You've built a solid reputation and a well-respected roofing and restoration company. Now you need to start generating more leads, and ultimately closing more deals. So what's the secret? How do you attract more clients and thus build your business? Below are six tips for helping you market and grow your roofing/restoration company.
As a restoration specialist, you probably cover a fairly broad geographic area. Your work is where there are problems: flood, fires, hurricanes. As such your marketing needs to be able to target a variety of areas as well as client types, from residential to commercial, to the public sector. Referral programs are certainly helpful and can be a great source for new leads, but what other strategies can you employ to get your company's name out in front of more people…
Marketing Idea #1: Make Sure the Website's Solid
This serves as your resume, your business card, really as the headquarters in a manner of speaking for your organization. Any digital efforts that you employ will funnel to your site, as well as your offline efforts as well. With any type of service, particularly with construction and restoration type services, people will go to your site first. If it's not up to date, if it's not solid, they'll likely dismiss you and move on to the next person.
Your roofing and restoration site needs to do a couple of important things:
- It should facilitate a conversation with a potential client.
- Communicate precisely what it is your company does.
- Outline your service area.
- Provide contact information and a call to action.
For restoration and/or roofing companies, in terms of website design, the simpler, the better. Keep it clean and modern.
Marketing Tip #2: Work on that Value Proposition
How can you get that edge over your competition? One thing is to ensure that you have a unique value proposition (UVP/), such that outlines what value is associated with the work that you do, gives the customer benefits and states why you are better than your competitors. This last point is key—so take some time and think about how your roofing/restoration company is better:
- Are your prices more reasonable?
- Do you have equipment/technology that your competition doesn't have?
- Is your guarantee more comprehensive?
- Is your communication with the customer better?
- Are your estimates more accurate?
People want a reason to choose your company over another restoration service—so give them a few!
Marketing Tip #3: Stay on Top of Your Reputation
We live in an online world where reputation is everything, and largely this comes in the form of reviews--so in other words, content created by others about your roofing and restoration company. Customers are going to go to the reviews. They will visit the website of course and then they'll scour the internet for any reviews they can find related to your services.
So how can you manage your reputation and ensure that the reviews people do come across will be favorable ones…It begins with providing the best service possible of course. Your customer has to come first—customer services need to be at the heart of your company culture. And then when you do end a successful project, you want to always follow up with the customer, affirm their continued satisfaction with your work and also encourage them to leave a review. They can put it on Google, Yelp, HomeAdvisor, Facebook—there are tons of platforms on which they can post their glowing recommendation.
If you do encounter a negative review—address it. Ignoring it will only hurt you in the end. Ask what you can do to improve your service. You may not be able to get them to rescind the review, but at least you're showing that you do care about your clients and your reputation.
Marketing Tip #4: Build Referral Programs and Forge Partnerships
You may be able to expand the size and scope of your restoration business by partnering with those who serve a similar clientele. Such professionals could include: REALTORs, contractors, painters, cleaners—any type of business that intersects with your roofing/restoration company can be a valuable asset. The value in forming such partnerships comes in the leads that you can get. And these, unlike some others, are higher quality leads.
How do you find other companies with whom to partner…You can go to networking events, become a presence on LinkedIn, anywhere there's an opportunity to meet and interact with people in businesses relevant to yours, take advantage of it!
Also, keep in mind, you want your brand to stand out and thus be memorable to those with whom you do engage. Spend some money and time on making your brand visible in your community. Wrap your vehicles, get company shirts, put some money into signage.
Marketing Tip #5: Make a Video
Video is a great way to reach a large number of users. Plus, it's a perfect tool for communicating your UVP and motivating audiences to utilize your restoration and roofing services. Video length can range from a short 30-second clip to a longer more explanatory 2-minute piece. Either way here is a great channel for maximizing your exposure. Also, with the tools and platforms available now, videos are relatively cheap to create. You then just upload to YouTube and you can use the video on your website as well as throughout the various social media accounts your company has set up.
Marketing Tip #6: Maintain a Facebook Page
Many restorations and/or roofing companies are not taking advantage of Facebook Business pages. This is a serious mistake. Facebook is used all the time by potential customers asking for recommendations. And if you have a relevant page—that's more leads coming your way.
A Facebook business page is a bit different from a standard Facebook page. It's essentially a website on which you can also post social media-worthy updates. You can utilize the messenger app to interact directly with clients. Bonus: the page is free, so really there's nothing to lose and a tremendous amount of exposure to gain!
Do you need funding for your marketing plan? First Union Lending is here to help. Call today to find out what we can do for you!