A Marketing Guide for Job Shops
Whether you have been in business for years, or are just starting out, promoting your business is critical to your success. Many job shops have limited marketing resources, limiting how much promotion they can do. Yet marketing for job shops is the cornerstone of attracting buyer attention, and therefore winning jobs – if your buyers don’t know you exist or what services you offer, they can’t bring you business.
Below are several simple, yet effective, marketing strategies that you can use to give your job shop a competitive edge and let more people know more about your valuable services.
1. Compelling Websites Attract the Right Prospects
Your website serves as your shop’s window to the world – the first impression people will have of your business. Your site should show potential customers who you are, what you do, and what makes you different from competitors.
Things to think about:
First, don’t just say you’re the best at what you do: show it. Including customer testimonials in a section of your website allows viewers to hear directly about your work, which builds your credibility and enhances your reputation with potential buyers. This can also be done by stating your shop’s on-time delivery percentage, and by featuring parts your shop has made in the past. This ‘case study approach’ clearly establishes your capabilities, creates transparency, and conveys the value of your shop – beyond just stating what you do.
Second, establish the expectations people should have for working with your shop. Inform potential buyers about your quote response timeframe and your standard lead time to provide a clear sense of what prospects can anticipate when choosing to work with your shop.
Third, you should ensure that you not only have a complete “Contact Us” page with the name of your business, your phone number and email, and physical address, but also be sure to create a “Request a Quote” page where potential customers can upload files and send project details. Your website should enable people to get into direct communication with you. It should also provide a frictionless experience that gives them a ‘sneak peek’ at what it’s like to do business with your shop.
2. Give Them Reasons to Return
Prospects are searching for information, and if you have content that answers their questions, they will continue to come back to your site. This means keeping your content current – content can be blog posts, videos, a new testimonial from a happy client, a profile of an employee or a short article on industry trends. The content can be about the techniques you prefer or materials you use, or the machines and technology you have in your shop. It is also a way to keep your prospects and customers “in the loop” on process updates, new services, or promotions. Fresh content will also have a powerful impact in your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts. SEO is about winning organic traffic. This means that people searching for a particular term (CNC machine shops in Idaho) will see results based on the sites that Google/Bing deem relevant for that term. Winning “page one search results” for relevant terms is based on the “keyword content” of your website. More organic traffic = more site visits = more quotes.
In addition to updating your site with new information as changes take place, you can create News and Blog pages to highlight insights and the current happenings in your shop. Make landing pages to engage visitors with new marketing content for your products. Finally, don’t underestimate how influential images are — be sure to continually add new pictures of parts to your website and name/tag those images appropriately.
3. Leverage Email Marketing
Email marketing is a great way for you to easily communicate with your customer base. It’s important not to overcomplicate email marketing; start with a monthly/quarterly email to your existing customers highlighting your services, capacity, and any significant updates or new equipment in your shop. This email newsletter should draw your readers in and prompt action. The Call to Action you include could be something like a button that says “Request a Quote” and will take them to your RFQ page. It’s also an opportunity to ask for referrals. A “refer a friend” campaign is a great way to get your existing customers to help you find new customers. They’re your best spokespeople and a great way to find new customers.
Learn more here: Jumpstart Email Marketing for Your Job Shop.
4. Edit Your Google My Business Page & Get Reviews
By creating a simple Google Business page, you can set yourself up for a good first impression with anyone who looks up your company. Complete with contact information, business hours, the company address, images, a link to your website, and more, your Google Business page can serve as an informative resource for anyone interested in your shop only seconds after looking it up. It is also a page that Google will prioritize when producing search results, so you should not ignore this.
You should also aim to get as many online reviews as possible for your page. Studies have shown that people trust online reviews and use them to evaluate businesses they have yet to work with. If someone sees that you have high ratings from numerous people, they will know that your shop is reputable and worth looking into more extensively.
Learn More: Leveraging Customer Reviews Through Google Business.
5. Get LinkedIn
Creating a free LinkedIn Company page for your shop will allow you to tap into a market of over 300,000 custom part buyers who are on that platform. Your LinkedIn page will serve as a way to connect with potential and current customers while allowing you to establish another customer-facing image of your company. Plus, search engines rank LinkedIn pages in their search results, which means you can significantly grow your online presence just by putting up a LinkedIn page.
Learn More: 3 Things Job Shops Can Do to Build a Marketing Presence.
6. Be Social!
Regularly posting content on social media is another crucial way to market your business. Beyond LinkedIn, platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can bring greater awareness to your shop. By actively engaging with your current and potential customers through these channels, you can easily communicate the updates that are happening within your shop and reach prospects who are on these platforms. While you should aim to be active on all socials, LinkedIn is especially important for B2B communication.
Get the Word Out
Implementing these simple yet effective marketing strategies will draw greater attention to your shop. More importantly, they will demonstrate a professional, communicative image of your company to your current and potential customers which can be key for driving new business.
Learn More: 3 Things Job Shops Can Do to Build a Marketing Presence.
Did you know that Paperless Parts has a Marketing Services arm? We help job shops promote their business, starting with the strategies discussed above. Sign up here for a free consultation.