There are many options to choose from when it comes to choosing digital marketing channels for concrete coating.  But how do you know which ones are the best for you and your concrete coating business?  This article will outline the top channels you can use to help you grow your business.

The Top 6 Online Channels For Concrete Coating

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
2. Pay Per Click Advertising (Google Ads or Bing Ads).
3. Social Media Marketing (Instagram Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, etc.).
4. Video Marketing (YouTube).
5. Email Marketing.
6. Pay Per Lead Services (Home Advisor, Angie’s List, Homestar’s, Next Door, etc.).

Search Engine Optimization

Direct translation: Search engine optimization (SEO) improves the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines. SEO targets unpaid traffic (known as “natural” or “organic” results) rather than direct traffic or paid traffic. Unpaid traffic may originate from different searches, including image search, video search, academic search, news search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, the computer-programmed algorithms that dictate search engine behavior, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines, and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. SEO is performed because a website will receive more visitors from a search engine when websites rank higher on the search engine results page (SERP). These visitors can then potentially be converted into customers. (Cited from Wikipedia)

In plain English? 

It involves following Google’s guidelines to get your website on the 1st page of Search Results. Search Results are what you see when you search for something on Google or Bing. Getting your website to show up in the top spots is where you can make a lot of money. If you’re not there, your competitors are, and they are making all the money. You can have your business show up in 3 distinct areas on search engines.

Top 4 positions – Google Ads – You must pay to play in that area.

1. Position 5 – 7 (even 8) – Google Maps – Also called the Map Pack or 3 Pack – You need a Local SEO strategy to show up there.
2. Position 8 – 14 – Organic Search Results – an ON Page and technical SEO strategy is required to rank high here, and it’s where all the best, high-quality leads are.

Here’s an example of a heat map of where people click. You will notice that most click on the Ads section, then the maps, then organic. So, it’s essential to take advantage of not just one but all three opportunities available to you.

Image Credit: Mike Ramsey

 

Search Engine Marketing 

I did a rapid overview of SEO and Search Results to give you an idea of what’s available to you at this stage of the game. I into more detail in this post here:  [coming soon]

But let’s look at Google Ads a bit more so that you can get a better understanding of what it is, how it works, and why you need it.

Direct translation: Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users. It can place ads both in the results of search engines like Google Search (the Google Search Network) and on non-search websites, mobile apps, and videos (the Google Display Network). Services are offered under a pay-per-click (PPC) pricing model.

Google Ads is the primary source of revenue for Alphabet Inc, contributing US$168.6 billion in 2020. (Cited from Wikipedia)

In plain English? 

You pay Google to show an ad at the top of Search Results so people will click it, go to your website (or landing page), fill out a form or call you for an estimate.

If you’re not using this strategy to get leads, you are seriously missing the boat. Why? Because these are people that are searching for your service already! Depending on your internal sales process, they are usually in buying mode. Therefore, they tend to purchase from you, either right away or very close to it.

 

Social Media Marketing

Direct Translation: Social media marketing uses social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and researchers. Most social media platforms have built-in data analytics tools, enabling companies to track ad campaigns’ progress, success, and engagement. (Cited from Wikipedia)

Plain English? Sure, you got it.

It’s a strategy to interrupt people’s social media news feed to tell them about your service. Then, you make it engaging and enticing enough (just like an ad on TV) that you take action and do something about it. In this case, you are clicking the ad, going to a website (or landing page), filling out a form or calling the company for a quote. Hopefully, it’s your company. If it’s not, and you’re not using this channel either, then I fear you may be missing out on serious revenue here as well.

 

Video Marketing (YouTube – there are others…)

Direct Translation: YouTube is an American online video sharing and social media platform owned by Google. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is the second most visited website, right after Google itself. YouTube has more than one billion monthly users who collectively watch more than one billion hours of videos each day. As of May 2019, videos were being uploaded at a rate of more than 500 hours of content per minute. In October 2006, YouTube was bought by Google for $1.65 billion.

Google’s ownership of YouTube has also changed its business model; it no longer generates revenue from advertisements alone. YouTube now offers paid content such as movies and exclusive content. YouTube and approved creators participate in Google’s AdSense program, which generates more revenue for both parties. It has since evolved from a small video streaming platform to a large service with reported revenues of $19.8 billion in 2020. (Cited from, yep! Wikipedia)

This one is excellent! Why? 

Very few concrete coating businesses, or even service businesses for that matter, are not using it, nor know how to use it to the best of their ability. There’s untapped potential here to dominate your space. It’s an excellent form of advertising. If you’ve never used YouTube before, then you’ve been in a jungle on a journey of internal peace because you’d notice the ad, sometimes two ads, pop up at the beginning of a video. By the way, you only pay if they watch it. If they skip it, you don’t pay. You only pay when people watch your ad. This strategy is yet another opportunity to push past your competitors and reach potential customers where they are!

 

Email Marketing

Direct Translation: Email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It involves using email to send advertisements, request business, or solicit sales or donations. Email marketing strategies commonly seek to achieve one or more of three primary objectives, to build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness.

The term usually refers to sending email messages with the purpose of enhancing a merchant’s relationship with current or previous customers, encouraging customer loyalty and repeat business, acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately, and sharing third-party ads. (Cited from you guessed it, Wikipedia. I do love Wikipedia)

Layman’s terms? 

You send an email to generate business and stay top of mind. Think about all the prospects you’ve done estimates for that never bought from you. How do you know they even bought at all? There are too many reasons why a prospect didn’t buy from you. Chances are, they haven’t decided yet. When a prospect says no, it usually means not yet. Otherwise, why would they waste their time and yours for nothing? It’s a stigma to believe that people are just out to waste your time. Something was missing in the sales process, or they weren’t ready. Email marketing is a fantastic way to stay top of mind until they either say yes or go away!

Okay, you should now have a very brief understanding that you need a plan. You know the different types of marketing “vehicles” you can use to help you get there; how do you structure this whole thing out so that it works in your favour?

I’m sure just reading everything you read up to this point still leaves you in a state of uncertainty, and you still don’t know where to start.

Generally, at this stage, I’d probably jump right into going deep on every marketing channel I’ve outlined so that you can make clear choices on what media to use. Still, though, we haven’t broken down how you’re going to reach your goals. At this stage, you could still be stuck throwing the same crap at the wall and seeing what sticks. You still need to break down your year and figure out how the heck you’re genuinely going to make that goal, or better yet, crush that goal.

So, in the next chapter, I’d like to go back to the beginning and dig into how you’re going to get there and make a real plan that you can use.