You’ve probably heard the line, “If you build it, they will come … but not without a robust marketing strategy.” 

Okay, we added that second part. 

But it’s true — an effective marketing plan is critical to growing your electrical business. 

If you’ve searched “how to market an electrical business” on Google, you’ve probably found a lot of marketing ideas, but little information on how to actually put these ideas into action. 

In this guide, we will share six effective marketing strategies and break down step by step how to implement them.

Why Is Marketing Important for Your Electrical Business?

If you ask your customers where they heard about your business, they will probably give you answers like: 

• “I saw an ad for your business on Facebook!”
• “I typed ‘electrician near me’ on Google and came across your business!”
• “You fixed my neighbor’s fuse box last week and they recommended your business!”
• Etc

Whether you have a constructive marketing plan or not, your customers are finding you through marketing. Now, when you put effort into nurturing, testing, and implementing effective marketing strategies, that’s where the magic happens. That is the recipe for growth!

Consider Out-Sourcing the Marketing for Your Company

Effective marketing is a skill — an art form, really. 

Anyone can create a website, but it takes research, skill, and know-how to get that website to show up on the first page of Google for keywords and queries your target audience is searching for.

Anyone can create a Facebook page and pay for advertising, but it takes knowledge to implement A/B testing and set effective parameters for your target audience and budget. 

Anyone can create an email marketing campaign on MailChimp or Klaviyo,  but creating copy that converts and making sure your emails make it into your customer’s inboxes is another story.

It can take so much expertise to effectively implement marketing strategies that most professional companies will only specialize in one form of digital marketing. 

If you’re looking to hit the ground running without spending hours of researching, testing, and pulling your hair out trying to learn multiple marketing strategies, consider outsourcing your marketing efforts to specialists.

6 Marketing Strategies to Super-Charge Your Electrical Business Marketing Plan

#1: Build a Top-Of-The-Line Website

Your website is the digital lifeline of your business. 

A quality website gives you the opportunity to:

• Rank on Google for high-intent keywords your potential customers are searching for, like “electrician near me”, “electrician in [city]”, “electrical business in [city]”, and more
• Compete with other local electrical businesses that have a strong online presence
• Build trust and credibility by highlighting your social proof, such as customer testimonials, certifications, awards, and more
• Convert web visitors into customers through effective call-to-actions and form submissions
• And more

So, how do you create a top-of-the-line website? Let’s go over some key components to focus on below.

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Optimize Your Website for Speed

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Have you ever clicked on a website and waited … and waited … and waited for it to load? Chances are, you probably gave up and returned to the search engine results page to click on a different website. 

If your website takes too long to load, your customers will do the same. In fact, reports show that 47% of web users expect a website to load in two seconds or less and 40% of users will abandon a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load.

Not sure how long it takes for your website to load? Google has a tool to help! PageSpeed Insights not only informs you of your page speed but also:

• Diagnoses issues that are affecting your page speed; and
• Suggests unique opportunities to increase your page speed

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Make It Beautiful

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Your website is a representation of your business and brand — and your web design can influence consumer decisions. 

Let’s consider two different types of websites

Website 1: Johnson’s Electric Co. decided to create their own website. Their homepage is a white background with sporadic blue text with gimmicky call to actions like, “CALL US NOW” and random photos misshapenly placed around business information. The website looks dated and sloppy. You question the quality and expertise of the company and choose to look elsewhere.

Website 2: EZ Electric paid a professional web designer to create their website. Their web design is aesthetically pleasing, the website is easy to navigate, and the home page features tons of certificates, awards, and customer testimonials. This seems like a professional, put-together company that you can trust. You book an appointment through their super simple form submission.

See what we mean now?

Create Killer Copy That Converts

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Your website needs content that is just as appealing as your web design. The goal of your website copy is to:

• Showcase what makes you the best electrical company around by sharing your expertise and highlighting your services
• Provide critical information about your business, such as directions to your shop, service areas, phone numbers, etc.
• Build trust by showcasing your experience, reviews, and community recognition
• Motivate users to take action by either scheduling an appointment, filling out a form, or calling your business phone number

Call to actions should be prominently displayed throughout your website to increase conversion opportunities.

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Convert Website Traffic Into Leads With Form Submissions

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Form submissions are a great way to capture critical information about leads, such as:

• Names
• Email addresses; and
• Phone numbers

Here is an example of what a form submission can look like:

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There are many benefits to utilizing submission forms to capture leads on your website, including: 

• They provide an easy way for potential leads to contact you.
• You can collect and respond to form submissions at a time that is convenient for you.
• You can easily distinguish between solid leads and spam.
• They help track conversions from your website.
• You can use the inquiry information to create an email marketing list (more on this later).

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Create Location Pages

Your electrical business is based in Portland, OR, where you have a strong client base. But, you also service the following cities:

• Lake Oswego, OR
• Troutdale, OR
• Oregon City, OR
• West Linn, OR
• Gladstone, OR
• And more

How do you rank for local search queries in this area? Well, one way is to create SEO-optimized location pages.

How do you create high-quality location pages that rank for local search queries on Google? 

This can be done by doing the following:

• Complete keyword research to identify localized searches your clients are typing into Google so you can infuse them into the copy on your location page
• Provide comprehensive, localized content, such as common neighborhoods you service, services you provide to that specific location, and more. This is your opportunity to show you are highly experienced and renowned for service for a given location.

#2: Use Local SEO Strategies to Dominate the Google Local Pack

Optimized location pages will increase your chances of ranking in the search engine results page but there is another area you want to focus on increasing your local exposure in — the Google Local Pack.

The Google Local Pack typically populates at the top of the search engine results page for localized queries, like “electrician near me”. Here is what it looks like: 

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The Google Local Pack is a highly coveted place for any business to show up in — only three businesses are featured in the Google Local Pack at a time. And 50% of users searching for localized keywords and queries will click on one of the businesses listed.

To rank in the Google Local Pack, you must have a Google Business Profile. 

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Create a Google Business Profile

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A Google Business Profile is a free business listing that allows you to manage your company’s online presence across all Google platforms.

Here is an example of what a Google Business Profile looks like:

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To create a Google Business Profile, click here. Creating a Google Business Profile makes you eligible to rank in the Google Local Pack. 

To actually be featured in the Google Local Pack for valuable local keywords, you need to provide as much comprehensive information about your business as possible, including:

• A business description
• Key information like hours of operation, service areas, website, phone number, etc.
• Applicable categories
• All of the services you offer
• As many photos as possible
• And more

#3: Invest in Paid Advertising

Paid advertising can also be an effective electrical business marketing strategy.

Paid advertising is kind of a fast ticket to increasing your local exposure. Instead of putting in all of the effort to optimize your website and Google Business Profile, you pay to run ads and increase your visibility for specific keywords. 

And pay, you will! Paid advertising can be expensive based on the competitiveness of the keywords you are targeting. Your ad visibility also only lasts as long as you pay for it.

However, when done correctly, there are many benefits to paid advertising, including: 

• More local exposure and visibility
• More traffic and clicks to your website
• Measurable conversions
• Targeted marketing
• Highly valuable marketing features, such as retargeting campaigns

Due to the complexity of creating a successful paid advertising campaign, we recommend out-sourcing to a professional to maximize your conversion rate.

#4: Increase Repeat Business With Email Marketing

Email marketing is often viewed as the ugly stepchild of digital marketing. It’s highly underrated. 

Email marketing is an excellent way to:

• Increase repeat customers by staying in touch
• Follow-up with leads from form submissions that have gone cold
• Inform your customers of sales and deals to increase repeat sales

Still not convinced? Email marketing has one of the highest conversion rates when it comes to digital marketing strategies, with a 15.22% conversion rate.

How do you get the best results with email marketing? Let’s go over some tips below.

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Determine Your Goals

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To create an effective email marketing campaign, you first need to establish your goals:

• Are you trying to increase jobs for specific service areas?
• Are there specific services you’d like more jobs for?
• Are you just trying to increase your leads overall?

You may be thinking, “Yes to all of the above.” But try to pick one goal to focus on at first so it is easier to track your results and the effectiveness of your campaign.

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Collect Emails and Build Out Your List

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Obviously, a critical part of creating an email marketing campaign is customer emails. 

There are many ways you can collect emails from your customers, such as:

• Having a form submission on your website that requires email
• Collecting emails on the job site when collecting payment from a client
• Having a newsletter on your website that users can opt-in for
• And more

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Create Email Copy

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When it comes to crafting email copy, consider these tips:

• Format your copy for both desktop and mobile devices
• Be compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act, which states you must have an “unsubscribe” link visible in every email you send. If you violate this act, you could be reported to the Federal Trade Commission and have to pay a fine.
• Be a straight shooter. Clickbait or misleading subject lines can lead to clients hitting the ‘unsubscribe’ button.
• Don’t be over-promotional. You want your emails to reflect your brand voice and come off as genuine.

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Measure Your Success

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Most email marketing platforms produce reports and insights that allow you to track your email campaign’s success, such as data on your:

• Click-through rates
• Open rates
• Bounce rates; and
• Number of increased/decreased subscribers

Tracking analytics gives you insight into what is working and what isn’t. You can use this data to make tweaks to your email marketing campaign to strengthen your results.

#5: Get Direct With This Oldie But Goodie — Direct Mail Marketing

Perhaps even more underrated than email marketing is good old-fashioned snail mail marketing. 

Don’t believe us? One study showed that direct mail marketing campaigns can produce as much as five times the purchase rates compared to email campaigns.

The best part? 

Direct marketing doesn’t require a ton of bells and whistles. Branded postcards are cheap and easy to make with printing companies like Vistaprint.

Here are a few quick and easy tips for creating postcards that convert:

• Keep your design clean and simple so your message can stand out
• Utilize the front and the back of your postcards to get your message across
• Opt for the 11 x 6 inch card sizes
• Use high-quality images and paper
• Make sure you have a strong call to action

#6: Collaborate With Other Businesses

As an electrician, you probably service a lot of the same clients that other businesses like plumbers and HVAC companies service.

New homeowners.

People preparing to put their homes on the market.

Office and small businesses.

Don’t discount the power of collaboration! Partnering with other local businesses can help:

• Add authenticity and a sense of community to your brain
• Expand your client base through referrals
• Give you an edge over your competitors
• And more

Join a BNI Group

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Not sure where to start your networking efforts? BNI (Business Network International) is a great starting point. This organization focuses on helping businesses network and get referrals, and only one business per profession is allowed in a given chapter.

BNI is a great way to meet other businesses that may be potential partners to exchange referrals with. To join BNI, follow these steps:

1. Register to visit a local chapter meeting for free to see if you’d be a good fit to join the chapter.
2. If the BNI members agree that you would be a great fit, they will invite you to apply for a membership.
3. Membership fees include an initial application fee ($249) and then a participation fee ($599 for 12 months, or $999 for 24 months)

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Create a Business Card Sharing Program

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Remember, as an electrical business, you share a lot of the same clients as other service businesses.

Picture this: You’re a new homeowner visiting your local paint store to pick out a new wall color. While you’re waiting in line, your eyes trail to a stand with multiple business cards being displayed. You have a flickering light in your bathroom that you want to get fixed, so you pluck a card for an electrical business so you can call them later.

This is the magic of business card sharing programs. Choose a few local businesses to connect with and exchange business cards to keep on hand. If the opportunity arises, they have an electrical business to recommend to their clients and you have business recommendations to share with your clients as well.

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Reach Out to Local HOAs

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Homeowners Associations (HOAs) can be a wealth of business referrals. HOA presidents and board members typically have a healthy line of communication with homeowners and renters in the neighborhood. Having a reputable electrician to recommend to their neighbors is something that most HOAs would welcome. 

If you live in an HOA, you can easily score brownie points and position yourself as a friendly, trustworthy neighbor who owns a reputable electrical business.

Create a list of HOAs you can reach out to and see if you can be put on their services list as the go-to electrician to recommend to neighbors.