When you think about marketing, it’s easy to zero in on the big, shiny objects: the splashy website redesign or the bold digital advertising campaign. And while these major initiatives are certainly worthwhile investments, plenty of low-cost marketing ideas can enhance your efforts, too.
In a field like home services, where you have other non-negotiable line items (vehicle fleet maintenance, equipment purchases, salaries, insurance, and more) to contend with, you want to stretch your marketing budget as far as possible.
So, we’ve put together a list of low-cost (or totally free!) marketing ideas for home services companies to explore. Read on to learn about the tactics and a breakdown of the costs involved.
Contents
- Claim your online business listings
- Ask for reviews
- Get active on social media
- Try direct mail
- Run Google Local Services Ads
- Supercharge your email marketing strategy
- Create a referral program
- Partner with an influencer
- Engage in local community forums
📣 Before you build anything, you create a plan. Download the Small Business Marketing Plan (+Template) and create a plan to build your business.
9 low-cost home services marketing ideas
You don’t have to spend a lot to get new clients. These marketing ideas leverage free online platforms, a little creativity, and the power of networks to keep new customers rolling in.
1. Claim your online business listings
Where do prospects go when they’re looking for home services providers? Unsurprisingly, the answer is the internet.
Specifically, people look at the business listings on a handful of review sites and online directories. Research shows about 75% of new business comes from six locations:
- Yelp
- Tripadvisor
- Apple Maps
- Bing Maps
It’s free to claim your business profile on these sites, and it can make a world of difference in your ability to get in front of new customers.
The great news for home services businesses is that there are additional industry-specific listing sites you can target, which include:
- Houzz
- Angi (FKA Angie’s List)
- HomeAdvisor
- Porch
- Thumbtack
- Nextdoor
Get your business listed on these sites to give yourself a shot at appearing in specific, high-intent searches.
Cost: It’s free to establish your listing profile, but be sure to factor in the time your team spends setting up your listings as part of the cost! You may also choose to advertise on any of these sites, which comes with a fee.
🛑 Want more? Get this free list of 37 Ways to Promote Your Business (With or Without Money!).
2. Ask for reviews
Once you’ve set up your listings pages, ensure you’re accruing reviews. There are dozens of stats touting the value of reviews. For example, did you know that 84% of people trust online reviews as much as the ones they get from friends?
Even if your business is rocking it, you might need to reach out to past customers to ask them to share feedback online. People are busy and might not leave a review without a little nudge from you!
Be aware that some sites (like Yelp) explicitly bar businesses from soliciting reviews, so read through each site’s user agreement or content guidelines before reaching out to customers.
Once you know where you want customers to leave their thoughts (your Google Business Profile is a good option!), send them an email with your request. Be sure to include a link to your page so it’s a simple one-click process for them to help you out.
After you’ve asked your existing customers, consider creating an email to automatically send to new customers after their first service, inviting them to leave a public review. This helps you continually refresh your reviews without as much effort from you.
Cost: It’s free to collect reviews online. The costs will be determined by the time it takes for your team to draft and send the emails.
3. Get active on social media
If you want to connect with new customers, you could do worse than firing up your favorite social media platform. Nearly 73% of all Americans are on at least one social platform, so establishing a presence for your business there allows you to cross paths with many people.
You don’t need to be everywhere—maintaining a regular posting schedule can take time, so ensure you don’t overextend yourself. Instead, select one to two platforms where your content can shine, and you’ll find the prospects you want.
Getting active on Instagram is one of our favorite low-cost marketing ideas for home services. More than 50% of millennials now own homes, and 59% of that generation are on Instagram. Plus, with its visual-first format, it’s a great place to display your work.
This interior designer shows off a bright, airy, modern kitchen they recently redesigned.
Cost: Creating your social media profile(s) is free. The cost will come in the hours your team logs creating content, responding to comments and DMs, and keeping your social presence active. You may also choose to run ads on social media, which comes with additional costs but is very effective!
4. Try direct mail
Home services providers typically serve a specific geographic area, making them the perfect candidates for effective direct mail campaigns (and other offline marketing ideas).
The USPS partnered with Temple University to study the effectiveness of direct mail campaigns. The news is good: Physical ads hold readers’ attention longer and are more memorable than digital ads.
Direct mail campaigns allow you to target the neighborhoods you serve and greet your audience at home with a compelling offer. A mailer with a discount code or coupon encourages your recipients to take action and makes it easier for you to track ROI.
Create a unique discount code for your mailers. When customers sign up for service with that code, you will know exactly where they came from.
Cost: Direct mail has a few associated costs, from designing and writing the flyer to printing and postage. Typically, bulk discounts are available for printing and mailing to more residences.
5. Run Google Local Services Ads
Google designed Local Services Ads (LSAs) specifically to help businesses that serve local communities find a local audience. That’s why it’s high on the list of low-cost marketing ideas for home services.
If you’ve ever googled “contractor near me,” you’ve likely seen Google Local Services Ads results right at the top of the page. In addition to being the first ads searchers see, LSAs also provide the following perks:
- Your customer ratings are featured within the ad.
- Google allows you to specify your services so customers can ensure you’re the right fit for their project.
- You only pay for leads you generate—when someone contacts you through the ad—not impressions or views.
- Qualifying businesses can apply for the “Google Guaranteed” badge through the program, which is a huge trust signifier for prospects.
Local Services Ads are a great way to find high-intent searchers who need immediate solutions. When someone Googles “emergency plumber near me,” they’re likely someone ready to hire a provider as soon as possible!
Cost: The cost of running LSAs depends on your location, business sector, and the number of leads you wish to generate. Google provides a calculator to help you understand potential costs.
6. Supercharge your email marketing strategy
You probably already use email as part of your marketing strategy, but are you maximizing its potential?
If you’re only sending confirmation emails or relying on your sales team to send one-off follow-ups to past customers, you have ample opportunity to strengthen your approach. Try sending:
- Regular newsletters: Create a newsletter with tips for homeowners, updates about your business, and promotions of any sales or deals. Regularly appearing in your audience’s inbox keeps your business top of mind.
- Drip campaigns: Also called email nurture campaigns, these can be used at all points of the customer journey. Home services providers may build a drip campaign to remind customers about their upcoming appointments or solicit feedback after a new customer’s first service.
- Winback campaigns: Reengage lapsed customers to encourage them to return to your business. Send a “We miss you” message with a coupon code to welcome them back into the fold.
If you’re not ready to add more email types to your current strategy, consider undertaking an email marketing audit to unearth ways to get more from your existing approach.
Even minor tweaks to your current email marketing efforts can make a big difference. Businesses that incorporate quality assurance, A/B testing, and spam testing into their workflow report a 28% increase in ROI.
Cost: The cost of email marketing depends on the size of your list and the number of emails you wish to send. Remember to budget for your team to draft, design, upload, and QA all emails. Plus, your email marketing platform may have a monthly subscription fee.
7. Create a referral program
Even if customers love your service, they may not immediately think of you when a friend or neighbor asks for a recommendation. Establishing a formal referral program and incentivizing customers to pass your name along can help ensure you come up in those conversations.
Referral programs work across many industries but can be especially handy for home services providers. Prospective customers want to feel comfortable welcoming your team into their homes to do work. Who better to point them toward a solid recommendation than a trusted friend, family member, or neighbor?
Cost: The costs associated with a referral program include the time and effort required to create and market your offering. If your referral incentive is cash back or a discount, remember to include those costs in your gross profit calculations.
8. Partner with an influencer
“Influencer” may be a word you associate with other industries, like retail, beauty and wellness, or fashion. But there are plenty of opportunities for home services businesses to use influencer marketing, too.
Nano-influencers—people with followings of under 10,000—typically have particular niches and a loyal fan base that turns to them for recommendations in their area of focus. And that specificity pays off: Studies show higher engagement rates among followers of nano-influencers.
Partnering with an influencer who focuses on an adjacent or related area of home care can get the word out about your business to an audience already highly interested in this topic. Alternatively, you might partner with a local influencer—someone who’s a bit of a celebrity in the area your business serves.
Cost: Influencers usually have set rates for their work. A recent Shopify report shows nano-influencers typically charge between $10 and $100 per post (video costs more). It’s worth considering that the influencer also handles content creation, which removes work from your team’s plate.
9. Engage in local community forums
The best place to find your audience is where they already gather. That’s why engaging in local community forums is one of our favorite low-cost marketing ideas for home services.
Homeowners often hop onto their town’s Facebook group, a locally-focused Subreddit, or the Nextdoor app to ask neighbors to point them toward trustworthy providers. Establishing a presence for your business in these forums allows you to toss your hat in the ring when these questions arise. And if yours is a well-loved local business, past clients may chime in to sing your praises!
Cost: Platforms like Facebook and Reddit are free to join. The price is your team’s time, as they remain active on the platform and look for opportunities to promote your business.
Keep costs low and ROI high with these home services marketing ideas
Digital marketing connects businesses with dozens of channels through which they can promote their work. For those in the home services space, there are specific low-cost marketing opportunities in places like free community forums and online review sites. Employ these tactics to get your business in front of new prospects without dramatically increasing marketing costs.
If you’d like to get more from each marketing channel without investing more time, contact us for a demo, and we’ll show you how we can help.
