Marketing for roofers should always be seen as an investment: you should expect to get way more out than what you put in. Roofing marketing budgets should always turn into new customers and new revenue. But we all know that simply spending money isn’t going to do the trick; you have to set yourself up for success.
And just like you wouldn’t hire poor performing employees and cheap tools to get jobs completed, you shouldn’t hire a poor performing marketer (they should prove their work is turning into revenue) or use cheap marketing tools promising easy use and instant results.
Roofing company marketing will be much more efficient when you’ve covered all of the basics, plan your marketing (“let’s do social media” is not planning), execute where you’re more likely to get the highest return on investment, and, for goodness sake, track and measure all of the results from your marketing tactics.
Roofing marketing doesn’t have to be expensive to be effective.
Your roofing company needs to feed your business; there is no way around it. No one has the luxury of not being sure that every dollar is being put to the best use possible. Making sure your roofing business cannot only be found, but also stands out and above the competition, means the difference between growing your business and closing its doors.
Below is a list of marketing tactics roofing contractors can use to get their business name recognized in the community, prove their trustworthiness and skill, and deliver more leads and sales for their roofing company.
Several of these marketing tasks require little to no money to start.
Make a Professional, Mobile-Friendly Website
No legitimate business operates without a website in today’s digital landscape. When people need to find information, they pick up their phones and go to Google. And because an estimated 60% of all search engine queries are from phones, your website has to be mobile-friendly.
It should be easy to read and navigate, be full of pictures of the quality work you deliver, and quick to load so that you don’t turn potential customers away waiting for a page to load.
You should think of your website as an always-on, 24/7 money-generating sales machine. How much would you pay one salesperson to get roofing jobs for your business? How many jobs would they have to close to get a salary? We’re not suggesting you spend that much, of course, but that should be your mindset rather than “what’s the cheapest and fastest way I can get a website?”
Your website should be attracting new customers and educating new and previous customers about the benefits of maintenance and repair work, all of which you can deliver. But a substandard website won’t be able to deliver as much as a good one, and that means you’ll have to spend that much more on marketing.
So now you’re thinking, “OK, I need a good website. How do I get a website like you’re describing?” Well, we don’t create websites. We don’t do web design either. I like to let experts be experts and do what they do best, just like we wouldn’t try to replace our roof.
That being said, here is a shortlist of where you can find good, quality web designers and programmers:
Upwork: If you’re looking to find freelancers who can build websites, this is an excellent place to look. You post your job description and can privately invite freelancers you find, make the job public, and go through proposals, or both.
Google search: simply look for “web design in (your city)” and go through the listings. Shortlist the ones you like based on who has a good-looking website.
Behance: a website built for graphic designers using Adobe Creative Suite. This website has online portfolios you can look through to find what you like visually.
Chamber of Commerce: Search your local chamber of commerce for “web design” and get a list of companies that can get the job done.
Yelp: While I wouldn’t pay too much attention to the reviews (as many reviews are fake), this is still a resource for finding web designers.
Google Maps: If you want to find a web design agency or freelancer nearby, Google Maps will give you a map of people or companies that can build a website nearby.
Claim Your Business & Social Media Profiles
The first step (after having your money-making website) is to claim your business profiles on a handful of platforms. Several services can do most of the work for you, but some will have to be hand-built.
On top of claiming and building these profile pages (which do include some key social media profiles), these social media profiles need to be optimized (meaning filled in completely).
The following is a short list of directories and social media profiles you absolutely must complete:
Google Business Profile – This is the most important profile that can be completed. Your business profile information feeds into Google, Google Maps, Waze, and a handful of other applications. Claiming your business on Google is free and allows you to input relevant information for others to find and contact your company, like your phone number, website, address, and operating hours. Google’s algorithm will pop up your business information in a Google search when someone searches for your roofing business, making it as easy as possible for potential customers to get in contact with you. It will also show your business information on Google Maps when people search for “roofing companies” and a host of other searches.
Facebook – Having a business page on Facebook is another signal to search engines that your business is legitimate, and so long as the information across your business profiles is consistent, your website’s keyword rankings will benefit. For Facebook, make sure that (1) you set up a business page and not a personal page, and (2) all sections are filled out in their entirety. If you perform a Google search for your business name, chances are that your Facebook Business Page will be in the Top 3 of the search results.
Yelp – We’re not super fans of Yelp, but the fact remains that Yelp is still very much a major website and a place where potential customers will find you, read reviews about your roofing business, and Yelp information feeds other search engines and local listing websites.
Data Aggregators – These are the listing services that feed a ton of directories like YP, D&B, Yahoo, Apple Maps, and tons of others. Whitespark has outlined how these websites all work together, and it will make your brain hurt if you try to figure it out (see below).
Bing Places for Business – This is the Microsoft version of Google My Business, and Bing is still used by a decent number of people. This is another business listing that feeds other listing websites as well as Bing Maps.
Local Directories – There are hundreds of local directory websites, many of which are actually used by people and most of which are used by bots. Multiple companies offer local directory services (Yext, Advice Local, Brightlocal, Moz, Whitespark, and many others).
Create a Detailed FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
The best type of content for a roofing company is long-form blog posts in the form of questions and answers. Create a blog post with the title as a commonly asked question you get as a roofing company owner, and make the blog post content as detailed an answer as possible. For example, “How Much Does a New Roof Cost?” is a typical question a potential customer may ask and one that you, as an expert, can accurately answer. These are also the types of questions people searching Google will ask, which allows you to capture people entering the market for a new roof (which is the most valuable lead possible). If you do a good job of answering their question, you’ll have a huge advantage in landing them as a customer.
Some other examples include:
“Which kind of shingle last longest?”
“Should I repair my roof? Or buy a new one?”
“Should I just roof over my existing shingles?”
With 87% of shoppers beginning product searches on digital channels (according to Salesforce it is paramount that you get ahead of the competition when people are searching online for common asked roofing questions.
Put Some Work Into Social Media
We’re not saying put all of your time into social media like your kids or grandkids, but you can’t completely neglect it either. Use your social media accounts (many of which you already set up as previously outlined) as a form of marketing.
They’re 100% free, and they serve as a place to showcase your work. Post pictures of your team at work on Instagram, re-tweet happy experiences from customers on Twitter, and use Facebook as a place to ask for and answer questions from the public at large. Use social media to highlight your roofing company’s spirit and personality. This is a place to really differentiate yourself from your competition.
Optimize for Your Location
Be sure to use your particular location in some of your blog and social media content, your paid search ads, and on your website. Use keywords like “Orange County roofing” or “Anaheim roof repair” to pull in local customers completing Google searches. Not all of your content needs to be location-specific, but including some content with your neighborhood, zip code, city, and state can help market your business locally.
Use the Weather to Your Advantage
Roofing is somewhat of a seasonal business. Depending on what part of the country you’re in, you could work year-round or only in the summer and fall. One of the best ideas for roofing marketing is to use seasonal weather patterns in your ads. In the Fall, you may want to show a photo of snow damage to a roof, and in the Spring, you could show hail damage being repaired. Entice people to prepare for the upcoming season by hiring your roofing company.
Another way to use weather to your advantage: reserve about 15% of your monthly marketing budget for bad weather events. After bad weather hits, there is always increased demand for roofing repairs and replacements, so make sure you have enough marketing budget in order to capture as much of that increased demand as possible.
Make sure your ads push all the buttons (use all the keywords) that a person searching for emergency roof repair might use, including:[/vc_column_text]
List the types of roofs your roofing company works on or specializes in that customers might search for:
Start PPC Marketing
PPC, or Pay-Per-Click, marketing is what you see when you search for something in Google, and sponsored results display at the top of the page. You will pay an amount up to the limit that is set for each time someone clicks on your roofing ad. You can set a daily and monthly budget for your campaigns. If someone searches for “Dallas roofing company,” your roofing company’s ad will display above Google’s organic search results.
This is a tried-and-true method of getting traffic to your website, your phone to ring, and appointments for estimates. PPC Marketing is highly effective but also very costly if you’re not familiar with the ins and outs of Google Ads.
Market Your Roofing Company to Stand Out
Only marketing a roofing company as a roofing company won’t make you stand out from your competitors. Since pretty much no one has unaided brand recognition, you need to bring a fresh angle to your marketing efforts for your business to get people’s attention.
Marketing your business as an eco-friendly roofing company (for example) or one that provides the most options for roof types in your market. Maybe offer a maintenance package with an installation.
Inject your personality into the image and marketing messaging. Creating a brand, even if you do exactly what your nameless and vanilla competitors do, will make it clear to your audience how your company is different and why people should choose it over others.
New homeowners spend nearly $11,000 on items and home repairs during the first year after they purchase a home. An offer for new homeowners, helping them save money on repairs after their home purchase, may help you stand out and get ahead of the competition. It’s actually pretty easy to get a list of new homeowners and market to them via email, social media, and programmatic marketing.
Take Before-and-After Pictures of Jobs
Show people how incredible your work is by taking before-and-after pictures of your jobs to display on your website and social media, along with testimonials or reviews on your social media accounts. You can also use the photos in blog posts, press releases, and digital ads to show everyone what you can do instead of just telling them. An often-overlooked tactic for marketing a roofing company is to send out press releases that outline something new and exciting about your company. Getting the word out to relevant media personnel, like bloggers, journalists, and news websites, will give your roofing company credibility.
Did you add a new type of roofing to your lineup? Are you offering a special discount for Veterans and First Responders (seriously, give firemen a discount and they will tell everyone about it)? Create a press release with your news and add some handy tips to helpful and not too salesy.
Spread the news by sending your professional press release to editors, journalists, and websites that have ties to your industry and in your service area.
Actively Manage Your Online Reputation
One of the most important things you can do as a business is to actively manage your online reputation. Check your Google My Business listing, Yelp, and other review sites frequently to see what your customers say about you. Actively ask for most reviews. Respond to customer praise, complaints, and questions.
Be sure not to devalue what others say, but instead make it clear that unhappy customers can contact you, make those customers feel heard, and be happy to help them in whatever way you can. By responding quickly, you show others you care and are willing to correct a negative situation.
Reputation matters for contractors online more than ever. Although sometimes your customers will give you reviews without being asked, more often than not, they need a little coaxing. When people search for roofing companies online, they want to see that the business has verified and trusted reviews on sites like Google, Facebook, Yelp, and more.
Building up dozens and hundreds of positive reviews will 100% guaranteed help you close more customers in the future. People are fearful of making expensive mistakes, so by showing prospective customers that dozens and hundreds of people have had a good experience with your roofing business, you take the uncertainty and fear out of making an expensive purchase.
Take Advantage of Co-op Advertising
Co-op advertising is when a local reseller advertises using an ad that includes a specific mention of a big-name brand that they resell, which, in turn, repays or credits the reseller for all or part of the cost of the ads. Major brands and manufacturers want to reach their target demographic in the same way local resellers want to advertise to their customers and community.
For this reason, co-op advertising is a partnership between the big-name manufacturer and the local reseller to share the cost of advertising at the local level. Co-op advertising is a real, cost-effective way to minimize media costs, get credit for the product, and use manufacturer-created ads and messaging while increasing ROI by reaching more of the target audience.
Some manufacturers offer up to 100% of the media cost based on the previous year’s sales.
Are you ready to market your roofing company?
Working with a professional marketing company like ours to help grow your business through digital marketing in the most thoughtful, cost-efficient, and customer-focused manner will not only deliver more business but also save you from wasting money.
Using Search Engine Optimization, Google Ads, Social Media Marketing, and making improvements to your website so that potential customers can find your roofing business more easily to attract more leads is a safe and smart long-term investment.
Using our best-in-class digital marketing services and marketing strategy can turn your website into a money-making machine. There’s no time like the present.
