4 Reasons Online Marketing is Shockingly Effective for Electricians

Put a charge into your business with online marketing

Despite the importance of online marketing these days, many electricians still believe that this is simply not a cost effective option for them. Whether they think online marketing is too expensive or they simply want to rely on traditional advertising and word-of-mouth, they’ve made the decision to ignore one of the most powerful tools available to any small business owner.

The fact is that electricians stand to benefit more than many other people from online marketing. Even if your electrical contracting business is a one person operation, the internet gives you tools to market yourself as effectively as any larger corporation can. Here are four reasons online marketing is simply too valuable for electricians to pass up.

1.      92% of consumers regularly search online

Hold on, I'm just disrupting your economic system by doing all my purchasing on my phone, brb

As of 2015, 92% of people are going online to look for information about local businesses any time they want to buy a product or service. And this number is going up.

92% isn’t quite EVERYONE, but it’s close enough. This means that when people in your city want to hire an electrician, their first stop isn’t the Yellow Pages or calling a friend like it used to be. Instead, they’re marching straight to Google and they’re choosing from the electricians they find there.

Still at this point in 2016, relatively few electricians are taking advantage of online marketing. This means that those who are online are getting a huge advantage over those who aren’t. Simply having a website that consumers can find puts you ahead of the game.

2.      Consumers want to evaluate electricians before they hire them

According to a study performed by the Better Business Bureau, client references, work samples and license information are key factors in the selection process when consumers hire any contractor. This is especially important for electricians – most homeowners don’t have the technical knowhow to evaluate electricians’ work themselves, so they rely on testimonials and credentials to determine whether you know your stuff.

Having a website allows you to present all of these things to consumers as soon as they discover you. Putting your license information and client testimonials right alongside your contact information makes you a much more attractive option than a tiny ad in the Yellow Pages will.

3.      Local marketing works VERY well online

For the vast majority of electricians who primarily work in one particular geographical area, online marketing is the best way to reach your potential customers. When customers are searching for local businesses, Google will generally provide a selection of businesses in something called the 3-pack, right at the top of the search results. Sometimes you’ll see an ad in the 3-pack, but you don’t need to pay to show up there.

This is great news for residential or commercial electricians who want to find local work, because the key to ranking well in the 3-pack is through building citations (references to your company’s name, address, and phone number) on the web and earning customer reviews. This is a relatively cheap and easy way to advertise your business, and is especially useful for electricians in smaller communities.

4.      Share your knowledge, gain loyal customers

People will remember you if you can actually teach them something they need to know.

One of the most important factors in ranking well in search engines is by producing great content for your website. Many business owners struggle with what to write about, but this is easy for electricians – because the general public knows so little about electrical systems, people are always searching online for information.

You can use your experience and knowledge to write blog posts that can answer common electrical questions. This will bring traffic to your website, and also display your expertise. If a homeowner is going to your website over and over again to solve their minor DIY issues, who do you think they’re going to turn to when they have a problem that’s too big for them to solve?

Electricians can thrive online

Are you an electrician who has already tried online marketing for your business? How did it go? Did you struggle to make an impact? Did you have any big successes? Let us know in the comments, or drop us a line on Twitter!