Hey everyone — looking for some advice from other service business owners.
I run a small land clearing/brush clearing business in Ohio, and with how wet it’s been in our area lately, things are starting to slow down a bit. I’m trying to be proactive and focus on marketing so I can keep work coming in and continue growing the business. For those of you who’ve been in a similar spot, what marketing has actually worked best for you to bring in more customers and keep jobs lined up? Facebook ads, Google ads, yard signs, referrals, local networking, something else? I’d especially love to hear what’s worked well for seasonal or outdoor service businesses when weather starts affecting the schedule. Appreciate any advice or ideas you’re willing to share.Who Here Has Had Success with Yard Signs?
I'm a part of Home Service Accelerator and one of the main things they recommend is to use unbranded yard signs and put them in high value areas to get leads. It's a volume play. Basically you put out 100 signs but if you book one job (in my industry) it pays for the $400 in yard signs you spent (plus your time). Now I should mention I haven't been super consistent with this which I believe could be my issue. I also don't know who would hit up a yard sign for a kitchen remodel BUT you never know. My process to find where to put them is to go on the USPS website and find the mail routes with the highest average income then determine which streets to put it on from there. Is anyone else using this strategy? I'd love some pointers if you are having some success with it.
As a new Handyman business, what do people suggest I do as affordable marketing options?
I currently use google ads which can be quite expensive as I build a customer base. I'm also planning to put decals on my work vehicle. What are some other cheap options I maybe haven't thought of? Should I work in partnership with other businesses?How to geotag photos for Google Business Profile posts to improve local map rankings?
I wanted to share something we've been doing and an insight in to one of our company processes. When you are doing your Google My Business profile, you should be filling out the services, products and updating your status with a post a few times a week. This particular post is going to be about how we geo tag photos, make an appealing GMB update, then post it. This is the exact SOP I gave my virtual assistant so feel free to steal this OR if you have something to say about it, I'd love that feed back to! It's my understanding that these aren't super important for SEO but it helps with map rankings because of the geo tagged pictures and build trust with people that go to your page and see a very active business. Here's the loom video ... https://www.loom.com/share/3f3f0966501148a5be20311a4f0c3ecb Create and publish a daily Google Business Profile update using geotagged project photos from completed or high-value jobs. The goal is to showcase larger remodel projects, maintain consistent posting, and drive engagement with properly labeled images and a clear call-to-action. Open the required tools and prepare for photo selection. Open Jobber, Company ChatGPT, GeoImager, and Google Business Profile. Confirm you are working on the daily posting task. Choose a strong project to feature. Select a job that represents the type of work the company wants to attract. Prioritize larger remodel-heavy projects. Sort by total job value or use the most recent completed jobs. Avoid jobs still in progress unless specifically instructed. Find matching before and after photos. Open the selected job in Jobber and review the photo gallery. Identify one strong after photo and one before photo from a similar angle. Choose the most visually compelling pair that shows the transformation clearly. Prepare the photos for geotagging. Open GeoImager and upload the first photo. Place the geotag using the job location. If exact address search is unavailable, use the general area near the job site. The goal is a GPS-tagged photo, not a perfectly precise point. Geotag and download each photo. Download the photo with embedded location data, clear the image in GeoImager, then repeat for the second photo. Confirm both are downloaded before moving on. Rename the files. Go to Downloads and rename the geotagged images using a clear convention such as Project Name - Before, Project Name - After, and Project Name - Side by Side. Use the correct company name (Huge Home Pros) in all file names. Generate a side-by-side image and post copy using ChatGPT. Request file names and post copy for the before photo, after photo, and side-by-side image. Ask for text suited for a Google Business Profile update. Confirm the wording matches the company brand and project type. Upload the content to Google Business Profile. Start a new update and upload images in this order: side-by-side first, before second, after last. This order tells the project story correctly. Schedule the post and choose a call-to-action button. If a post was already published today, schedule this one for 6:00 AM the next available slot. Always include a button. Use Call Now for direct contact or Learn More linking to the relevant service page on the website. Repeat daily. Focus on larger jobs, remodel-heavy projects, and strong visual transformations. Feature specific areas like kitchens, closets, or bathrooms when relevant. Ask for direction if unsure what to post. Cautionary Notes Do not spend excessive time perfecting the geotag location if address search is unavailable. Keep the company name consistent across all files and post content. Avoid featuring jobs still in progress unless the team requests it. Always include a button on every post. Match any service page link to the project type as closely as possible. Tips for Efficiency Keep ChatGPT open throughout the workflow to quickly generate file names and copy. Use recent high-value completed jobs to save time on content selection. Stick to the same naming convention every day. Follow the same posting workflow daily to reduce decision-making. When possible, prepare the side-by-side image and post text while geotagging so tasks run in parallel.
