What marketing support would benefit your business most?

DustiO

The Community team at Thumbtack is always thinking of ways to add value to your experiences here. What kinds of marketing support would you find most beneficial to your businesses? If your answer is "other", please comment and share your ideas with us. Thank you!

DustiO

@BITBLeah @perrysto @PomeranzLaw @Danielle_Penn @patrykkg @CurlyBartender @Filip_Matic @PSD @Msanchez @Theblackfirm @Allan @jmm31906 @Ste_Coach2 @Mattyjp10 @lettiedawson @1stop @adroitinteriors @Willturner673 @Gloryremodeling @ycc @alangholt @ladiesandthestamp as Community Leaders and early contributors to the Community, we would love your input here!

PomeranzLaw

SEO

Great question (and tough choices)! SEO is huge, but something that you need to actively manage and/or have a huge budget to make it work. Curious to learn if anyone has benefitted from Social Media Marketing, and if so, what type of ads do you run and what do you sell? My understanding is social media ads are great for top-of-the-funnel leads and for low-dollar decisions (e.g., buying a widget). Unsure how that translates to more expensive service offerings.

perrysto

Competitive Pricing

Hard to pick just one choice here, but I picked the one I feel would make the biggest immediate impact in my business' marketing efforts. I am curious to see how other Pros feel about their businesses with regards to this question.

Filip_Matic

Social Media Marketing

This is how i look at it. While all these choices are super hard to pick from because i feel like a lot of them are essential, word of mouth and social media marketing will always be the best way to go about it. As Grant Cardone said, "the one with the most attention will make the most money." Everything will come right after.

Danielle_Penn

SEO

These are great, and as it is hard to pick one, I feel that this is categorized differently to fit each phase that a business might be in.
I remember when just starting out, I needed to build my brand. After a year or so, social media marketing was my main focus, along with customer retention. Closing leads comes with time, and as long as you have a brand and a good business sense, this will come easier.

ycc

Competitive Pricing

This is a great question -- a lot depends on what stage the particular business is in. Based on the number of years we've been in operation, I would classify us as "mature" so pricing is one of our top challenges -- making sure we are getting the most bang for each dollar spent (and being a non-inventory business, the cost of each lead is extremely critical since I've found the the lead can be as much as 25% of the service meaning that in a significant number of cases the cost of the lead is not worth the expense due to the impact on the margin). When we were just ramping up, social media and marketing in general were the top priorities. We do a good job of customer sat and retention, so while important it would be a mid-range item for us. We have our own tech, which include ongoing communications such as email -- while this is important I feel we have sufficient investment in the tech and operations for this to be a low-hanging fruit item.

patrykkg

Customer Retention

Awesome question! And as a few others have posted - it really depends on the stage your business is in. These are all valuable (or potentially valuable) and should be considered across the board as tools to grow and expand.

@ycc - you hit the nail on the head. There's a lot to consider and at the end of the day falls down to a cost/benefit calculation. Figuring out your lead cost per platform and overall customer acquisition cost is the first step to understanding if a particular strategy makes sense to pursue and invest in.

My vote however goes to customer retention. We're all capable of expanding our marketing reach pretty easily with all of these online tools, however all of that goes to waste if we can't retain those customers. Some thoughts to consider:

• Some studies say it costs 5-6x more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one (considering initial acquisition cost, educating, informing, signing up, etc.)
• Word of mouth builds much stronger trust & rapport (1 satisfied customer can tell their 20 closest friends to work with you vs. 1:1 interaction)
• Lifetime value is higher when focusing on building a relationship, instead of one-time transaction

PomeranzLaw

SEO

@patrykkg - interesting focus on retention. Do you have any experience with platforms that help facilitate? I recently reached out to a past client and surprisingly/unsurprisingly, the individual put time on my calendar and now we are working together on a project. I know there are platforms that allow you to send out periodicals, but I would expect most people do not read and/or unsubscribe from the same. Any suggestions?

patrykkg

Customer Retention

@PomeranzLaw There are many platforms that can help with this but it will depend entirely on how you want to connect with your customers and how often your customers work with you. I'd suggest coming up with a few options for different approaches, test what works best for you and your customers, and then adopt a tool to maintain it long term.

For example, this can start as simple as sending a monthly/quarterly/annual email to your customers with a basic check-in "Hey, how are things going, can I help in any way?". If email communication is your standard, turn those into periodic updates, specials, newsletters through a tool like Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, etc. (you'd be surprised how well people respond to email if it's intentional and helpful).

On the other hand, if you have a closer 1:1 relationship, a text message or a phone call might be better suited. Same idea - start with a personal outreach to assess if it'll work for you, and then find a tool (SMS automation, ringless voicemails, admin or VA for phone calls, etc.). Maybe a handwritten thank you card (annually since last time working together, birthdays, anniversaries) - same thing, see if it works for you, then add a solution (Postable, SendJim, etc.).

In terms of tracking these, you can start with a super basic spreadsheet (customer name, date of last contact, and quarterly dates for next follow-ups) or a more advanced CRM that logs all communication in/out.

Across the board, you just want to maintain top-of-mind awareness. Offer little reminders that you're there to help and keep them in the loop to stay connected. Whenever law services are needed again, you'll be the first one that comes to mind.

PomeranzLaw

SEO

@patrykkg - Awesome input! What of these do you do and what type of response have you received?

patrykkg

Customer Retention

@PomeranzLaw A mix of all the above... and a few others sprinkled in ;)

• Email: Standard template for each major holiday & annual touch-base through Mailchimp, post-service feedback, and 6-week "lost customer" automated email through our CRM --- lowest cost, lowest return
• Thank You Cards: Annual Christmas/New Year Holiday card and testing post-service thank you's --- customers are super appreciative but pretty low return
• Phone/SMS: post-service feedback and quarterly check-in, entirely manual but tracked in CRM --- most involved, best return

DustiO

Thank you so much to everyone who answered this poll and shared your incredible insight. Would you mind checking out this follow up poll? We would love to hear from you.

ethanklein

The marketing support that would benefit your business most depends on your specific needs and goals. However, some general marketing support services that can be beneficial for businesses of all sizes include:

• Website design and development: A well-designed and developed website is essential for any business that wants to have a strong online presence. A professional website can help you to attract new customers, generate leads, and increase sales.
• Search engine optimization (SEO): SEO is the process of optimizing your website so that it appears higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). When your website ranks higher in SERPs, it is more likely to be seen by potential customers, which can lead to increased traffic and sales.
• Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising: PPC advertising is a type of online advertising where you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. PPC ads can be a great way to reach a targeted audience and generate leads quickly.
• Content marketing: Content marketing is the process of creating and sharing valuable content with your target audience in order to attract and retain customers. Content marketing can help you to build relationships with potential customers, establish yourself as an expert in your field, and drive traffic to your website.
• Social media marketing: Social media marketing is the process of using social media platforms to connect with your target audience, promote your products or services, and drive traffic to your website. Social media marketing can be a great way to build relationships with potential customers, generate leads, and increase sales.