It is crucial to market your trade business in order to reach, engage, and ultimately win new clients and ensure a steady stream income for your business. Tradespeople often advertise their services on popular job sites such as Houzz, Hipages, and Gumtree. However, you can also search for jobs through established social media channels such as LinkedIn.
LinkedIn allows tradies to manage their professional online presence, as well as network with potential business partners such as real estate agents, builders, and architects. LinkedIn can be an effective way to market your trades business. It’s also very easy to use. So, let’s delve into some handy tradie tips for getting started on LinkedIn and getting the most out of the professional social networking platform.
Create a LinkedIn profile that is eye-catching
A professionally designed LinkedIn profile will make a good first impression on potential clients. To make your profile more approachable and welcoming, start with a well-lit, high-resolution professionally taken photo in which you are smiling and look professional. It’s all about projecting your confidence and professionalism. Next, create a headline that is short and concise. It should include keywords about the services you specialise in.
You can expand on your qualifications, experience, past jobs, and other notable accomplishments in the summary and experience sections. As you acquire new certifications, awards and skills, keep your profile updated.
Create a LinkedIn page
Consider creating a company page on LinkedIn to promote your business; whether you are a sole trader or run your own small business. Similar to creating an individual LinkedIn account for yourself, this process can be used for raising the profile of your company and connecting with organisations that may be seeking the trade services you offer.
First, create a tagline. Next, you will be asked to provide a brief description of your company that describes the mission and values of your organisation, as well as what sets your business apart from the competition. Next, upload your logo and specify a location for your office. Finally, add a cover picture. Once everything is done, you can start promoting your LinkedIn company page via your website, email communications, and other social media channels.
Review and get endorsements
After creating your LinkedIn company page and profile, you can showcase the skills you can offer that your potential customers may be looking for. Sparkies might want to list skills such as electrical installation, electrical safety knowledge, and wiring repairs and maintenance.
With your LinkedIn company page and profile complete, you are now ready to
connect with past and present clients on LinkedIn and politely ask if they would be willing to endorse your company and your trade services via a LinkedIn recommendation. Doing so will give your business added credibility and legitimacy in the eyes of anyone who views your LinkedIn page.
Positive reviews on LinkedIn are a great way to increase your marketability and develop meaningful connections and relationships with clients. Positive testimonials on your LinkedIn profile will help legitimise your expertise and will show that you are reliable and efficient. A positive testimonial from a previous client is a sign that they are willing to recommend your services to their friends and business associates.
Post on LinkedIn frequently
To maintain a visible presence and build your LinkedIn following, square away some time to post frequently – at least once per month. This will help you gain more engagement and traction. To keep things fresh, mix and match your content, from videos to infographics to long-form posts, such as thought leadership content.
No matter how often you post on LinkedIn, make sure to publish your content at optimal times throughout the day. The general rule of thumb is to post when people are more likely to be browsing social media – so during the morning and evening commute, during lunch time, or in the early evening. However, try posting at different times and see which generates the most engagement. Then schedule your posts accordingly.
Post photos and videos as well
On social media platforms photo and video content generally garner more engagement than written social media posts with text. In its Business Owners Guide to LinkedIn, LinkedIn notes that images generate 98 per cent more comments than posts without them. As such, aim to always post high-quality images or video whenever possible. You may show potential customers the quality of your work by taking before and after photos.
You can also stand out from your competitors with creative videos and live content. People will notice time-lapse videos when they scroll through their LinkedIn feed. Live content that showcases the personalities of your workers can make your business more memorable to clients who are looking for friendly tradespeople.
Optimise your posts
To increase the visibility of your posts, it is important ensure that you are sharing content that is relevant and engaging to your LinkedIn connections. There are many creative ways to do this by following LinkedIn best practices. These include:
- Post relevant content, such as promotions or recent events.
- Incorporate popular and relevant hashtags into your posts.
- To increase your readability, you can either write concise copy or break it down into bullet points.
- Upload high-resolution photos and videos.
- Highlight relevant statistics and quotes in your industry.
- Directly address your target audience (e.g. “Attention: Australian homeowners”).
- If appropriate, tag relevant LinkedIn connections and business pages to increase engagement.
- Respond quickly to comments to increase engagement.
Don’t forget to take embrace LinkedIn Analytics
LinkedIn Analytics provides valuable insights into your marketing strategy. You can monitor the engagement of your posts, click-through rate, and other performance metrics. These metrics are displayed in an analytics dashboard that makes it easy to see which of your posts are most engaging.
You can also track visitor demographics and get an idea of who is viewing your LinkedIn page and posts. These insights can be then be used to create more targeted messages and LinkedIn promotions that appeal to the right audience.
How trade professionals can reduce their risk with tradie insurance
As you work on making LinkedIn work for your business, don’t forget the important role that business insurance can play for the future of your trade business.
Tradespeople can face safety risks daily, which is why many tradies choose to reduce their risk with trade insurance*. Trade insurance is a selection of business insurance products that together can help tradespeople reduce their risk. Trade insurance may include:
BizCover NZ can tailor your trade insurance to match the specific risks your trade business can face, no matter how big or small your operation is.
BizCover NZ helps tradie small business owners reduce the risks to their business via tradie insurance*. Visit our dedicated online destination for tradie insurance in New Zealand get trade insurance for your business without drama and get on with your day. If you’d like to chat you can reach us at 0800 249 268.
*This information is general only and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It should not be relied upon as advice. As with any insurance, cover will be subject to the terms, conditions and exclusions contained in the policy wording. © 2023 BizCover Pty Limited. BizCover Limited is owned by BizCover Pty Ltd (ABN 68 127 707 975).
