How to Grow a Roofing Business
By Jocelyn Van Saun
October 3, 2023
The roofing industry is tough. Between the intense competition, project delays from weather issues, and seasonal ups and downs, it can be hard to get ahead.
If you’re tired of being stuck at the same amount of annual revenue and you’re ready to scale, then it’s time to call in some support for your roofing business. Here’s how an investment in digital marketing can help you connect with more of your ideal customers and build your brand. Using a mix of local SEO, marketing strategies, and search engine rankings is the optimal way to increase lead generation and provide new business opportunities that the customers love and will keep them coming back, and give your roofing business more money.
Understand Your Target Market for Your Roofing Company
Understanding your target market and analyzing competitors means identifying a particular segment of the population that needs the roofing services you offer, and figuring out a way to stand out from other roofing businesses. Whether you have your own roofing business, are one of many roofing contractors, or are in charge of market research for a roofing business, we can help.
It’s a waste of marketing dollars to market to people who aren’t your ideal customers. Instead, look for what your target market has in common, and focus your marketing efforts on those. You can look at details like how old their homes or commercial buildings are, their average income, or the area of the city you focus on. You can also look at what services more clients need, like roofing repair, replacement, or upgrades like ventilation or insulation.
Build a Strong Online Presence in the Roofing Industry
An in-demand roofing service will need a user-friendly website to attract its ideal customer. Your website is important because it is often the first interaction a potential customer has with your roofing company. As a result, your website needs to look clean, professional, and useful to the customer. Your ideal customer should be able to look at your website and immediately know if you can help them solve their roofing problem.
A good marketing specialist will optimize your website for search engines (SEO). An SEO expert will help your website rank higher on Google searches for your area and specialty. You should update your website regularly by creating engaging and informative content that educates your ideal customer on how you can serve their needs. Implementing a strong blogging strategy will help your ideal customer understand your approach to common roofing issues like leaks, clogged gutters, and damaged shingles, as well as when to replace a roof instead of repairing it.
Harness the Power of Social Media
Once you have a website that attracts quality leads, you can focus on using social media to amplify your educational content. Social media is where people go nowadays to find answers to their problems. Whether or not your ideal customer finds your roofing business depends on whether or not you use social media effectively. This includes using relevant keywords, negative reviews, and positive reviews in your process and helps generate leads. Forgetting about the power of social media and local SEO strategies is where most roofers fail to use local search results to be the first business recommended to any potential customers.
Choosing the right social media platforms for your business depends on what platforms your ideal customers are using. Ask existing customers and prospects what platforms they spend most of their time on, and build your presence there. Create compelling social media profiles using plain, everyday language. Don’t get too technical — you may lose customers. Demonstrate your work by crafting engaging social media posts, and include pictures of your recent roofing projects. This gives your potential customers confidence that your company is dependable. Leveraging social media advertising — such as Facebook ads targeted at customers in your local area — can bring more eyes to your informative posts.
Online Reputation Management
The information and opinions about your business found online make up your online reputation. A positive online reputation helps attract new customers, establish trust and credibility, and build your positive brand image. Customer testimonials are a great way to reach potential customers.
The key to actively growing your online reputation is encouraging positive reviews from customers. Once you’ve completed a roofing job with a happy customer, be sure to contact them and let them know where they can leave an online review. This can be on your Facebook business page, Yelp, Google reviews, or other review sites. Negative feedback should be addressed quickly and professionally, with a personalized response. Apologize, express empathy for the mishap, and offer to discuss what can be done to fix the problem. Roofing businesses with good reviews online will get the most business.
Implement Google Ads
Paid media campaigns — like Google Ads — put you in a position to promote your roofing services to targeted customers in your local area. When your marketing strategy includes investing in a Google Ads campaign, your business will stand out from all the other roofing-related websites in your area, which can give you an edge in marketing. Being easy to find on Google search and ads makes all the difference between local businesses and your roofing business.
To set up your Google Ads campaign, your SEO expert will talk to you about conducting keyword research for ads. This can involve making a list of broad and specific topics related to your roofing business. These topics can be used to optimize ad copy and landing pages that will speak to your target customer’s needs.
Maximize Local SEO Strategies
Claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile listing is the next step to ensuring that your roofing business gets found easily by your target clients. Why? Because a Google Business Profile is free and improves your local visibility. It’s an easy, affordable way to establish and maintain an online presence. In the digital age, informed decisions are made by new customers when a company is high on search results and available on mobile devices when searching for a roofing project.
Your roofing business may want to consider working with a marketing company that knows how to manage online directories and local listings for roofers. This ensures that your roofing company specialties, like roof maintenance or skylight installation, will stand out to those who are seeking your services. Many local directories also allow customers to leave reviews, which can make them an important part of your local SEO strategy. Online reviews are a key indicator of other local businesses’ performance versus your roofing company. Having positive reviews is key to getting the roofing jobs other roofers would want. Any successful roofing business will have good usage of search engine optimization to push its unique selling proposition and roofing business on the radar of potential customers.
Track and Measure Digital Marketing Success Amongst other Roofing Companies
No online marketing strategy is complete without setting key performance indicators (KPIs). Your KPIs are what let you know whether or not your marketing strategy is working, and can take the guesswork out of where to spend your marketing budget. Even a roofing business requires online reviews for more sales and more leads. Using design services that acknowledge any competitor’s negative review is key to building relationships and continued growth in the company.
Your roofing company should be utilizing analytics tools for data analysis. No more having to track, manage, and analyze statistics using pen, paper, and a calculator — there’s software available to do this for you. You’ll start making data-driven marketing decisions that will be sure to help you grow your roofing business. A mobile-friendly website that is easy to find after a Google search is key to remaining competitive amongst other roofing websites.
Make Your Next Best Marketing Move
Socius Marketing offers a number of digital marketing services that can move your roofing business from obscurity to demand. Give us a call today to find out how we can partner to help you reach more ideal customers, accomplish your business goals, and maintain growth opportunities for your roofing business.