Cut the marketing crap and get your strategy right

Andy
That’s true, but I really struggled with marketing when I first started Dr. Drip. You know, we’ve never been taught anything about this at TAFE, but over the years I’ve really had to learn marketing.

Ange
Yeah, it’s been a journey, that’s for sure. And to be honest, marketing is really tough to master. It’s common to hear people have completed a four year marketing degree to learn how to be a great marketer.

Andy
So it’s not surprising as tradies that marketing just seems all too hard.

Ange
And even if you’re a part of this younger generation who’ve grown up in this digital world and you feel that you are really tech savvy, that doesn’t mean you’ve got a solid understanding of marketing basics or what’s right for your trade business.

Andy
And you know what? TAFE didn’t teach us anything about marketing or much about business, to be honest. So how are we expected to know?

Ange
It can be overwhelming. Trying to figure out how to land on the right strategy and tactics that will stand out from the crowd, engage your desired customers, and assist in converting them. It’s really complicated and super important to get right within your business.

Andy
Exactly. And most tradies do it wrong with marketing because they just don’t know what they don’t know and they get overwhelmed and they do nothing.

Ange
Or they do the complete opposite. They try everything and spend lots of cash. And my personal pet peeve, they don’t track anything and then they complain that it didn’t work.

Andy
Let it out, Ange. Let it out.

Ange
Yeah, I know. But I am super passionate about this topic cuz I’ve seen firsthand what good marketing can do for business. And the damage that bad marketing can also do.

Andy
Exactly. And talking about bad marketing. I can remember driving in Queensland and I saw this massive billboard that a landscaper had done, and it was a super nice image of a backyard and it had an absolute essay across this billboard. But you know, I was driving like 130 in a hundred zone . No, but uh, I mean, how do you think I’m gonna read that at all?

Ange
Well, did you know you’re only supposed to have a maximum of five words on a billboard?

Andy
Well, these guys had like five paragraphs and it was a total waste of cash. You know, if their marketing is this bad, I started thinking maybe their business is rubbish too.

Ange
That’s really interesting. What you just said right there is so important. Can you say it again?

Andy
Yeah. Well, if their marketing’s this bad, maybe their business is rubbish too.

Ange
Yes. And that is the critical reason to get your marketing right, because if it’s not up to par, a potential customer will equate that bad piece of marketing to your trade business being bad too.

Andy
You’re dead right, Ange. Before our listeners start to panic that their marketing is driving customers away rather than drawing them in. How about we share our simple formula for getting it right?

Ange
Yes, I agree. One of the biggest mistakes that trade business owners make is thinking that marketing is about spending adhoc money to attract new customers, but in reality, it is so much more than that.

Andy
What’s the saying? Throwing shit at a brick wall and seeing what sticks. .

Ange
Quite an appropriate analogy to be honest, but it’s not incorrect. I wanna introduce you guys to the concept of the A C D R formula. It’s four easy steps to nailing your marketing strategies, so you can cut the complicated marketing crap and just get back to basics.

Andy
It sounds complicated, but it’s not that hard guys, just stick with us. So in marketing, there are four key areas to consider, attract, convert, deliver and retain.

Ange
We also need to think about how they impact your online and offline marketing. Let’s start with attract. This is about attracting the right A-Grade customer to your business. It’s all about getting new leads, getting people to your website or more specifically, making the phone ring.

Andy
And convert. It’s one thing to get them to your website, but what’s on the website that helps ’em make the decision to pick up the phone and book a job?

Ange
Well, the answer is you need your website to reflect your professional business, be easy to navigate, have multiple ways to chat with you, like a really obvious phone number or maybe a chat box.

Andy
Where a lot of tradies go wrong, he’s actually on the first call itself. The question they ask, the tone of their voice.

Ange
It’s true that you can make or break a sale from the moment you say hello.

Andy
Okay. Okay, so that’s A for attract, that’s C for convert. What about D and R?

Ange
Yes. Okay. So D is deliver. It’s focused on what you do when you are on site to build trust and ultimately to increase average dollar sales. So the question here is, what are you doing to ensure the customer has a great experience with you?

Andy
Well, in Dr. Drip, to make sure they had a great experience with us, we would focus on building trust. To ensure the customer is sticky, we’d send an appointment confirmation text, and also call before the job. Just to confirm, we’re on our way to the site.

Ange
And everyone loves a tradie who is on time, right?

Andy
Plus, we use an information booklet to explain the issues in and around the property so that that customer is educated. This helps to increase the average dollar sale, plus keeps the customer happy knowing we have fixed any issues at hand.

Ange
It shows that you really care about the customer. And then finally, R means retain, which is focused on encouraging repeat business.

Andy
Like monthly newsletters, memberships, loyalty cards. The purpose is to increase the chance of a customer using your trade business again, by keeping your business top of mind.

Ange
Yeah, exactly. We know that when we go back to a customer’s house, the average dollar sale increases three times.

Andy
Absolutely huge, isn’t it? Okay. So to break it down, you have to attract the right customers, convert them into paying customers, deliver a great service, and then retain them as repeat customers.

Ange
Yes. Lifelong loyal customers. That’s the ultimate goal.

Andy
A hundred percent correct. Loyal customers spend more. They’re easier and cheaper to market to, and they spread the word about your business, basically great word of mouth, and that’s why your marketing focus needs to be centered around keeping these customers happy.

Ange
For sure. You just earned a gold star, Andy.

Andy
Oh, I’d rather have a beer instead than a star . Okay. You better shout a drink to all of our listeners out there too, because this is a hard topic and sometimes it’s hard to get your head around.

Ange
Yeah, I get it. If you’re sitting there thinking, oh, but it actually is all too hard and I’m never gonna get this right in my business, just stick with us. Okay?

Andy
Or better yet, head to lifestyletradie.com.au and booking just a one-on-one strategy call with me and we can nut this stuff out together and save yourself all the headaches.

Ange
Great idea, Andy. Sometimes this stuff is just too hard to deal with on your own, and it’s just smart business to ask for help.

Andy
Asking for help is like asking for directions. We hate asking because it makes us feel a little uncomfortable, but you’re gonna stay lost forever if you don’t. So guys, just bite the bullet and let us give you a hand with this one.

Ange
I want every listener to just take this one nugget of information away. What most tradies don’t understand is that both deliver and retain marketing typically ends up costing far less than attract Marketing, Plus can also give you a better return on investment.

Andy
And that’s because the Deliver marketing mainly just costs you time to learn new sales techniques to build trust and ultimately increase the average dollar sale.

Ange
Yes, and Retain marketing encourages the customer to use you again, and ultimately they fall into a new habit to use your services by choice every time. I’ve actually heard that loyal repeat customers are worth up to 10 times their first purchase amount.

Andy
That is absolutely huge, right? Yeah. So I do wanna make this point that you can’t drop the ball and attract marketing because it’s still very, very important to drive new customers to your business.

Ange
Absolutely. But what is important with Attract Marketing is that you consider both online and offline. Online is digital. You know, you’re looking at things like social media, SEO marketing, and offline is physical, like local papers, letterbox drops. It really does depend on the market, of course.

Andy
Often, I have so many tradies just reaching out to me and saying, you know what? Offline marketing, like flyers are dead. And why do you wanna put your money in that? You know, you’ve gotta go into digital marketing.

Ange
Yes, but the reality is with small business marketing, often offline marketing actually has a stronger conversion and a much better bang for your buck, especially when you’re working in a local area.

Andy
That’s a hundred percent right. And some of the best advertising I’ve ever done to attract residential customers has been offline, like newspapers, flyers, stickers, magnets, you name it.

Ange
Can we talk for a second about how good fridge magnets and stickers can be for your business?

Andy
Well, I have to say, I feel like those fancy pants marketing companies would laugh and say, that’s so old school. But as someone who’s worked with a heap of trade businesses over the years, I’m telling you, a fridge magnet or sticker with your email phone number will definitely help you retain those repeat customers.

Ange
Sounds basic, but it does work. It’s because you’ve left it with them after the job. We even made a little stress ball type Dr. Drip toy to leave a customer’s house so that we stay top of mind.

Andy
It just goes to show that you don’t have to throw all your money just on online marketing for tradies, especially. Sometimes the old school staff really does work.

Ange
Exactly. Getting and maintaining your repeat customers is truly the best way to run a business because as we said, it’s 10 times cheaper to market to these guys. So imagine how much you could save your business if you could slash your marketing budget in half, but increase the profit margins by focusing your attention across the A C D R formula.

Andy
The problem is most trade business owners complete that one job. They move on hunting for a new lead or a new customer. I mean, who said that? That customer didn’t have more work in the first place and you just didn’t even ask.

Ange
Yeah. You’ve left lots of money on the table, right?

Andy
It’s pretty common for a new customer to test you with the work at hand, but once they’ve had an incredible experience with your business, if asked, they would say yes to completing other work that you found in and around their property.

Ange
You just never took the time to look and perhaps never asked to complete the extra work. We humans are actually creatures of habit.

Andy
But you just don’t ask. We throw so much money at attracting new customers and we don’t focus our efforts on keeping the great ones we already have. We don’t like hearing it, but as trade business owners, we are salespeople as well.

Ange
Absolutely right, Andy. You must be asking the customer if they have any other work they need to be done while you are there and ask for the sale. You might not do the work today, but you might get these customers as repeat customers if only you stayed in touch and if you actually asked.

Andy
Yes. The critical key here is to stay in touch. I mean, imagine if you were at a bar trying to pick up a hot date. You know, you’ve done all the hard work. You asked for their phone number, and then you just never called them. Why would you do that?

Ange
Well, not staying in contact with a previous customer and focusing your marketing on attracting new customers is exactly the same.

Andy
All right, so I’m pretty sure we’ve got this point now, the importance of simply staying in touch with your customers.

Ange
You can stay in contact through automated email funnels, monthly e-newsletters, targeted text message campaigns. There are actually so many ways to keep in touch and actually stay top of mind.

Andy
I think that’s why you fell in love with me because I constantly called and messaged and I broke you down.

Ange
Yeah, something like that. So just keep in contact and it will do your business wonders.

Andy
See, it just goes to show, even though you are a tradie, it doesn’t mean you can’t wrap your head around marketing and how to get it right within your trade business. It can be super simple when you know how. Think A C D R formula.

Ange
That’s right. And you do need marketing that hits all aspects of these. So guys, you’ve got this.

Andy
Yes, you do have this, guys. So we are gonna call it a day.

Ange
All right, sounds good to me. Catch you later.

Andy
Gotcha.