What stage do you think your business is at? Have you just started?
Mad “busy” but stuck and not moving anywhere? Or have you nailed it but are curious about what’s next? Following last month’s Boiler Business article about putting your prices up and stepping up your game by taking control of your marketing, this article will dig a little deeper. Here are the three stages of marketing.
Stage One - The "Word of Mouth" stage
The first stage of self-employed life is usually finding work through “word of mouth” & repeat business for a small number of regular customers. Without any other dependable marketing channel, working for family members, friends of friends, builders & landlords is the norm when you are new to self-employment.
Being “busy” and booked up for as many weeks as possible offers some security. Those big projects lasting for numerous weeks are a welcome bonus, but here’s one of the big negatives of relying on “Word of Mouth” and accepting those big jobs. One month on a large job equals only one customer, one online review and one more mouth to tell others about your business. Relying on “word of mouth” may keep you busy but will slow the growth of your customer database. The fact that there seems to be less opportunity for new customers will often lead to a fear that you will lose customers if you increase the cost of your services.
Stage Two - The "Advertising" stage
For some businesses, increased “busyness” comes with more profits and the chance to advertise for more customers and sell your most profitable services to “better” customers. For those not at this stage yet, consider how much more confident you would be to charge more for your services if you had more choice on who you worked for. Would you still work for the landlords if you had 4-8 high-end bathroom enquiries per month? Or if you had 20-40 boiler enquiries per month, would you still be quoting for complete central heating jobs in November?
The problem with the “advertising” stage is you are usually renting somebody else’s space which hits your profit margin. Not only does it cost you to rent that space, but the advertising channel will often rent more “space” to your competition right at the side of the “space” they kindly let you rent.
To be fair to those companies, they have made it easy for you to rent the space they own. But you now have increased overheads and competition for work leading to a squeeze on profits. Your “investment” is just another overhead. The leads and enquiries will stop as soon as you stop paying the rent. So if this is where you are, let’s look at what the top 10% earners will have in place.
Stage Three - The "Marketing" stage
So marketing and advertising, what’s the difference again?
Advertising usually is “renting” somebodies space to get in front of “their” customers’ eyes. For instance, you rent a display at Tesco supermarket. Are they your customers, or are they Tescos customers?
Marketing differs from advertising by focusing on creating your own space to attract your chosen customers. Understand who you want to serve and what they want, and you will attract that type of customer.
Do you want emergency plumbing or bathrooms? Boilers or Heatpumps?
Setting your shop front up to attract customers looking for a product or service is what the “middlemen” do. The difference is in your space; you are in much more control of what your potential customers can see.
How do you want to display your fantastic reviews, articles, videos and dedicated pages on that high-ticket service? Building your marketing channels and assets like websites and social media is not as easy as paying the middleman for the space they want to “rent” you. But investing in your website, social media, and other printed/ digital media will continue to attract better customers for years to come.
So if you have read this far and want to take control of your marketing and step up to the next level, remember this classic line from Mike Michalowicz. “Word of Mouth” is most welcome. You can’t say no to the icing on the cake. But it is not the whole cake!
FREE FIVE PART MARKETING CLASS
If this has helped and you want to learn more about marketing in the plumbing and heating industry, head to our space for the free marketing & sales masterclass. It’s all video, so you can listen or watch rather than read! www.theboilerbusiness.co.uk
Tom Lee-Zmuda
Hey buddy. My name is Tom, a former heating engineer turned marketing Jedi. My team and I specialise in helping local HVAC and Solar business owners dominate Google and sell their most profitable services. We are committed to building the best ROI through local SEO, kick-ass websites & sales communications that attract, sell and keep your best five-star customers.
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