Business Toolbox: Marketing

Business toolbox: marketing tips for electrical contractor businesses

Marketing is essential to keep those customers coming in. Here, our experts answer questions posed by electrical contractors, just like you.

Our Marketing expert:

Tracey Munn, Founder, Munn Digital

Q: We’ve decided to invest in paid digital advertising. How should we allocate our budget and measure outcomes?

Tracey Munn, Founder, Munn Digital, says:

First, you must ensure your website’s Google Analytics (GA4) has been set up correctly and you are tracking conversion data. Investing in any marketing is pointless unless you are correctly measuring data.

Next, how are you tracking conversions? Tracking call conversions, and not just form leads, is paramount to measuring the success of digital marketing for a trade service. Allocate a portion of your budget to signing up with a call tracking platform that provides insights such as channel and keyword performance.

When looking at overall budget allocation, start with 30% on SEO and 70% on Google Ads for the first three months. You will be able to gather data immediately, but three months will provide a solid overview and also give SEO long enough to make a measurable impact on results.

After month three, analyse the results. In my experience, after three months, SEO begins to have a significant impact. Ensure you are utilising all features of your Google Business Listing as the local pack will be where most of your organic leads are generated from.

Depending on the outcome of the results, your budget will change. You may decide to increase Google Ads to 80%, or reduce and invest more into SEO.

My top tips are that any trade service investing in marketing ensures that they understand analytics and get the messaging right for their local market. If you don’t have the skill to market your own business, sign up with a skilled marketing service that understands your local market and is a whiz at analytics and conversion rate optimisation.

Our Marketing expert:

David Katic, Owner at Digital Growth Genius

Q: Is an email newsletter worth doing? If so, what sort of information should I include?

David Katic, Owner at Digital Growth Genius, says:

Email marketing is really effective at generating sales but you have to do it correctly. Here is a quick step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Get obsessed about gathering client email addresses. Do this with every job, on your website, etc. Email management systems are fast and easy to set up and soon you’ll have a big database. Your database is worth money. In the next step, we’ll convert that database into more work.

Step 2: Instead of sending out a weekly/monthly newsletter, only send an email when you have something interesting or of high value to say. Include an offer related to what you are saying.

For example, with many people shifting to electric vehicles, a very common question is, “How do I set up home charging for my electric vehicle?” These sorts of jobs are high-value jobs (and high-value clients) so sending an email to your database about things to think about when setting up home charging can generate a lot of sales for you. Other examples include an email on how to convert to LED lights, air conditioning installation tips, new USB power points, etc.