The SEVEN keys to Marketing your Electrical Business in the Digital Age

The last year changed the way we do basically everything.

The way we socialise, work, and live our daily lives has been completely turned upside down by the pandemic. 

But beyond the craziness of lockdowns, face-masks, and toilet-paper fever, there were important changes happening behind the scenes too, which also impacted tradies. 

Consumer behaviour has changed post-Covid. The marketing landscape has been flipped. The way people seek trade services is tilting in one direction.

Maybe we were always heading this way - but 2020 poured rocket fuel all over the electrical industry’s evolution. 

That’s why today’s article talks about the importance of digital marketing for your electrical business in 2021, and offers tips and tricks to start a campaign, take an existing plan to the next level, and keep the new business pouring in. 

An ad in the yellow pages and Joey and Jane telling all their mates you’re awesome isn’t going to take your business to the next level anymore.

Today, 80% of people seek trade services online. That number is only going to grow in the coming years. 

A huge 80% of local mobile searches result in an offline purchase within 24 hours. That number is only going to grow in the coming years. 

The bottom line?

If you’re not capitalising on the increasing number of people searching for services online, you’re going to be left behind. 

If you don’t have your finger on the pulse of these changes, your business will be destined for the scrapheap. 

So in 2021 and beyond, a wide-reaching, multi-faceted, cutting-edge, digital marketing strategy is really important to keep bringing in new customers and maintain contact with your existing ones.

It will drive both your short-term and long-term lead generation strategies and ramp up your conversion ratio too. 

And we’re going to teach you how you can implement it, and make all the pieces fit together.

Buckle up.

Here are your SEVEN digital marketing fundamentals in 2021.

1. Search Engine Optimisation and Search Engine Marketing

Every year that passes, the digital marketplace becomes more important for businesses in every industry. 

In 2021, 4 out of every 5 people are looking for tradies online.  

How likely are people to find you if they search for an electrical business in your local area? 

94% of Google clicks are Page One - So if you’re not showing up for local searches on the first page, you’re basically invisible. 

Can you afford to give up on 80% of potential new customers?

There are some simple things you can do to improve your SEO rating (like adding keywords to the background of your webpage), but as the Google algorithms become more sophisticated, the goalposts for your online visibility keep narrowing.

The best way forward for many electrical companies may be to seek an agency or an SEO professional for help here - but if you can do it yourself, or you’re willing to learn the ropes, even better.

2. Advertising

You want to be reaching potential business on Facebook and Google in the form of paid advertisements. 

About 3 billion people are active on Facebook, and there are 3.5 billion google searches each day - so there’s no question about the reach on these platforms. 

A multi-faceted digital campaign will allow you to cast a much wider net. 

Google AdWords helps you find new customers, while Facebook helps new customers find you - so your channels will work in synergy.

If you’re creative and you want to have a go at making some ads yourself, that’s great - but you’ve got to take the time to learn what is going on “behind the scenes”.

Today, if you give Facebook greater control of your campaign and allow them to optimise it, your ads will perform better - this wasn’t the case twelve months ago.

You’ve also got to pay really close attention to Facebook’s policies - there’s been a massive crackdown on ad shutdowns and disapprovals, especially in the last quarter of 2020, largely due to the US election.

Even using the word “you” too often in copy can hold back your ad - it’s now a red flag for Facebook.

If you want to get the most out of your ads, you’ll need to learn to work around the algorithms, and come up with creative ways to set yourself apart from the competition.

3. Automated Email and SMS

This is an excellent way to connect with your customers and leads, and prime them for a service offering.

The average increase to your conversions with a regular email campaign is 10%. 

Think about the total number of customers you’ve serviced over the years (it might be thousands), and the value of maintaining regular contact with them. 

A lot of sparkies focus too much energy on just generating leads, and not enough on actually converting those enquiries into business.

You want your ads and your search optimization to do the heavy lifting by bringing new customers to your business, and then the automated emails and SMS to kick in and boost your conversion percentage. 

With customers hesitating to buy post-pandemic, you’ve got a greater window of opportunity to connect with them and provide value while they decide what they’re going to do. 

You can set your emails up in either a flow or campaign - campaigns are seasonal or sporadic. So for example, just before Christmas you could blast out a discount on air con units and maintenance.

An e-mail flow is ongoing - you can set it up to be as regular as you want, but weekly or fortnightly contact is preferred. 

Programs like MailChimp and Active Campaign are what you want to be looking at to set up and run your campaign.

And if you can set up automated SMS, that’s even better - The open rate for emails is usually around 20-30%, while SMS has an open rate of over 90%. 

4. Track, test, and tweak

So many tradies make the fatal mistake of setting up their campaign and just letting it run, crossing their fingers, and hoping for the best. 

This is marketing suicide.

You need to track your return on investment for each individual channel so you know what works, and what doesn’t. Maybe the Facebook ads will outperform your Google ads - this sort of insight will help you optimise your ad spend. 

If something’s not working, you might just need to finetune it, or update the visual or written copy.

You need to track the performance of your campaign, experiment with your creative, and make changes based on what your numbers are telling you. 

This is an ongoing process, and you’ll need to stay on top of it even if things are going well. 

5. Consumer behaviour

Studies show 2020 crippled consumer confidence and consumer trust. 

Customers are gun shy - this has resulted in a lengthened buying cycle. 

The buying cycle is the time from which your customer first hears about you, to when they decide to buy. 

What does this mean for you?

It’s an opportunity for you to overdeliver FREE value in the timespan before your potential customer makes a decision. 

This might be a free service like a switchboard assessment, an important update via your email campaign, or engaging content on social media. 

Don’t think about the drop in consumer confidence as a bad thing - it’s an opportunity to build your brand and your business. 

6. Integrate your ads and align them with your brand

Your digital marketing strategy should fit into the big picture of your brand profile.

You don’t want to be generic, pedestrian or create content which feels disjointed - especially not with an online market which is becoming more and more saturated. 

You should have an idea how your service, and your brand, is unique and this should resonate throughout your marketing campaign and in your messaging.

7. Website and social media presence

You should have a website, and be active across as many social media platforms as you can. 

People who see your Facebook ad might want to check out your Facebook page or website - it’s pretty easy and inexpensive to set something up, so there’s really no excuse not to have an online presence in 2021. 

Remember, marketing is about foundational concepts that are always going to be true - but the way we leverage and apply them is changing rapidly.

Whether you’re just starting out, or you’ve been in business for thirty years, plan for the future.

Make sure you’re not being left behind.