This presentation provides the basic components needed to develop a marketing plan to market your contractor / home services business.

1. Contractor Marketing Basics
Debra Murphy
debra@masterful-marketing.com
508.303.0766

2. Workshop Agenda & Goals
What is marketing?
Why does my contractor business need to market?
Why should I create a marketing plan?
What simple marketing activities work?

3. What is Marketing?
Marketing is:
 Educating your customer about why they want to do
business with you
 Helping the customer envision the outcome you provide
 Showing how you provide value while eliminating their
problems
Good marketing:
 Attracts new customers
 Retains existing customers
 Encourages referrals from happy customers
 Helps you avoid price wars

4. What is Marketing?
Marketing is NOT:
 Advertising
 Sales
 PR
 These are marketing activities (or tactics)
Marketing is NOT:
 A Web site
 A brochure
 A business card
 These are marketing tools

5. What is a Marketing Plan?
Gives you direction and clarity
Helps you measure your results
Defines:
 What you do
 Who needs it
 How to attract their attention
 How much will it cost
90% of small businesses don’t have a marketing plan
but those that do increase their sales by 25 – 30%

6. Key parts of your Marketing Plan
Where do you want to
take your business?
Who do you want to work
with?
Why should they work
with you?
What do you stand for?
How will you reach your
target market?
What are the activities?
What tools will you use?
How do you know if you
are successful?

7. What are your goals?
Put a stake in the ground for where you want to be at
the end of the year:
 Income?
 Revenue?
 Reputation?
Define the long term vision of your business
 Large firm with multiple crews?
 Sole proprietor with subcontractors available as needed?
 Somewhere in between?

8. Who is your customer?
Marketing should be directed at customers who will
benefit from purchasing your product.
 Each customer has his own set of priorities
 Not all customers will be ideal for your product
See your product through your customer’s eyes to
identify priorities.
 Pinpoint those who were satisfied with quality and price
 What was the criteria they used to pick you?
 Focus marketing efforts on other potential customers with
similar needs.

9. Why should they do business with you?
Messages:
 Develop your messages that tells them what’s the benefit to
them
 Speak to your prospects about outcomes, not process
 Always keep coming back to why you provide the most
value to them
Brand image and identity:
 Develop a professional look
 Use it consistently on everything – trucks, business cards,
web site, shirts, etc.

10. How will you reach your customers?
What types of marketing activities will you use?
Categories of marketing – not all are appropriate for
every business
 Advertising
 Public relations
 Internet marketing
 Direct marketing
 Events
 Word of mouth

11. Marketing Toolbox
Sales Tools Customer Database
 Brochure  Every name you collect
 Business card  Every customer you have
 Customer testimonials  Every prospect
 Competitive piece  Buy lists from InfoUSA
 Web site

12. Marketing Activities
Direct mail:
 Letters or postcards to targeted neighborhoods
 Quarterly postcards to your database
 Thank you cards to customers with two business cards
asking for a referral to friends or family
 Thank you cards to those you give estimates but don’t get
the job with two business cards
 Newsletter
 Contests / Sweepstakes
 Gift certificates

13. Marketing Activities
Advertising:
 Door hangers for when “you’re in the neighborhood”
 Site signs / Building signs / Vehicle signs
 Newspapers / magazines / classified
 Card decks / Coupon books
 Billboards
 Yellow pages
 Take-one box
 Testimonial mailers

14. Marketing Activities
Word of mouth marketing
 Client referrals
 BNI or referral groups
 Chamber events
 Network
 Testimonials
 Ask customers for referrals

15. What’s your budget?
Marketing does not have to be expensive
Marketing Tools: Activities:
 Business cards  Membership (BNI, Chamber)
 Promotional items  Networking events
 Door hangers  Letters
 Site signs  Postcards
 Vehicle lettering  Postage
 Logo clothing  Thank you cards
 Web site design  Web hosting

16. Questions?