How to Succeed with Thumbtack

Thumbtack is a platform where individuals can connect local professionals for a project they need done, almost as an intermediary between customers and local businesses. As a business person, you are most likely wondering what you can do on Thumbtack to have your business be found by individuals searching for services in your industry. Millions of customers head to Thumbtack, with the goal of hiring the right professional to help them with whatever their need may be. Below, we discuss several things you can do on Thumbtack to get your company more business!

As business owners, we can all appreciate that leads & sales are essential to our success. Without either of the two, there is no business! 

In the pursuit of leads, small businesses spend valuable hours of time and thousands of dollars on many different forms of lead generation. Some work well, some are ok and some don’t work at all for many reasons. 

In my business, I have primarily relied on word of mouth referrals as well as business networking to keep my lead pipeline full but I have found a really nice supplement to that with Thumbtack. If you haven’t heard of it, it is a service that connects local consumers and clients to local vendors and services providers. 

After an initial learning curve, I have been able to get quite a bit of business that I would never have gotten otherwise. I am typically working with at least two Thumbtack clients at any given time and recently became a Top Pro in my industry.

This was all after I was nearly about to give up on it after only spending about $150 on leads. I am happy to say I did give it some more time and it has become a great source of revenue to my business.

Now, to save your self some money and maybe from getting down on Thumbtack, I want to share some tips with you. These tips should also serve as a guide in deciding whether or not using Thumbtack is right for you.

Before you even send a quote

One thing I did not understand is how important my profile was to potential bidders. Seems silly right? Well, for the most part, I think that many of the people down on Thumbtack probably don’t take the time to fill it out completely. Most of this article covers tips you should know before you start spending money on quotes.

Increase Customer Reviews

According to the statistics on Thumbtack’s website, if you have 3 reviews on your page, hires increase by 60%, and those are statistics you do not want to miss out on!

When you create your profile, you can start requesting reviews. The best place to start is to send the link to some of your best clients and ask them to write a quick review on Thumbtack for you. The only downside to this is that the reviews will show as reviews form outside of Thumbtack since they did not hire you initially there but it still goes a long way versus someone looking at your profile and not seeing any.

Once you get established and get a few jobs under your belt from Thumbtack generated clients, be sure to get them to review you because those are the ones that count as verified reviews and are seen as even more credible.

Have a professional response to quote requests ready

Thumbtack allows you to have canned responses ready for potential clients. This is a great way to ensure that no matter how busy you are, you can respond to quotes with a friendly and comprehensive response with next steps.

For many businesses, you probably will not give anyone a price without an additional follow up conversation which is what I do for the most part. This being the case, make it very clear to them that the first step in the process to getting a quote is to setup a call or meeting to go over a few details and provide them with an easy way to get in touch with you.

Write an in-depth Profile Description

Professionals who completely and thoroughly fill in their descriptions are hired by customers 40% more than professionals lacking information. It’s important to go over why you are passionate about what you do, overview of qualifications you may have in your industry, and even a success story about a past client or job you completed. Being keen on the details in your description can be the difference between business and no business, so give it some thought!

Follow Up

You will get a notice as soon as a potential customer looks at your quote, which is where you want to take advantage of opening up a dialogue between yourself and the individual. Following up shows that your business is active and not just a ghost account lingering on Thumbtack aimlessly. Not only does following up portray responsiveness, but it also allows you to assist the customer and offer a solution for them!

The follow up process is so important that it is also once of the deciding factors in whether or not Thumbtack is right for you. The reason being is that each person is likely getting multiple pros contacting them so a slow follow up process will really hurt your chances of getting the business or better yet the best clients who make quick decisions and aren’t as concerned with price shopping every option!

Track your progress!

Once you start using Thumbtack, make sure you keep track of what you are spending and what you are bringing in. This will help you to understand if Thumbtack is working for you and if what you’re doing is producing results. If it seems like you aren’t getting business or people aren’t responding it will help you to understand whether you need to take another look at your profile or the responses you are delivering to clients.

Good Luck!

The previous tips give you and your business a great head start when it comes to fully utilizing and succeeding on Thumbtack! Give your business the opportunity to grow by following these simple steps which will get you noticed much faster by customers in need. As a business owner, are you having a tough time navigating the ways of the digital world? Is Yelp hurting your business? It may be time to look at what you could be doing online to improve your business.