5 Easy Communication Tweaks To Level Up Your Trade and Construction Brand And Marketing.
What if I told you, you are 40% more likely to get a call from your Trade and Construction marketing if you advertise a landline number vs a mobile number?
Mind blowing.
Right?
It just goes to prove that the tiniest details in your Trade and Construction marketing can make the biggest difference.
How you communicate is serious stuff.
From your fleet vehicles graphics…
To your business card designs…
To the attire you rock up to site with…
All the way down to how you answer the phone.
Yet there are some teeny tiny details that Trade and Construction companies overlook.
That are a MASSIVE part of your marketing.
☎️ The telephone number you use.
📧 The email address you give.
📲 The Social Media names you promote.
Here's how to make sure you are nailing it...
1. Use a landline number instead of a mobile for your Trade and Construction marketing.
Here’s the deal.
⚠️ You are 40% more likely to get a call from your Trade and Construction marketing if you advertise a landline number vs a mobile number!
Wow.
Mobile phone numbers do NOT fill us with confidence if this is the only number you are promoting for us to call you on.
❌ We’ve no idea of recognising where in the world you are.
❌ We will believe that it is only you in the business (no good for bigger projects).
❌ We feel you could disappear anytime on us without trace.
Now.
I’m by no means saying DON’T use a mobile number in your business.
Mobile numbers are great to give out to clients for a direct line once the enquiry process has begun.
Or to have a direct line to you once a project has started.
But before all that.
When you’ve never even spoken to the client.
And they are flicking through your Trade and Construction Facebook page.
Or your Trade and Construction website design.
Doing their due diligence.
Sussing you out.
At this stage, there should NOT be a mobile phone number advertised.
Think of it like an exclusive advantage for those who have started a relationship with you.
We’ve done this with lots of our clients.
Use a landline number in all their Trade and Construction marketing and advertising, but their mobile number has only been given once they’ve spoken to the person.
If at all.
But don’t panic.
You don’t need to be giving out your home landline number.
Driving your family nuts every time there’s an enquiry.
Oh no.
Unless your Nan is part of your sales team?
Nor do you need to go out and spend a tonne of money on office rent so you can get that landline phone set up in an office you will never use.
Please don’t do that.
Do this instead…
⭐️ PRO TIP.
Bag yourself a landline number that redirects to your mobile.
Simple as that.
If you were a London Trade and Construction company let’s say, you could get an 020 8 or an 020 3 number so that your ideal clients feel they are calling a local company that they can hold to account, but in fact every call is coming through to your mobile… so you never miss an enquiry!
💥
✅ Customers feel that they are working with a local company and all the advantages that come with it…
✅ As well as instilling (sub-conscious) confidence in us that you are actually located somewhere local to hold you to account.
✅ You don’t have to get an actual landline or a staff member to man it.
✅ The company brand looks and feels like a company just from the phone number – meaning you shouldn’t lose out on larger jobs (if that’s what you are after).
Setting up landline number that diverts to the mobile can cost as little as £22.
If you also want to be able to dial out using the mobile, but that it appears it’s coming from a landline, as well as distinguish if the call is for your business, personal or for WHICH business (if you have more than one) then our team can assist you with all of this via an app.
Pretty cool, right?
If you want some help setting up a landline number that diverts to your mobile, then we can help you do that here.
2. Avoid using freephone numbers as part of your Trade and Construction brand and marketing.
Although we have just mentioned using a landline number for the business, we would advise avoiding the use of Free Phone numbers.
Such as 0800.
This can be off putting.
Why?
Because as customers, alarm bells start ringing and this is what we become concerned with:
🔔 That you use a call centre and that we are then going to be inundated with marketing calls after enquiry.
🔔 We are speaking to operators who, when we have an actual question about the enquiry or the job, will not be able to answer us directly and will take notes and ‘call us back’ while they find out... every time!
🔔 That we are going to be passed around like a hot potato, speaking to different people every time we call.
🔔 That your Trade and Construction business does not offer the personal service we are after and we will end up being treated as ‘just a number’
🔔 That you are not local to us therefore we will end up paying a premium compared to local Trade and Construction companies that we could use.
🔔 And the fact you are not local comes with more problems when it comes to punctuality, arrivals, delays etc.
The Free Phone numbers were fine – back in a time where calling mobiles was EXTORITONATE.
But times have moved on.
And with phone contracts, we don’t tend to think so much about the numbers we are calling in terms of cost.
So nowadays, the Free Phone numbers can be more off-putting than enticing.
Especially for a small business.
3. Buy a professional email address for your Trade and Construction marketing communication.
Let’s cut straight to the chase.
Gmail.
Hotmail.
Yahoo.
iCloud.
These free email addresses are not going to cut it when you want to grow your Trade and Construction business.
It's as simple as that.
Why?
❌ Because we know they are free email software, that ANYONE can set up...
❌ How does that make us – the customer – feel about how established your business is when your communications are relying on a free platform?
❌ Anyone can set up these kind of email accounts – cowboys included.
❌ Your business appears smaller – as these addresses can’t have team members added to - which may lose you larger jobs.
Here's why, as a customer, we feel more comfortable when we see we’re dealing with a company who has their own professional email address… e.g., hello@buildyourtrade.com
✅ We feel you take your Trade and Construction business seriously. (You’ve paid for this address after all).
✅ We don’t feel like we’re working with Cowboy Trades and can hold you to account.
✅ That you’re traceable. Transparent.
✅ We don’t know the size of your company and may well feel more comfortable feeling there is a team behind you – which again, helps us hold you to account. Hello@buildyourtrade.com can have a georgia@, an accounts@, a sam@ email accounts also.
Email addresses shouldn’t cost you the Earth.
You can jump onto the likes of 123-reg and Go Daddy and purchase a domain name (a web address) and then look to have your emails set up from that.
We always advise our Trade and Construction clients to buy both the .co.uk and .com where possible.
Just for safeguarding your business brand.
These can start from as little as £9.99 per year for the .co.uk and a bit more for the .com.
Though depending on the domain name itself, you may even be able to bag yourself some good deals if your address is unique enough.
Then chat to your local IT company (plenty around) to get you set up.
It's a small price to pay for what (long term) will have a massive effect on your brand and how your customers perceive you.
Your email address is likely used all over your Trade and Construction marketing.
Your stationery designs.
Signage Banners.
Vehicles.
If you’re driving around with 100,000 eyeballs on your vehicle everyday (and if you drive inner city in the likes of London that is super possible!) with a Gmail email address on the side of the vans, what is this saying about your Trade and Construction brand?
Sort yourself out that pro email address. 👌🏽
4. Set up your Social Media Handles correctly for your Trade and Construction marketing.
First up.
What is a Social Media Handle?
A ‘Handle’ as it is called, is basically the public username for your page.
For example.
Our business is Marshmallow.
That’s our company name.
But our Facebook Handle is ‘@buildyourtrade’.
We couldn’t bag the MARSHMALLOW Handle for our business as it was already gone.
So we opted for our strap line.
To match our website address.
Pretty cool.
A social media handle is how we find YOU, specifically.
To find it, look in the URL link.
On Facebook for example it will be whatever is after www.facebook.com/......
You get to choose your handles on the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
On Facebook and LinkedIn you need to go in and set them manually.
Instagram tends to do it as part of the set up.
For example.
By default, Facebook titles your Handle with the name of the page, separates it all with hyphens and sticks a bunch of numbers at the end.
Example. (Don’t bother clicking this as it’s just an example.)
www.facebook.com/build-your-trade-314165868623
No good.
Nobody is going to sit there and type all that in to search for you.
And can you imagine that web link on your branded vehicle designs?
Awful.
Or worse.
Trying to fit in on your business card designs?
Yikes.
And if you don’t go in and manually set these social media handles up, it is really tough to find your Trade and Construction business online (especially if there are other companies with a similar name) and DEFINITLEY impossible to tag you in posts where people may be asking for your services – as we need your handle to be able to do that!
If your Facebook Handle is currently showing a bunch of numbers at the end of your web link here, then you haven’t set the Handle for your Facebook page.
Meaning nobody is going to be able to find you or tag you.
Setting your Facebook Handle should be done the very next second after you set up your Facebook Business page.
The quickest way to do this is to go onto the page you’ve set up and click the Create @username link on the page…
Failing that.
On a computer go to your Page, jump to the left-hand column, and click EDIT PAGE INFO.
There you will see an option to set your USERNAME.
Which is the same as your HANDLE.
⚠️ PRO TIP - Think about the handle names you choose.
Don’t use personal style names for your trade and construction Facebook handle.
I see this one a lot.
Where it is clear a Trade and Construction company couldn’t get the Handle they wanted.
Just like we couldn’t get Marshmallow as it had already been taken.
So instead we see names like…
/ChrisSmith1993 when the business name is Smith Plumbers.
Or /Bruce.SkylineDecorating2001
Let me tell you the problem with doing this.
❌ It looks unprofessional.
❌ You don’t look like a company.
❌ You appear a smaller business than you might be.
❌ You’ve made the business about you, when you may well have a team.
❌ Even if you start out as a one man band, this restricts how your brand is perceived as and when you DO start growing.
If you are a one-man band and your business name is Chris Smith Plumbing, then absolutely, put your name in the Username.
But when we start introducing words that have nothing to do with your line of work and numbers that represent birthdays and the likes, just to try to be unique, it starts delving into being too personal.
A Handle that sounds like a company in the first instance gives us more confidence in you.
And plenty of room for growth.
Got it?
Great.
5. Advertise the Social Media Handle itself in all your Trade and Construction Marketing.
So, what do I mean by this?
Simple.
We all see fellow Trade and Construction companies use the Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn icons on their business cards and vehicles for example, right?
To advertise that they have pages here.
And then usually we will jump on those apps and type in their business name in the hope of finding them.
Here’s where it gets messy.
For many Trade and Construction businesses, their Social Media handle is not exactly the same as their business name.
For example.
A plumbing business may be called Heroes on Hand, but their Social Media Handle could be @HeroesLondon.
Because they couldn’t get @heroesonhand.
So we jump online typing in their business name on Facebook and they don’t pop up!
Because they are on Facebook with a different name.
Infuriating.
And kind of a waste of advertising the social media icons in the first place, if we can’t then find them.
Now.
This is not a problem to use just the icons on your website or email signature.
Why?
Because we can just click those links and be taken straight to your page.
But offline – things like your print or vehicles – we can’t just click a link.
So if your business name is different to your Social Media handle, you are much better off putting the handle name next to the icon for us.
Put @HeroesLondon next the Facebook icon on your vehicles or business cards.
Means we can find you much more quickly by typing in the right name, straight off the bat.
And NOT stumble on a competitor page.
Simple. 👌🏽
⬇️ Easy Communication Tweaks You Can Make In Your Trade and Construction Marketing To Level Up Your Brand Rundown:
1. Use a landline number instead of a mobile for your marketing.
2. Avoid using freephone numbers.
3. Buy a professional email address for your communications.
4. Set up your Social Media Handles correctly.
5. Advertise the Social Media Handle itself in all your Trade and Construction Marketing.
🛠 Need a little more help nailing your Trades and Construction Brand and Marketing?
Course you do.
First. Let’s work out where you are with all things Marketing.
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.