Many on-demand service businesses are leaving a ton of money on the table and are missing the mark in attracting key customers. The good news is… there is an easy solution to fix this—the 4 step on-demand service business marketing strategy.
I’m not sure if the term “on-demand service business” is universal so here are the businesses to which I’m referring. Heating cooling repair, water and mold mitigation, auto mechanics, marine services (we’re based in Fort Lauderdale), locksmiths, or any service or company you call in emergency or a last minute situation. In other words, businesses you call on-demand.
So, what is this solution?
The 4 step on-demand service business marketing strategy, which is a process that will attract customers at their exact moment of need, as well as, build trust and a relationship with them to encourage repeat business.
Let’s get into it, shall we?
Step 1:
Install Google Remarketing and Facebook/Instagram Retargeting pixels on your website (this is integeral to your service business marketing strategy). If you’re not familiar with what these are or what they do, I’ll explain them in a nutshell. A pixel is a small piece of code that is offered free from Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Quora and many others. The code allows you to anonymously track anyone who visits or interacts with your website and puts them into hypothetical buckets (or segments) that you can target later with advertising and marketing messaging.
Step 2:
Create a simple “What to Do in the Case of Emergency” page on your website for each and every emergency situation that a customer would be in when they call you. Even if you cannot create one for every situation, you should have one for your most common calls. This page doesn’t need a professional writer or blogger to create; just an easy to follow, step-by-step process of what to do.
For example, a heating/cooling repair company could have the customer check the fuse box, the batteries in the thermostat, or check the pilot light (for houses in colder climates with gas furnaces).
A water mitigator could list steps to reduce the water damage that could occur before the service crew arrives.
This step has multiple benefits for your on-demand service business marketing strategy:
- It’s a ‘goodwill’ effort to show that you are trying to save your customer money by keeping you from having to bill them for an appointment over a simple issue. This builds trust and they will remember that when they have a real problem in the future.
- It is a good SEO strategy to get your business to show up at a higher rank when someone is searching out your services.
- The exact same content that you put on this page can be copied to a PDF file to be offered as a download at a later step in your remarketing campaign.
Pro-tip: The “What to Do in the Case of Emergency” page should be in addition to your normal service page. If you fix leak damage, you should have a page explaining your services to repair leak damage, as well as, your emergency checklist page.
Step 3:
Set up a Google AdWords campaign with multiple ads to be triggered whenever someone is looking for a service provider for his or her emergency.
The ads that should be set up are Click to Call ads, Text Ads for the service that matches their emergency, AND search ads that lead to your page created in step 2.
Imagine this scenario… a family comes home to find that their HVAC unit isn’t working. They google search a repair service and set an appointment. While they’re waiting for the service provider to show up, they frantically search for something they can do to reduce the uncomfortable temperatures in their house. Regardless if they called your company initially, they stumble across your “What to Do in the Case of an Emergency” page on your website. They go through the steps and fix the situation themselves.
Two important things happened because of this:
- They are grateful you put that information online so they could relieve their uncomfortable situation. They also have a positive interaction with your brand. It’s a good introduction for future business transactions.
- The pixel you set up in step 1 has captured their interaction with your page. You can follow up with a strategic remarketing campaign to ensure they choose your company next time they need service.
Step 4:
Set up a strategic remarketing/retargeting campaign for anyone who clicked on one of your ads or landed on your emergency guide from step 2. This strategy will include ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google Search, and display ads on many other websites through Google Display Network (which includes over 2 million websites). One strategy should be to drive people to download the PDF version of the emergency guide you created earlier (see step 2).
Since the emergency is fresh in their mind, and because they won’t want to be in that situation again, you should be able to build an email list of leads to bring into your email marketing strategy. Plus, you’ll be targeting your message on multiple channels to people who have interacted with you before. They’ll see your brand on Facebook, Instagram, Google Search and other websites. This increases your brand awareness and brand retention significantly.
The second step of a good remarketing/retargeting campaign should be reminders of recurring maintenance. Cars need regular oil changes and maintenance, HVAC systems should have regular preventative maintenance, Locksmiths provide other services, campaigns should be set up to trigger at the proper intervals to remind potential customers that you’re there for their needs.
Imagine an ad popping up on Facebook reminding a customer that called you in an emergency that it’s time for their 6-month service call. Whom do you think they’re going to contact to provide this service? You, of course.
Now, you can’t call someone out specifically in a Facebook ad, this we know. But with some creative copy, this could be really powerful.
The Wrap-Up:
This is a basic on-demand service business marketing strategy and there are many nuances and extra elements not mentioned that could be added to increase its impact. However, this is solid on its own and will help increase business and potentially increase the lifetime value of your customers.
If you own an on-demand service business, I hope you find this useful. However, these principles can be applied to just about every business.
