Raul Quintanar of lead generation specialist TriGlobal offers some advice on how to make the most of your digital marketing.

In the moving industry, trends change rapidly, so it is crucial for companies to understand what type of services are most in demand. Going digital, at least in part, is necessary to enable your company to adapt to current customer behaviour, but first, you need to ask yourself the following questions.

What is my focus as a company?

We know that government, military, and corporate moves are the holy grail of every international moving company. They are recurrent, stable, and profitable contracts. Therefore, many movers dedicate most of their resources to these moves. However, competition for these contracts is getting tougher and are increasingly becoming out of reach for many companies. On the other hand, less attention is given to private households, which have been increasing by a high percentage in the last few years.

To create long-term sustainable growth, you must diversify your targets and go digital. Adding different services and increasing your online presence will increase your opportunities and have a direct impact on your turnover and profits. Here are four steps to start moving towards this goal:

• Look into the resources and assets available in your company and establish whether all aspects of your updated digital business model are covered with your current resources. And, if needed, restructure your departments, to use the resources available more effectively.
• Partner with other non-competing firms to provide more and better services.
• Find ways to attract new potential customers by working with a lead generator. This will provide you with prechecked customer requests tailored to your needs.
• Update the quote form on your website and turn every visitor into a potential booked move.

How can I improve the quote form on my website?

Your quote form is your main source of potential clients. Our industry is no different from any other, in the sense that companies rely on finding new customers to keep their business running.  Here are some basics on how to improve your quote form.

Place your quote form button on every page of the website where a user could possibly land. Also, remember to place it at the top part of each page, since this is the first thing people see when they open a certain page.

Keep it short. My advice is to ask the users only what you need to start the conversation with them. If you have a simple and short quote form, and the added value of your service is clear to the user, they are more likely to complete your form.

Add a volume calculator. There are a number of tools available that will provide the total volume you need to prepare a quote.

Make it stand out. You want your quote button to stand out and be visible. Therefore, the goal is to have a high contrast between the colour of the form and the other colours used on your website.

Ensure privacy. Promise the user that you will keep their details securely. This reassures them and strengthens confidence.

To increase the traffic on your website, there are also different options. If you have enough marketing budget, you could consider advertising. This will lead people to a specific landing page that is optimised for them to request quotes. If you prefer to save on this aspect, you can also work on your own website content and social media to increase the organic traffic.

What digital processes can I use to increase my booking ratio?

The first part is now taken care of.  You received information about potential customers from your website or your lead provider. But now, you want to increase your chances of booking clients. Here are some of the most resource-efficient ways to do it.

Make it personal. Add a page on your website introducing your team, history, values, mission and vision. Trust is an essential factor in the selection process for customers. For this reason, not only does your reputation matter, but also the personal connection you create with them in the early stages.

Adapt to the current times by using video call applications. Digital surveys are an important step for your business to save time and money on this important sales process. Organising a video call will allow you to have one-on-one communication with your client, just as if you were at their place. Some options are Zoom, WhatsApp, Teams or use one of the dedicated apps.

Use shared files. You need to organise your files digitally to avoid confusion and allow multiple people to have access to them. This will speed-up your processes as everything can be done digitally, even if your employees are working from home or when a salesperson is stuck in traffic. For this, you can use applications such as Microsoft Teams or Dropbox.

What can I do to let people know how satisfied my customers are?

By now, we learned about how to get more leads for individual household services and what to do to increase the booking ratio. But how can you guarantee this peak of booking is not a one-time thing but a stable trend in your company?

Contact your customers after the move.  Always call your customers a few days after the move is completed to make sure everything went well, and they are happily relocated in their new house. This will again strengthen your relationship with them and make it easier to convince them to leave a positive review about your services.

Make the most of social media. Linked in, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube have all been around for a while now and more than ever your customers are being influenced by them. Setting up a profile only takes a few minutes but gives your company an additional online presence when customers search for you. Be aware that managing social media requires time, so master one platform before moving on to another.

Use review platforms. These are a powerful way to be seen by new customers and they usually have a highly ranked Google position. Invite customers to leave a comment on all these platforms and keep your profile updated. This will increase your online presence, ensure that all customers going through this platform have a chance to see previous customers’ satisfaction, and your brand trustworthiness will increase.

By interlinking your media channels and profiles in review platforms, you can increase your chances of conversion.  Linking profiles keeps clients connected to your content at multiple stages of their online journey. Some examples are adding links at the end of your e-mails asking people to follow you on Facebook, or adding links to your website for interesting articles you posted on LinkedIn.

By applying all of these, it will be easier for you to adapt to the continuous changes in the industry and be more effective. To sum up, you will: mitigate the risks to your company and enhance its overall potential; increase the number of visitors to your website and conversions on your quote form; improve your booking ratio; have a more stable online presence and broader reach; and consolidate your brand awareness. All together these will translate into better results for your company.

Start your digitalisation process today!

Raul is a member of the business development team at TriGlobal.