EP #12 – The Easy Marketing Guide For Trades Businesses

Overview

As a trades business owner, you’ve got a lot on your plate and it’s all too easy to let marketing fall to the wayside.

For the most successful businesses, marketing is a machine with countless moving parts. Chances are that you’re already doing a fair few of them, though.

Tune into this week’s episode with Wayne Mullins from Ugly Mug Marketing to find out how to take your marketing to the next level.

Listen to the episode:

Highlights

Background

• Wayne walks through his background and Ugly Mug Marketing. (1:13)

Getting started with marketing

• How to get started with marketing as a tradesperson, and the marketing triangle. The most important part is to understand your market, not the other complexities. (2:50)
• If your business is struggling, the best thing you can do is set aside an hour or two each day to just think about how you can better serve your customers. (4:35)
• Once you understand your market, you move onto the message. (5:00)
• Once you understand these two things, then you can choose your medium. (5:26)

Creating a customer persona, and putting it into your messaging

• You need to understand who you best serve – commercial, residential, home sizes? What type of person? (8:01)
• The next step is to work out what you can do to solve the problems your ideal customer has. Use language that that doesn’t just solve their problem, but talks about them. (9:56)
• Avoid platitudes – things that everyone says. “Great service” “Friendly service” X years of experience”. You have to be different. (11:36)

Choosing the right platform or medium to promote your business

• Most start from the medium, but this should be the end point. You shouldn’t copy your competitors but instead put your message where it has the best chance to reach your ideal customer. (16:02)

It’s about your customer, not your competitor

• If you serve your customers better than your competitors are, you’re going to win. (18:10)
• Your business is like your baby, and it’s hard to see it’s flaws. Wayne shares a study which business owners and their customers rated their service quality. You need to focus on the customer and listen to their opinions. (18:55)
• Business owners sometimes don’t want to hear the truth & criticism. It’s important not to get defensive. (23:45)
• How do you turn customers into someone who will refer your business. Talking to customers and following up is part of marketing. (24:46)

Marketing is everything

• People confuse marketing and advertising. Advertising is the public facing parts, whereas marketing is much more – the way you service the customers. (21:23)
• Your businesses appearance and actions all relate back to marketing. Wayne walks through an analogy with broken windows, relating it back to a business. Small details like showing up on time impact your wider marketing message. (26:08)
• The core of great marketing starts with a great understand of your market. (28:52)