Organic business growth is a wonderful thing for a roofing small business. But regardless of the size and reach of your roofing business, or the uniqueness of your approach to your craft or to customer service, eventually the time may come when organic growth can slow. It’s at this time that investing in marketing for your roofing business is worth considering to help you to continue growing your business and reaching new customers.
While you may not think your roofing business needs marketing, when done with a clear marketing strategy and marketing plan you may just be surprised by how quick your roofing business may grow. Indeed, as it matures marketing can become as essential to the longevity of your business as roofing contractor insurance.
Small business marketing tips for growing your roofing business
Embrace email marketing
Email marketing is an essential method of communicating with your customers on their terms and where they are already browsing – i.e., in their email inbox. It’s also one of the most popular forms of marketing communication for small businesses, which means it’s something you may consider introducing to your roofing business if you’re not doing it already.
While not every single person on your marketing emailing list will open every email communication you send them, many will, especially if your email marketing is well done and adds value to your customers and prospective customers.
Email marketing gives you an opportunity to build trust with those in your customer database by providing helpful tips, discounts, trends, content marketing, and industry updates. You should also include information about new products or services your roofing business has introduced, as well as any other announcements that may benefit your email subscribers.
If you’re not doing it already, ask for the email address of every prospective customer you engage with, so you can send them an email inviting them to opt into receiving email communications from your roofing business. You may start by sending a monthly marketing email to your database, measure the results, and build from there.
Introduce a referral program
Popular opinion can be a powerful thing, and even more so in today’s digital communication-heavy society due to how easy it now is for opinions to be shared and gather consensus via social media and news and other websites. It’s one of the reasons why there are so many online review websites and consumer product review websites.
Even in the age of digital technology, people will listen to what others have to say about your services. Some may even treat what they read online as gospel, without checking for references for validation.
But as a business owner you can flip this on its head by implementing a referral program for your roofing business. It can be as simple as asking happy customers for testimonials, reviews, and gaining their permission to publish their feedback on your company website, in your company emails, and on your company’s social media pages. If you can, ask for their permission to use their real names, as doing so will add extra credibility to your roofing business.
Optimise your company website
To help make your roofing company’s website easier to find for individuals and businesses looking for qualified roofers in your area, it’s important that you optimise the site for local search engine optimisation (SEO). SEO helps search engines such as Google make your roofing company website easier to find for those who are searching online for a roofing professional in their area.
You may work with a digital marketing agency or an SEO specialist to help ensure that your investment in SEO pays dividends for your business. In the process you may also decide to redesign your company website to make it
easier to navigate, quicker to load, and optimised for mobile devices.
Remember that your company website will often be the first meaningful interaction potential customers will have with your business. First impressions count, so aim to impress with your company website.
Strategically manage online reviews
Negative reviews online about your roofing business can be extremely frustrating, especially for small business owners who are working hard to establish the credibility of their business. That said, individuals and other businesses who have never done business with your roofing company before will invariably seek out reviews of your business online before they contact you directly.
It’s a make-or-break scenario and can mean you may lose new business before you ever really had a chance to win it. This is because the general rule is that customers who have a bad experience are twice to three times more likely to write an angry review online than customers who had a great experience are to post a positive review.
But customers care about reviews, and they will read them before choosing to do with you or to take their business elsewhere. A great way to manage online reviews for your roofing business is to claim your Google My Business page, which will allow you to reply to consumer reviews on Google. If and when you have time, respond thoughtfully to all customer reviews of your business, acknowledging their concerns and offering to follow up and set things right if needed.
Get listed in online trade directories
Just as SEO makes it easier for potential customers to find your roofing company’s website, having your roofing business listed in the most popular online tradie directories can go a long way to making your roofing services more visible to those who are looking for a roofing business.
If you’ve not already listed your roofing business on online trade directories such as Hipages or Tradie Centre, it might be worth considering to raise the visibility and profile of your roofing company and the roofing services you offer, and the locations that your business serves.
Professional roofing contractors will know well the risks that they may encounter throughout their working day. But business insurance such as insurance for roofing contractors*, also known as roofing contractor insurance, can help you to actively reduce your risk. Visit our dedicated insurance for roofing contractors page to learn more about roofing contractor insurance and get your free quotes.
*This information is general only and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It should not be relied upon as advice. As with any insurance, cover will be subject to the terms, conditions and exclusions contained in the policy wording. © 2022 BizCover Pty Limited, Public Liability Australia is a business name of BizCover Pty Ltd (ABN 68 127 707 975; AFSL 501769)
