Roofers or roofing contractors need to be creative with how they market their businesses because they have a lot of competition in their area and more than likely their competition is similar in size and capabilities. For most areas of the country, roofing contractors are still independent people and not part of a major corporation. That means that the property owner is usually going to get a good deal but it also means that these roofers have to get more creative with their marketing as they have more competition and a smaller budget to work with.
Whenever you begin developing the marketing strategy the first thing you have to ask yourself is what type of field the company is in and where those customers make a decision to hire that company? If someone needs a roofing contractor for their home, where are they going to go to hire one? If they go online, what websites are they using to make their decisions?
Importance Of A Strong Presence
Take a moment to research the top roofing companies in your area based on where they rank on search engines. Try different searches and see how many times the same competitor shows up on the top page for one of those keywords. If the answer is anything over 7 out of 10 then you can be confident that your competitor is investing in search engine marketing with the hope of gaining as much organic and paid traffic as possible.
This also shows you the importance of this strategy as it’s obvious that your competitor is investing a lot of time and money into it. Now you have to ask yourself if they are what you would consider a successful company and if their online presence has anything to do with that? If so, then you can see the importance of building a strong presence.
Where To Start
For those who are new to Internet marketing there are not a lot of places they know where to begin for building a strong online presence. For the sake of making things easy let’s focus on where you can do a cost-effective or fast-paced option. Advertising on these platforms can either generate quick traffic or cost-effective traffic. Start with these areas for your roofing company:
· Google listings: There are a variety of affordable ways to market your business online and one of the best ways of doing that is to utilize Google My Business listings which are not only free but allow you to organically show up on local searches and generate monthly traffic and phone calls.
· Service apps: It’s easy to select construction assistance for smaller jobs these days thanks to service apps. If your roofing company offers repair work, you might consider listing yourself on some of these apps as this is where homeowners go for smaller projects that they need to have completed on their home.
· Search engine optimization: If you want to generate consistent and reliable traffic to your website while keeping your cost per acquisition down the only option for you to go with is search engine optimization. The reason this option does not work for everyone is because it requires months of commitment in order to generate rankings on Google.
· Pay per click: If you do not have months to generate that traffic, then pay per click might be the better option for you as you can get quick traffic based on your marketing budget.
If you are not sure where to begin with your marketing strategy, always consider starting with free services to get an idea of how things work. Most of these platforms offer free advisement and instruction on how to get started or you can contact some of them directly. Remember these platforms want you to have success with them so that you spend more time and money on getting traffic from them so utilize their services and see which one’s workout best.
Continue The Work
Just because you have set everything up and established a strong online presence does not mean your work is done. Marketing is a continual battle and for every month that things look to be going extremely well, there are months where you can see your traffic slowdown, especially because of the weather or other things that are impacting the field. If you have an agency working on your main marketing strategy, consider handling these areas either on your own or with their assistance:
· Content creation: The agency will recommend that you spend as much time as possible on creating high quality content. This is because it doesn’t matter what strategy is used, if the content is not fantastic you are not going to see the results you are hoping for.
· Social media: While social media may not be where people go to find a roofer, it is a cost-effective way to introduce your brand to thousands of homeowners in your area. Consider going with Facebook as they might have a better way of targeting homeowners then some of the other social media platforms.
· Flyers: Residential mailers or Flyers are also an effective way to introduce your brand and it could actually benefit you during certain times of the year. If you know that people are getting ready to start work on their homes, consider passing out these mailers so people who are unable to take on tasks like repairing their roof know who they can contact.
· YouTube: Creating YouTube videos may appeal more to the DIY enthusiast than the homeowner who is looking to hire a roofing contractor. However, because YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine it’s a good idea to try to get as much content ranked on there as possible.
Roofing contractors have to understand that in order to generate a lead online they must provide the client with enough information to give them confidence to request a quote. If there are dozens of options in your area people will always break down the selection based on a variety of things including online ratings. Your web presence can establish that you are a reliable and proven roofer in your area and that the consumer or homeowner would benefit greatly from contacting you for your assistance and to request a quote.