Home services is a competitive industry—you’re not only going up against local mom and pop shops, but you’re also competing against multi-location or franchise home service businesses in your area. You want your local customers to choose you over the competition, but it’s hard to know what truly matters to customers, how they’re searching for home services businesses, and what it takes to really stand out.
That’s where data comes in to take the guesswork out of it.
We conducted a survey of over 1,500 homeowners and renters who are involved in selecting home service providers for their household to get the data on:
- The key factors behind home service provider selection
- The most effective advertising strategies for home services
- COVID-19’s impact on home services projects
What we found can provide guidance as you develop your marketing strategy for the remainder of 2021 and into 2022, which can hugely benefit your business—especially as almost 40% say they will spend more on home improvement and repair projects this year than last year.
Based on our data insights, we’ve broken down our tips into the three biggest areas you need to focus on in 2021 and beyond and provided actionable tips to help you get more customers for your home services business.
PS: This is just a sneak peek at the data. Want the full report? Download our guide where we dive deeper.
Showcase your home services expertise
Our study found that 8 out of 10 homeowners turn to professionals for home improvement repairs and maintenance rather than doing it themselves. To position your home improvement or home repair business as the professional they need to hire, try these marketing ideas.
1. Focus on homeowner needs, pain points, and key concerns in your marketing messaging
Make sure to incorporate the reasons people hire home services providers into your marketing messages and advertising campaigns.
People hire home services providers because they are experts who can fix DIY issues and handle potentially hazardous projects quickly and efficiently. Speak to this in your marketing messages, and you can win over customers for new home projects.
2. Build trust through content
The data shows that expertise is the top reason people hire home services professionals, and trust is the top factor in hiring a specific home services business. You can address both top motivators by creating and sharing educational content with your audience. This shows your expertise in your industry and builds trust by helping instead of selling.
Homeowners will see you as a trusted resource and turn to you for future home improvement or repair projects—which can help when they only contact two providers to begin with!
An FAQ section on your website can help build trust by providing valuable information, like in this example.
3. Highlight your reviews and reputation
Trust, reviews, and a respectable online reputation are important to homeowners when choosing a home services provider. You can highlight this as part of your home services marketing strategy by:
- Asking for reviews
- Responding to all reviews
- Sharing positive reviews on social media, your website, and in emails
- Creating and sharing customer testimonials
Your website is the perfect place to include customer testimonials and reviews, like in this example.
You can (and should!) also highlight any awards that your business has received in your marketing materials as well as your website and social media channels.
Show up when (and where) people are searching for home services providers
In the home services industry, it pays to be top of mind, according to our data. As mentioned, we found that homeowners already have one or two home service providers in mind before beginning their research and only contact up to two providers total before making their decision.
Here are some tips to help you join the conversation.
4. Build brand awareness
To become one of those two providers, you need to build brand awareness across the channels with strong ad recall.
This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to blow out your budget on a TV spot—by getting your business on multiple channels with good ad recall, including social media, email, and search engines, you can increase your chances of staying top of mind with potential customers.
5. Be present where homeowners are looking for home services business
We identified the top resources homeowners are using to find information about home services businesses. Make sure they’re finding information about your business—whether they’re asking a friend or neighbor, searching on Google or Bing, or asking for a recommendation on Facebook.
You can do this by:
- Asking existing customers for referrals
- Running local PPC ads
- Running home services ads on Facebook
- Creating a solid social media presence
Related: Want to know what to expect from your home services advertising? We crunched the numbers and put together these home services advertising benchmarks.
Connect with your customers in the most effective way
Simply getting your business on the right marketing channels isn’t enough. You need a personalized cross-channel marketing strategy that showcases your expertise, targets the right audience, and provides compelling offers that will draw them in.
6. Target the right audience with the right message
Our study broke down the different ways generations search for and choose home services businesses. You can use these insights (get them here!), as well as additional insights you have into your specific target audience, to segment and target your audiences with the right messages that will entice them to take action.
For example, we found that home improvement TV shows are a motivator in millennials starting home improvement projects. Use this to your advantage in your Facebook advertising campaign targeting millennials in your area to get them to contact you or learn more.
This Facebook ad appeals to those looking to renovate their home at a good price–two factors that appeal to millennials.
7. Create compelling offers
Pricing and offers or discounts were important to most homeowners we talked to. Consider creating offers, promotions, or discounts that speak to your customers’ needs and market them in the channels that appeal best to them.
For some, this might mean targeted email marketing messages, and for others, this might mean direct mail campaigns. It’s all about understanding your specific customers and what works to drive action for them.
This Google Ad example includes multiple offers and promotions that might entice someone to click.
8. Make it easy for homeowners to take action
When you’ve worked so hard to get leads, the last thing you want is to lose them from a bad online experience. Limit the barriers to entry by making it easy for homeowners to contact you. This means optimizing your website for the customer experience with a clean design, click-to-call buttons for mobile, and live chat. It also means updated and accurate local listings across directory sites so potential customers can contact you when they’re ready.
This pest control website has multiple ways for a customer to contact the business.
Related: We talk more about the importance of ease with our cleaning services advertising ideas.
Create a winning home services marketing strategy
It can be a challenge to connect with homeowners when they’re making decisions about their home services providers. But with a data-informed home services marketing strategy, you have a better chance at reaching them when and where it counts to get more customers and book more jobs.
Get a full look at our exclusive study by downloading our guide.
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