Successful marketing strategies are the key to a thriving business. These strategies may be the types of marketing you do (email, print, social media, etc) or these strategies might focus on what content you are going to market through these channels. Often a good strategic balance can be found between what you are able to offer your customers through thoughtful marketing without also breaking the bank on your profits.
1. Offer Pricing Options
Right now, your customers are comparing your bids and estimates to those of your competitors. That’s typically how most consumers make their purchase decisions. But what if you could change that? Well, you can, and offering pricing options is how you do it.
If you have one price, you’re presenting a take-it-or-leave-it offer. This means the potential lead can either accept your terms or dismiss them. There’s no in between, which means they look to competitors for other options. However, if you offer pricing levels, you can be competitive. A very common idea is having standard, plus, and premium levels which represents a lower priced option, one mid-range, and one high priced option. This encourages the potential customer to choose between plans, and not between you and another company altogether. Even better, this type of strategy allows the customer to decide what’s best for them. It makes them more open to upgrades without the pressure, making them more likely to spend more.
Marketing these different pricing options properly will be the key to it’s success. For instance, if you normally distribute a flyer in late-winter that details a Spring Clean-Up Program you offer, this time try including information about a “Premium Spring Clean Up Program” and re-brand your traditional program as the “Standard Spring Clean Up”. In addition, the first year you run a new tiered pricing program, consider announcing to your current customers the new pricing options and let them know as loyal existing customers that they qualify for “One Year of Premium at the Standard Rate”. Use encouraging and exciting terminology so that current customers know for the same price as they have always paid, this year they will get more! Then, when you move into your second season of tiered pricing package options, they will be comfortable with the services and pay the additional cost associated with the new Premium Package.
2. Offer Customer Financing
Nearly 70% of homeowners are willing to borrow money to afford a home renovation project. These homeowners plan to borrow an average of $19,000, with popular renovation projects focusing on kitchens, bathrooms, landscaping, and creating decks or other outdoor spaces. Many consumers are not afraid to borrow money for these larger home projects, as they know over time the investment is worth the need to borrow in order to make the project happen. Make sure your business offers a consumer financing option and make sure you create a visible marketing campaign to let customers know you are able to provide financing for them. Determine what services you offer that are project-based, and not just one-off projects. Consider choosing a price point for which you will offer financing (i.e. any project that costs more than $3,000). Remind customers in your marketing pieces that just because they might need to do a project in the April, but they receive their salary bonus in November… that’s ok! You are able to work with them on flexible financing terms so they can enjoy their new outdoor space all spring and summer.
Need help making customer financing a reality? Central is here to help! Through our Savings4Members program you have access to many business resources, including those at Synchrony. Synchrony provides your business with essential, end-to-end consumer financing resources to make the process simple and profitable.
3. Take a Deeper Dive Into Marketing You Already Pay For
Are you already paying for an email marketing platform such as Constant Contact, or a text-to-consumer platform such at Moblico? If the answer is yes, then the question becomes “how often, and how productively, are you using them?” For example:
- If you send an email wishing your customers a “Happy New Year, We Look Forward to Seeing You in the Spring” check the system after a few days to see how many of your contacts opened the email. Create a new mailing list for just these contacts and label it “Customers who opened New Years Greeting”. You can now begin to strategically use the system you already pay for to work better for you! Create emails to target these customers who you know are opening your communications. Send a second email to just them with the title “For Our Most Valued Customers”. Consider including a button to click-through for even more active engagement, such as allowing them to reserve their spot for Spring Clean Up before the calendar opens to the general public. This way, they feel rewarded for opening your emails and thus they are more likely to open emails from you in the future.
- Begin separately sending a secondary campaign to all those who didn’t open your New Year’s Greeting and target the marketing to that group differently.
4. Give Your Sites a Once-Over
It’s always a prudent, and affordable, marketing strategy to take some time to look over all the places you are online to make sure everything is up to date, accurate, and inviting.
- Review your website and highlight any new services you are now offering
- Upload new before/after photos you took recently
- Consider adding free or low cost website integrations such as an online fillable Contact Us form.
- Review your Social Media and Google My Business listings. Ensure your name, address, and phone number are accurate in all places. For social media, take the time to update to a new cover photo if you haven’t done so recently. Often your followers will get a notification that your business updated their cover photo. It’s a great way to increase your marketing success and visibility without spending a penny! For your Google My Business listing, one of the best ways to make your site more discoverable without breaking the bank on expensive SEO (search engine optimization) tactics, is through keywords and categories. This helps customers finds your business by the industry terms they are using to search.
Finally, rely on Central to help, whether it’s questions about our Savings4Members Program, online website and social media audits, overall marketing strategies, or business planning. Central is the right partner for your business. We stay at the leading edge of the industry and we’re ready to help you grow!