How to Use Digital Ads to Grow Your Business

by Paul Deffenbaugh | 1 August 2019 12:00 am

Let’s simplify marketing for a second. Effective marketing is about finding the people who are most likely to become your next customer and providing value to that group of people so that when they have a problem you can solve, you’re the company they think about.

One of the most cost-effective ways you can accomplish this is through social media and digital ads. What I want to talk to you specifically about is how you can achieve this through Facebook ads for your local business.

Targeting the Right People with Digital Ads

Let’s say you are a roofing contractor or a local business, and you’re trying to build a local brand so people recognize you the next time they have a problem your company solves.

A way you can accomplish this is with Facebook ads. First, you need to find that group of people who are most likely to become your next customer. If you’re a roofing professional or a home services contractor, these are the people that live in the areas you’re currently working in. They’re the neighbors of your current customers. The great thing you can accomplish with digital advertising platforms that you can’t with a lot of traditional advertising is you can narrow and target an audience.

At 2019 METALCON, Beiler will be presenting an educational session to help contractors improve their brands called, “How to Build a Local Brand that Generates More Business.” To learn more about how you can attend, go to www.metalcon.com[1].

For example, if you’re a roofing contractor and you’ve just completed three jobs over the past week, create Facebook ads in a 1-mile radius of those addresses over the next three weeks. Now that neighborhood will have seen your work, trucks, yard signs, and then on Facebook for the next month.

Once you find those hyper-targeted locations, you need to think of ways that you can provide value to that group of people so you can earn their attention and trust. We’ll talk about practical ways to accomplish this a bit later.

Why You Need to Be Consistent

Next, you need to think about how you can market consistently. I know how easy it is to revert to a shotgun-like approach. Maybe you’re really busy for a month and then a week or two goes by where the phone isn’t ringing and you realize, “we need to do some advertising to get busy again.” That’s a bit more like playing defense. Great marketing and advertising is proactive and is like playing offense.

One way you can be on the offense is to get in a consistent rhythm of marketing and advertising where you’re regularly grabbing the attention of potential new clients.

I recommend small businesses accomplish this is by allotting two hours a week to building out advertising campaigns for the week. Once you get into a process of knowing what type of content works, you can get into a rhythm of building ads around the areas you’ve recently worked in. After you define that process, it becomes a lot easier to continue to do build campaigns regularly and consistently.

How to Be Engaging and Trigger a Response from New Customers

The last thing I want to address is ways you can produce engaging content that actually produces results and triggers a response from potential customers. This is one of the hardest things to nail down correctly in marketing. It’s so easy to revert to shouting out messages like “Hey, call us or contact us” without providing value to your audience. A few examples of engaging content are sharing your expertise or sharing customer testimonials of a homeowner’s experience.

This could be tips or advice you share through a video on your smartphone. It could also be explaining the value of your service. Talk about the stress your company removes from the home improvement process with an example of how you’ve done this.

Customer story videos are another great way of providing value to an audience. Capture a smartphone video of your customer talking how you solved their problem.

Don’t overcomplicate marketing. When it really comes down to it, it’s super simple. Find the people that are most likely to become your next customers and provide an insane amount of value to those people so that you are the company they think about when they have a problem you solve.

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Sam Beiler is a marketing professional and entrepreneur who understands that branding isn’t just for big businesses with big budgets. As a longtime team member of Equipter[2]—a company that provides equipment for handling roofing construction debris—he’s partnered closely with service professionals, such as roofers and general contractors, helping them market their businesses to achieve the success they work so hard for. Now, as CEO of Boostpoint[3], Beiler empowers entrepreneurs and small businesses to generate more revenue with a streamlined platform that creates, targets, publishes and measures digital ad campaigns. He also leads marketing workshops and webinars to share practical strategies that help professionals build a brand that’s as recognizable and exceptional as their service.

Source URL: https://www.metalconstructionnews.com/articles/how-to-use-digital-ads-to-grow-your-business/

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