Marketing Your Appliance Repair Business: 10 Ideas that Work

US companies spend hundreds of billions of dollars every year on advertising. And you should too—put your appliance repair business out there. Effective marketing spreads word of your appliance repair shop and attracts paying customers.

Marketing is non-negotiable. The only question is how to market an appliance repair business. You’re in luck—we have just the right answers for you.

Read on and learn the importance of advertising and how to market your appliance repair business. This article covers everything, from traditional and digital marketing to practical tips for starting your marketing campaign.

Here goes.

Why You Need to Advertise Your Appliance Repair Company

The idea of marketing is as old as commerce itself. And in today’s fast-paced business world, marketing is more important than ever. Marketing shines a light on your appliance repair company and reveals it to potential customers. You might have the best services or technicians in town, but no one will know unless you market your business.

No business is too new, too old, or too successful to market its offerings. Here are five reasons why marketing matters to your company:

Spreads Brand Awareness

Your brand represents how customers perceive your business. On the surface, branding comprises your company’s name, logo, slogan, and mission. But on a deeper level, your brand is your business’s identity, which is firmly tied to the quality of its services.

The idea of branding is to set your business apart from competitors. It helps your shop or service stand out among the over 50,000 appliance repair companies currently registered in the US.

More importantly, it fosters brand association. Through brand awareness, customers can quickly affiliate your business with the value, experiences, or solutions it delivers. In other words, marketing blends your unique selling points (USPs) with your company’s identity.

Your USPs might include:

• Superior appliance repair services
• Electronic manufacturers’ certifications
• Quick turnaround
• Competitive prices
• Convenient repair shop location
• House calls

FROM ONE OF OUR PARTNERS: How to Create a Positive Brand Reputation

Generates Leads

Every home owns at least a handful of electrical appliances, from air conditioners and washing machines to refrigerators. These appliances sometimes require professional servicing and repairs.

Naturally, as an appliance repair business owner, your target customers comprise local homeowners, tenants, and building managers looking to service or repair their appliances. But how do you reach them?

Marketing provides a means to speak directly to potential customers. Engaging people genuinely interested in your appliance repair services generates leads. Appliance repair leads could be calls, emails, messages, or shop visits from people inquiring about your services. These leads eventually convert into sales.

In short, marketing maximizes your chances of scoring appliance repair jobs.

RELATED ARTICLE: 6 Tips to Get More Appliance Repair Leads

Helps You Understand Your Customers

Marketing efforts generate a lot of customer data. You can use that data to draw valuable insights into the target market.

For instance, preliminary market research may reveal where to find potential appliance repair customers and how to grab their attention. Plus, as you run various marketing strategies, you’ll continuously learn more about your customers. You’ll quickly pick up on customer preferences, dislikes, and spending habits when it comes to appliance repair.

Understanding your customers gives you an idea of what works for your marketing campaign or service delivery model. It also fosters more intimate customer relationships. Meaningful and lasting customer relationships encourage repeat business and referrals. That’s exactly what you need to grow your clientele organically.

Builds a Reputation for Your Appliance Repair Business

Proper marketing helps you establish and protect a positive image for your business. It begins with deciding the values you want associated with your appliance repair company. Staying true to those values builds upon your company’s reputation as a reliable, honest, and diligent appliance repair service.

Additionally, marketing can portray your business as part of the local community. For instance, participating in local events, giving back to the community, or partnering with local businesses (all part of marketing) is powerful PR and exposure for your company.

Improves Decision-Making

As we mentioned earlier, marketing data is a source of valuable insights. Such insights might be useful for informing important business decisions for your appliance repair company.

For instance, anticipating customer expectations enables you to fine-tune your price points, service delivery, and business model to better align with market dynamics.

In the modern age, data is a key ingredient in growing a business. But that doesn’t necessarily mean running a sophisticated data analytics system. Simply engaging with customers gives you actionable clues about what your customers want and where the market is headed.

Traditional Advertising vs. Digital Marketing

“Marketing” is a broad term with numerous categories and subcategories. But when marketing a localized appliance repair company, you have two general marketing approaches worth considering. One is traditional advertising, and the other is digital marketing.

What are the differences between the two methods? And is one better for your business than the other?

Traditional Marketing

Traditional or offline marketing refers to any form of advertising done using “old media.” These are TV and radio commercials, billboards, pamphlets, newspaper ads, telemarketing calls, and snail mail.

It’s an old-fashioned type of advertising that’s literally been around for millennia. Nevertheless, traditional marketing is a proven method that’s still relevant even today.

Traditional marketing is old but not out. And here are some stats and figures to prove it:

• Marketers are beginning to return to traditional advertising to get better results. (Harvard Business Review)
• In 2021, the US spent $196 billion on offline media advertising, 14 billion more than in 2020. (Statista)
• Nearly half of US adults trust print, TV, and radio ads. (Insider Intelligence)
• Despite poor TV ad viewership, 60% of respondents in a survey said they had purchased a product after seeing its advert on TV. (TV Tech)
• 80% of consumers act on direct mail advertising. (Cash4Toners)

The Pros and Cons of Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing clearly has a place in your appliance repair business. Here are the pros and cons of running traditional marketing campaigns:

The Pros

• Traditional marketing breaks through the digital clutter.
• Consumers trust old media adverts.
• There are many potential customers you can only reach via old media, particularly the older folk.
• Pamphlets, billboards, and local broadcast ads are ideal for marketing within your service area.
• Most traditional marketing methods are relatively straightforward.

The Cons

• The results of traditional marketing are difficult or impossible to measure.
• There’s a lot of red tape surrounding television, radio, newspaper, and billboard ads.
• Most traditional ads are a one-take affair; if the audience misses it, it’s gone.
• Targeting specific audiences with offline ads can be difficult.
• You have little to no control over traditional advertising mediums.
• Traditional ads can be expensive.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing refers to advertising through online channels such as websites, social media, apps, and streaming platforms. Unlike traditional advertising, digital marketing is relatively new. The first-ever online ad was posted in 1994.

Today, digital advertising is ubiquitous in business. It’s a powerful means for any business to reach and engage its target audience. Here’s a look at digital advertising by the numbers:

• In 2022, the digital advertising expenditure in the United States was $244 billion and could reach $395 billion by 2027. (Statista)
• About 85% of the US population uses the internet every day. (Zippia)
• On average, companies spend 53.8% of their marketing budgets on digital advertising. (The CMO Survey)
• 347 billion marketing emails are sent around the world daily. (Zippia)
• 76% of US adults shop online using smartphones, while 69% use desktop or laptop computers. (Pew Research Center)

The Pros and Cons of Digital Marketing

What are the advantages and disadvantages of digital marketing?

The Pros

• Both organic and paid digital advertising are relatively affordable.
• Digital media has a global reach but can be optimized for local audiences.
• Digital channels allow for personalized marketing.
• You can target your digital marketing campaigns to very specific audiences.
• The results of digital marketing are easy to track and measure.

The Cons

• Online marketing is highly competitive.
• Marketing on digital platforms requires technical skills.
• Competitors can use your online marketing channels against you.
• Online marketing may raise security and privacy concerns.
• Some digital marketing methods are slow and time-consuming.
• The older demographic is less likely to engage with online ads.

Traditional advertising and digital marketing are both excellent appliance repair marketing approaches. Each style brings unique strengths that complement each other. So, it’s not a question of which is better. Instead, run traditional and digital campaigns simultaneously and get the best of both worlds.

There’s more to marketing than choosing between new and old media. It takes careful planning and technical know-how to pull off a successful marketing campaign.

Luckily, you can get professional help in marketing your appliance repair company. Reputable marketing agencies Market Hardware and Socius Marketing are on hand to develop a winning strategy for you.

8 Tips for Marketing an Appliance Repair Business

Marketing works, and it’s pretty easy too. But you must make all the right choices to reap the rewards of successful marketing strategies. Let’s discuss what it takes to market an appliance repair business:

Know Your Appliance Repair Marketing Audience

First, you want to direct your marketing efforts toward the right people. That’s your target audience. Learn as much as you can about your target audience.

Start by creating a persona of your ideal appliance repair customer based on your business model.

If your business deals with home appliances, the bulk of your target audience is households, homeowners, and tenants. For commercial appliance repairs, you’ll likely be targeting restaurants, office buildings, schools, hospitals, etc.

Set Realistic Marketing Goals

What do you hope to achieve from your marketing efforts? Perhaps you want to boost foot traffic to your repair shop, get more job calls, or outdo your competition.

It’s important to establish clear and achievable objectives right from the start. That way, you can design a goal-oriented marketing strategy.

Consider Multichannel Marketing

Do not rely on just one appliance repair marketing channel. Cast a wider net by incorporating multiple strategies in your campaign. A combination of emailing, TV ads, search engine marketing, and print ads is perfect for your appliance repair company.

Most marketers (73%) use multichannel marketing—and you should too.

Focus on the Message

Every marketing campaign needs a strong message. This is the information relayed through your marketing channels to evoke action from the audience.

The message should be part of your appliance repair company’s USP. Ask yourself what part of your appliance services matters most to the audience.

Keep It Local

An appliance repair company is a local business. You probably operate within a specific town or neighborhood. So, it makes sense to focus all your marketing efforts on your service area.

Both traditional and digital advertising have localization capabilities.

Measure Your Appliance Repair Marketing Success

Be sure to measure the results of your marketing efforts to gauge their success. This is especially important when running multiple strategies simultaneously.

Analyze marketing outcomes against the set objectives. Doing so enables you to calculate marketing ROI and identify high-performance strategies.

Marketing Your Appliance Repair Business Is a Continuous Process

Philip Kotler, the Father of Modern Marketing, once said, “Marketing takes a day to learn. Unfortunately, it takes a lifetime to master.”

Marketing is not a one-off thing. You can’t just put up a billboard or build an appliance repair website and call it a day. You must continuously tweak your marketing strategies as you learn new tricks to cope with business dynamics.

Use All the Help You Can Get

Marketing campaigns, even for small local businesses, have many moving parts. But you don’t have to go at it alone. Bring all hands on deck.

Get all your employees and stakeholders to pull together toward a common marketing goal. Also, consider getting expert help from professional marketers.

10 Things You Can Do to Get Started Today

Let’s get real. It’s time to put your marketing strategy into action. Here are 10 appliance repair marketing ideas to get you started right now:

1. Build Your Appliance Repair Website

An appliance repair website is an essential resource for establishing an online presence. It’s also a great source of leads.

A static website with just a handful of branded pages is all you need. Just make sure every page features your company’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) and calls visitors to action.

You can also throw in a blog page, location map, and testimonials to enrich the site for search engine optimization (SEO).

FROM ONE OF OUR PARTNERS: 5 Ways to Attract More Customers Through Your Company’s Website

2. Claim Your Google Business Profile

Fill out your Google Business Profile. It’s a free online directory that lists your business with Google. Once listed, your company will get a Google Map pin. More importantly, you may appear in Google searches for appliance services in your area.

FROM ONE OF OUR PARTNERS: 2021 Guide to Optimizing Your Google My Business Profile

3. Get Social

Social media is a marketing powerhouse for local businesses. Sign your business up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Nextdoor, and LinkedIn.

The US has 302.35 million social media users; that’s about 90% of the country’s population. With such a vast audience, social networking is a great way to reach and engage potential appliance repair customers.

4. Drum Up Word-of-Mouth Advertising

Word-of-mouth marketing is the most trusted advertising channel. A recent survey found that 89% of consumers trust purchase recommendations from people they know.

This type of marketing lets your customers do the marketing for you. So, ensure you go above and beyond with customer service.

5. Grow Your Online Reviews

Online reviews are the digital equivalent of word-of-mouth recommendations. Start growing your appliance repair company’s reputation by encouraging customers to leave reviews on Google, your website, and social media.

It also helps to respond to both good and bad reviews.

6. Leverage Your Client List

Create a detailed contact list of past customers and new prospects. Then send personalized promotional emails or direct mails to each contact.

Doing this is great for converting leads and drawing repeat business.

7. Supplement Organic Marketing with Pay-per-Click Ads

Double down on your online presence with pay-per-click (PPC) ads. It’s difficult for most sites to rank at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). PPC ads promote your website to the top of SERPs for local appliance service queries.

With PPC, you pay the advertiser a small fee for every click. Better yet, you can buy Local Services Ads (LSAs) and instead pay for every lead.

FROM ONE OF OUR PARTNERS: Everything You Need to Know About Local Services Ads

8. Go On the Air

Speaking of paid adverts, why not buy some ad time on your local TV and radio stations?

A 30-second TV or radio commercial can really boost brand awareness and recognition. Half a minute is enough time to say what your appliance repair business does, its location, and how to reach it.

9. Build Your Local Presence

Increase your brand’s presence in your service area. Do so by buying ad space in local newspapers, billboards, and magazines.

Also, use commercial signage wherever possible. Get your name on storefronts, company vehicles, local public buses, roadsides, park benches, etc.

10. Get Expert Advice

Launching and running a marketing campaign can be too demanding to tackle alone. Besides, there’s always the risk of making expensive blunders.

Consult professional marketers to help you make the right marketing choices for your appliance repair business.