albuquerque" or "electrician in Rio Rancho." This makes it easier to rank well for local searches.

When ranking websites, Google and other search engines look for quality signals. Here are a few things you can do improve your rankings:

• Update your content regularly: This shows potential customers you're committed to providing up-to-date information. It also tells the search engine that your content continues to be relevant.
• Proofread carefully: Typos and other errors cast doubt on your ability to focus on small details. If you have more than an error or two on each page, visitors may leave your site quickly, increasing your bounce rate. A high bounce rate tells the search engines your content isn't meeting visitors' needs, which may hurt your page rankings.
• Make your content easy to read: Use <H2> and <H3> HTML tags, bulleted lists, numbered lists, bold text, and other formatting elements to guide the reader as they skim the page. If your content is easy to read, visitors will be more likely to stick around, reducing your bounce rate.
• Check your links regularly to make sure they're not broken: If you have outdated links, the search engines may think your content is also outdated.

6. Sponsor Local Events

Have you ever attended a local football game and noticed signs for area businesses hanging in the stadium? If so, you know how helpful it is to sponsor local events as part of your marketing strategy. At minimum, a sponsor usually gets to display their name and logo, increasing brand awareness.

You may not have enough money to sponsor a football team, but you can buy equipment for local baseball players or partner with a nonprofit in your community. For example, if you love animals, consider partnering with your local humane society to sponsor a fundraiser.

7. Try Direct Mail

Direct mail is the use of physical materials to make potential customers aware of your business. For example, you've probably received fliers from your local grocery store to let you know about its weekly specials. Many business owners shy away from direct mail due to the perceived cost, but it can be very cost-effective if you choose the right marketing materials. Postcards cost as little as a few cents each, making it easier to connect with potential customers without spending all your marketing budget in one place.

8. Create a Google Business Profile

Google dominates the search landscape, so it's important to use as many Google tools as possible to improve your page rankings and help potential customers find your business. One way to do this is to create a Google Business Profile (GBP). Previously known as Google My Business, GBP makes it easy to connect with people in your service area. Once you create a profile, you can update it with your physical address, hours of operation, and other important details about your company. This makes it more likely your business will show up in local searches.

9. Spend Time on Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social networks allow you to connect with consumers in your service area, making them extremely effective for marketing. Potential customers can ask questions, send you messages, and learn more about your business all in one place. Previous customers can leave reviews and answer questions about what it's like to work with your company. Best of all, it costs nothing to sign up for an account and start writing your first post.

If you decide to use social media, make sure you fill out each profile completely. Include your company name, physical address, telephone number, website URL, and email address. If possible, upload photos of completed projects, and make sure users can access a complete list of your services.

10. Create a Content Marketing Plan

Content marketing is the use of valuable, relevant content to attract new customers and retain existing ones. Blog posts, buying guides, checklists, tip sheets, and other types of content make it easier to educate potential customers, highlight your industry expertise, and make people feel comfortable about hiring you. Before you start writing, create a content marketing plan to help you stay on track.

11. Experiment with Local Deals

Nextdoor isn't just for finding your lost dog or complaining about your noisy neighbor. It's also a valuable marketing tool for local business owners. Once you sign up for an account, you can post a Local Deal, or a special offer available to Nextdoor users. For example, you can offer 20% off an electrical inspection or give new customers a fixed discount of $50 off an electrical estimate. Make sure your deal includes a strong call to action to encourage customers to contact you immediately.

12. Partner With a Lead Generation Service

In marketing, a lead is a potential customer who has a need for your services. Although you need leads to grow your business, it's tough to generate high-quality leads on your own. Many electrical contractors end up frustrated because they waste time contacting low-quality leads when they could be finishing a current job or starting a new one. The solution is to work with a lead generation service that screens leads carefully before delivering them to you. When you get prescreened, trade-specific leads, you don't have to worry about wasting time on wrong numbers or leads who have no intention of hiring an electrical contractor.

How to Measure the Success of an Electrical Contractor Marketing Plan

To measure the success of the electrical contractor marketing ideas you pursue, compare your results with the goals you set during the planning process. For example, if you set a goal of increasing your revenue by $50,000 within 6 months, look through your books to determine if you've generated at least $50,000 in revenue. If you set a goal to bring in three new customers, check to see if you've served at least three new customers during the review period. If you didn't reach your goals, tweak your marketing plan accordingly.

Grow Your Business with CraftJack

Once you implement your chosen electrical contractor marketing ideas, you should follow them consistently. CraftJack provides phone-verified electrical leads, ensuring you'll have plenty of work to grow your business.