If you run your own fencing business, you probably know all there is to know about purchasing the best line posts, corner posts and end posts, and you are likely an expert in vertical alignment, measuring diameters and assessing ground plumbing works before a job.
Your fencing knowledge is the best in the business, that’s what makes your business the best there is. But one thing that years of fencing experience and professional training won’t provide you with, is a detailed understanding of how to do advertising.
It’s one thing understanding how to deliver a good fencing service but it is another understanding advertising.
If you want to gain some top insight into how to advertise your fencing business then look no further than our top 16 tips.
If you’re a fencer who is new to running your own advertising campaign or you’ve tried it before, but want to up your game, then these 16 tips will give you all the advice you need to get your campaign up and running and increase your businesses exposure like never before.
So let's take a look and find out how to advertise your fencing business in 16 tips.
This is probably something you’ve already got going.
Even if you’ve been in the fencing industry a long time, most fencing businesses have their own Facebook page and maybe, if you’re quite engaged online, perhaps you have a LinkedIn page and even a Twitter account.
If you’ve got even one of these social media accounts that’s a good place to start, however, it’s not enough to just sign up, add a few pictures and leave it at that. To really make the most of social media you need to actively promote your fencing business online.
That means you need to make an effort to post regularly, share your thoughts, post images of some of the great jobs you’ve done, and use your accumulated wisdom and industry expertise to create engaging and valuable content that people can react to.
When done effectively, social media can be an amazing tool for increasing engagement and can attract new audiences to your business.
One new advertising method many tradespeople are getting in on is viral TikTok trends. The most successful of these videos amongst tradespeople are satisfying videos, funny clips and recordings of workers on the job.
TikTok is a hugely popular platform, with landscaping videos bringing in over 321 million views worldwide. As a fencer, all you need to do to build a following is record interesting clips of you and your team completing jobs, perhaps showing a before and after of a project or close-ups of you using certain tools.
Taking some time to create content like this can seem like an unnecessary effort but when done properly it can have a massive impact on your company.
This neat and simple trick is all about branding. Just as an artist leaves their signature on their paintings and clothing brands attach their logo to all their items, you should be leaving your mark on your fences.
This is a technique that all the biggest brands use.
By creating a recognisable logo, companies make their merchandise synonymous with their brand, meaning that when people use or wear their product, people see that brand.
When this is done most effectively, it can get to the point that people will buy a product just because of the brand rather than due to the quality of the product that first attracted them.
Although operating on a different scale, you can do this for your business. By attaching a small metal tag, such as those that suppliers like Jacksons Fencing use, or by engraving your logo into some of your fence pickets and panels, you attach brand identity to your work.
The trick is to make sure your branding is discreet. Don’t use too bold a design or customers may be put off, but a subtle yet noticeable logo is unlikely to upset customers, especially if it is consistent across all your work.
Jackson Fencing is a great example of a brand that has made a success of this on the manufacturing and supplier side of the chain. They are so well regarded that there are fencers who proudly promote themselves as approved Jacksons Fence installers and there are even awards to be won for installing these fences.
What a great advertising trick!
This isn’t always something that is the easiest to do and, understandably, if you have been delivering a certain quality and style of fence for many years, this may not be the most appealing method for your business. But if you are able to offer unique and distinctive fences, perhaps incorporating a decorative style or using bold colours or materials, you're going to draw attention to your work.
This method works most effectively when combined with a strong social media strategy and the use of fence badges.
By offering your customers unique fence designs, you create the opportunity to take photos which you can share on your social media accounts and promote on your website. Combine this with fence tags and you essentially have a permanent, free advert available to anyone who passes by your handy work.
Not bad.
If you haven’t already got your own business website, then this is something you need to do right away.
Having a good website opens up so many different marketing possibilities and allows you to access new audiences that you wouldn’t be able to access otherwise. If you don’t have a website, then you are needlessly setting yourself behind your competition.
But don’t worry, if you’re not familiar with how a website works, or how to go about setting one up, we have written an in-depth article for you that covers everything you need to know. We take a look at some of the great benefits of using a website including where is the best place to go to easily create one (even if you’re not a tech geek).
If you want a real in-depth look at the benefits, check out the blog linked above, but as a quick summary, websites provide the following:
Once you’ve got a website and your social media accounts are up and running, there are numerous opportunities that open up for you.
Google maps is a great way to promote your fencing business in the local area. With your website up and running, you can attach all your business details to your google profile, including your contact number and email, working hours, website address and other relevant information.
This tool allows local people to find your business physically and digitally and helps to establish your fencing company in the local area.
This may sound like quite a technical concept, but the principles of SEO and blog writing are actually pretty straightforward.
SEO, stands for search engine optimisation, which is essentially jargon for writing blogs that Google likes.
If you spend some time each week creating blog posts providing useful and informative content based on your fencing industry knowledge, then it’s possible to create a growing and engaged audience as you attract more customers online.
Combine this into your social media strategy and you can share and promote your blog content more widely, massively increasing the customers you can reach.
It's also a good idea to implement these techniques with an effective email outreach campaign to really maximise results. Using tools such as email finders and email verification software can help streamline the operations.
Automated processes like bulk mailing and direct email validation will help ensure that emails reach their intended recipients, increasing the chances of success in any email outreach campaign.
For a deeper dive into SEO we've written a blog looking at how to run an SEO strategy, it's aimed at plumbers, but the techniques explained are also transferable to fencing businesses, so we would highly recommend giving it a read.
Once you’re online the opportunities are endless.
It’s a really smart idea to join digital communities such as those you can find on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Within these communities, you can meet other like-minded people where you will be able to share ideas and you may even be able to promote your skills and services.
Although these groups don’t always provide direct marketing opportunities for your fencing business, by becoming an active member you open yourself up to further opportunities.
It’s easy to underestimate the power of a tool like Youtube, but did you know, that Youtube is the second most used search engine in the world? And now, since Google (which is the number one search engine) owns youtube, Google is pulling through more and more Youtube content that appears on page one of online searches.
So what does this mean for your fencing business?
It means that this is a great marketing opportunity just waiting to be tapped into. The method for utilising this resource is straightforward: create evergreen, informative content, that is based on your fencing industry knowledge.
Mike Winnet explains this method very clearly in his podcast interview with Payaca CEO Matt Franklin or you can read about this youtube marketing method in our blog post on how to grow your business.
The idea is about sharing your fence-related expertise and creating content that is informative and helpful for customers. This kind of content is very relevant and informative, meaning that it naturally attracts views and ranks well on search engines, raising your profile.
The principle behind this method is similar to using fence tags, it’s about claiming credit for your work.
A fence is a large space and people will see it while they’re walking by - so let them know who you are.
By putting up a yard sign opposite the fence you’re working on or displaying a banner, it’s easier for people to see who you are and appreciate the work you’re doing. If people are admiring your work, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to:
a. Know who created that fence and...
b. Know how to contact the fencer who put it up.
That fencer being you. By providing clear signs with your contact details on them, it becomes far easier to convert passing potential customers.
The only caveat to this is, you should always double-check with your current customer first before you put any sign up. You will find that most people are very happy to help, especially if you deliver an excellent service.
If you have your own fencing business, chances are you also have a company vehicle. Whether that’s a car or a van, you should use that space to advertise what you’re about.
Van’s are particularly good for this, as they provide a blank white space where you can easily print your details. Even if you didn’t want to get your information professionally printed, it wouldn’t be too difficult for you to paint your company name and phone number on the side by yourself.
However you choose to do it, including your information on the outside of your vehicle is a great way to make yourself known in the local area. It makes your company recognisable and provides an additional means for people to find out about you and make contact.
Branded uniforms have a similar advertising function to an image on your van.
Uniforms provide a space to display your company name and logo clearly, marking you and your employees out as a part of your business.
Making yourself recognisable and getting your logo out and about is an important way of promoting your business. Especially in the fencing industry where you are outside and visible while on the job, having that logo for customers to see is really valuable.
For a detailed look at all the benefits of a uniform for your service business, have a read of our blog on tradie uniforms.
Once you’ve got your website up and running the next thing to do is to start collecting and promoting positive reviews.
Did you know, that by displaying positive reviews on your website you can increase your revenue by as much as 108% (as compared to the average)?!
That’s a massive impact. An impact that you don’t want to miss out on.
To try and make the best use of this opportunity it’s important to ask your customers to leave you positive feedback online. There are different places you can direct these customers to go to where they can leave these reviews. You could send them to google reviews (which is connected to your google maps profile) or ask them to review you via a review website such as Trustpilot or MyBuilder.com.
Once you have these reviews in place, it’s a great idea to promote your customer's positive responses by displaying them on your website or by printing them on your van or uniform. You can essentially use these reviews in all areas of your marketing and they will have a really positive impact.
Now, this method can appear slightly expensive, but we promise, you will find it worth it.
The idea behind these sites is, they provide an online database, with individual profiles for thousands of trade businesses, that allow customers to search and find a tradie for any job they need.
Some popular sites that provide this service include Trustatrader.com, checkatrade.com, ratedpeople.com and Which? Trusted Traders.
For your fencing business, all you need to do is sign up and pay a monthly or yearly subscription (details of the payment policy may vary) and you will be part of the database.
What this means is, customers can easily perform a search in their local area and relevant profiles within the system will be recommended.
Once you’ve become an established user on one of these sites and have built up a positive bank of reviews, it’s another really great way of gaining new customers.
Some of the great additional benefits of this service are that it allows you to have more control over the customers you work with and allows you to dictate which work you want and to a time that fits you.
It’s a pretty old-school method, but it’s still a great way to advertise your services.
Contact local magazines and papers and put an ad out letting people know who you are and what you offer. For growing your local customer base this is still a good way to go.
By putting the word out via the paper, you are also better able to access customers who may not be so digitally literate. This is often the case for older people who may not own a smartphone.
The paper can also be a good way of marketing yourself as a local business, as print publications tend to be associated with more local-level industries.
This kind of advertising technique may sound pretty intense, but it doesn’t need to be anything too extreme.
The idea behind it is to produce something slightly shocking or out of the ordinary that really catches people’s attention. It works on the idea that all publicity is good publicity. Of course, you never want to do anything that actively harms your business, but it can be worthwhile to take some risks.
So what are some good ideas you could use for your garden fence company?
A great way to start is to think about how you can get people interacting with your fences, gates and posts in a unique way.
One way to do this might be to set up a small fence or stand-alone gate in a public park and create an arch people can walk through and take pictures under. By having your structure stand on its own in an environment where it appears out of place you will naturally draw attention to it.
Another idea could be to assemble a giant deck chair, again in a public place or perhaps at a pub or at a market. These kinds of structures tend to be popular with passers-by who like to get pictures sitting in them.
The trick is to try and think outside the box and encourage people to interact with your product.
This is another classic method that has been around for a long time. Adding your details to local business directories is always a good idea.
It’s important your company is recorded in these directories as it helps to increase your brand authority. Although directories may no longer be the first place people go, customers may still check these places to establish your professional reputation.
If your business isn’t present in directories customers may wonder why not. Plus for those customers who still look for business via these resources, it’s still worthwhile having your details recorded.
This tip isn’t so much a marketing strategy as a business approach. Although domestic customers may provide a large part of your customer base, making sure you branch out to commercial customers is always a good idea.
These kinds of customers usually operate on a larger scale and there is often more opportunity for repeat business. Reach out to these companies and establish what their needs are. Winning work from a commercial business will bring in a larger revenue stream and can help to build your reputation.
There are a few different ways you can do this, whether that be through a scheme like TrustMark or via a tradesperson referral site as mentioned in point 11, getting yourself approved is a good idea.
By providing that stamp of approval you show your customers that you are a quality outfit and give them reassurance that you won’t try and scam them or rip them off. This kind of assurance can go a long way, allowing you to win business over your competitors.
You could also look at getting yourself approved by a fence manufacturer such as Jacksons Fencing. Once certified by a company like this you gain access to new products and are able to service new customers who are after a specific product. Again this also gives customers reassurance of your quality.
And that’s it, the top 16 methods for advertising your fencing business.
By following these steps, you’ll be able to market your fencing business more effectively and grow your customer base.
So whether you're just starting out or have been in the game for years, we hope these 16 tips will help you reach your goals.
Good luck and keep those fences coming.
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