Grow Your Home Services Business Using Customer Behaviour Insights
Reaching out to consumers today involves far more than it did in the past. The internet has opened up many different paths to reach more customers, helping businesses grow faster than they might have previously. If you’re ready to start growing your home services business, using customer behaviour and Google can enable you to get the growth you’re looking for. Getting started means taking a few steps to get your home services business featured more prominently online.
How Consumer Behaviour is Changing
The internet has dramatically changed how consumers search for the information they need. Today, they have more control over what information they look for and find, plus 24/7 access to information. Consumers have more options available to them and have the ability to consider more options in a shorter amount of time. This also means they tend to have higher expectations before finding a company to work with. Extraordinary is now the new ordinary as consumers look for more from just about everything.
The home services model is being challenged today because of the changes in consumer behaviour. Today, consumers check an average of 22.4 resources prior to a home services purchase, meaning they’re taking the time to research and learn about all of their options before they make any decision. With the right digital marketing plan, however, this can prove to be a benefit as it provides more of an opportunity to show consumers why they should choose your business.
How Consumers Choose What to Purchase
Consumers of today have more paths when they’re ready to purchase from the home services industry. Immediacy of action means consumers tend to act on any stimulus, whenever they might be motivated to, so they’ll purchase something if they see it at just the right time. Higher expectations mean consumers tend to look for relevance and for a frictionless experience. They want to find what they need easily and quickly, not have to search for a long time. Unscripted decisions mean people are more loyal to their need at that exact moment today instead of a brand.
Generic searches are a good place to start to target today’s consumers, but locally relevant searches are more popular than ever before. Today, 49% of people searching for home improvement or remodelling are going to be searching on a smartphone. Of those who use their phone to search, 61% used a search engine to start, 66% visited a website, 66% sought out word-of-mouth recommendations and 15% used a review website to get more information.
Start Using Google to Grow Your Business
To start helping your business grow, use Google. The search engine offers a number of different tools to help you reach out to more consumers and make sure you can reach your goals for growth. You’ll want to look into owning a Google My Business listing for your business, using Google to reach the right prospects, making ads more profitable, building a great mobile experience, and driving impact by using innovative ad formats. All of these combined create a powerful online presence designed to help your business grow more and grow faster.
Own Your Google My Business Listing
Your business may already be listed on Google, but only the bare minimum information is there before you take control of your Google My Business listing. Google My Business is found on Google Maps, Google Search, and Google Assistant. You’ll want to complete your business listing so consumers can get the information they need when they’re interested in your business or looking for services like the ones you offer.
Through your Google My Business listing, you’ll want to make sure you manage your reviews. Approximately 82% of online searchers have said that they look into reviews and place a lot of value on them when they’re choosing a home services business. You’ll also want to make sure your Google My Business listing is available for local customers by knowing where your customers are. Right now, 40% of smartphone users will use their phone to locate or contact a local service business.
Reach the Right Prospects
Reaching the right prospects is crucial. Money spent on digital marketing is wasted if it’s not targeted to the people who are looking for your business. You’ll want to make sure you’re there when the consumer needs you by using home services micro-moments. You’ll match your targeted ads to the buying state your prospective customer might be in. Possible buying stages can include moments where the consumer is trying to determine what to remodel, whether they can afford it, what help they might need, and who they can trust for the help. It might also include consumers who want to share the results of their remodel or improvement project.
When looking for ways to reach the right prospects, choosing keywords carefully is vital. Consumers looking for how they should remodel might search using keywords like kitchen design, bathroom ideas, modern kitchen, basement remodel, or garage doors. Those who are looking into whether they can afford a remodel might use keywords like kitchen cabinets, painting kitchen cabinets, custom cabinets, cabinet refacing, and replacement cabinet doors. Consumers who want to know who they can trust might search for cabinet makers, cabinet installation, cabinet painters, Main Street cabinets, or cabinet maker reviews. Search behaviour can also be seasonal, with consumers looking for services like Wi-Fi thermostat installation more often during certain parts of the year.
There are three different methods you’ll want to use to connect with the right consumers. Customer match is a way to target your high-value existing clients by using targeted ads to encourage them to contact you again. Remarketing enables you to target people who have already been to your website and who are likely to be interested in the services you offer. Demographics enable you to learn more about your typical customers and bid for more people who will match your typical customer profile.
Make Ads More Profitable
Making your ads more profitable takes more than just knowing the right keywords or who your customers are. You’ll also want to know when your customers are most likely to look for the services you offer as well as how they’ll search for your services. Smartphone usage tends to peak during the afternoon, while those who might search on a computer or tablet will likely search later in the day.
It’s also a good idea to know when to bid higher or how to allocate your bids more effectively as well as how to track conversions so you can increase the profitability of your ads by targeting them to your consumers better. You’ll want to make sure you bid higher when coupon mailers go out as 41% of consumers are going to decide to call once they see a coupon or other deal. You’ll also want to use Google Ads Scripts to increase bids easily in areas where you’re going to make more profit. Make sure you’re tracking all conversions from Google Ads as well, including leads on your site, visits to your showroom, calls, and CRM data. All of this can be used to target your ads more effectively.
Build a Great Mobile Experience
Consumers today use their smartphones frequently to get more information, and 42% of home service shoppers are going to look for more information on their phone after seeing an ad. Create a great mobile experience on your website to make it easier for them to find the information they’re looking for. Then, make sure you leverage your business data by showing real-time special offers at times when business is slow. As consumers see your ad, they’ll check out your website on their smartphone, see the special offers, and decide to contact your business for more information or help.
Drive Impact With Innovative Ad Formats
Make sure you’re increasing the impact of your ads by using innovative ad formats. The more creative you can be, the better. This is going to get the attention of consumers today far more than the standard ads they’ve seen repeatedly. Studies have shown that around 75% of Millennials are going to prefer texting over calling, which means using message extensions is likely to help you get more customers for your business. Video ads are also an excellent way to boost your ads and get the attention of your customers. Between January and May of 2015, more than 100 million hours of how-to video content was watched on YouTube alone. Creating video ads helps you reach out to far more people because they’ll want to watch the videos, even if they wouldn’t be interested in the standard text advertisement.
Getting your business online can help it grow quickly, but you need to take the right steps to maximize the potential growth. Following the steps here can give you a good start and help you begin reaching out to more customers today. Work with a digital marketing company to learn more about what you can do to help your business grow and to start seeing results as fast as possible.
