Staying relevant is increasingly more difficult in our digital world – and that’s especially true for field service management (FSM) businesses. Often, many FSM business owners neglect to invest adequately in digital marketing. However, to scale and grow your business effective & organically, you’ll need to turn to online marketing channels.

Why? 78.1% of the global population has access to a smartphone. In the US, that proportion rises to 82.2%. Smartphones and the Internet have become an integral way that local and national businesses to reach out to potential customers.

How should your field service management business approach digital marketing? How best can you grow your FSM business online? What challenges are you likely to face along the way? 

In this article, we’ll present you with a few tips for growing your FSM business online using digital marketing. 

1. Don’t ignore Digital Marketing

Technology is in every part of our modern lives – from electronic billboards to TVs, to smartphones and computers. In this digital age, advertising online is key! 

• With digital marketing, you’re able to tailor your marketing campaigns to target specific customers and personalize your advertisements. 
• Attracting users searching for field services online gives you a stable funnel for new customer acquisition, and exposes your business to a wider market. 
• Digital marketing campaigns are scalable and adaptable – allowing you to pool as many resources as you’d like, and just as easily pull away when needed. 

Some examples of digital marketing channels include: 

• PPC (Pay per Click) Online Advertising & Display Ads
• SEO 
• Content Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Influencer Marketing

2. SEO Marketing: Be visible online

The fundamental rule of digital marketing is letting your customers be able to reach you online. According to Blue Corona, over 36% of small businesses don’t have a website, and only 17% invest in SEO. 

To grow your business online, we recommend: 

• Building a website that is attractive and performs well. WordPress is a brilliant starting-off point as it’s easy to use and offers some great SEO tools through plugins like Yoast. 
• Use a custom domain. It looks a lot more professional using businessname.com than business.mysite.com or business.freewebsitemaker.com for instance. 
• Optimize your website to keywords that people often search for. For instance, if you’re a HVAC service in Vancouver, use SEO tools or an SEO agency to optimize your site to range in the search engine results page (SERP) for this query.

3. Consider a Content Marketing Strategy

Content marketing refers to the creation and publication of original content to generate new leads and educate customers.

By content, we’re including:

• Blog Posts
• Articles
• Explainer Videos
• Infographics and Social Media Posts

Why is a content marketing strategy so important? According to Hubspot, 56% of marketers who use blogging say it’s effective whilst 10% say this channel results in the biggest return on investment. 

Overall, businesses who use blogging as a marketing tool are 13 times more likely to get a positive ROI.

How can a field service company implement a content marketing strategy? Well, mainly by creating blog posts and articles to educate customers. For example, you could post and share an article about ‘how to spot faults with your HVAC system’, or ‘how to know when you need to call a technician’. 

The key here is both targeting keywords that people search and providing a funnel to encourage readers to try out your company. 

To address that first requirement, you have two options: 

• Do the keyword research yourself, using platforms like ahrefs, WordStream or Google’s Keyword Planner.  
• Employ an SEO agency to develop a content marketing strategy. 

Then, we recommend working with a content marketing agency or freelance writers to create your content. For an effective content marketing strategy, you’ll need high-quality and engaging posts that people want to read. 

How can you ensure conversion? That’s where a succinct call-to-action (CTA) is vital. Both in the introduction and at the end of the article, you should include a short passage introducing your field services and explaining how your business can solve the issue raised in the rest of the post. 

4. Email Marketing has a high ROI, consider it

According to OptinMonster, email marketing has an extremely high ROI of 4400%. In fact, 18% of companies achieve an ROI greater than $70 per $1 invested. In fact, email marketing is 40x at converting customers than Facebook and Twitter is combined.

A mailing list is a great way to stay in touch with prospective and existing customers. 

How should you build the contacts for your mailing list?

• Encourage existing customers to sign up after you complete their first job.
• Offer discounts or knowledge resources in exchange for signing up to attract prospectively.

What should you include in your emails? How about updates on your company’s latest achievements? Or testimonials and reviews to convince prospective customers to use your services? Have you recently launched a new service? You could let customers know about this using your mailing list. The possibilities are endless. 

5. Encourage customers to leave online reviews

Over 90% of consumers read reviews before purchasing a good or service. For field services, reviews are especially important to gauge your trustworthiness – as many are sceptical of technicians.  

It’s against the terms of service of platforms like TrustPilot to leave fake reviews, so you’ll need to convince real customers to leave feedback. You’re also not allowed to offer any kind of incentive – such as discounts or gifts – in exchange for a review. (Although, this rule is commonly broken by many businesses). 

There’s nothing wrong, however, with encouraging service agents to be kind and polite.

A brilliant way of collecting reviews is to send an automated feedback email after each job. You could also add a TrustBox widget to your website to show your rating and encourage customers to leave reviews. 

Grow your field service business online with digital marketing & better FSM software

Online visibility is extremely important in today’s digital world. More than ever, consumers are looking to the internet to find the services they need. For field services, ensuring people can find you in SERP is key.

To improve your ranking in search results, developing a cohesive content marketing strategy and providing valuable, high-quality content is important. Aside from better marketing, you really need to be using a top-rated field service management software solution like ZUPER who offers with a full suite of features that encompasses, field service scheduling, quotes & proposals, real-time employee location tracking, timesheets management, job estimating, quotes & proposals, invoicing, workflow management, and customer relationship management too. It’s always easier and more cost-effective to retain customers than lose them and chase down new business. Using a top-rated FSM software solution will only help you grow your business’ revenue with increased customer satisfaction, retention, and referrals (free business) too.