Guide to Home Services Marketing

Home services businesses like plumbing, HVAC, electrical, and more face unique marketing challenges. Unlike product companies, you don’t have a physical item to showcase. Your service is intangible.

This makes it critical to implement effective marketing strategies that clearly communicate what you do and why customers should choose you. With the right approach, you can attract more clients and grow your home services company.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore proven techniques for marketing home service businesses in 2023.

Understanding Your Target Customer

The foundation of any good marketing strategy is understanding your ideal customer. For home services, your targets usually fall into a few main categories:

• Homeowners: People who need repairs, installations, or maintenance on their home systems. This includes young couples, families, and elderly individuals.
• Landlords: Owners of residential rental properties that require service calls to maintain their units.
• Property Managers: Professionals who handle maintenance for residential communities, commercial properties, HOAs, etc.
• Realtors: Real estate agents who need inspections or repairs done before selling a home.
• Commercial Clients: Businesses that need electrical, plumbing, HVAC, or other work done on their offices, retail spaces, etc.

When designing your marketing campaign, be very clear about who you want to reach. Create buyer personas to represent your targets and understand their pain points. This will allow you to craft messaging that truly resonates.

Crafting a Compelling Brand Message

Since home services are intangible purchases, you need a strong brand that builds trust. Your marketing materials should communicate:

• What service(s) you provide: Make it crystal clear what types of projects you handle, such as plumbing installation, electrical repair, HVAC maintenance, etc.
• Your area of expertise: Are you highly experienced with certain home systems or issues? Tell prospects directly.
• Your service area: Be upfront about the geographical region you serve.
• Your guarantee: Do you offer 100% satisfaction or other guarantees? Promote this to reduce buyer concerns.
• Why customers should choose you: Highlight what makes you different—niche expertise, advanced certifications, great reviews, etc.
• Benefits you provide: Go beyond features to explain how you make life easier for customers. Faster response times, fixing issues correctly the first time, cleaner work sites, etc.

Website Design Tips

Your website is often the first impression prospects have of your brand. That’s why optimizing your site for conversions is critical. Follow these best practices:

Incorporate Visuals

Since home services are intangible, use images and videos to showcase your work. Include:

• Photos of your technicians in uniform performing service calls
• Stock photos of satisfied customers
• Videos demonstrating your processes

Promote Reviews and Testimonials

Third-party validation builds trust. Feature excerpts from positive online reviews on your homepage. Add a testimonials page with detailed stories from happy clients.

Emphasize Call to Actions

Every page should guide visitors to take action, whether calling your number, requesting a quote, or booking an appointment. Use buttons and graphics to highlight these CTAs.

Optimize for Mobile

With 60% of site traffic coming from mobile devices, a mobile-friendly site is mandatory. Use responsive design and check your site on multiple devices.

Include Schema Markup

Adding schema markup to your site makes it easier for search engines to understand your content. This can improve local SEO rankings. Be sure to include schema for your business info, reviews, services, FAQs, etc.

Blog About Your Industry

Blogging boosts your organic traffic and shows off your expertise. Post tips for homeowners, product reviews, and explanations of common issues your services solve.

Prioritize Speed and UX

Page speed impacts conversions. Compress images, minify CSS/JavaScript, and optimize code to accelerate load times. Also ensure your site navigation is intuitive.

Local SEO for Home Services

Ranking higher in local searches should be a top goal. Local SEO best practices include:

• NAP citations: List your business Name, Address, and Phone number consistently across directories like Google My Business, Yelp, Manta, YellowPages, and 50+ others relevant to your region. Inconsistent NAPs can negatively impact rankings. Use tools like Brightlocal to monitor.
• Reviews: Local search heavily weighs review volume and quality. Proactively request customer reviews and respond professionally to any negative feedback.
• Link building: Having authoritative sites link back to your homepage and service pages can improve local pack rankings. Guest post on local blogs, partner with vendors, and sponsor community events to earn links.
• On-page optimization: Include your target service keywords and location on every page. Create unique title tags and meta descriptions for each page too.
• Google My Business: Completely optimize your GMB listing with photos, descriptions, service menu, correct categories, and more. This is the backbone of local SEO.

Paid Ads for Home Services

While organic SEO takes time, paid ads offer instant results. Use platforms like Google and Facebook to get in front of prospects right when they search for related services.

Google Ads

Target service-related keywords on Google Search and YouTube. Create ads with compelling messaging and calls to action to generate calls and form fills. Use extensions like call, location, callout, and message to boost engagement.

Retarget website visitors with display ads reminding them to take action. Dynamic search ads can help you scale reach across relevant long-tail keywords.

Facebook and Instagram

Run ads promoting your service pages and offers. Target by location, demographics, interests, and behaviors.

Use lead generation campaigns to capture contact info from interested prospects. Re-engage shoppers with retargeting ads.

NextDoor

This hyperlocal social network is great for promoting home services in specific neighborhoods. Run sponsored posts showcasing your expertise and local roots.

Traditional Offline Marketing

Even in the digital age, traditional marketing remains effective for driving awareness and sales in home services:

• Print ads in local newspapers, community circulars, and magazines. Target publications and neighborhoods your buyers actually read.
• Direct mail with promotions, coupons, and seasonal maintenance reminders. Send to targeted postal routes, past customers, and new movers.
• Vehicle branding like door magnets and truck wraps so prospects see your name when your technicians are on a job.
• Radio/TV/Podcast ads on local media outlets popular with your demographic. Time ads seasonally around peak demand periods.
• Sponsorship banners at community events and kids’ sports games to raise local awareness.
• Networking events to meet potential referral partners like realtors, property managers, contractors, etc.
• Cold calls can be effective when done professionally. Call local businesses to offer commercial services.

No matter the medium, track results to see which marketing channels deliver the best return on spend.

Excellent Customer Service

Marketing gets new prospects in the door, but customer service keeps them coming back. Some best practices for home service providers include:

• Arrive on-time to appointments or even early
• Have technicians call when they are en route so clients can plan
• Cover work areas with drop cloths and thoroughly clean up after
• Leave homes exactly as found or better
• Be friendly and personable with customers
• Avoid technical jargon when explaining issues and repairs
• Provide itemized invoices outlining exactly what work was performed
• Follow up after service calls to ensure satisfaction
• Honor your guarantees and warranties without hassle
• Reward loyalty with discounts, gifts, and surprise upgrades
• Send thank you notes and collect reviews from happy customers

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I market my services to realtors in my area?

Build relationships with realtors by attending networking events, providing educational materials on the home inspections and repairs you offer, sending direct mail with seasonal maintenance tips, and partnering to co-host events for homeowners. Provide special offers just for realtors as an incentive to refer clients.

How can I market my services on social media?

On Facebook/Instagram target your ads by location and homeowner interests. Post educational content and run lead generation ads. Join local neighborhood groups on NextDoor to promote your services. On YouTube create video content showcasing your expertise. Respond promptly to all online reviews.

How do I choose the right marketing channels to invest in?

Start by looking at how your current customers find you – search engines, ads, referrals, etc. Talk to customers about what media they pay attention to. Test various channels on a small scale and track conversions to see what delivers results. Build out marketing initiatives that generate a strong return on spend.

Take Your Home Services Marketing to the Next Level

If you’re ready to grow your home services business and win more customers in your area, partnering with a digital marketing agency is the next step. Our 7 ten team specializes in multi-channel strategies tailored for home service brands. We handle the heavy lifting so you can focus on the work you love. From optimizing your local SEO to managing paid ads, social media, and creative content, we become an extension of your team. Our data-driven approach means we maximize ROI while generating qualified leads and sales for partners each month. Many successful home service companies rely on our expertise. 

Contact us today to create a comprehensive marketing plan designed to meet your unique goals. Now is the time to gain an edge over the competition.