Marketing for Local Home-Service Businesses

Marketing for a local home service – like a contractor, a plumber, a roofer, a flooring specialist– used to be so simple.

Back in the day, you could buy an ad in the Yellow Pages and then run some ads in the local newspaper – and you would be done.

But that was before Google, Facebook, email and the Internet.

Now you have many options – some might say, too many options – to help you market your business or practice.  It is indeed complicated – and a bit overwhelming for many business owners who don’t work on marketing full time.

The good news is these new marketing activities work – and they can work for you too.

We’re here to help

My name is Bob McCarthy.  I’ve been a marketing consultant for more than 30 years, first in direct mail marketing, and now also in digital marketing – which includes the wide array of web-based services you need today to be competitive.

Combining my direct and digital experience, I’ve developed a marketing program specifically for local home services like yours.

If you sell to local homeowners and local households, this program is for you.

• First and foremost, this program puts a marketing advisor at your side – to guide you in your website and your marketing activities. We offer scheduled strategy Zoom meetings as well as unlimited calls and emails whenever you need to talk.
• Second, we connect you to a variety of applications and platforms to help you (and us) track your website visitors, lead conversions and phone calls. This allows us to compare different marketing campaigns on a cost-per-lead basis.
• Third, we give you the flexibility to select the campaigns you want.  We advise, but in the end, you decide.
• Finally, we give you tools to stay in touch with all of your leads using a range of lead nurturing emails.

Here’s a breakdown of our marketing services

We offer our marketing services in three parts:

• Part 1 – Marketing Advisor Services – our foundational service
• Part 2 – Marketing Campaigns & Projects
• Part 3 – Lead Nurturing Emails

Part 1 – Marketing Advisor Services

This is an ongoing consulting service that provides marketing guidance for your website and other marketing activities.  Through two 60-minute Zoom meetings per month plus unlimited calls and emails, we will help you develop a marketing plan, a process for executing the plan and a system for tracking responses and measuring performance of each campaign.

Included in this service are the following:

• Set up and monitoring of a Response Tracking Service – so every lead can be tracked back to a particular campaign.
• Setup and monitoring of Google Analytics – so we can see how much traffic you are getting to your website, where the traffic is coming from and which pages are most popular.
• Set up and linking of Social Media accounts – so we can expand your web exposure and provide important backlinks to your website.
• Set up and/or manage your Google My Business account – so we can get your website recognized by Google and included in the Google Maps section of Google’s search pages.
• Set up and manage your Retargeting Ads on Google and Facebook – so we can send Google and Facebook ads to past visitors of your website.

This is our foundational service.  We do not provide Parts 2 and 3 without this service.

Click here to visit our Pricing page.

Part 2 – Marketing Campaigns & Projects (choose one or more)

These are individual marketing campaigns that can be implemented on your behalf.  We provide a done-for-you service but we will set up each campaign under your name – so you own the account and have complete access to it at anytime.

Google Search Ads – this is the Holy Grail for advertising these days because these ads are reaching people who are actively searching for businesses like yours.  But competition, even on a local level, can be fierce so your Cost per Click may be higher (much higher) than you might expect.

Google Banner Ads – this is a much cheaper option for Google advertising.  These ads run everywhere on the web delivered through the Google Display Network, but can be targeted by demographics, behavior and location.  These ads don’t reach active searchers, but their Cost per Click is a fraction of Google Search.

Facebook Ads – these ads appear in the news feeds (and the sidebar) of Facebook users who fit your target profile – by demographics, behavior and location.  Facebook ads are most often used for B2C (business to consumer) advertising but can also work for some B2B (business to business) companies.  Your Cost per Click is likely to fall somewhere in between Google’s Search Ads and Banner Ads.

Direct Mail – direct mail campaigns can use postcards, letter mailers and other mailing formats to reach your target audience in their homes or businesses.  Direct mail offers many targeting options to reach your best prospects.  Specialized programs are available to reach:

• New Homeowners in your area
• Past Visitors to your website
• Homeowners by income, age, home value and more
• Every Household in your area – a saturation mailing
• Direct Mail to a Targeted List with Facebook integration

Print Ads – print ads are declining, but in some markets, they still make sense – and we can handle them for you.  We’ll help you explore the various media, ad options, pricing, etc., and then we’ll help create your ad and place it your local newspaper or magazine. Most importantly, we will prepare your ad for response tracking to determine how well it works vs. other options.

Google Reviews (add-on to Google Maps) – within our Marketing Advisor Service, we provide the Google My Business/Google Maps optimization to help you rank on the Google Maps listings.  One element that is not included above is Google Reviews.  We provide an online service that will encourage satisfied customers to leave you more positive reviews.

Social Media Posting – social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) is one simple way to expand your presence on the web.  Earlier, we have provided links to and from your social media accounts.  This service is about posting – creating and uploading up to 30 posts per month.

Lead Magnet – many local businesses rely on “Request a Quote” or “Schedule an Appointment” as their primary calls-to-action (CTAs).  While these are desirable CTAs, they don’t occur very often.  So, we use Lead Magnets to generate more leads.  A Lead Magnet is a downloadable guide, report, brochure or other document that will incentivize more response.  We will create a Lead Magnet for you.

Sales Materials – most websites today provide the essential sales information, but sometimes a prospect wants you to send them information by email (a pdf) or mail (a printed piece) – an information kit, a product brochure or some other sales literature.  You may also want printed sales materials for a trade show or for physical handouts to your customers.

New Website, Redesign or Expansion – your website is the centerpiece of your marketing. It’s where most customers will get their first impression of you.  If you’re not happy with your website, we can help you with a new website or a re-design.  If you want to keep your current site, we can help you create new pages or new sections, or help you optimize your existing pages for search.

Video Projects – video has taken over the web and will continue to expand.  You can use video on your website or with your own YouTube channel to educate, inform or even entertain your prospects.  We can help you decide the best way to use video with your budget and set up all the necessary services to make it happen.

Click here to visit our Pricing page.

Part 3 – Lead Nurturing Emails

Unless your closing rate is 100%, you’re always going to have leads that require some type of long-term follow-up.  For most of us, the vast majority of leads that don’t close right away.  Most prospects need time, and lead nurturing gives them that time.

We create lead nurturing emails and email sequences to keep your name top-of-mind with your prospects.  These are typically people who have already indicated an interest in what you offer.  They either downloaded a free guide, requested a quote or scheduled an appointment.

By staying in touch with every one of your leads, you improve your chances of closing a deal when those people finally do decide to take action.

We offer a variety of email options:

A Welcome Email – sent out immediately after your prospect has taken action – either joined your list or downloaded information or asked about a quote or appointment.  Most Welcome emails arrive in their inbox within 10 minutes after they join your list.

Introductory Drip Emails – these are emails that are sent out to new prospects as part of a sequence.  Generally, they are simple, mostly text-based emails designed to reinforce the connection between you and your new leads.  They are written and scheduled in advance – and then delivered on a pre-arranged schedule immediately after they receive their Welcome email.

Repeatable Branded Emails – the introductory emails only last about 2 weeks so you need some other way to communicate over the long haul.  We create “branded” emails that we run on a pre-arranged schedule, and then when they are finished, we run them again. These are also known as “evergreen” emails because they are never out of date.  If you want to send emails out on a weekly basis, we recommend eight (8) emails over two months.  If you want to send emails out every other week, four (4) emails are sufficient.

Holiday Emails – holidays give you yet another reason to send an email.  No sales.  No promotions.  Just a simple greeting for the upcoming holidays.  We’ve identified 12 holidays – New Year’s, MLK Day, Valentines Day, Easter, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Halloween, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas.

Seasonal Promotional Emails – every business and industry have some type of seasonal routine.  They have busy and slow periods.  They have certain services or products they sell at different types of the year. These emails are designed to help you promote those product/services with reminder notifications, scheduling opportunities and special discounts.

On-Demand Emails – every once in a while, you may need an email that you weren’t anticipating.  A new product announcement, a new customer, a new location, an expansion plan, major changes in services, new regulatory requirements, etc.  We can create those emails on demand.

Click here to visit our Pricing page.

Let's schedule a FREE Strategy Session

Do you have any questions? Would you like to know more?

Then let's schedule a one-on-one Zoom Strategy Session. There's no obligation. Just a chance to get some answers.

If you prefer, you can schedule your demo by phone at 508-473-8643,

Click here to schedule your 60-minute Strategy Session.