What Your Trade And Construction Facebook Cover Design Is Missing.
It could be considered a tiny area of your Trade and Construction branding and marketing.
Your Facebook Cover photo design.
For those not in the know that is the rectangular space you see at the top of your Facebook business page that you are able to customise.
And yes.
I hear your thoughts churning away.
“Okay great. But why is this so important to make a whole blog about it?”
Well.
Here’s a few reasons.
➡️ One.
Everything you do in your brand and marketing reflects your Trade and Construction business.
No matter how small.
➡️ Two.
When customers land on your Facebook page it is the first thing they see.
And as we know, first impressions play a huge part in moving towards final decisions.
Especially when it comes to the Trade and Construction industry.
➡️ Three.
Your Facebook page might be the first thing a potential customer encounters when it comes to your business.
In a matter of seconds, we want your Ideal Client to feel they are in the right place and that it is YOU that can help solve their problems.
So yes.
It might seem like a tiny part of your Trade and Construction brand and marketing.
But boy, is it mighty.
Here’s how you nail it…
1. Include a photo of completed ideal client work for your Trade and Construction Marketing.
We see this all the time.
We go onto a Trade and Construction Facebook page.
And see one of three things when it comes to the Facebook Cover photo design:
1️⃣ Blank empty space.
2️⃣ To a photo of the branded van.
3️⃣ A photo of an unfinished job.
So, let’s run through why each of these are not the right first impression to make when it comes to your Trade and Construction Facebook Cover design.
❌ Blank empty space.
When a blank empty space is the first thing we see when marketing your Trade and Construction landing page this leads us to believe one of three things.
One.
You are not an active business. Is the business no longer trading?
Two.
You don’t take your brand and marketing seriously.
What does that say about you how seriously you take your entire business?
Three.
That this is potentially a phoney page. A hack.
That somebody else has set up and that perhaps we are in the wrong place.
So, we leave.
None of these options are what you want your potential future customers to think and feel about your business in the first two seconds.
❌ Photo of your brand-new van.
Now you might think this is a great idea to put in Facebook Cover design.
Especially, as when you take a photo of your vehicles you tend to take it with a landscape shot, which then fits the size of the Facebook Cover design perfectly.
However.
I know the photo can look great as a first impression.
What you are suddenly doing is making the Facebook Cover Design space all about you and your Trade and Construction business and not about how you help your clients.
Yes.
This is absolutely an area of space you want to use to market your Trade and Construction business.
But you need to do so in the right way.
And showing us a photo of your vehicle isn’t necessarily the best choice.
❌ A photo of an unfinished job.
Now we are slowly edging towards what should be used in this space.
However.
We’re not quite there yet.
We often see Trade and Construction companies choose one of their favourite photos to use in the space.
But this doesn’t mean that they have chosen a photo that either
a) works correctly in the horizontal rectangular space or
b) is a photo that is selling your Trade and Construction business in the right way.
I have seen photos of jobs that are unfinished.
Rubbish in the background.
And untidy household objects all collected in the corner that have been moved out the way for the Trade to do that job.
We are all for using images of jobs in progress from site.
Though we recommend that you save those for the Facebook page posts themselves where you can talk about before and afters and show us behind-the-scenes.
A cover image should be showing us what your Ideal Client is left with as the finished article.
So.
Onto what we should be doing.
However, you choose to design your cover photo, use imagery of the finished product.
Once the client has settled back into the space.
If you are a decorator for example, you wouldn’t just show the room where you have painted the living room walls.
We would see photos of the finished living room where the client has put their sofas and they’re soft furnishings tidily back into the space.
Why?
Because this helps us imagine how you solve our problems and what we might be left with should we choose you to come and work in a home or a business.
Good right?
A lot of Trade and Construction clients tell us that they don’t want certain types of job anymore.
Often small, fiddly jobs that are no longer profitable for them.
When we go to check out their Facebook page to see what it is they’re doing, they are showing photos of the kind of jobs they don’t want as the very first thing we see!
If there is a certain type of job you no longer want - maybe it’s too small for you, maybe it’s not profitable, maybe you don’t have a team member for it anymore - whatever the reason, do not promote that kind of work in your marketing.
Especially front and centre in the Facebook Cover Photo design as the first thing we will see.
All this does is tell your potential clients that this is the kind of work you love, specialise, and want more of.
So, you can’t really feel too disgruntled when you are attracting those kinds of enquiries.
Don’t show us imagery of work you know longer want - however proud you are of it.
Because remember.
You will always end up attracting more of the work you showcase and put out there.
2. Feature your most prestigious Trade and Construction accreditation logo in your Facebook Cover Photo design.
One of the biggest parts of marketing your T& business is to instill us with confidence that you are the right team to solve our problems.
One way to help us feel more confident is by using governing body Trade accreditation logos within your brand and marketing.
This might be the likes of a Gas Safe logo if you are a plumber.
The ARB approved logo if you are Tree Surgeon.
Or even the Safe Contractor logo for a variety of different Trades.
When you are working with other property professionals who either have these accreditations themselves or understand them fully - such as property developers or facilities managers for example - they would be more likely to do a lot more due diligence on your business, to uncover whether you are 100% legit.
When it comes down to the domestic homeowner however, who doesn’t understand the industry inside out, the logo such as the Gas Safe or Safe Contractor accreditation helps instil confidence to us because this is what our level of understanding of the industry is.
By using Trade Accreditation logos in your marketing, it is a quick visual way for us to see that we are about to work with a certified company who is qualified, progressive, and we are hopefully less likely to bump heads with cowboys.
The Facebook Cover Design is only a small space.
Given the Accreditation logos are often very simple and brightly coloured, I would highly recommend using just one subtly in the corner of your design.
You may have lots of accreditation logos within your Trade and Construction business.
However.
Given that I have just reminded you the space is only small, choose your most prestigious high achieving accreditation logo to use in the space to create that all important first impression.
This will help validate you and build trust in the first few seconds of landing on your Facebook page.
Epic.
3. Use text to tell us what changes you make or what problem you solve for your Trade and Construction clients.
As the Facebook Cover Design space is only small.
Use a short amount of text within the design to help nail down what it is you do for your clients.
You might use your strap line within the Facebook cover design if you’re strapline makes it really clear to us what change you make to client’s lives or businesses.
For example.
One of our construction clients uses the strapline “Changing lives through design and build.“
Teamed with a photo in the background of Ideal Client work - of one of their luxury loft extensions - we really get a feel for how our construction client does exactly what he says.
We immediately get a sense that he creates more light and space in the home for growing families that does, in fact change lives.
No one need move out the home or area they love.
Great stuff.
If your strap line is a little bit wishy-washy, then you might want to come up with something, just a few words, that tells us exactly what problem you solve.
A “does what it says on the tin“ kind of thing would be my advice.
4. Use text to tell us exactly what it is that your Trade and Construction business offers.
This one is different from the strap line.
And this is where you can include a little bit more text to tell us exactly what it is that you do so there is no confusion.
For example.
The construction client I mentioned earlier who uses the strap line “Changing lives through design and build,” also uses a few words underneath to explain what he does.
“Luxury Lofts and Extensions. “
This is so there is zero confusion as to what the actual service that he offers is.
But this is secondary to what he helps clients achieve.
Saving money.
Gaining space.
Etc.
If he were to use luxury loft and extensions by itself without his strapline, which isn’t a disaster, he is merely ‘selling the drill’.
Just telling us what his Trade is, in essence.
By putting both the strapline/how you solve the problem and a very brief service list together, we are selling the feeling - which is what people buy into the most and then telling clients that how we achieve the ‘thing’ they are after is through the ‘Loft and Extension’ service we provide.
Let’s say you are a maintenance company.
And offered lots of different services in your business.
Bearing in mind that this is a small space, having a long service list here is pointless.
That is what you would then use the main Facebook page to drip information over time, to educate your followers on all the different services you offer.
My advice would be to try and team up the relevant services to make a few words or bullet points that encompass either the biggest services you offer or the most profitable that you want more of.
For example.
Plumbing • Electrics • Roofing.
In a matter of seconds, we want potential clients to get a real understanding of the business whilst using only a few words used within the design.
5. Be sure to use your Trade and Construction brand colour palette within your Facebook Cover design.
Okay.
So time to get a bit more creative.
If you’re going to take the time to put a design together that includes an ideal client photo, your strapline, and an outline of the services that you offer specifically, then you’re probably going to be sitting at the likes of Canva (online graphic design software) or asking a professional designer to put something together for you.
When potential customers land on your page they may well have seen your business somewhere else before.
Perhaps they’ve seen your branded vehicles driving around.
Perhaps they’ve received one of your business cards at a networking meeting.
Perhaps they’ve seen your scaffolding banners up in the local area.
For you to build brand consistency in your Trade and Construction business, you need to make sure that wherever your clients come across you - online or off-line - there is instant recognition that they know they are in the right page.
And that this is your business.
Not some competitor’s.
Colour is a fast way to do this.
If you are taking the time to create a more professional Facebook Cover design, then make sure you incorporate your branded colours within the design.
For instant recognisability.
This doesn’t mean putting in your logo front and centre in the design.
Your logo should be placed in the Profile Image space which is separate to the Cover Photo.
This is the small circle that holds the image that is used when people are searching for you.
6. Look to add a unique, visual USP to your Trade and Construction Facebook Cover Photo design.
A little trick we like to use within our Facebook Cover Photo designs for Trade and Construction clients is to use parts of the space to highlight something positive about the business.
For example.
Let’s say our Construction client has more than 50+ 5* Google reviews.
That is something certainly to shout about.
We look to create little tabs in the space where we can highlight key information like this that helps instil trust in potential future customers that we are the team for the job.
Let’s say your Trade and Construction company won a local award for Trade of the Year for example.
Then you might highlight that award logo in a clear space on the design.
Perhaps your business has been trading and serving customers for more than 50 years.
I never would I use this as a key point alone to attract work because years in business doesn’t equal fantastic service.
But.
On a brilliantly designed Facebook cover design where we are seeing a photo from an ideal client job, a carefully considered design that has been put together and a great strapline, letting us know that you have been in business for this long could just be that cherry on the cake. 🍒
This cherry on the cake, although informative, shouldn’t pull the complete focus.
How you solve a problem and put your client first always should be front and centre.
And that is why your tiny Facebook Cover Photo design sets a standard.
What does your design say about your Trade and Construction business?
⬇️ What Your Trade And Construction Facebook Cover Design Is Missing Rundown:
1. Include a photo of completed ideal client work.
2. Feature your most prestigious Trade and Construction accreditation logo.
3. Use text to tell us what changes you make or what problem you solve.
4. Use text to tell us exactly what it is that you offer.
5. Be sure to use your brand colour palette within your design.
6. Look to add a unique, visual USP to your design.
🛠 Need a little more help nailing Facebook For your Trades and Construction Marketing?
Course you do.
First. Let’s work out where you are with all things Facebook.
Got 3 minutes?
Take our Trades Quiz to discover how you score with all things ‘Off The Tools’.
We have heaps of tips, tricks, and hacks for your Trade and Construction business in our cheat sheets, videos and ideas waiting for you on the other side… i.e., your results page.
So, you can improve your score. And NAIL your Trade and Construction business.
Nice.