To Market, to Market

Electronic marketing can be an easy and inexpensive way to keep in touch with customers and find new ones.

How's business for you? I hope it's good, or at least improving, but if you aren't getting the results you want, you might want to take a look at how you're marketing your services. Perhaps it's time to shake things up a bit.

There are a number of ways to approach how you market your business. In fact, there are so many, they are beyond the scope of a single column, so this is Part One of a three-part series of marketing tips for onsite industry businesses. The focus here will be on electronic marketing, but first a few words about the importance of having a marketing plan.

People don't plan to fail; they fail to plan. The first and most important component to marketing your business effectively is to have a plan of action – in writing. A good marketing plan doesn't need to be elaborate. One page will probably do it, but it does need to contain these elements:

Define your objectives. Is your goal to increase new installation business? Repair and replacement? Keeping existing customers? Promote a new service? Each question will likely generate a different set of goals.

Set a marketing budget and a timeline of activities. Your budget doesn't need to be large, but as a rule of thumb, the less money you spend, the more time you must invest. If your budget doesn't include buying outside services, make sure it reflects the time you spend to make it work.

Evaluate your plan's effectiveness. A marketing plan is not a static document. Each time you draft one, it should build on the successes created from the previous one.

Now, here are some online marketing tactics to consider.

Website. If you don't have a website, for many people you don't exist. This is especially true for Generation X, which grew up online and is becoming the largest segment of new homeowners. More people use Google to research products and services than any other method. Setting up a website is cheap and easy. You need no special programming knowledge; everything you need can be done with the point and click of a mouse. Companies like GoDaddy and Intuit offer low-cost options, as little as $5 per month. Wordpress lets you build a website for free.

Facebook. Setting up a Facebook page is a great way to stay connected to your customers. It doesn't cost anything, but it does require regular attention to keep your name in front of your followers. Not sure how you might use such a page? Lots of onsite companies already have Facebook pages, and the good ones have many followers. Simply type "septic" into the search box at the top of any Facebook page and you will get literally hundreds of results – and ideas of strategies that might work for you.

Email. This can be an effective and inexpensive method for reaching current and potential customers. Building a good email list takes time, but as your list grows, your results should generate increasing numbers of inquiries. There are many ways to use email to keep current customers and get new business. They include:

Reminders about service calls, maintenance visits and contract renewals

Thanking customers for their business

Asking customers to recommend you to neighbors

Forwarding a helpful email to them

Promoting new services

Highlighting awards your company receives or company milestones

Don't overuse email – a quarterly message won't turn off many people, but daily emails probably will. Also, offer a way to unsubscribe from your mailing list.

Electronic newsletter. This doesn't need to be fancy, but it does need to contain news. The more you can provide readers with interesting and useful information, the more effective it will be. Send articles on maintenance, what is and isn't flushable, landscaping, and other topics. Also send an email when weather events such as freeze, drought or floods are affecting your area.



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