Marketing Advice By Business Type
Marketing a Special Trades Contractors Business
The value and earning capacity of a special trades contractors business largely depends on the quality of its marketing efforts. But great marketing takes a lot more than hanging a shingle and hoping for the best.
For every special trades contractors business winner, there many more special trades contractors businesses struggling to survive.
Simplistic promotional techniques can't penetrate the clutter of the current marketplace. To capture audience attention, you'll need to stay current with the channels they use to receive information and product messages.
Social Media Monitoring
The use of social media as a marketing tool is the latest wave to overtake the small business community. Combined with a functional company website, social media attracts new customers and converts them to brand advocates. Social media can quickly go negative, turning brand advocacy into "badvocacy", a scenario in which consumers and users create content deriding your company and your products. All special trades contractors businesses have too much at stake to ignore derogatory social media mentions. To counter negative social media, you'll need to monitor your brand's online presence and enter the conversation, redirecting negative discussions toward more positive topics.
Competitive Awareness
Competitive awareness is the starting point for creativity in marketing. There's nothing wrong with creativity, but if it precludes your messaging from being represented alongside other special trades contractors businesses, there's a good chance that you're missing something. At a minimum, we recommend seeking a third-party perspective before you adopt any innovations that dramatically alter your marketing model.
Promotional Calendars
Uncoordinated and disjointed marketing plans tend to backfire on special trades contractors businesses. Instead of offering special promotions on the spur of the moment, we recommend creating a promotional calendar for the fiscal year. Although you can adjust the calendar as needed, advanced planning makes it easier to connect your company's marketing tactics to sales objectives, inventory levels, staffing, and other areas of the business. Many list vendors appreciate promotional calendars because they are useful for timing the delivery of the resources your business needs to meet strategic objectives.
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