Although contractors in the home service industry have all types of different skills, creating and managing content isn’t always one of them.
For someone who has spent their entire life fixing air conditioning units or plumbing issues, writing blog posts, designing graphics, and developing SEO may not come as second nature.
However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be successful in content marketing.
With the right mindset, you can use content marketing effectively in every single area of home services.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the most common reasons I see that most contractors fail at content marketing.
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They Never Start
This is the number one killer.
I talk with people all the time who say they’re going to going to do something. They say they’re going to start producing content, posting it on their site, and using it to gain traction in the market.
The problem? They never even start.
It’s easy to say that you’re going to do something, but it’s a whole different story when you have to actually sit down after a day of work to write a blog post, make a video, or design a graphic.
For many, it’s too overwhelming and doesn’t get done.
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They Don’t Know How to Use Their Website
For those who have spent years working with their hands, it’s possible that they’ve never in their life taken a behind the scenes look at a website.
Many contractors simply hire someone to design their website, get it up on the internet, and then forget about it until the end of time.
However, an effective content marketing plan requires that you regularly log into your website and have an idea of many of its basic functions. Your website needs to breathe for you have success with content marketing.
I see people all the time who don’t have any idea how to even log in to their WordPress account.
If this sounds like you, take a moment out of your day or weekend to just learn how to login and navigate your way around the basic functions.
It’s not as difficult as it might seem.
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They Aren’t Consistent
People get big ideas when they first start their content marketing. They imagine customers blowing up the phone in no time and reaching the point of getting so much traffic, they experience problems.
With a burst of energy, they plan out blog topics and write a burst of five to ten posts. They then either post them all at once and wait, or they post one per week for a month or two.
When they don’t see an instant burst in traffic, they get discouraged. When they get discouraged, they give up on creating content.
I’ve seen this play out time and time again, and you probably have too. Just look at your blog or some of your competitors. It won’t be to hard to find a company in any trade; plumbing, hvac, landscape, electrical, etc that had a short lived run at content marketing.
The unfortunate reality about both content marketing and SEO is that it takes time. You aren’t going to immediately begin ranking for keywords and bringing in organic traffic from Google.
If any company tells you that they can do it for you immediately, they’re lying to you.
An effective content marketing campaign requires that you have a strong domain authority, backlinks, and several other factors that take time.
The worst thing that someone can do is to give up after a month or two. You really need to give your plant a good six to twelve months to start seeing real results.
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They Use Bad Grammar
Another thing about contractors is that, since they spend most of their time working with their hands, they don’t spend a lot of time writing and learning grammar.
So, when they go to post an article for their blog, it’s often riddled with grammar mistakes.
Unfortunately, this becomes a reflection of the company for readers. In a recent survey, around 74% of the respondents said that they notice the quality of the spelling and grammar on the websites that they visit. Furthermore, 59% of respondents said that poor grammar and obvious spelling mistakes make them reconsider making a purchase from a brand.
Even if you do the best work around out in the field, people are less likely to trust you if you’re putting poor writing out there.
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Their Content Sounds Like an Ad
A lot of people hear about content marketing and think that it works just like all other types of marketing. Since a lot of contractors only have experience with putting out traditional ads, they think that that is what their content is supposed to look like as well.
However, the whole point of content marketing is to build trust with your audience. That’s hard to do if everything that you write sounds like a poorly written advertisement.
Instead of trying to make a hard sell in your content, you should be focusing on creating content that provides value. Your content should serve as a guide, and when the character needs direction, they turn to the guide.
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Nobody Can Find It
The most frustrating thing that can happen for someone who is creating content is that nobody can find it.
Unfortunately, this happens even to people who are creating good content on a regular basis for a long period of time. Even if you’re creating good content, it doesn’t do you any good if you don’t know anything about SEO or the different channels available to market your content.If you’re consistently competing for high volume keywords, your articles are never going to rank, and nobody is ever going to find it.
If you feel that you’re doing everything else right and still not getting view, consider reading up on how to better optimize your articles for the search engines or how to amplify your content with Facebook advertising [Facebook advertising is my favorite and lowest cost method of advertisement for my home service company. Here’s why].
Your Next Steps
Often, getting started with content marketing is the most difficult step. It can seem overwhelming when you think about how much you need to create and discouraging that few people are reading your articles, you can’t pay attention to that.
While it’s true that it would have been better for you to start five years ago, the second best time is today. If you keep your head down, put yourself on a regular schedule, and stick to the plan, you’ll have a steady stream of readers before you know.
What do you think?
Let me know what you struggle with in the comments section below!