Marketing to Tradespeople

[MrMonster]

Good evening UKBF

I'm looking to see if anyone can point me in the direction of where they've managed to market their business to Small to Medium sized tradespeople/construction companies?

I've been running some ads on social media, google etc and testing the water but before I dump a chunk of my budget into Facebook advertising (which to date is my most successful trial campaigns) if there was anything I may be overlooking?

Thank you in advance

 

[Shopclicks]

LinkedIn is the obvious social platform choice for a B2B product or service. And Google Ads if people are actively searching for what you're offering.

 

[fisicx]

Email.

Most of the tradesmen I work with don’t browse SM looking for deals. But send them an email and there’s a good chance they will see it.

 

[WaveJumper]

As above, direct approach, all the tradesmen I know are to busy to be bothered with social media and the good ones never advertise as they get all their work on recommendations only

 

[fisicx]

@MrMonster - what is it you are marketing?

 

[Shopclicks]

Small to Medium sized tradespeople/construction companies

Most of the tradesmen I work with don’t browse SM looking for deals.

I think you'll find a lot of tradespeople and construction companies on LinkedIn. There are approximately 150,000 plumbers in the UK and 40,000 plumbing businesses. A UK search on LinkedIn shows 40,000 plumbers profile pages. Some of those will be businesses and some are going to be inactive but that's still a big audience. And that's just plumbers. There are 85,000 UK carpenter profiles on LinkedIn.

If the OP learns how to optimise LinkedIn posts, it's a no brainer.

 

[Mark T Jones]

@MrMonster - what is it you are marketing?

This first, plus a few other questions

Is it specific to trades people, or businesses?

Is it geographically confined?

Do you have a clear, simple value proposition?

These things will give a lead to the appropriate medium / approach.

For example, whilst the owners of plumbing firms might well use LinkedIn, its not a natural platform for individual self-employed plumbers.

 

[Shopclicks]

For example, whilst the owners of plumbing firms might well use LinkedIn, its not a natural platform for individual self-employed plumbers.

I suggest you do the search yourself. Search 'Plumber' > People > Location UK

 

[fisicx]

I think you'll find a lot of tradespeople and construction companies on LinkedIn.

Agreed, but I got so much junk from Linkedin I disabled notifications. Tradies will be the same.

Email or SMS is the best way to get the attention of a plumber.

 

[Shopclicks]

Email or SMS is the best way to get the attention of a plumber.

If you only wanted to target local plumbers, sure.

If you want to target 10,000 businesses and tradies in all construction sectors .... not so much.

 

[fisicx]

You can buy lists….

Just asked my plumber about LinkedIn and he said he set up an account, got plagued with offers of SEO and website builds so never went back. I’d put money on that being the case for most tradesmen.

But we still don’t know what @MrMonster is selling so it’s all speculation right now.

 

[Shopclicks]

You can buy lists….

Yep, I get spam all the time from lists I've been added to without opting-in. Sorry but emails sent via bought lists go straight to the bin. Not sure why the OP's emails would be any different.

Building a profile and posting quality, optimised content on LinkedIn is not the same as direct messaging (spamming) potential clients. You aim to have potential clients find you, not the other way around.

 

[fisicx]

Building a profile and posting quality, optimised content on LinkedIn is not the same as direct messaging (spamming) potential clients. You aim to have potential clients find you, not the other way around.

I agree, but this only works if your plumber is active on Linkedin and uses the platform to look for suppliers of goods and services. Which most aren't.

Our plumber is busy. If he needs something he asks his mates. Which is why around here they all use the same bookkeeper.

 

[SBC Marketing]

It's best not to reinvent the wheel. If Facebook is providing you with good results, stick with it and simply scale up your campaign. Once you've built a robust database, you can conduct a questionnaire to gain a deeper understanding of your audience and serve them better.