Is Your Website Winning You Work?

Andy
Today we’re talking to someone who gets tradies. Ashley Atkinson kicked off her marketing career, selling construction equipment and trucks, so she knows exactly what makes customers click Book Now. 

Ange
If you want a website that actually works, not just looks good, you are going to love this episode. 

Andy
You’re listening to The Tradie Show. This is the podcast for trade business and contracting bosses like you who wanna lead with confidence, make more profit, and create a better lifestyle.

Ange
We’re your hosts, Andy and Angela Smith, husband & wife team, and co-founders of Lifestyle Tradie. Are you ready to have some fun? 

Andy
Hell yeah!

Ange
Quick question. How many hours did you work last week and now how much profit did you actually make? If those two numbers don’t line up, then we need to talk. Our one day live event, Stress-Free Tradie is designed for tradies who are working their guts out, but still can’t figure out where the money’s going. We’ll show you what the top 5% of trade business owners are doing differently and how to fix the leaks that are draining your time and profit. We’ll kick off September 2nd. It’s free and it’ll change the way you run your business. Hit the link in the show notes and grab a seat before they go.

If your website’s been sitting there gathering dust or you are not sure if it’s pulling its weight, you’re in the right place today. We’re chatting with Ashleigh Atkinson, founder of the Climb Collaborative, a business all about helping tradies and service-based businesses. Turn their websites into lead generating machines. 

Andy
Ashleigh’s a gun when it comes to Google, SEO and creating websites that don’t just look good. They’re actually winning new work. 

Ange
And she’s no stranger to the tradie world. She’s kicked off her marketing career, selling construction equipment and trucks, so she knows exactly how to get the right people clicking, booking, and buying. 

Andy
Ashleigh, we’d love to welcome you to The Tradie Show. It is great to have you here today. 

Ashleigh
Hey guys. Thank you so much for having me. I’m super happy to be here.

Andy
Ashleigh, your first gig in marketing was working with construction equipment and trucks. Um, it’s not your typical intro to the world of design and branding. Uh, how did that shape the way you approach websites and marketing today, especially for tradies? 

Ashleigh
I think it gave me a really wholesome approach to marketing. It made me look at the bigger picture and incorporate both traditional and modern digital marketing. It’s a really different industry. The people are different. The way you sell things are different. The way you talk to people is different, and I just really enjoyed building those relationships, and that is a lot of what the trading construction industry is. It’s relationships. Really getting a thorough understanding of the people in these industries and how they work and how to sell to them, gave me a really, uh, well-rounded approach to marketing as opposed to, here’s my thing on Instagram: buy it.

Andy
Yeah. Yeah.

Ange
I couldn’t agree more that relationships in general are at the heart of every small business. So interestingly, you launched your business literally during a full blown life storm. I’m talking twins, border closures, and a big move. So what gave you the confidence to back yourself, Ashleigh, and how has that shaped the kind of support that you now offer other small business owners? 

Ashleigh
Yeah, so I started the business on the side of working full-time in those, um, national marketing roles, just more as a hobby and a bit of, uh, creative expression for me because I was in a cook-like national corporate role, which there’s obviously a lot of red tape there. So I started the business just doing little bits on the side of that, and then I fell pregnant with twins. So I was living in Perth at the time, which is the capital city of WA. Everyone obviously knows that, but I’m from a town two hours south of Perth in Bunbury.

Ange
Oh, beautiful.

Ashleigh
And then, yeah, COVID hit and they started shutting down the borders and I was like, I can’t be shut down two hours away from my mom with twin babies. So, uh, we moved back south and uh, they wanted me to go back to the corporate role when the twins were 10 months old. Because I had to leave work early. Uh, I was the size of the moon, so obviously had to stop working. And my husband said to me, uh, he’s a tradie himself. And he said, why would you commute two hours every day to Perth? You’ve got a business. Why don’t you just lean into that? So I think the people around me really gave me the confidence to go all in on this. He really understands the businesses I work with as well and the community and industry down here, like obviously smaller regional towns. It’s very networking and marketing and I, yeah, I just lent into that. So I think having twins, obviously that was a wild, wild ride.

Ange
Definitely.

Ashleigh
I, I think being able to push through that rollercoaster also has given me the confidence in business to just keep pushing forward because you just have to do it. If it’s, if you want it to work, you have to do it. You just don’t have a choice If you’re running a business. You just do it. It has to be done. It’s like parenting. Even if you’ve had 30 minutes of sleep in 48 hours, you just keep going because it has to be done. 

Ange
You get good at time blocking, don’t you? When you end up with children. We have an 18 and a 15-year-old. Yes, but I remember those early days. You know, it’s like that sentence, ask a busy person and you manage to get everything done right. I feel that’s the perfect answer for every female that’s had a baby, but still actually goes back to work.

Ashleigh
Yeah, absolutely. The amount that I can get done now in an hour period as opposed to eight hours before is bizarre. In terms of shaping how I work now, I feel like it has really given me a thorough understanding of other business owners, especially ones that have families. So it’s made my process really simplified because I just wanna make life easier for them because they’re running a business, they have a family. I get it. I totally understand how hard that is. So I wanna build websites and online presence that really simplify things for people. 

Andy
It’s the old saying, if you want something done, ask a busy person. I love that saying. But, um, you’ve worked with everyone from Sparkies and plumbers to builders, painters and, and much more from all the trade websites that you’ve seen, uh, what do you think most trade businesses sort of misunderstand about their website? 

Ashleigh
The most common issue that I see is people think that their job on their website is to tell people what they do. They don’t consider the end user of the website and what they actually want to know. So people build websites around, this is what I do, this is how much it costs. This is the service I provide, but really you, they’re not thinking about the person on the other end of that website and what they really want to know, what questions they have, what proof they need that you can deliver the job that you’re saying you do. 

Ange
Great insight, Ash. We too are all about turning website visitors into paying clients and I’m curious to know what’s the secret source there? Then what makes someone go from scrolling to booking? 

Ashleigh
So the three things I put the secret source of website conversion down to is clarity, confidence, and proof. So one less fluff around your delivery. So make it really structured, really clear what is actually the end result for the client, not just the features of the service. So what does it deliver to them? Confidence. So if you aren’t confident in what you do, then people aren’t going to be confident to buy from you. So really making it clear that this is the experience you have, this is how long you’ve been in the industry, this is how you can help people, and telling them very clearly, no wishy-washy, oh, I’m pretty good at this. Very confident and clear, and this is what you’re gonna get from working with me, and I will deliver it. And then obviously proof. So social proof, testimonials, reviews. I don’t know a single person that goes out and books a service or buys a product these days without looking at reviews or finding proof that what they’re purchasing or investing in works.

Ange
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. And they’re definitely leaning in on what other people are saying, aren’t they? So I definitely hear that these are important components of any website.

Andy
So now we talked about some of those important components. So on the flip side then I wanna ask is, what are some of the biggest mistakes you’re seeing these trade businesses with their websites? Like, what are they doing that’s stopping people from staying on the website and getting ’em just to click away and go onto the next? What are the mistakes you are seeing? 

Ashleigh
So number one is not having a way to contact them fast enough. The first thing they want to do, most people aren’t booking these days without doing a lot of their own research. So by the time they go to contact you, they’re pretty sure they’ve probably looked all through your website, they’ve seen you on social media, they’ve probably gone to book a few times, and then a kid started screaming or they’ve had something pop up and they’ve forgotten about it. So when they do see you pop up again, they need to be able to go, this is what I need to do right now. I need to email. I need to get a quote. I need a call now. So having all of those above the fold is really important. So above the fold is just means before people scroll using stock photos as well.

Ange
Uh, yes.

Ashleigh
I understand it’s hard sometimes for construction and trade businesses to get imagery, but it really is important to invest that time and money to get real imagery of your business and who you are as a person. And the same goes for copy, like the text on your social’s, website, and full online presence. It needs to be really clear that it’s from you and not just using, pulling stuff from chatGPT and pumping it out with stock photos. It’s just not gonna hit the mark. You need to really think about your business and how you want to come across to people. And finally, I said before about the testimonials and social proof. So obviously not having that is important, but finally, the last thing is not optimizing your website for mobile or having it take too long to load. So for so many reasons, which I’ll go into later when 70% of people will be looking at your website or online presence from a mobile device. So really ensuring that, yes, you might look at it on your laptop and the person who built it, built it on a laptop. But really you need to check what it looks like on mobile, because 70% of the time, that’s where people are viewing it and yeah, ensuring everything’s really optimized and small so that it loads really, really quickly because we’ve all done it. We’ve all been on a website and looked at the scrolling button and it gets to 30 seconds and you just tap out, you bounce because it’s taking too long. 

Ange
We have high expectations, don’t we? Yes. High expectations. I was actually really surprised, even when we owned our plumbing company, Dr. Drip, looking at our Google analytics that told us the number of visitors that came to our website that were coming on a mobile device versus a website platform like, you know, somewhere else. So it is a really important aspect of a website so that people know what they’re looking for because to your point, Ash, what is that customer? What’s that potential prospect looking at when they come to the website? And we have such high expectations, we click onto the next one way too fast.

Ashleigh
Absolutely.

Ange
Ash, I love how you talk about using testimonials to build trust and win more work. I’m interested to hear your insights on how you think Tradies can collect and actually showcase these reviews in a way that actually feels really natural and not like they’re begging clients for praise. What are your thoughts on that? 

Ashleigh
Yeah. I have come across so many people that really struggle to ask for that feedback when really, you’re doing yourself and your customer a favor because you’re providing them with the opportunity to give you the feedback that they might have felt like they couldn’t before. And you’re also getting valuable insights into your operations and what you could be doing better. So the main thing I recommend is just to work it into your workflow. So map out what it looks like when you bring in a customer. You provide the quote, you get the job. All your different touch points and then just add it as a touch point at the end of your workflow. So you finish the job, set the final invoice, however it works for you. I always send people how to get the link. You can actually get a link or a QR code from your Google business profile. They provide you with it. Just put it in the end of that email. 

Andy
Yeah. So what, what I’m gonna dive into now is all around SEO. Like we get tradies asking us, I want to SEO my website. I need SEO. And it really feels like it’s a bit of a beast for most of us tradies. So I’d love for you to break it down and can you sort of explain how AI is starting to play a role in all of this now? Because when I search things up on Google, there’s the normal responses, but above all those results are these AI summary responses now, which is something different than they used to be. 

Ashleigh
So the thing I like to remind people about SEO is it’s not black magic. People think, oh, I need to SEO my website, and I’m gonna rank number one on Google There. So many factors that come into SEO, uh, domain authority, how long your site’s been live, and obviously now with AI bringing all these other factors into it. So the most important thing I can tell people about their website is to think about what people are actually searching for. Targeting one of those search terms on each page of their website. So I see so many people that have one service page and they provide roofing, decking, cladding, all these different things, and they have it all on the one service page that just confuses Google because they’re like, what is this page about roofing, decking, Cladding? Having a specific service page for each of your services is so beneficial to your SEO. Then the next thing I would recommend is optimizing for local search, so ensuring depending on the area you are in, so including those keywords in your backend meta descriptions, your tags on your images in your headings, and ensuring you have a Google business profile set up. So that’s when you search for a certain business and all of those listings come up with Google Maps on the side. That’s a free tool and so many businesses aren’t using it. You just Google how to set up my Google Business profile. Set one up for your business, and that will massively increase your SEO.

There are so many little, little things that you can do that will improve your ranking. That most people just don’t know about and the industry has just scared people off thinking, oh no, SEO is something you need to pay an agency thousands of dollars to do for you. Yes, it is ongoing. There’s a lot. You need to tweak research, see what’s working, what’s not working. There are so many beginning things that you can do just to improve your ranking. In terms of AI, Yes, that has absolutely shaken up. The SEO industry people got really scared for a while, but when you really take it back, all it is, is ensuring that you have the best quality content that answers the questions people are searching for, because that’s what people are using AI for and those AI answers at the top. So they’ve even come up with a new term for it’s AEO, which is answer engine optimization. So the best thing you can do with your content is write a question that people would be asking of your service, and in the first line of copy after that, answer the question, and that’s gonna improve your AEO, which is your chance of showing up in those AI search terms.

Andy
Can we be real for a sec? If you are working your ass off. But the money’s not there. If the pressure building and you are wondering, is this even worth it? Then you need to be at Stress-Free Tradie. 

Ange
It’s our one day live event where we show you how to get your trade business under control without working more hours all burning out.

Andy
It’s the staff we wish someone told us years ago. Real strategies, real stories, and real change. 

Ange
Come for the tactics and stay for the community. You are not alone in this. 

Andy
Grab your tickets at lifestyletradie.com.au/events. Let’s sort this out together. So in terms of the younger generation coming through, because things are moving at a rapid pace, right? But if I’m looking at my kids and they’re getting closer to their twenties, or my daughter is, you know, they’re not going to Google to ask a question anymore. They’re sort of getting all of their answers if they’re right or if they’re wrong, but they are getting it through social media. They’re not really Googling it. So I wanted to sort of get a bit of an understanding from you is, do you think this is gonna be the way of the future? Like people grabbing it off Instagram and TikTok, like where do you see the future lie in regards to this? And there’s a second, another question to that. And then you start talking about chatGPT and people are just not even going to Google now. They’re just asking these questions through chatGPT. 

Ashleigh
So I would just recommend having a really wholesome approach to your marketing, so you don’t have to be everywhere. Think about where your actual audience is hanging out. If you are a B2B business, maybe you need to think about LinkedIn over TikTok. Yep. Business owners generally aren’t hanging out on TikTok, looking for your service, so really investigating where your target audience is spending their time and ensuring you target each of those different areas. So allocate, okay, I’m going to spend this amount of my marketing time and energy on a blog so that I can really target those AEO answers. Then my customers are hanging out on LinkedIn and Facebook, so I’m gonna target a lot of stuff there. And then I’m also gonna do Instagram because it’s just good to have a few different bases. Yeah, but you don’t need to make it hard. Just really thinking about where people are hanging out. I use the same content across all platforms. I just rework it depending on where I’m delivering it for that audience. 

Andy
So then it’s that second question, like there’s a lot of people now, they’re just not going to Google anymore, and they’re going straight to chatGPT and asking questions there about, I wanna trade business in Mona Vale, Sydney. I wanted this, and people are just going straight to the source. What do we do about that? Where, where’s the, how do we SEO that kind of stuff as well? 

Ashleigh
So that’s where the AEO comes into it. So that is what chatGPT is pulling. It is pulling those answers to those questions that you are putting on your website. So it’s really about thinking what people are asking of your business. And answering those questions so that chat can pull those AEO results. 

Andy
Yeah, ’cause definitely, I think it’s gonna be a way of the future, but you’re right, as long, you’ve still gotta be putting the content out. You still gotta be letting everyone know who you are and what you do, and then chatGPT, just grabbing that from Google and um, giving you those answers.

Ashleigh
Absolutely. 

Ange
So Ash, there are loads of tradies who reckon they’re not marketing people, yet when we chat to you, I know you are big on the power of personality when we talk about branding, when you think about that, how can a trade business owner actually inject a bit of their personality into their websites and socials, even when they’re saying they’re not a marketing person?

Ashleigh
So I struggle with this as well. I’m an introverted extrovert, so ’cause I share so much, but I’m very selective. So all you need to do is pick three pillars of your personal life that you wanna share. So I have twins. I’m a mom, so I’ll share a little bit about that. Not a lot because I like to keep a lot of my personal life private. I have a caffeine addiction. So I’ll very regularly have five a day, but the worst things to be addicted to really. So yeah, and then I enjoy running, so I share a lot of content about my running, but I inject little areas of my life into my content to really add a bit more personality. People meet me and they’re like, oh yeah, I followed you for years. They think they know so much about me when really it’s just the selective things that I’ve chosen to share in my life. And it doesn’t have to be hard. It’s as simple as I go for a run every Sunday morning and I take a quick little video of the beach and write something on it. You don’t need to make it hard. You don’t need to be an influencer and talk about stories all day long. Some months I just don’t feel like talking about stories. I’m not, I’m not in the mood. I’m having a bad time. I don’t really feel like showing my face. I just take a picture and write. 

Ange
I love that little tip Ash because it’s so specific. I think what is important is that people do need to understand that when a prospect wants to make a decision to actually say yes to working with a trade business. They do wanna see the humans behind the brand. We say to our guys, a plumbers, a plumbers, a plumber or a builders, a builders a builder. What makes you different and what makes me connect to you and build some trust before I actually reach out with you. And I love your little tip ’cause it’s so simple. It’s like don’t share everything. You don’t need to be an oversharer. Just share the fact that you have a dog and show me the dog and that you love running. So really, really easy tips that anyone can implement.

Ashleigh
And you’re so right on what people can connect with about you, especially in the trading construction business, like I am a mom with a young family. If I’m inviting someone into my house, I want to know a little bit about this person, at least. It’s such an important part of your marketing that you make yourself known as a trustworthy human being. Especially with AI coming about. Being able to really incorporate a bit of your personality is what’s gonna make you stand out.

Andy
So Ash, a lot of tradies are telling me, I just don’t have the time for marketing. I’m just too busy, Andy. What are some of the smart ways they can automate parts of their marketing, all their websites? Just to keep things ticking along while they’re on the tools and they’re super, super busy. 

Ashleigh
So I get it, absolutely. That works best for me is I do use AI. First of all, I think it’s a fantastic tool. You just need to know how to use it correctly. So when I have an idea, I’ll be working, building a website or something and so I’ll be doing something and it will, it’ll pick something in my mind. And I’ll go, oh, this would be a good piece of content, and I’ll write it in my notes. And then every time I am on a call with a client and they ask me a question or say, if a trade is talking to a client on a call, they’ve called and asked a question, write that question down. Use all of these things in your day-to-day life. I just use my phone notes, write all those questions and things that jog your memory in your notes, and then time block, so maybe on a Monday night at 7:00 PM after the kids are asleep, after you’ve gone to the gym or whatever it is you do after work. You sit down and I build custom chatGPT bots, so you can actually build your own bot for free and train it to be your personal brand so you can put your own content and information and how you talk. Ma has a draft sense of humor and is a little bit sarcastic, but not rude. And I’ll put all of this content over the week that I’ve thought of or and then I’ll say, can you help me write this, this, this for these pieces of content? And then I obviously tweak it and sometimes the joke is not funny or I’ll make it sound a little bit more me or something else has actually happened and it, I’m like, oh, I need to add this bit in. But then using that, scheduling it for the week. And yeah, the main thing I do is schedule content. And post on stories, because obviously Instagram is, it’s meant to be instant, but consistency, it’s better than not posting at all. So if you need to schedule three posts over a week to be consistent, and then just every now and then put a story up, do that. It just needs to work for you. So it’s better to post once a week or twice a week if that works for you, than to post seven times in one week and then not post for two months. 

Andy
Yeah, a hundred percent. And I, and I think there’s things that tradies can do. They, I mean. Listen, we’ve been working with tradies for a very long time and there’s a lot of people that are the busiest people in the world. But as you know, with kids and everything else, we’ve always got the same amount of time in a day. Some people just keep telling themselves how busy they are and they’re just not putting time aside. You know, something as simple as going to see Mrs. Jones at a house and she has a blocked drain, just have a chat with her. But then you could do a quick video just currently at a customer’s house with a blocked drain. As you can see, the toilet’s blocked. So what are we gonna do next? Well, this is the next path. And just doing a quick video, like seriously, it’d be less than a few minutes, and you could do that on every part of any house. So with the customers, what they’re asking. So there’s so many things you can do. It’s about being, having the discipline and the structure to make sure you are doing it time and time again. And if you can do that, then you’re gonna be getting those wins. So everyone has enough time, don’t they? Ash? 

Ashleigh
Yeah. Quality over quantity for sure. So if you can get one good piece of content a week and consistently post that, do that. Don’t kill yourself trying to create crappy content for the sake of posting ’cause it’s not gonna hit the mark. Just focus on one or two good pieces of quality content. It’s about discipline, not motivation like anything else.

Andy
So Ash, we play a game here in every episode. We are gonna ask you three rapid fire questions. You have approximately 10 to 20 seconds to answer them. Are you ready? 

Ashleigh
Yes. Yeah. I’m a rambler though, so I really hope that I can just cut me off if I start rambling. Okay. 

Ange
Alright. First question, what is one strategy you use to start your day right?

Ashleigh
Turn on the kettle, and then I usually go for a run. I need caffeine and then something for me.

Ange
That’s a great response. I was thinking you’re definitely gonna say coffee here.

Andy
I had to say coffee after earlier saying having five cups a day. So I knew that was coming. 

Ange
Exactly.

Andy
So, um, Ash, what is something that has made you smile recently?

Ashleigh
Uh, the twins had their tonsils out, uh, this week and the anesthetist was like, are they competitive? And I was like, yeah, they’re competitive. So they’re like, they have to breathe into the thing and blow the balloon. And what? He’s like, I bet you can’t blow it as hard as you rock. And the first one blew it and passed out the next one. He’s troubled by that guy. And they, like he said, Cohen said he could blow it faster than you. And he’s like, full body, full body blowing. And they’re all tackling. They’ve never seen anyone blow this balloon so hard. And then you just get cold.

Andy
Oh.

Ange
Kids in general are highly entertaining, so, yeah.

Ashleigh
Yes. Yep.

Ange
Keep laughing, that’s for sure. Yeah. All right. Question number three, Ash, what’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Ashleigh
Uh, done is better than perfect. So I’m a perfectionist and it held me back for so many years because I took so long to do anything. Just do it. If it’s not perfect the first time, by the time you’ve done it a hundred times, it’ll be perfect.

Andy
Yeah, I agree with that. Great advice. 80% is better than getting it done at 80% is better than never getting it done at all. So Ash, we’d love to thank you for joining us here on The Tradie Show and sharing all your wisdom and insights on your journey so far. We have loved having on here, and I know all of our listeners out there would’ve gained quite a lot about your SEO knowhow.

Ashleigh
Thanks so much for having me. It’s been great to be here.

Ange
Thanks, Ash. Appreciate your time. That’s it for us this week. Make sure you tune in next week for another great episode of The Tradie Show. 

Andy
Have a crack at Crew. We’ll chat soon.

Subscribe to the Tradie Show. Wherever you get your favorite podcasts, rate and write us a review or for more information about Lifestyle Tradie, head to lifestyletradie.com.au.