5 Powerful Tips for Social Media Marketing for Contractors

With the right approach, social media marketing can be a powerful lead generator for contractors.

Strategically using social media can help your business stand out, build relationships, and win new customers. And as a bonus, many effective social media marketing strategies are free.

Since you’re a contractor, not a social media expert, the idea of marketing your company on social media might be overwhelming. Thoughts like “what is TikTok” and “how do you make a hashtag” may be swimming through your brain.

But don’t worry, it’s simpler than you think.

In this article, we’ll teach you the basics of social media marketing. We’ll start by going over what it is and why it’s important. Then, we’ll dive into some content ideas and other powerful social media marketing tips that contractors can leverage.

#letsgo

What Is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing involves creating and publishing content on social media platforms. The goal is to

• Attract and engage your target audience
• Drive website traffic
• And convert users into paying customers (eventually)

Social media marketing is about connecting with your audience where they typically hang out, whether that’s Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or TikTok.

Why Is Social Media Marketing for Contractors Important?

4.74 billion people worldwide use social media. That’s over half the entire human population.

What’s more, social media use is growing.

Between October 2021 and October 2022, 190 million new users joined a social platform. That’s 6 new users per second. And the average social media user spends almost 2.5 hours daily on their preferred platforms.

There’s no denying it—social media has transformed the way we connect, communicate, and consume.

Over 80% of customers report that social media impacts their buying decisions. In addition, about half of working-age internet users proactively visit social platforms to research products or services they’re thinking about buying.

What does that mean for you, a contractor? It means that your target market expects you to be on social media. And if you’re not, you’re losing potential customers to your competition.

Every business owner, contractors included, should be using social media to build brand awareness, earn audience trust, and bring in more business.

The good news? Social media marketing for contractors doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming.

Let’s start with the basics.

The Basics of Social Media Marketing for Contractors

These four basic principles of social media marketing are straightforward and easy to nail. Start here to set yourself up for success.

1. Select the right platforms

Different generations prefer different social media platforms.

That means you need to choose which platforms you’re on carefully, based on who you’re trying to reach. Start by thinking about what your target audience looks like.

Is your ideal customer a mid-30s homeowner or a mid-50s business owner? Use your audience demographics to choose one, two, or three platforms to focus your efforts on.

Here’s a quick overview of some social media platform demographics:

Facebook

Largest age group: 25-34 (31%)

Gender split: about 57% male, 43% female

Instagram

Largest age group: 25-34 (31.7%), followed closely by 18-24 (30.2%)

Gender split: 50.7% male, 49.3% female

LinkedIn

Largest age group: 25-34 (58.4%)

Gender split: 58% male, 42% female

Pinterest

Largest age group: 50-64 (38%)

Gender split: 78.1% female, 21.9% male

2. Create an optimized profile

Next, it’s time to create an optimized profile on each of your platforms. Here are some best practices:

• If possible, ensure your handle (username) is an exact match of your business name. Otherwise, make it as close as possible.
• Upload a high-resolution profile picture. Your logo is a safe bet that can help existing customers find your social profiles. 
• Add all your contact information, including your phone number, email address, and web address.
• Double-check everything for typos and grammar mistakes before going live.

3. Publish content

When publishing social media content, follow these two golden rules:

• Be consistent. Plan a social media posting schedule and stick to it. You’re much better off publishing content twice a week every week than every day for two weeks and then never again.
• Add value. Make sure your posts benefit your followers in some way. This could be by educating them, answering a commonly asked question, or entertaining them.

We’ll discuss some of the most effective types of social media content for contractors to post in just a second.

4. Interact with your followers

Social media is exactly that—social.

So, set aside time to reply to comments and messages and engage with other users’ content.

Effective Social Media Content Ideas for Contractors

At its heart, social media marketing is about engaging your audience with valuable content.

Your content must be compelling enough to stand out in your audience’s already cluttered newsfeeds and timelines. It must also position your business as trustworthy and you as an industry expert.

Critically, your social media content must deliver value at every stage of the buyer’s journey. Only then can you leverage social media to turn one-time customers or followers into loyal brand advocates.

Here are four content ideas for contractors to get you started:

Showcase your work

Everyone loves a satisfying before and after transformation. Lucky for you, your job is full of them.

Remember to take photos on-site highlighting your workmanship. Then publish them to social media with a short caption explaining what you did to show off your skills.

Share testimonials and client successes

Social proof is a powerful thing. 93% of customers read online reviews before buying a product.

So, share raving reviews across your social platforms.

Introduce your team

Authenticity is the name of the game on social media.

Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms are not the place for shiny logos and stark stock photos. Introducing your team is an excellent way to humanize your brand and build rapport with your audience.

Answer frequently asked questions

You can’t go wrong by giving the people what they want, right?

Use your clients’ questions as starting points for your social media posts. Provide an in-depth answer that showcases your expertise and experience.

How to Stay Active on Social Media

Contractors have a lot on their plates. And if you own and run your own business, you’re already wearing multiple hats.

During busy periods, managing your social media and tracking the results of your marketing campaigns may not be a priority. However, radio silence can sabotage your past efforts.

Here are a few strategies that you can implement to stay active on social media, no matter what your business throws your way:

• Plan and create posts in bulk. If you have some downtime, use it to create a whole bunch of quality posts. Then, when business picks up, turn to your stockpile of content.
• Use a scheduling tool. Social media scheduling tools allow you to automate your social media marketing. Simply upload images and videos, add text, and select a publishing date and time. The tool will push the content to your platforms automatically when it’s time to publish.
• Crowd-source content from your team. Ask your employees to send you images, captions, and other post ideas. That way, the burden of staying active on social media is shared.
• Outsource your social media marketing. If none of the above strategies work and you have the resources, you might like to outsource your social media marketing to an agency.

Must-Have Tools & Resources for Social Media Marketing Success

With more and more small businesses embracing social media marketing, more and more social media marketing tools are popping up.

Software developers have created many tools and resources business owners can use to streamline and improve processes and results.

Even if you don’t have the budget to outsource, you can use the following low or no-cost tools to drive up your social media return on investment:

• Graphic design. Having sleek, professional graphics to pair with your helpful, witty, or entertaining captions is key to boosting social media engagement. Free tools like Canva can help you create those visuals without having to hire a designer.
• Scheduling. As we said before, scheduling your social media content in advance is a foolproof way of posting high-quality content consistently. Platforms like Buffer, Planoly, and Hootsuite also offer analytics, so you can tweak your approach and maximize engagement.
• Social listening. Social listening tools allow you to track industry trends and topics, as well as any mention of your business. You can use the information found on services like Mention to shape relevant, timely content.

5 Common Social Media Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Even the best-laid plans can come undone.

Follow these 5 tips to avoid some of the most common social media marketing mistakes contractors, remodelers, and homebuilders make.

Mistake 1: Using stock photos

Authenticity is crucial to any small business’s social media marketing strategy. Yet, many contractors don’t believe the quick photos they snap on their phones are good enough to post.

Well, they are.

Your audience wants to see your work. They don’t want to be misled by generic, less-engaging stock photos.

Mistake 2: Setting an unrealistic schedule

Social media marketing can become a serious revenue driver for your business. But avoid getting too excited and overcommitting.

It’s easy to dive in deep at first, making plans to post a hilarious quote and before-and-after project pictures every day. Instead, set a realistic posting schedule and stick to it.

Tip 3: Not revisiting your strategy

Social media and its users are always growing, evolving, and changing. And that means your social media marketing approach should be too.

Keep an eye on your key social media metrics and audience engagement levels. Use this information to help tweak your strategy and guide future content creation.

Tip 4: Not asking your audience to do something

Your content might be compelling and valuable to your target audience, but if you don’t pepper in a few calls to action (CTAs), you won’t convert.

Add strategic and relevant CTAs to around one-third of your posts and watch your conversion rate climb.

Tip 5: Being impatient

Results from organic social media marketing take time

Don’t make the mistake of giving up after a month or two. Put in the hard yards and you will see results sooner or later.

Start Building Your Social Media Community

We hope you like the social media marketing knowledge and tips we’ve shared (#getit?).

And now, armed with fresh insights and learnings, you can build a loyal social media community and become your local area’s go-to contractor.

Get started by checking off these items on your social media marketing to-do list right now:

• Sign up for 2-3 platforms. Based on the demographics information we provided earlier, choose the best 2-3 social media platforms for reaching your audience. Then, head right over and create your business profile for free.
• Brainstorm content ideas. Having a list of social media content ideas to go back to for inspiration will help you when you get stuck or are short on time. Write down as many ideas that come to mind. These could include tips for choosing a contractor, FAQs, projects you want to feature, or even jokes about contractors.
• Get a social media scheduler. Although you have to pay for most social media scheduling tools, many of them offer free trials or free basic accounts. Choose one to try out, sign up, and start exploring.
• Gather your project photos. Posting photos of your work is a must for contractors on social media. Make it faster and easier to share project pictures by putting them all in one folder on your computer to access when you need them.