How Contractor's Can Perfect Their Marketing Message

One of the most common challenges business owners face is figuring out exactly how to consistently and effectively reach their target market.

In a world where everyone is constantly bombarded with advertising and information, it’s absolutely critical to know who you’re talking to, where you’ll find them, and what they want to hear from you. If you want your message to be heard through the noise, follow these three steps to connect effectively with your future customers.

1. Identify Your Ideal Client

For any company to successfully market themselves, they must start by identifying their Ideal Client. Keep in mind that successful marketing is not about what you can offer anyone and everyone but rather, how do you specifically fill the needs of your target market. You can identify your ideal client by asking yourself these questions.

Who is your ideal client?

To answer this question, start by considering your target markets psychographics and demographics. Demographics are characteristics like age, marital status, income level, geographical location, and other tangible traits.

What do they care about?

Demographics are certainly important to know, but arguably even more important are psychographics. Psychographics are more about their needs– what excites them, what their goals are, what their fears are, what they are interested in and where they spend their money. If you’re unsure what some of these characteristics are, consider asking a few of your top clients to answer a few questions over lunch (on you). Your ability to thoroughly understand your ideal client’s needs, wants, fears and interests will provide an important foundation for all of your marketing (and eventually, sales).

Once you’ve gotten a clear, detailed idea of who you’re looking for, you’re ready to move onto the next two steps.

2. Find Your Ideal Client

Think about who your ideal client is and consider where they might choose to spend their time. What social environments do they like? Where do they go looking for items they need? What tradeshows and events do they attend? What advertising channels are they regularly exposed to? Figure out where your ideal clients spend their time, and consider how open they are to learning about your services in each of those places. In a perfect world, you’ll “meet” them in some of those environments they frequent, and you’ll introduce your brand at a time that they are looking for services like yours.

Knowing the answer to some of these questions will help you to pick the right opportunities for exposure, and can even help you to show up in the right way.

3. Speak To Your Ideal Client

Clearly identifying your ideal client and determining where to find them are great steps – but they’re still not going to get you the business you want without figuring out how to capture the attention of your ideal client. You need to speak directly to what they care about; in other words, your marketing messaging should incorporate the true needs of your client. Not just their surface-level thoughts (for example, “I would love a new feature wall.”), but rather, their deeper needs (for example, “My house doesn’t feel like my home, and I don’t feel comfortable in it.”). This is where understanding the psychographics of your target market becomes especially important.

These deeper needs are the real reason your ideal client wants your services – the ultimate why behind their choice to hire you. There is emotion attached to your ideal client’s why, and that’s what you’re looking to speak to. Consider this example: “Beautify Your Home Today” may be a tagline that clearly communicates your services, but it doesn’t really speak to the emotions of your ideal client. On the contrary, “Fall Back in Love With Your Home” speaks to the deeper need of your potential customers… it communicates the emotional reaction they will experience when they employ your services.

Speaking to your ideal client’s emotions is an important way to capture their attention. Here’s something we all know: people’s attention spans are short these days. You have only a few seconds to draw them in with a clear, targeted message. If your message is too wordy or vague, they’re confused and you’ve lost them. If your message is concise, but cold and disconnected, they have no reason to continue paying attention. It’s critical that your message is direct, to the point, and can be understood by your target audience quickly.

Here are a few key components for crafting your message:

1. Start with an Engaging Question or Statement (this is often in the form of a ‘headline’). For example, “Fall Back in Love With Your Home.”
2. Describe or relate to their biggest challenge. For example, “You were in love with your home when you bought it… but now it just doesn’t feel like ‘home’ anymore.”
3. Indicate what your solution is (but don’t get too caught up in the how just yet). For example, “With affordable upgrades & creative vision, we can help you love your home again.”
4. Include a clear call to action to finish off. For example, “Call us today to book your free home evaluation.”

With a message that speaks directly to the emotions of your ideal client, and is easy for them to understand, you’re much more likely to capture their attention so you can begin the process of earning their business.

To get you started, we’ve made a copy of our tried-and-true Marketing Worksheet available (request yours here). We’ve built this resource based on years of experience helping trades companies perfect their marketing messages and grow their companies to new levels. So grab the worksheet, prep your sales team, and get your brand out there!

Here’s to your success!