Local service providers like plumbers, electricians, HVAC, auto repair and more are as busy as ever.
People are investing in their homes. They’re looking for upgrades and repairs. They need a local provider for these types of services.
It’s important to setup your basic local accounts for Google and Facebook. These are major ways that people will find you when they are doing their searching.
After that, a good way to help you stand out from the competition is to maintain a regular business blog.
Maybe you’ve thought about it, but haven’t been sure what to blog about. Here are a few ideas to help define your blogging strategy…
1. How To
How To blog posts are great for just about any business blog. People are often looking to do new things. They want to do basic things on their own. And in some cases they even want to do the more advanced things on their own. You see this in all content marketing including in videos on YouTube.
Some businesses think they should shy away from this type of content. They feel that if they show or tell potential customers how to do what they do then they won’t be hired. This may be the case in a few situations, but what I’ve seen much more often is that the audience reach you get with how to content leads to many, many more customers in the long run.
First, even DIYers need to hire people for certain jobs. They either don’t want to do the more involved jobs on their own or after watching your content they realize they don’t have the time to invest, so they look to hire you.
Second, content marketing leads to more brand recognition and trust. This leads to more referrals including from Google and Facebook. When these sites see all kinds of people reading and interacting with your content they will naturally list you higher on their listings. It’s a great way to show up ahead of your competition for when people don’t want to read your content, but want to hire you straight away.
Also, don’t feel bad about sharing “easy” how to content. You’re a pro at what you do. What’s easy for you is not necessarily easy for your customers. You’re not writing for other pros like yourself. You’re writing for your customers.
2. Case Studies
If you don’t have the time or don’t want to create the how to posts from scratch, you can document what you’re doing for customers. People do this all the time with videos. They record what they’re doing in the field. Then they edit and post to YouTube and Facebook.
You can take this one step further by turning the video into a blog post. You can even skip the video and just recap what you do on the job site in a blog post. You can even bring an intern or apprentice along. They watch and learn from what you’re doing by taking notes and then they can turn the notes into a blog post when you get back to the office.
These can be how to type posts for people to learn from and they are also examples of what you’re able to do and how it’s done. It makes people more comfortable about hiring you because they can read about how you operate.
Golf instructors have been doing this more and more. They work with clients all day. They don’t have time to do content marketing from scratch so they write about what they do with students and they have their content to post.
3. New Product Features
You might have your own products. Or you might work with manufacturers that are creating new products. It’s a win-win for the manufacturer and for customers when you write about new products. You can share your early thoughts on working with the product.
You’re basically giving your expert review of the product and why you recommend it. Some people may be researching the product, find your post and decide to purchase it by themselves. This helps your partners and that’s fine.
But you’ll also find that people will be researching the products and then decide to buy and hire you for the installs and repairs.
4. Get To Know…
Another good idea for a blog post once in awhile is a “get to know us” type of post. Where you talk about a day in the life behind the scenes. It could be what you do throughout the typical day. It can also be about what an employee does throughout the day.
To you, these may seem kind of boring. Most of us think our lives are kind of boring. So we don’t talk about ourselves very much. But to others, especially customers, these are interesting. It provides a little “small talk” during the get to know stage.
A customer can read these personal story posts and feel like they know you. And when that happens they are more likely to be comfortable hiring you.
5. Behind The Scenes
You can also go more behind the scenes about how you business operates. You can talk about the operations from getting supplies to what you put in the trucks and more. You can talk about buying tools and all kinds of stuff.
Again, it might seem kind of boring and basic. But it gives a little insight into who you are and how you operate. These are the details that can set you apart from the competition.
Conclusion
These basic ideas for blogging should be enough for you to create years of blog content. You don’t have to overthink it. With these, you can probably come up with 50-100 ideas for blog posts. Just in the how to category alone. That’s multiple years of blogging.
Not many local service providers are doing this. But as competition increases, this is one thing that can really set you apart in your area. It’s a way for you to gain a stronger foothold with customers and get more of that “easy” business.