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Digital Marketing Agency for Tradies Helping You Simplify Online Marketing
I’ve been working with loads of tradies over the last 17 years, doing Tradie Marketing.
Fixing or building their websites running Facebook & Google Ads and everything else that falls into Digital Marketing bucket.
Your passion is fixing & building stuff, like Houses, Bathrooms, Kitchens, Retaining Walls. Mine passion is helping small businesses to grow. I love working with Tradies.
Whether you’re a Brickie, Chippie Electrician, Painter, Plumber or Roofer, it’s getting harder to find more new customers.
The building industry is slowing down so this has a flow effect across the building Industry.
You’re working 50, 60, 70 hours trying to get everything done
You’re juggling trying to fill the many hats you wear over the course of a day.
- You’re the foreman managing the project… CoOrdinating everybody so your working efficiently & not double handling material…
- You’ve got order stock for the job, so the guys aren’t waiting around for the gear to turn up, causing the job to stop…
- You’ve heads spinning trying sort out HR & make sure you’re compliant with the law…
- You got to make sure you have the right equipment onsite, whether its a Bobcat, Scaffolding, Hammer Drill and it’s in good safe working order, Lead tagged…
- You’ve got to do your quotes to win more work…
- Don’t forget the invoicing, making sure you caught all the variations, to keep the money coming in…
- You got to pay your workers & suppliers & hopefully there’s some left for yourself…
- I almost forgot to mention the half day you donate a fortnight to Govt to sort out GST & all their other fun paperwork, they make you do…
So if you’re not working long enough hours already, now you’ve got to become a marketing guru & ninja webmaster so you show up online.
Marketing is the lifeblood of your business.
As Peter Drucker said
“…Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business has two – and only two functions… Marketing and Innovation. Marketing and Innovation produce results, all the rest are costs…”
Peter Drucker (regarded as the father of modern business management)
I get it, your saying “but I’m a Builder or Electrician or Plumber I’m not a marketer”.
Marketing a skill we all need to learn.
Here’s the thing you don’t have to be an expert and understand all the nuts & bolts & how they all fit together.
Photo by jesse orrico on Unsplash
The ideal would be to get hands on & make sure your Marketing happens. But for most of you, your days are jam packed running your business, so you don’t have time to start learning marketing & apply it to your business.
Get our latest Report – How Tradies Can Attract More Clients Without Getting Caught Up In The Building Slowdown!
So that leaves you with a few options,
Just ignore it & hope you get by. (not really an option)
Muddle around, picking up bit & pieces of the marketing Puzzle here & there. We call this Haphazard Marketing
Or get marketing help.
As I said I’ve been working with Tradies for a long time.
The Worst Job I Ever Had
I’ll let you into a secret when I lived in Adelaide I spent 9 months Underpinning Houses.
Of all the jobs I had, I still rate this one of the worst back breaking jobs I’ve ever had.
I was working underpinning the foundations of houses. Adelaide was and is an arid state. So with such little rainfall, the land cracks, shrinks & moves, which is bad news for your house’s foundations. This causes the piers holding the house to move or even crumble, so now you have an unstable house. Once this happens the floor begins to sag & walls buckle, your house is now in danger of collapsing.
So my job was to crawl under the house jack up & brace the joists & bearers. Once we have stabilised your house, we would remove the old brick piers, then dig down so we could find solid ground which will take the load of the house. Most of the time we were lucky if we could even kneel, sometimes you’re crawling in a dark confined space. So it was scary.
So I had just spent the last hour chipping away at the baked dry frizzled clay under the house with a small modified pick. There was not enough room to swing a cat so swinging a pick was slow work.
Hauling the bucket filled with rubble was just back breaking through the maze of brick piers.
It didn’t seem to matter which house we were working on, the busted pier was always going be the furthest from the entrance. Welcome to the dreary, repetitive life of an underpinner.
We would then pour a concrete pad & build a new brick support column, so we get your house back on a level footing.
So that’s one of the main reasons I learnt Marketing, so could escape from Underpinning Houses.
I’ve done 7 Westfields Projects & worked on other multi-million building projects around Australia.
You’ve Gotta Know When to Get Help
Even though I’ve sat through many Inductions, put my Hard Hat & Steel Cap Boots on, doesn’t mean I know everything about construction.
Far from it.
I know how to change a washer. (I’m not even sure taps need washer anymore)
I know how to replace a fuse in a switch box.
But does that mean when it comes to more serious issues, Do I say “Bugger that I think I’ll Rewire my house, & while I’m at it, I think I’ll move the Stormwater pipes.”
No, I’m not going there. Why? Because I don’t have a clue how to do this work, & it’s dangerous it could kill me & someone else.
So when the job goes beyond simple I call in the experts.
I haven’t got the time to spend nights at Tech learning the skills to be a builder, electrician or a plumber.
I would rather have the peace of mind knowing the job done, safely.
I could never live with myself if trying to save a couple of bucks caused injury or death to my family or friends.
So maybe the consequences of not getting help with your marketing are not as deadly as playing with 240 Volts.
in this case, doing no marketing could cause your business to go into a deadly tailspin.
What happens to you if your business doesn’t generate enough sales over the next 6 months?…
Or what will happen to your family if your business continues to not generate enough cash over the next 6 months?…
The Building Industry is Slowing down
- “Approvals for new detached houses across Australia have sagged to their lowest level since June 2013″…
- “Building approvals in April 2019 indicate that the number of approvals for all categories of new dwelling fell by 4.7% during the month. New detached house approvals dropped by 2.9% while the volume of approvals for apartments/units saw a 7.2% fall. Total approvals are now down by 24.2% over the past year”…
- “With today’s figures now showing detached house approvals at a 6-year low, it is ominous that the weakness in new home building is spreading to those parts of the market which are traditionally more resilient during downturns” Shane Garrett, Master Builders Chief Economist – https://www.masterbuilders.com.au/Newsroom/Detached-House-Approvals-at-Lowest-Ebb-Since-2013
- Value of Building Approved – The trend estimate of the value of total building approved fell 0.2% in April and has fallen for two months. The value of residential building fell 0.9% and has fallen for 15 months…
- he value of residential building fell 2.4%, while the value of non-residential building rose 16.1%. – https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/8731.0
The sad facts
The Challenges Facing Tradies & Small Businesses
- Your margins are shrinking…
- You’re working longer hours, to get the same result, for a lesser return…
- More and more competitors are trying to buy the project, by working at cost or below, they think the variation will make the difference. Just Hoping they survive, till the business turns around (a death wish)…
- The bigger players are hurting, so they’re moving into your space, trying to steal your business away from you…
- There seems to be no loyalty, customers vote with their wallets and are going for the cheapest price…
- And there’s just no time for your family…or yourself…
- 90% of business will fail to make the first 2 years, and it gets worse as only 5% survive 5 years – ABS…
- On Average of 44 small businesses close their doors each day, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics data…
These paint a disturbing picture…
Do you see a bright future for your business or a Year of challenges? In which direction do you expect your Business to move…Up or Down…
What’s Your Growth Plan Look Like As The Building Industry Slows Down?
Is Your Business growing, Stalled or Dying?…
Most of our clients, we work with fall into one of these situations…
- They’re doing OK, but want to do Better… Growing & making good profits and you’re looking for better ways to accomplish this…
- They’re stagnating, not Growing… You’re holding your own, but know you need to improve your marketing to grow…
- They’re free-falling, into a death spiral… You’re struggling, clinging desperately to the vain hope, that you’ll catch a lucky break…
Why is this So?…
You started out with passion drive and fresh ideas only to get battered by an indifferent market…
As loud as you yell, no one hears you because you’re competing with all the noise…
If only people could see, or hear your message, it would make all the difference…
Your message gets lost in the crowd…
When I review businesses, I have noticed that even though they have great products and services…
Your business needs to be distinctive, unique, valuable, and more appealing than anybody you compete against, and you have to describe and explain this to your market…
They fail to stand out from the crowd. As you delve deeper…
It’s clear, most Tradies & Small Business Owners lack marketing skills…
Marketing isn’t everything…it’s the only thing…Brian Kurtz
Only a few businesses, get marketing and… Would have a marketing system, that consistently delivers qualified prospects who want to buy your products or use your services to solve their problem…
Marketing Voodoo
Many small business owners believe marketing, is just a strange voodoo, to trick customers into doing business with you…
Marketing is a skill all business owners need to acquire, to survive and grow, their businesses…
As the GFC unfolded, the smart businesses invested & built Marketing Systems which, just kept pumping money in, so they could buy market share… They realised Marketing is an Investment…
If your competition slashed their marketing budget, then you should be jumping in & investing to lure their customers away…
So need to understand Marketing is an Investment
Stop marketing, and your business will die…It’s not a choice. Either, you get a Marketing System, or you’ll be closing your doors…
You don’t want to be the next lifeless business. Do You?…
So most business owners struggle to unravel the so-called mysteries of Marketing…
If that’s not bad enough, you constantly bombarded with latest & greatest silver marketing bullet, which promises to slay dragons & puts pots of gold at your feet…
So let’s look at these and see if they will take you to the promised land (of making more sales) or are they just a myth…
The good news is, if you know how to find the right people and send them the right messages, you will have less business competing with you…
Your business will capture a larger share of the marketing, making more sales, larger profits and save you money as well…
If you’re not talking to people who are looking for a solution, then you’re wasting your time and money…
Stop marketing, and your business will die…
It’s not a choice…
But how do you pick the right marketing method, when there are so many possibilities…
Marketing Silver Bullets
Photo by Mitya Ivanov on Unsplash
Every week I’m Bombarded with the latest Marketing Silver Bullet…
You probably seem them all, as well…
There’s a new Instagram gimmick…
They all claim to send traffic to your website, so then you can drive 100’s or even 1000’s of people to your website, but very few stick around…
Ask yourself, “how many sales did you make?”
Did you make any?…
If you’re learning new tactics like Twitter, Blogging or Facebook advertising, you’ll need to keep reminding yourself that tactics need to be part of a well-planned marketing system…
Otherwise, you’re wasting time and money…
Warning: There’s little profit in understanding Pinterest Advertising or any other Silver Bullet, just for the sake of learning this stuff…
Yet there is an enormous benefit in applying your understanding of Facebook Advertising to your marketing strategy…if you’ll getting new Customers & it’s making you Money…
All these tactics are useless without having a well thought out marketing system…
The purpose of all of your marketing must be to move your prospect closer to buying…
Are you going to be Strategic Digital Marketer with a system that works? Or…
Are you, relying on haphazard marketing, just bumbling along, hoping there enough cash in the bank to pay the wages?…
So when I look back at clients we’ve found they fall into 4 categories
- 1. Those who prefer to learn & apply our Business & Marketing principles themselves…
- 2. Those who would prefer to reach out to us for a little help in implementing our solutions as they need it…
- 3. Those who prefer for us to guide them through the implementation of the whole thing…
- 4. Those who would like for us to do the whole thing for them…
We look forward to supporting you, however, you want and need.
I’m not I saying hand over complete control of your marketing, Because you have to understand what’s going on. It’s your business so you need to be aware that marketing is an investment. You need to keep your eye on it.
Not many people would hand over all their money so financial genius, let’s see how you do over the next 30 years. I’ll get back to you. This is a recipe for disaster. Don’t do this with your marketing.
Digital Marketing Agency for Tradies
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So we’ve been putting together a Digital Marketing Resources to help tradies who still want to get their hands dirty and learn marketing skills, so they can apply it to their business.
Now if your time-poor, you can get an overview of what’s working & Why these strategies work.
Then you can hand off to one of your staff members so they implement your marketing strategies
I share the tools we use every day in my Digital Agency
If you get stuck, We are here to guide & work through the issues with you, so your marketing happens…
And if its gets too much for you, we even do it for you & keep you in the loop. How does that sound?
We will be releasing Digital Marketing resources for Tradies in next month.
Let me know if you want a sneak peek to test it out.