How To Expand Your Business Using Cell Phones As A Tradesman

Published by Maaz at Turtleback on Feb 26th 2021

No one can deny the importance of mobile phones in our lives. Whether it’s connecting with family members or keeping the workflow smooth, they offer several substantial advantages.

In business, mobile phones help us in communicating with staff members and clients. But with the advent of smartphones, the game is completely changed. Now you can use them as a source of marketing and business growth.

To fully utilize the power of cellphones as a tradesman, you should know how to use them to expand your business. That’s exactly what we are going to talk about today.

But first, let’s discuss some advantages and precautions of using cell phones for the business.

Advantages Of Using Cell Phones In Business

Cell phones help business owners and employees in numerous ways. If the phones of your staff members are connected to the internet, it would add extra flexibility. Let’s look at a few advantages^[1] of using them for work:

They improve customer service by making you available for clients 24/7.
They help in communicating with the staff members and suppliers.
They increase mobility.
They help in productivity.
They allow you to work remotely (For example, work from home in times like the COVID-19 pandemic).

Precautions Of Using Cell Phones In Business

Mobile phones come with a few precautions as well. You need to keep a few things in mind if you want to utilize the power of mobile phones for business; otherwise, they can create trouble.

What we are going to discuss below are not disadvantages; you can think of them as precautions. They will serve as a reminder about what you and your team should not do with your cell phones at work.

Workflow disruption: If employees are always communicating or using cell phones for non-work-related things, it can hurt your progress.
Disturbed work-life balance: When employees are required to communicate for business even outside their work hours, it can hurt their personal life.
Costs: If you provide your team with cell phones, it can be expensive. You can combat this issue by restricting the use of phones for business only. Talking to your service provider for more details.
Legal issues: A careless employee using a cell phone while driving is breaking the law. If you have permitted him to do it, you can get in trouble.

Make sure to:

Educate your team about how mobile devices can disrupt the workflow.
Keep all communication during work hours, so they can enjoy time with their families.
Talk to your service provider about restricting and lowering the costs of your SIM offers if you provide your team with cell phones.
Not permit any driver to use their cell phones while driving.

How To Expand Your Business Using Cell Phones

Mobile phones are changing the way we do business. Combine the power of mobile phones with the internet, and we get unprecedented resources for marketing any business.

Relying on word-of-mouth used to be the main marketing tool for tradesmen. But to keep with the ever-changing world, modern tradesmen need to market themselves. The following methods will help you do that:

Set Up A Website

A website is the digital equivalent of your physical shop. You can’t keep your physical shop open 24 hours, but your website will be there for your customers even when you are sleeping. Moreover, if other similar businesses in your area don’t have a website, you’ll have a competitive advantage.

Setting up a website is easy. So don’t worry if you are not a programmer. You can use websites like WordPress or Wix that make the process of building a website very easy.

Put the following useful customer information at the forefront of your website:

Your business name and address
Telephone and e-mail (Or other relevant contact information)
Mention your unique selling point
Any well-known organization you are accredited with
Photos of past work and reviews from clients

Be Visible

After setting up a website, you need to make sure that you are easy to find. That’s why you need to turn attention to major search engines, such as Google.

To be more visible in search engine results, you need to do your website’s SEO which is the process of optimizing your website to get organic or un-paid traffic from the search engine results page. SEO can be time-consuming, so we recommend working with a professional. However, if you plan to do it yourself, you’ll need to do the following things recommended by alexa.com^[2]:

Technical SEO such as creating a sitemap and submitting it to Google
Local SEO
Keywords customers are searching for
Optimize on-page SEO
Streamline content marketing
Build authority with links

Get Listed

Register your business in local online directories. A few directories that can support your search ranking efforts are as follows:

These are general directories. You’d also want to register in service-specific directories, such as:

Harness Social Media

Not everyone finds new businesses through search engines. Some of them use social media. In fact, according to Screwfix^[3], social media platforms have helped 48% of tradesmen to get new business. Moreover, social media platforms are free to use, and you can be more visible with little to no budget.

When it comes to the question of what social media to use, Facebook should be the first choice. You can move to other social media platforms after some time, but Facebook’s 2.8 billion monthly active users are too hard to ignore. Some people rely on Facebook to get a business’ contact information, so make sure that you include necessary details on your page.

Send Out Business Cards

This old-school marketing tactic for local businesses still works. Business cards are small and cheap and help in keeping your most important business information such as your name, your business name, your industry, website URL, company social media usernames, business logo in one place.

You can give them to people when you work with them. You’ll be surprised how much business they can bring, and how many people prefer them over searching online.

Gather Reviews

It’s a great way to stand out from the crowd. People choose tradesmen who offer real-life examples of their work.

So start posting before-and-after photographs of your work. You can ask customers to give feedback and put it on prominent sections of your website and other marketing channels. If you can ask clients to post pictures on their social media account and tag you, it would help as well.

BrightLocal^[4] states that 73% of consumers trust a business after reading positive reviews. So distribute your customer reviews on different parts of your website.

Sign Up For Google My Business

This local listings service is highly influential and bigger than others on the web. That’s why we have given it a separate section.

To get listed on it, you need to fill your application via Google where you’ll upload company information, such as your address, opening hours, etc. It also lets your customers review you, which adds to the trust factor.

Go The Extra Mile

It might be the simplest tip in this post, but it’s worth mentioning. No matter how good your website is or how pretty your business cards are, if customers are not satisfied with your service, you will not grow.

Word-of-mouth marketing is big for all kinds of businesses. If you provide excellent customer service and go the extra mile (even if it’s not part of the job), it will help in your business’ growth.

Think of ways to help your clients. One way is utilizing YouTube. If your customers struggle with something related to your business, make how-to and explanation videos for them on YouTube. This way, they’ll turn back to you for services because your brand has helped them previously.

So always be helpful.

Protect your cell phone on the job

We have discussed the importance of cell phones and how they can help you expand your business. So to ensure that these useful devices are always safe, you need to cover them with a holster.

Turtle Back offers high-quality holsters for tradesmen who appreciate American craftsmanship.

Browse the protective gear for your cell phone!

References:

1. Business Phone Systems, Nibusinessinfo.co.uk

2. Kim Kosaka, Alexa

3. Screwfix Media Center

4. Local Consumer Review Survey 2020, Bright Local