Tradesman Marketing Series: Create Professional Adverts and Posts

As we already looked into in our last article, "posting is not marketing" when it comes to social media. Your time is valuable and you're not getting paid while making "content" or adverts, so let's make sure we put our time to good use. We want to make the most out of our time and create professional adverts and posts, we can use time and time again to promote our trades business.

For now let's forget about putting 3 pictures on Facebook with a line "just completed this house in Coventry". Let's be a little more professional and creative.

First thing we need to think about is our message need to be consistent. What do we mean by consistent?

We need to be consistent on the following:

Company Logo

Company Colours

Advert Layout and Fonts etc

Advertising Intervals (i.e. posting on social media once per week).

It's no secret that people like buying from reputable brands. But why is that? The answer is actually very simple. It's trust! Customers are expecting a predictable and quality service. If people see you regularly advertising over months and years they become to know you as a company that is credible and here to stay. You're not a man in a van who is going to run off with their money. Below we will look at how you start building your company brand for your advertising. The advertising that for the start will be practically free.

Company Logo

The first thing to put in place is to get a company logo. This isn't as hard as it seems as there are lots of your wannabe graphics designers who can help for around £25-£50 for a basic logo. What is important is you think about the main logo colours. The reason for this is these colours could be on your van, on your workwear and in all your adverts. Make sure the main logo colours are ones you like and represent you.

They could be low key like Red or Blue. They could be like Dyno-Rod in bright orange. Whatever works for you!

Advert Layout

Now we have the logo and basic company colours, let's look at the advert. Luckily for you, there is a fantastic tool out there which will be extremely useful in your first year of marketing, Canva! Prices are around £11/month and there are thousands of templates there for you to use. There are specific templates for all social media types. Even youtube thumbnails or presentation. All you need is there waiting for you. Simply click on the template you like. Modify with your own colours, logo and information and in know time you have your first advert.

At this point we would recommend you put half a day a side and create a range of adverts based on the type of customers and types of work you're aiming for. Keep them simple / concise and professional. Less is more. We'll put a few examples below so you can see the type of advert we prefer. Try to get one main message on each advert and create multiple adverts for multiple options / services.

Remember These Points When Creating Your Advert

Before you go off and start creating all your adverts, lets remember some of the lessons we discussed.

• Think of you customer "avatar" and aim your advert an language to them.

• Start to generate your company style and colours.

• Start by promoting your best and most profitable types of jobs.

• Promote your most popular type of work.

• Post and promote in your specific area.

Advert Do's and Don'ts

Here is a list of basic things to keep in mind when creating an advert (especially for small businesses).

Do add a picture of you (people like to know who they will be dealing with)

Do add in good reviews

Do add one or two pictures of the work you're aiming to promote

Do create simple advert which can be read in 2 seconds

Don't advertise cheap or low cost (you can always do this later)

Don't ask for people to "get in touch".

Don't list all of the work you do (focus on each advert on one or two types).

There is much more we could cover in this article but we will leave it for the main points and potentially come back later. What is important is to use software like Canva which will ensure you look professional in your advertising.

If you need to discuss help with getting new customers to your business then speak to us at Small Business Website Designs and we can help from a small leaflet design to a full marketing plan.