Websites For Tradies
Building websites for tradies that look good, sound good and that are easily found on Google require a different approach to say, a yoga studio, accountant or dance school website. There’s one big challenge that a lot of industries don’t experience as much.
Residual Industry Reputation
In Australia, Tradie operators, whether you’re a plumber, electrician, builder or pest controller, suffer from the stigma created by lesser-quality service providers in your industry. I’m sure you’ve heard of a handyman being described as “always late” or an air conditioning repair agent being “messy”. From personal experience, the web design industry is not too dissimilar. There are 1000s of providers to choose from, all claiming to “sell” the same thing when in actual fact, it’s like comparing apples with aardvarks. The poor customer has to wade through a sea of providers offering massive variations in workmanship, price, cleanliness and customer service and often get burnt in the process. This leaves a bad taste in their mouth causing many consumers to ‘assume’ that “ALL” mechanics are rip off merchants or that ‘ALL’ removalists are careless and break things.
We call this “Residual Industry Reputation”. It’s the generic ‘bad rep’ that tarnishes an entire industry no matter how good you say you are. It is when the consumer assumes that most businesses in a particular industry are going to be dodgy. This causes skepticism and distrust because they felt ripped off, been left with a mess, experienced rude communication, that their problem wasn’t fixed or the tradie arrived late (or not at all).
Your Responsibility As A Trade Business Owner
So many elements go into your customer having a wonderful experience, however because it’s likely they’ve already dealt with several service providers who have failed to meet their expectations, you cop the brunt of it. Because of this, it’s your responsibility as a trade business owner to use your off site and digital marketing to counteract these bad vibes with something better. You need to effectively communicate that your business is different.
Positioning + Promoting Your Great Work
If you’re still reading this, I’ll assume that you consider yourself a quality, on time, value-for-money service provider who actually likes servicing your customers.
The secret to the amazing websites we build for tradies is premised by these two principles.
- Addressing your prospects concerns the moment they land on your website
- Promoting and positioning your business as the provider that does the exact opposite
Here are some examples:
- Your competitors make a bad habit of being late | Your website would need to communicate that you honor your appointments.
- Prospects often claim they’ve been ripped off from previous providers | The content on your website would need to include happy customer images, reviews and examples of your great work. Even a genuine guarantee can help consumers feel comfortable.
- You hear complaints of your competition being messy | We encourage you to address this on your website homepage. Just a small paragraph that promises your prospective customer that you’ll honor their space can ease their hesitation in requesting a quote.
Highlighting Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
What I find particularly interesting is that these things you do differently to your competitors make up part of your ‘Secret Source’ otherwise known as your USP (Unique Selling Proposition). These are the things that cause a customer to select you over another provider, and (when you dig deep enough) can be identified as the reasons you started your business in the first place – You wanted to offer customers a better option.
Partner this with your years of experience and qualifications and we’ve got the makings of some amazing website content to really help you stand out from the pack.
Amazing Websites That Work – Covering All Bases
As applies to your industry, not all service providers are created equal. Again, the same applies to my industry as a web design agency.
A great web designer goes to the effort of understanding your industry, your prospect’s fears as well as your USP and applies it to the following 3 main elements required to build an amazing tradie website.
3) Aesthetics | Does Your Website Look Good?
First of all, they way your website looks needs to be industry appropriate. They way we design websites for the wellness industry is completely different to how we design for tradies.
We want to appeal to your customers by making a lasting (and good) first impression! Before visitors read even a single word on your website, they’ll make an immediate judgement about the way your website looks and feels. Their judgments (usually unconscious) of your business colours, fonts, logo, imagery, spacing and ease of navigation will, and does, influence whether they trust you or even like you. The way your website looks also reflects on your potential price-point. If your website looks dated and has blurry images yet you offer a premium service or visa-versa, it’s likely you’ll attract tyre kickers looking for a cheap quote. I suggest you check out my other blog on how to avoid Tyre Kickers.
“46.1% of people say a website’s design is the #1 criterion for discerning the credibility of the company”.
Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
2) Content | Does It Sound Good?
The language you use in your website wording is what we’re referring to here. Being either too formal or too casual in your website wording may cause your audience to question your experience, credibility, value for money and if you sound trustworthy or not.
The wording on your website also needs to:
- Be accurate and correct,
- Appeal to your ideal target audience,
- Align with your business culture,
- Highlight your many USPs, and
- Direct / Encourage prospects to contact you.
If your website wording doesn’t appeal to your target audience, they simply won’t make an enquiry. Now if your website content does appeal to them and they reach out requesting a quote or more information, here’s two more things you need to be aware of.
- Avoiding Misalignment In Expectations | If you claim timeliness, professionalism and attention to detail, then how quickly you respond to enquiries is important. You need to back-up everything you promise and promote on your website.
- Avoiding Misalignment in Language | Ideally, a well written website has no gap between the language used on your website and how you or your sales staff speak over the phone. This also applies to how you respond via email. This all becomes part of your brand i.e. your personality. Read my article on personal branding and how it connects to your target audience.
Misalignment on either (or both) can result in a lack of sales conversion and waste a bunch of time responding to hollow enquiries.
At the end of the day, remember this. Your prospects are looking for clear, concise, and easy to understand information about WHAT it is you do, WHERE you travel, and indication of price and HOW they can contact you.
3) Functionality | Does It Work?
We consider this third element pertains to your website performance from both a technical and searchability perspective.
When we audit an existing website, we often ask these following questions.
- Can visitors to this website find what they’re looking for easily?
- Do all of the links work?
- Does the online contact form function?
- Do all words, headings, images and design elements load properly?
- Is the website fast to load?
- How easy is it to find this website on Google?
- How many Key Search Phrases (KSP) does this website rank well for?
Overlooking any of these elements is bad for business and can be costing you valuable leads without you even realising.
The Recap
We just went through how we build unique and amazing websites for tradies by focusing on:
- Fighting ‘Residual Industry Reputation’
- Your Responsibility As A Trade Business Owner
- Positioning + Promoting Your Great Work
- Highlighting Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
We’ve also just run through how we cover all the bases including;
- Aesthetics,
- Content, and
- Functionality
Simply put, you want a website that’s going to WORK to effectively promote your physical business in an online digital market.
Hiring an experienced and quality web design agency, that also offers well written content including local SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) considerations, is 100% worth your investment. Just like you with your customers, out #1 aim is to design, build and deliver a website that ticks all of the right boxes, is value for money and actually works!