Social media isn’t going away anytime soon, and home renovation contractors need to tap into this (mostly) free opportunity as much as possible. What’s the point, you might be asking? My clients aren’t the kind of people to sit on Facebook all day. I’m not targeting a teenage marketplace. Why on earth would I want to worry about Twitter and other social media marketing platforms? For a few seriously good reasons, that’s why:

Reason #1: Increases Brand Awareness

Getting your company brand out into the marketplace and recognized is vital if you’re going to attract the kind of clients you want. When someone is looking for a home renovation contractor, companies with solid public profiles and well-known names are far more likely to get the work than “unknowns.” Research shows that two-thirds of American use social media and 78% of small businesses have attracted customers that way, so there’s no way to argue with the stats.

Reason #2: Builds Your Online Credibility

Social media marketing helps to establish your legitimacy as a home renovation contractor. One of the first things a tech-savvy consumer (read: two-thirds of Americans!) does when he or she discovers a company they want to use but don’t know much about is to check their online profile for answers to:

• Does your company have an updated website (one that looks like you are still in business)?
• Are you on social media platforms, and if so do you post regularly (or do they just find crickets there)?
• Do you respond to client comments and questions (in other words, are you contactable, present in the moment and interested in what your market is doing)?
• Do you share information of value such as industry news and events, so your customers can benefit from your knowledge?

If you aren’t on social media, there’s no way to find out the answers to these questions and chances are good they’ll move on to a company that they can find profiles for.

Reason #3: Increases Traffic to Your Website

Just having a home renovation contractor website isn’t going to cut it. Even if you publish updated content on a regular basis, unless people know it’s there why on earth would they come to the site and find it? Well, social media marketing is your way of announcing that you have a new blog post, a free downloadable eBook, or some advice and information about the renovation marketplace in your area. The idea isn’t to post all the information on social media, but just enough to get your followers to click through to your website to read the rest.

Reason #4: Gives You a “Store Front”

It’s pretty difficult to showcase a home renovation service, isn’t it? You don’t have a product that you can display in a store window. With social media marketing, however, you can use your profile as a storefront to show photos of your projects, promote your work ethic and publish client testimonials or link to online reviews. Without it costing you a dime, you can promote yourself in the biggest market in the world.

Sure, none of this happens by itself. You’ll need to spend some time engaging with users, building up your following and updating your profiles, but social media marketing offers a higher return than many other forms of promotion.