The Safety Net - Making The Most of Marketing

Wednesday June 15, 2016

Dear Nettie @ The Safety Net

I wonder if you can help me. I have recently set up my own business with RIFT and I have limited budget available to advertise what I do.
I am an electrical contractor as you know and I hear that loads of people want good and reliable trades people but how can they find me on a limited marketing budget?

Appreciate your help - Harry

Hi Harry

Thanks for the email and welcome to RIFT!

That’s a really good question and marketing is important, it is a budget that needs to be factored in to ensure you keep busy.

To start with there are a number of ways you can promote what you do, and a number of people you will find will help you, without really knowing it!.

Here are some suggestions, which should only cost time!

Create a Facebook page for your trade – invite all your friends to like it, once they start liking the page their friends will also see it and do the same…, then make sure you post regular content that would interest potential clients
Set up a twitter account and start to follow people, again start with family and friends, engage in conversations on twitter, keep it simple and interesting and ironically not to sales focused!
There is also LinkedIn which works the same, but has a more corporate feel. I see from your notes that you are looking for individual clients rather than commercial contracts, but a profile here wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Testimonials are also great from clients you have worked for – comments on things like good value, neat and tidy job, completed within the timescale are all good places to start. Photos are also great to put up.

One of the most important things to remember though is to respond and view the pages regularly, for instance if you have a twitter account set up and you leave it a week before you look at it – there could have been a really good enquiry sitting waiting for you, and by the time you contact the person they may have gone elsewhere.

The key to this is really to ‘tell the world, to spread the word’ – and they will.

I hope this helps, and please let me know how it goes.

Don’t forget to follow me on twitter @RIFTAnnette or send a request via LinkedIn.

Good luck!

Nettie

Guide To Your First Steps In Setting Up Your Business

The first steps you take in a new business are the most important. You’re plotting a course, setting a speed and fixing your eyes on a bright horizon.

There’s more to the journey than stomping one foot in front of the other, and a lack of preparation will see you wandering off the map before sundown.

To make sure you’re heading in the right direction, here are a few footprints left by successful explorers of the past.

RIFT Guide To How To Use Your Profit and Loss Statement

Knowing how your numbers add up is essential, whatever kind of business you’re in - but it’s not enough on its own. You’ve got to make those numbers work for you.

Your accounts aren’t just a record of where you were last year. Shine the right light on them and they’ll not only show you where you could be in the future, but they’ll give you the tools you’ll need to get there as well.