Electrical Connection Autumn 2017

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E L E C T R I C A L CO N N E C T I O N A U T UMN 2 0 17 9 5
My four tips for a great website for
your trades business:
1. Ensure your website is mobile
responsive and looks great on
a variety of screen sizes (think
tablet, iPhone, and laptop).
2. Ensure there are clear call-to-
action buttons, such as ‘Call Now’
or ‘Get a Free Quote’.
3. Ensure that the website contains
everything the customer needs to
know in order to get them to click
your call-to-action button, whether
this is a gallery and samples
of your work or a list of trade
qualifications. Your aim is to instil
trust and win them over and laying
out this information in an easy to
read manner is key.
HAVE A GOOGLE PLACES
LISTING PROFILE
Have you ever searched for a
business, say hardware stores, online
using Google and in the results you see
a map highlighting hardware stores
in your local area? These hardware
stores listed all have a Google Places
listing. These listings can be very
powerful in helping customers to find
and connect with your business, plus
they are free to set up.
Google Places listings show
information like address, phone
number, opening hours, photos,
website and even directions. It is also
a place where customers can leave a
review of your business.
Get started by searching ‘Google
My Business’ in Google. Google has a
step-by-step process to help you easily
setup your Google Pages listing.
BUILD YOUR BUSINESS PROFILE ON
LOCAL SERVICE MARKETPLACES
Local service marketplaces are
online tools that help customers list
their job needs and do all the hard
work matching them with quality local
service professionals. A local service
marketplace can provide a great
source of quality local customer leads,
at a fraction of the price of traditional
online advertising methods.
Local service marketplaces provide
trades professionals with a place to
build a business profile, configure
their service area and lead notification
settings and start connecting with
clients – in real time.
When building your business profile
on local service marketplaces, do your
research and consider aspects like:
ǩ Will this target people in my
geographical area?
ǩ How will I be notified about
possible leads, via email, SMS or
push notifications?
ǩ What profile information can I
share on the site?
ǩ How many visitors does the site get?
ǩ How credible is the site?
ǩ Is the site easy to use and easy for
customers to search?
ǩ Does the site rank well for
common Google searches specific
to your industry?
ǩ Does the site also allow customers
to leave reviews?
ǩ If the site has a membership fee,
what other benefits does it offer?
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media can be used for
more than just keeping in contact
with friends and family and sharing
funny cat videos. It can also be a
great way to showcase your
business and stay top of mind with
prospective customers.
Consider having a Facebook
business page where you can post
pictures on your latest projects, maybe
it’s a complete bathroom renovation,
a new deck or a new modern lighting
setup – it’s a great place to highlight
your work. Get support from family and
friends to share examples of your work
as you never know who’s around the
corner looking to get a job done.
HAVE A DATABASE OF
LOCAL CONTACTS
Having useful data about your
customers can lead to an incredibly
powerful sales pipeline. For instance,
Oneflare records over two million
data events per week which helps us
segment, analyse and uncover different
and unique ways we can add value for
our customers.
Having a database makes it easier
to keep in contact with previous
customers, keeping you top of mind
for when they may need to engage you
again or recommend you to a friend.
For example, a few years ago I
used a local handyman. To this day
he still sends me promotions via text
messages every spring as a reminder
to get jobs around the home (gutters,
weeding, etc.) – usually with some sort
of promotion. And the great thing is, he
knows my house and yard already so
the quote is super accurate.
There are many free tools
you can use to record customer
information, like Google Sheets.
However, more advanced customer
relationship management tools, such
as InfusionSoft, allow you to do so
much more. For instance, you can
segment your customers and perform
automated tasks, like send timely
text messages after a job has been
completed asking the customer to
leave a review on popular review sites
such as .
To get ahead of your competitors and
stand out in your local area think about
using a range of digital tactics, like those
listed above. Consumers are searching
for tradespeople online and it’s up to you
to leverage this activity so you can build
a sustainable and lucrative pipeline of
jobs for your business.
Oneflare
“Social media can be used for more
than just keeping in contact with
friends.”