How to Market Your Home Service Business

The beauty of this kind of marketing is that it’s trackable.  You choose how often you want to communicate with your prospects and you can measure those response rates.  You can see who opens your emails and when they click through to your website.

Most of the direct marketing tools on the market today are either expensive or require a huge investment upfront. I think that’s something any small business should be in no doubt about.  But let’s say you’re starting a small business and really want to see it thrive. One strategy that you can use to market your small business in balance with traditional advertising methods is the mailing list.

My Experience Marketing a Home Service Business

When I began my small business, my “mailing list” consisted of 200 prospects that I received over the phone and personally inviting me to visit their website.  Because of the fee they charged, I wasn’t prepared to do that right away.  But after talking with a business colleague, she suggested me use some tried and true techniques which I am about to share with you.  Read these tips and let them inspire you to ‘live only in dream mode’ and start marketing your small business today!

Your mailing list is the tool that can make a huge difference for both you and your prospects.  The fact that a particular grand philosophical company like Google or eBay does it makes even more case you should take advantage of in house lists technology!  These smaller venues have captured tons of potential customers, so why not make that your tool?

Consider Hiring a Home Service Marketing Company

You may want to consider hiring a marketing services agency since that is what they specialize in. If you are too busy to do this by yourself it may be the best thing you can do in order to grow your business.

You can start with a very inexpensive database – consider the library!  Begin by creating a page that is indexed by your potential customer’s name and address.  Then add a link that they can click back to and enter their email addresses. Once you have a number of email addresses, call them and ask for permission to add your restaurant this list to what they can forward to you. They have a much higher percentage of accepting this request than you can.

Create an Offer for Your Home Service

Second step is to create an offer.  I suggest having a subscription fitness club with monthly membership fees so when people they continue to renew the price is a lot less than a one time fee.  A half-off price in exchange for their email address is something to consider for your home business.

As you create an offer, be hyper aggressive.”20% discounted on Thanksgiving off if you sign up on-line.” Or “Dinner for two in our local pizza place, the price is just $20 this week, get two and get 20% off.”  There are several problems with these collective free phrases, but let’s not waste time discussing them right now.  For now, let’s focus on the purpose of the offer, to get your prospects to give you their email address.

Now, imagine that you have created an on-line newsletter tailored to a specific interest.  Again, you are tapping into the hot button of competition, “How To”  and competition offers several advantages over direct mail.

Test Your Home Service Marketing Campaigns

First, a full month’s worth of marketing tests can be performed on your new mailing list.  The reports of your data can improve your decisions on new topics, branding, content, offers, headlines, etc.  You can see what response rates, or opt-ins, is usually associated with each subject, and track the basic results.  The points (or angles) you discover can help you optimize future offers.

You are saving big bucks and a precious hour of your time.

If you use a database, you are creating a version of your restaurant newsletter.  That’s time money!  The database then has your restaurant information in one place.  When you want to create new content, no lead generation emails are required.

If you are not familiar with what I mean by this newsletterSince your newsletter is personalized, it is a natural appetizers newsletter.  With the features of a newsletter, your subscribers are directed to your site to learn more about a particular product or service and to see what is new and special about your restaurant.   Each territorial subscriber of your newsletter will be added to your database, and it will become an integral part of your ongoing marketing efforts.