Owning your own business is a daunting undertaking, regardless of that business’s size. If you’re a contractor, you may be the owner as well as the person who performs the labor, making you the guts of the whole business.  You not only have to perform the work and know the ins and outs of all projects you undertake; you have to be the marketing and the sales departments as well. So where do you find time to do all that? The answer is in planning a promotional strategy that will minimize the time you need to spend developing a clientele in order to maximize your time spent on the jobs themselves. Here are some creative ideas from other top contractors like you that will help you to promote your contractor business to optimal levels.

Develop an Internet Presence

Developing a social media presence is perhaps the most vital part of marketing in our technological age, regardless of the business you’re promoting. In fact, a recent report found that more people will go online to find a contractor than will get references from friends and family. Perhaps this is because people tend to always have their handheld devices at their fingertips, so they just naturally turn to them for research. Regardless of the reason, however, if you’re a contractor who’s looking to promote your business, you can’t go wrong when you develop a strong online/social media presence.

Website

No, not all professional contractors need to have a website. But your competitors do, and they’ll be fine with you not having one. Okay, so that’s a shameless promotion of getting a promotional website, but you will, without a doubt, be glad you did. A web presence isn’t just important these days; it’s essential to promoting a contractor, especially since most people head to the Internet as not only their central focus, but their first go-to for hiring a contractor. There are a number of shared hosting accounts that will guide you through creating your own website. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune, and you don’t have to be a Zuckerberg to learn how.

Social Media Marketing

Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are an excellent means of getting your brand out there. They’re also a great way to connect with folks in your community who may be searching for home remodeling help.

Branding

Branding yourself is a valuable means of promoting your contracting business. But when it comes to branding, be sure to use the same name and logo from one aspect of your web presence to another. This way, folks will become familiarized with you every time they see that name and/or logo.

Online Reviews

Online reviews are important to people who are searching for a contractor. With websites such as Angie’s List and Home Advisor, it’s easy for a good contractor to rack up positive reviews that will help to direct traffic to his or her website. Ask happy customers to provide you with testimonials that you can use on these sites in order to promote your business. Most of the time, people who are happy with your work are also happy to leave good reviews. Another good place to include such reviews is LinkedIn—as this site allows you to include those recommendations you choose to include along right on your bio page.

As a contractor, you’ve had to learn to be self-reliant. You’ve had to drum up business wherever you could get it, and you’ve likely had to perform the work on those jobs yourself. But even if you’ve built up your contracting business to a place where you’ve hired other laborers, you still need to grow your business. In fact, because of the nature of the contracting beast, you need to be constantly searching for new customers. After all, once a contracting job ends, the company or individual you’re working for may not need another job done for quite some time, if ever. Fortunately, there are strategies you can use that will help you promote and build your business so you’ll never run out of new and existing clients. Contractors near you have followed many of these same formulas, and now it’s your turn.