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Successful Online Business Networking for Contractors

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contractor marketingMost contractors get a lot of business from a surprising source: by networking with other contractors.

The process works something like this. If someone needs gutter work done then they probably also need work done on the roof, foundation, or siding. So the gutter guy passes on the name of the siding guy.

And while the siding guy is out there doing his thing, the homeowner might just mention that he or she is thinking about adding a fence. So the siding contractor passes on the number of a fence guy he knows.

So it’s clear that it pays to get to know other contractors. Once upon a time that might have been done at trade shows or Chamber of Commerce events. That’s still valuable.

However, in today’s increasingly busy, chaotic, and digital world there are also clear benefits to taking some of that networking online. For one thing, the online world offers you the opportunity to build relationships with more contractors in a shorter period of time.

You can also help each other increase web presence and visibility. For example, if you and another contractor start commenting on each other’s blogs you’re both helping one another build valuable backlinks which help you both increase your ranking in Google searches.

The referrals also don’t even have to be direct when you’re doing it online. “Mary the Homeowner” doesn’t have to mention her siding needs to “Gary the Gutter Guy.” She might just skip that and call Sam’s Siding because she saw Gary sharing a photo of Sam’s work on his Google+ feed.

Google+ and Twitter are both great places to start.

Focus on contractors in your local area. There are a couple of ways to do this.

One way is to just do a Google local search for any kind of contractor you can think of. You’ll get straight to each person’s website, where you’ll find their social media information. You can join them wherever they are.

Or, for Google+, you can just go in and run a search like “Minneapolis” + “Electrician” to see which accounts pop up. And for Twitter, you can use Twellow.

Twellow is a searchable directory of Twitter accounts. You’d simply enter the name of your city to get a list of Twitter accounts in your city.

You can also target other areas you serve, and cities close to your service area (their service area might well overlap with yours).

Simply scroll down the list, looking for other contractors. You should be able to find at least 20 people to network with, and that’s a great start.

Now it’s just a matter of putting in the effort.

Check out their blogs and comment on them. Share their posts and their content.

On Twitter, give them a Follow Friday shout-out. Be responsive and helpful.

Many of these contractors will reciprocate. You might find yourself starting some friendly, genuine conversations and getting to know one another. You’ll build trust.

Sooner or later, you’ll be the person they’re thinking of when they see an opportunity to make a referral in their field. And, of course, you need to be referring them, too.

This is the social side of social media and blogging. This is where you take a step beyond simply pushing content.

You enter a place where you can start building your business by building relationships, and that’s one of the strongest places you can possibly be.

Today’s Action Items:

  • Find 10-20 contractors worth following in your service area.

How Often Should a Contractor Update a Blog?

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updating a blogMany contractors avoid starting blogs on their website because they are worried about the time commitment. They think they have to update their blog every single day in order to see any results.

Fortunately, that’s not true at all. I would say that twice a week is just fine for any contractor’s blog, and I’ve got some hard numbers to prove it.

We’ll start with Contractor Blog A. Contractor Blog A has been getting 2 posts per week for six months.

Contractor Blog A was not getting much traffic. Now it sees 2700 visitors every month for over 600 keywords.

Then there’s Contractor Blog B.

At first, they were only getting a handful of visitors every month. Now they’re getting over 6,000 visitors per month. 70% of those visitors are from search traffic, ranking for approximately 1300 keywords that relate, in some form or fashion, to their business.

This means that you can come up with just 8 topics every month. Offer these topics on a consistent schedule and do a good job with them, and you can easily build the type of blog that will support your business.

Are all the blog posts masterpieces? No. Many of the posts are just basic, helpful how-to posts that people might need to know about. Other posts are livelier and more unique. This usually came later, since it takes time and practice to really get into a topic enough to do that.

Now of course, to receive these kinds of results it was important to follow some best practices. These blogs had to target some sensibly chosen keywords.

That’s not to say that the blogs were designed to talk to Google robots. They weren’t.

When you blog, you talk to humans and give robots a little nod. That’s all. Just one little nod to the robots to make their life a little easier. That’s all the robots want out of you anyway.

And it was important for each post to be long enough to really offer something of value.

There was an investment of time. But that’s how marketing goes.

You can invest time, or you can invest money. You have to invest one or the other or your business is going to be basically invisible.

But you don’t have to go crazy with either one of those two assets. You can apply them intelligently and strategically to get some pretty amazing results.

Today’s Action Items:

  • Jot down 8 topic ideas for your blog and commit to just 2 blog posts per week.

What You Should Know About Online Plumbing Marketing

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plumbing-marketingChances are plumbing marketing is the last thing you want to think about. You would rather be taking care of your customers.

But Internet marketing for plumbers isn’t something that you can afford to ignore. All other forms of advertising are becoming irrelevant. It’s almost impossible to get business if you don’t have an effective online presence.

Your Website Needs to Inspire Confidence

Like all contractors, plumbers sometimes have problems overcoming a homeowner’s distrust. There are just too many horror stories floating around about contractors who have treated their customers badly.

Fortunately, a website is an almost-perfect vehicle for building that trust. When you take the time to provide your potential customers with stellar content that they care about then you help break down those barriers.

Offering good content helps customers feel like they’re getting to know you. It also demonstrates that you know what you’re doing.

A few subtle nudges and calls to action can take care of the rest, inspiring the homeowner to fill out your contact form or give you a call. If you play your cards right you can use your internet marketing efforts to generate repeat business, too.

Your Website Needs Local Visitors

You’re in Minneapolis. You don’t need web traffic from neighboring Iowa.

Too many plumbers try to compete with the entire Internet. Often, they’re inspired by internet marketers who actually do have products that they can sell nation wide.

Don’t try to reach the country when you only need to reach around the block. By zeroing in on local internet marketing you simultaneously make things easier on yourself and reach the buyers you’re trying to reach.

After all, if you’re in a town with 35 plumbers then you only have to compete with those 35 plumbers when you use local SEO. That’s a lot better than competing with hundreds of thousands of plumbers across the country!

Local SEO starts at your website, but spreads out to other sites like Google+ Local, Yelp, Hot Frog, and other key directories. It also reaches out to your customers, who need to be encouraged to provide reviews.

Your Website Needs to Inspire Action

Customers are a passive, indecisive lot. They will sit and “think about” calling you unless you tell them to call you!

It’s important to provide clear calls to action throughout your website. You don’t have to “hard sell” anybody, but you do have to gently remind them to give you a call after you’re done offering them great information.

You need a way to capture customer information so you can follow up with them. Sometimes you can do this with an e-mail list and a free download. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of designing your contact form the right way.

Are you struggling with your internet marketing? As a trusted local SEO company that has helped many plumbers throughout the country, call us today and we’ll help you out!

7 Things You Should Know About Contractor Marketing

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contractor-marketingContractor marketing is somewhat unique because you’re marketing a service to a specific local area rather than a product that can be easily bought and sold online from anywhere in the world. Internet marketing for contractors is also different because people don’t always trust contractors – your website has to build that trust in addition to attracting traffic and generating calls.

These seven tips are designed to help you meet all of your objectives so that you can generate more visibility and leads online.

1. Good Contractor Marketing is Local

Your average Internet marketer is trying to get traffic from anywhere and everywhere he can. You need to get targeted traffic from people in your local area who need or want to purchase your services.

You can do this by paying attention to your Google+ Local and other local listings first and foremost. Then you can start building local keywords into your website.

A local keyword is as simple as adding the city name to your business keyword. “Minneapolis plumber” would be a local keyword, for example.

Working those keywords into your website can be challenging. We’ve developed some special methods for making it happen that we’ve used to great success when we help other contractors with their marketing.

2. Developing a Good Blog is Essential

Your blog is the pre-selling tool that will help your potential customers trust you. It also helps you get organic traffic by giving you a way to update your website and focus your keywords.

What should a contractor blog about? When we handle blogs for our contractors we cover a variety of topics related to that contractor’s work.

For example, a fence contractor’s blog is given content on cleaning, repairing, and maintaining fences. We also cover related landscaping topics and local community events. Customers often find that they would rather hire the fence company to repair their fence then to go through the time and expense of doing it themselves. Offering the information for free develops and builds trust.

3. You Need a Social Media Presence

Social media may not make you lots and lots of direct sales. But it will help you build relationships, increase trust, and increase your online presence.

Targeting accounts in your local area can become effective, especially when those people would make good referral partners anyway. Real estate agents and insurance agents can be excellent contacts, for example.

4. Organic Search Traffic is Essential

If you want to do your own contractor marketing then you’ll need to get the hang of keyword research. Or you’ll need to work with someone who can do that research for you.

In general, you’re going to need to focus on long-tail keywords that are popular enough to matter but not so popular that you don’t have any hope of ranking for them.

5. Simple Things Matter

Sometimes little things can make a big difference. Your contact form or your about page, for example, can each play a vital role in either securing customers or in chasing them away.

6. Photos and Videos are Excellent Tools

Start taking photos of your job sites and finished products. Take photos of happy customers. Take some video of your team at work.

You can either post these to your site yourself or save them for your SEO contractor. They make great fodder for social media sites.

Allowing customers to see you at work builds both trust and interest. It gives customers a chance to think about how they’ll feel when you’ve completed the same work at their home.

7. You Probably Don’t Have Time

Marketing for contractors isn’t hard. It isn’t complicated. You can probably understand how to do it just by reading this blog.

It is, however, time consuming, especially if you want to do it right. As a contractor you’re probably already swamped.

If you’re not sure that you have the time to pursue your own marketing goals then contact us, a trusted name in local SEO. It’s still less expensive than more traditional marketing methods and it’s drastically more effective.

4 Electrician SEO Marketing Tips for Online Success

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electrician-seo-marketingElectrician marketing has moved almost 100% online. The yellow pages, billboards, brochures, television commercials and radio spots just aren’t as effective as they used to be.

Internet marketing for electricians isn’t necessarily like internet marketing for other businesses, however. Here are four tips that can help you get more customers.

1. The Best Electrician Marketing is Local

Chances are you serve a specific local area. It isn’t cost effective to stray too far from your home office.

Therefore, your internet marketing efforts should be focused on ranking highly for local keywords like “Minneapolis electrician.” This means working local keywords into your own website wherever and whenever it makes sense to do so (without keyword stuffing).

It also means mastering Google+ Local optimization.

Local optimization can be time-consuming, since you have to build a bunch of citations. You also need to work hard at encouraging positive customer reviews.

2. You Need a Great Blog

There are many reasons why a great blog is important. One reason is it gives you multiple legitimate opportunities to work your keywords (both local and general) into your website.

Another reason is that Google favors websites that update their content regularly. You don’t want to change your boilerplate sales content every week, so you need another way to keep it fresh.

Blogs also help you build relationships with potential customers. If you were hiring a contractor, who would you trust more? Someone who handed you a brochure, or someone who gave you the information you needed when you needed it?

3. Off-Site SEO Matters

Citations are one source of off-site SEO. However, contractors also need to look for other ways to build backlinks.

Social media is another method of boosting your web presence and building up your off-site SEO. Google+ is an especially effective vehicle for doing this because Google gives preference to the site that it owns. However, electricians can also benefit from having a presence on Twitter and Facebook.

4. You Can Pay for Your Marketing Efforts in Money or in Time

Most internet marketing methods are free. It costs next to nothing to host and build a website. Social media is free. So is Google+ Local.

However, it can take hours of focused effort every single week to really start seeing results. As an electrician you might find it difficult to take that kind of time. You might also find it frustrating and tedious if you don’t like to write.

If you find yourself in this situation you might be relieved to find that getting help with your internet marketing is still less expensive than most traditional marketing efforts. Call TVS Internet Marketing at (800) 679-6005 today to find out what kind of ROI you can expect from getting help with your internet marketing efforts!

4 Plumber SEO Tips to Help You Get More Business

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plumber seoIf you’re a plumber, SEO is probably the last thing on your mind. After all, you’ve got customers to serve!

However, you also know that it’s important to maintain a solid web presence so that you can get more business in the future. Fortunately, SEO for plumbers isn’t necessarily rocket science. Here’s four tips to help you get more business this year.

1. Share Preventative Tips, Advice, and DIY Projects

As a plumber your biggest business hurdle is getting homeowners to trust you. Every homeowner has a horror story about the nightmare contractor, and many homeowners are afraid to call a plumber even when they need one.

Why? They’re afraid of incompetence and out-of-control expenses. You’ve got to put their mind at ease.

Sharing preventative tips, advice, and DIY projects offers you a way to set their mind at ease. It also offers you a legitimate way to work good plumber SEO keywords into your website.

Remember, Google only wants one thing: to deliver the best possible search results to customers. You can usually win at SEO by aligning yourself with this objective. The only way to do this is by offering a steady stream of fresh, interesting, and relevant content to your customers.

2. Don’t Rely on Organic Search Traffic Alone

Organic search traffic is wonderful, and it’s powerful. But you need to make sure you’re finding other ways to make yourself visible.

Reach out to other websites in your community and make comments. Don’t turn down chances to get one-way links back to your website. Participate in forums, especially forums where homeowners ask questions about plumbing. Use social media to your advantage.

Every time you do these things you build a little road that leads back to your website. You give people the chance to locate you on other websites. These little traffic sources can soon become a flood that gives you what you need regardless of what you do.

SEO changes every year because Google changes every year. You need a strategy that keeps you afloat in spite of what Google is doing, even if you’re doing your best to align yourself with Google’s objectives.

3. Zero in on Local SEO

Chances are you’re working with customers that are within 15 to 50 miles of your business address. The bulk of your traffic needs to come from the same location.

Local SEO practices include optimizing your Google+ Local listing, offering the kind of customer service that generates good reviews, building citations and working localized keywords into your web content.

These techniques aren’t difficult, but they are a bit time consuming. There’s also a right way to do them and a wrong way to do them.

The right way to do local SEO will look natural to the customer and to Google. The wrong way will be jarring and will lose you business.

4. Get Help When You Need It

Do you have ten hours a week or more to devote to your internet marketing efforts? If you don’t, then it’s a great idea to get help.

When it comes to plumber SEO you’re either going to pay in time or you’re going to pay in money. It’s often a good idea to pay in money simply because an SEO expert has time to stay on top of everything Google is doing while creating the content that you need to put your best face forward with potential customers.

Is your webpage languishing in obscurity? Are you pretty sure you could be getting more business if you could only get on top of your internet marketing efforts? Does the idea of writing 8 blog posts or more every month make you cringe a little bit inside? Then contact TVS Internet Marketing for help with your SEO efforts today. We have helped contractors just like you get top results. Call (800) 679-6005 today!