In 2022, the US roofing industry was worth $56.1 billion, and this number is projected to keep growing throughout the next few years. There are several roofing strategies for rapid growth to follow that will give insight on how to optimize your marketing strategy for your roofing company.
Roofing Company Marketing Strategies to Stand Out
Just like any other industry, roofing company marketing strategies are imperative in order to receive a bigger piece of the roofing industry pie. Marketing tactics have evolved with the growth of the internet, and successful marketing strategies now utilize a combination of digital and traditional marketing.
So, how do you get your company to stand out when there are nearly 82,000 roofing contractors in the United States?
With a fine-tuned roofing marketing strategy!
The following tactics can be incorporated into developing your marketing strategy, or can be used to strengthen your existing marketing plan. Read on to learn more about each.
Roofing Company Marketing Strategies That Work
We have compiled a list of marketing strategies for roofing companies that will make them stand out from the crowd.
1. Email Marketing
Email marketing is an effective way to create and maintain a more personal relationship with your customers, and also has an extremely high return on investment. On average, for every $1 spent on an email marketing campaign, $36 is earned!
The key is to send quality emails. Sending a monthly newsletter is a great way to engage with customers and keep them updated on the company and the roofing industry. By sending newsletters, you will remain fresh in their minds and they will feel personally connected to your business.
In addition to monthly newsletters, you can also send out tips, information, and offers. Consistently sending valuable emails, such as “Best Roofing Maintenance Tips for Homeowners” will lead to your subscribers recognizing you as an industry authority and expert. In doing this, you gain their trust.
By keeping track of your subscribers’ behavior, you will be able to send them individualized emails based on their habits. You can offer incentives when people sign up to be on your email list, such as a discount on services, a free guide, entry into a giveaway, or merchandise with your company logo on it.
2. Strong Online Presence
The first place most people go when they need to seek out a roofing company is the internet. By making sure you have a strong online presence, you can increase the chances that potential customers will notice and remember your company.
Make sure that you claim your business on sites like Google and Yelp. This will allow you to monitor and respond to customer reviews and keep information such as your phone number and business hours current.
Being able to respond to customer reviews goes a long way in maintaining a relationship and building trust with your client base. A bad review can be disheartening to receive, but publicly replying and offering a solution will go a long way in showing the integrity of your roofing company.
Responding to positive reviews by thanking the customer will also benefit your company. Professionally responding to all your online reviews is an excellent marketing tactic and strengthens your online presence.
3. Optimized Website
The best place to start is to build and maintain an excellent website for your roofing company. This doesn’t mean it has to be fancy or over-the-top. Your website should be easy to navigate and contain current information.
Websites should contain high-quality content so that when people come across it (whether intentionally or by accident) they stay a while. Your website will also need to be optimized so that it has desktop and mobile browser friendly versions.
Another component of a successful website is search engine optimization (SEO). This is the process of increasing the quantity and quality of your website traffic from search engines, and involves unpaid, organic results.
The starting point for SEO is to research relevant and popular keywords and terms, and then to use them on each page of your website. You want to make sure the content you are creating is high-quality, not just a random mix of keywords thrown together.
With over 1.2 million searches every month for roofing services on search engines, proper SEO will help you rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). Most people click on websites that show up on the first page of results, and very rarely does anyone look further than the third results page.
It is important to bear in mind that you will not see immediate results from SEO and optimizing your website. The results will grow over time, and will be well worth the patience.
4. Social Media
Establishing a social media presence is an excellent marketing tactic. Instead of jumping in head first and creating accounts on every social media platform, do some research and find out which platforms your customers use the most. Then, do some research on those platforms and choose the ones which fit your needs and goals the best as well.
Twitter is excellent for having conversations with customers and potential customers. Of all the social media platforms, it is the one you can post on dozens of times a day without overwhelming anyone. You can reply to individuals quickly on this platform.
Facebook is a good option if you want to share links as well as posts, videos, and pictures. Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and LinkedIn are all other options to create an account on.
No matter which platforms you create an account on for your business, you need to make sure you are posting relevant and relatable content. Plan your posts ahead of time, and look into using a site (such as Hootsuite) to schedule those posts being published.
Once you make a post, be sure to monitor the analytics so you can see what types of posts perform better than others. Most social media platforms provide their own analytics, or you can use additional software. You will also need to make sure to respond to comments and personal messages in a quick and professional manner.
As always, don’t just post on social media to get posts out there. Share posts that provide value to your customers. Whether it’s an employee spotlight post or a how-to demonstration, make sure you are posting content that people want to consume. This will increase your engagement with your followers.
5. Referrals/Discounts
Even though the internet has revolutionized the way we communicate and do business, a good ol’ word of mouth referral is still one of the best ways to gain customers. Having a good referral program in place is a great way to take advantage of this.
You can offer a discount for customers who refer potential customers to your roofing company. For example, you can advertise that you will give $50 off of a service whenever a new customer contacts you and says the name of who recommended them to get in touch with you.
Referrals frequently happen over social media, not just in person. When people need to find a reputable contractor to get a job done, they often post on Facebook asking their friends if they have any recommendations. By having an established social media presence as well as a good referral program in place, you stand a better chance of being mentioned.
You can also encourage customers to leave positive reviews and post feedback about their experience. When they do so, you can share their testimonies in your emails, social media, and website.
6. Co-Marketing
Co-marketing occurs when multiple companies share marketing opportunities. For example, a roofing company and plumbing company might be able to co-market. Both companies operate in the same niche and come in contact with potential customers for the other.
Another example would be working marketing with real estate agents. Often, roof repairs are required for a home sale, and if you co-market with a real estate agent, you have an opportunity to build your professional network while earning more business.
Co-marketing is low-risk, due to the fact that companies in the same niche already share similar target audiences. This increases the likelihood that customers for one will become customers for the other. You can even offer specials and discounts for customers who purchase services from both companies at the same time.
Companies can collaborate on a wide variety of marketing tactics and promotional activity, which lowers the cost for both companies. Co-marketing also gives you the opportunity to network with new people and demonstrates that you are community-oriented.
Another benefit of co-marketing is the opportunity to exchange ideas with individuals in a similar line of work who are not your competition. Collaborating with other like-minded professionals will help you develop as a business person while also adding to your marketing plan.
7. Content Marketing
Content marketing is another effective marketing strategy for roofers. An excellent way to dip your toes into content marketing is by starting a blog for your company.
Blogging allows you to publish content frequently, which helps your online presence stay relevant. As a roofer, you can write blog posts offering tips of roof maintenance or ways to prepare your roof for a snow storm or a hurricane (depending on where you live).
Creating fresh content offering your expertise and advice on all things to do with roofing will establish your authority in the industry. When someone goes to research a question they might have about their roof and your blog post shows up, it makes them more likely to contact you directly.
Your blog strategy and social media posts can go together hand-in-hand. You can not only share your blog on social media, but you can also break down blog posts and create multiple social media posts from them.
Blogging adds an extra layer of personality to your roofing company and makes you more relatable. You don’t need to be the world’s best writer, either. You just need to be able to write well and write consistently. Publish blog posts on a regular schedule so that your customers always have fresh content to refer to.
To brainstorm ideas for your blog, put yourself in your customers shoes. What roofing issues do they most likely have? What questions do they want answered? What pain points do they need addressed? What are some must-know tips they should have? Once you know what information they need it will be even easier to come up with blog posts.
As with anything worth having, building a high-value blog will take some time. It might be a few months before you see an increase in business related to your blog, but keep writing. Once your blog is established it will continue to increase your revenue and provide you more leads to potential customers.
Another way you can engage in content marketing is to create a YouTube channel where you post videos. These videos can be anything from a recent roofing project you completed or to you pointing out issues with a roof that you are about to fix, showing customers what to be on the lookout for.
A YouTube channel is a great way to actually show customers what you do every day. Some people might hate reading and therefore will never read a single blog post, but might be engrossed with every video you post to your channel.
YouTube channels and blogging are just two examples of content marketing. There are other methods out there, but these two are easy to get started with and provide high quality results.
8. Paid Advertisements
Before diving into paid advertising, make sure you do your research and establish a monthly budget. Paid advertisements come in a variety of different shapes and forms. One version is pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, which is where you pay a set rate for every click your ad receives.
With PPC advertising, your ads will pop up in the search results page and on various websites. When someone conducts a search containing one of your keywords, your ad will pop up. Results from PPC advertising are the opposite of SEO results. With PPC advertising, the results are instant but only continue for as long as you are paying for them.
PPC advertising and SEO are powerful marketing tools when they are used to complement each other.
Social media platforms also offer advertising opportunities. In addition to Google ads, you can also run Facebook ads. For social media ads you can usually set a daily budget and pick who you want the ads to be shown to a certain age group, people in a certain geographic location, or those with a specific interest.
9. Postcards
Last (but certainly not least) is sending out a roofing postcard in the mail. Direct mail is still an effective marketing strategy. When someone receives a colorful postcard from you containing visuals and high-quality graphics, they are likely to read it.
Postcards also can be placed on the fridge, where they will be seen when the recipient has guests over. Postcards are even more personal than emails are, and elderly people are more likely to read a postcard than they are an email.
You could also send a keychain or a fridge magnet. Tangible items promoting your company and your roofing services are more likely to capture attention.
According to the Direct Marketing Association, sending direct mail is the 3rd best marketing tool to use alongside email marketing. People are 90% likely to open and view direct mail, as opposed to only being up to 30% likely to open emails.
The goal of this strategy is to send a specific message to your target audience about the services you can provide. For roofing marketing specifically, it can be beneficial to mention homeowners’ insurance on the postcards you send to potential clients as an additional selling point.
Consider providing helpful information about the topic, informing customers that a new roof or repair job may be obtained for free or at the cost of an insurance deductible alone, as opposed to paying full price out of pocket. This small tweak to your next postcard marketing campaign will give you the opportunity to earn the business of a wider range of prospects in your area, regardless of their budget for upcoming projects.
10. Video/YouTube Marketing
Although this is similar to social media, video marketing goes beyond the typical social media post and delves into more long-form, informative videos. Most people won’t sit on their phone and watch a 30-minute testimonial video; however, if a roofing company created an in-depth video explaining the different types of roofing material, prospective customers who are interested in learning will happily tune in.
YouTube is a fantastic option for posting long-form videos. Interested in turning your long-form video into a lead generator? You can turn your video into a webinar, where viewers must register in order to watch. After they register, you can add their email to your drip and retargeting campaigns.
Conclusion
An effective roofing marketing strategy does not require huge upfront costs or a large budget. In fact, a balanced strategy will bring in and retain more clients over time. Utilizing the strategies mentioned above when developing your strategy will give you long term success in turning potential clients into lifelong customers.
There is no one size fits all approach when it comes to marketing, as every roofing company is different. Take the time to write out your specific marketing goals and then use these strategies to create the perfect marketing plan for you.
