5 Digital Marketing Myths for Home Service Businesses

We’re not trying to be critical here, but there are a lot of home service business owners who’ve got the wrong idea about marketing.

Maybe they had a bad experience, maybe they heard stories from friends or maybe they just never got it to work for them. But because of this, they often decide it doesn’t work at all or takes too much money.

Unfortunately, these decisions are often based on outdated or incorrect information. We call them marketing myths.

It’s hard to get a handle on what works in marketing today. We understand.

So we thought we’d put together a list of marketing myths you should NOT believe. Let us know how many you thought were true.

Digital Marketing Myths for Home-Service Businesses:

1. Only big businesses have the time/money for marketing

There are more than 5 million small businesses in the US. Not only do most of them use marketing, nearly half (47%) have marketing budgets of less than $10,000. (Per Clutch.co.)

Marketing doesn’t have to cost a lot. And with help from someone like me, it takes less time to set up than you think.

Consider that…

• We’re living in a time when there are more free or inexpensive options to promote a small business than ever before.
• All of my clients are small businesses, many of them home service businesses, and they see growth from marketing.
• Even small marketing efforts can help your business. For some clients, I run their social media and push their messages further with Facebook ads for $5 per ad. Five dollars! When have you ever bought an ad for $5? These are small ads, but they help us get incremental gains in growth.

2. Social media? That’s for young people and doesn’t bring me leads

Things have changed. Now two-thirds of 50-64-year-olds use Facebook. And those word-of-mouth referrals? A lot of them happen now on social media. Every social network is popular among a certain demographic, you just have to find out where your customer is so you can meet them there.

When it comes to leads, there are many ways to set up a lead-generation system online now with social media as the starting point. A marketer can help you find out which options are best for your home service business.

3. I’ve tried digital marketing—it doesn’t work

How much time did you give it? Wish we could tell you marketing brings immediate results, but it takes time. Google takes a few months to rank websites, social media audiences take a while to build and even pay-per-click ad campaigns take some time before they start sending good leads.

This is why you should give it 6 months to 1 year to refine your program and see good results. Sure, a few things will take less time. And if you buy ads online, you might see an uptick in sales, but you want a marketing program that gets you sustained results over time, not quick one-off sales.

Consistency in marketing and lead-generation is what helps your business succeed during the highs and lows of the market. Take the time to build an effective marketing program and your business will be set up for years to come.

4. My Website has been online for years and is fine

That may be part of the problem. How long has it been online? Is it mobile friendly? Time on the Internet is like dog years, so even a 5-year-old site may be too outdated. And if your site doesn’t display well on smartphones, you might as well forget about sales online. By the way, Google checks mobile-friendliness and uses it as a factor in how well it ranks a website.

5. So if I get more website visitors, I get more business, right?

It depends. Does everyone who walks into a retail store end up buying during their visit? You can increase sales potential by sending high-quality traffic to your website. As Neil Patel, an online marketer and author, says: “One qualified and converting lead is more valuable than 100 visitors who browse and bounce.”

Is this true for you?

Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth Contractor says contractors are, to a fault, focused on getting results themselves. Is this true for you too? As the author says, “Why should you try to figure all of this out, when there is so much great help available?”

Forget the myths and take advantage of the help available. With it, your business will grow bigger, faster.

Ready to take advantage of a helping hand? Send us an email.