As a roofing contractor, effectively marketing your roofing business can be tough
Fortunately, there are many simple and often free strategies that roofing business owners can employ in order to successfully market their companies.
Yet, too often roofing contractors forgo these strategies and follow trends that many times lead to business owners wasting thousands of dollars.
“I see these marketing mistakes all over the internet, and I want to help you avoid these costly mistakes,” says Roofing Insights CEO Dmitry Lipinskiy, a former roofing business owner who knows a thing or two about how to market a roofing company.
Keep reading as Lipinskiy explains what roofing contractors can do in order to avoid making costly marketing mistakes!
1. Poor name choices
It is common for roofing contractors to stumble into a career in the roofing industry.
Whether it is the sizable paychecks or the ability to quickly scale a company, roofing contractors are usually good with understanding how to organize a roofing company.
At the same time, marketing their roofing company is another challenge entirely.
“When it comes to choosing a name for a roofing company, a lot of contractors go with the first name that comes to mind. It could be your initials or something stupid. It could also be something that everyone else is doing,”
says Lipinskiy.
“I highly recommend that you take your name seriously if you want people to take your roofing business seriously. You cannot dominate your market and grow if you don’t have a catchy name that people will remember. Also, if you have a bad name, it will cost you much more to advertise your company, get leads, and force people to remember who you are and what you do.”
2. Using “exteriors” in your company name
Adding “exteriors” or “construction” into a business name is a tactic that many roofing contractors think will appeal to homeowners, but in reality, it only adds confusion for the homeowner and limits the online reach that a proper company name could otherwise generate.
To eliminate any confusion for homeowners and to appeal to organic searches online, Lipinskiy recommends that roofing contractors focus instead on selecting a name that caters to a specific niche.
“If you want more roofing jobs, you need to have `roofing’ in your company name,”
says Lipinskiy.
“You can be successful without `roofing’ in your name, but if you really want to dominate your niche and save money on marketing, then put `roofing’ in your company name.”
One roofing company who does this extremely well is Charleston Roofs & Windows down in South Carolina.
Not only does their company name detail the services they offer, but it also allows them to appear on the first page of Google because the name satisfies Google’s local search criteria.
That being said, there is simply no reason for contractors to not put “roofing” in their company name.
“No one is searching for `exteriors.’ When a homeowner needs a roofer, they search for `find a roofing contractor near me,’” explains Lipinskiy.
“If you have `exteriors’ in your name, people are not searching for that. You don’t want dead keywords because they will stifle your marketing efforts.”
3. Selling too many products
Some new business owners want to offer every exterior service to homeowners.
Simply put, trying to satisfy everyone will be cumbersome and hold your business back.
“You also cannot market that many products,” adds Lipinskiy.
As mentioned, roofing companies see the most success when they establish a niche service (such as roofing) in their local market.
Moreover, once a niche has been established, it is also crucial to only offer homeowners a select number of products.
For example, a contractor who offers four different brands of shingles is spreading themselves too thin.
The better strategy would be to master a few brands of shingles.
“You only want to be an expert in one or two brands of shingles,”
notes Lipinskiy.
4. Not asking for reviews
Unfortunately, even though many roofing contractors perform quality work, they fail to follow up with homeowners and ask for reviews.
Contractors:
The world is changing.
Word-of-mouth no longer carries the same weight that it used to because homeowners are going online to search for roofing companies.
“Referrals are online now. If you don’t have tons of online reviews, you’re not going to have tons of online referrals,” deadpans Lipinskiy.
“Here’s the catch: if you’re not asking for positive reviews, then bad reviews are coming your way, whether you like it or not.”
This is because no matter how pure a roofing contractor’s intentions may be, there will always be homeowners who are dissatisfied with a job.
Therefore, roofing companies will inevitably receive poor online reviews, but the key to overcoming these negative reviews is to have accumulated a vast number of positive reviews.
If executed properly, the few negative reviews will be inconsequential because a roofing company will have amassed enough positive feedback in order to offset the potentially damaging criticism.
That being said, failing to acquire a fair amount of positive reviews could leave roofing contractors vulnerable.
“No homeowners are going to want to spend $20,000-$30,000 with a roofing contractor who has bad reviews online,” Lipinskiy says.
Real quick:
Bribing homeowners is not an effective strategy for getting reviews.
Doing so could tarnish a contractor’s reputation because it might give off the impression that they buy positive reviews instead of earning them.
5. Not spending on organic content marketing
In case you haven’t noticed, radio and TV ads are slowly becoming obsolete.
Inversely, YouTube, Facebook, and Google Guaranteed are on the rise because these platforms allow anyone to market content, for free!
If you’re a roofing contractor, take advantage of these platforms because not only will they give you free advertising for the next few days, but the content that you create online today will still pay dividends years down the line.
Also, make sure the content you create is organic.
Especially for newer roofing contractors, there is no need to hire marketing firms to help promote your roofing business.
“A common mistake that I see roofing business owners make is that they hire marketers. All that does is throw money at the problem,”
says Lipinskiy.
“Hiring marketers might fix your problem for a very short period of time, but the moment you lose that momentum, you’re done.”
Right now, local roofing companies can focus their efforts on creating videos, blog posts, and press releases that can effectively promote their businesses.
In terms of what type of content to create, Lipinskiy has a piece of advice.
“You just have to figure out what stories you want to share. I believe in content marketing because it’s very organic. It changed the way I generated business, and I know it can change the way you generate business,” he says.
Contractors:
Are you looking for ways to implement content marketing in your roofing company?
Check out the Roofing Business School today to learn how you can begin marketing your roofing business more effectively!
Packages start as low as $197/month!
