As a roofer, you already know that roofing is a cutthroat industry. It takes a lot of time and effort to succeed in the roofing industry. There was a time in America when starting a roofing business was absolutely risk-free. The competition was sparse, towns were small, and your roofing business could be providing services within a 50-mile radius. Now, thousands of roofers are dotting the U.S landscape, thus creating stiff competition in the industry.
However, successful roofing contractors thrive in competitive environments. They view competition as an opportunity instead of an obstacle. As more roofers compete for local market share within the residential roofing segment, getting leads and nurturing client relationships is becoming more vital to remain competitive in the roofing landscape.
Without further ado, here are the proven tips that will help your roofing business rise above the competition in 2020 and beyond.
Get More Roofing Leads Offline
Despite the popularity of internet marketing today, old school methods of acquiring roofing leads are still crucial, particularly for small businesses and roofing marketing. Offline marketing utilizes various media channels outside of the internet to raise awareness of your roofing products or services. Here are the most effective offline roofing marketing strategies you can apply in your roofing business:
1. Door Knocking or Canvassing
Door knocking /canvassing is the most popular method of generating roofing leads offline. It is an effective strategy that needs discipline and focus. There is nothing that can override face to face meetings. The most common practice is to canvass the whole region after a storm has hit it. You know property owners who qualify for an insurance settlement. The only downside is that most homeowners will not do business with a roofer who knocks on their homes.
2. Direct Mail
Direct mail can still give you qualified roofing leads if done correctly. Long-form letters do not work well, but leaflets and postcards can always grab your potential clients’ attention. If you need high-quality roofing postcards for your offline advertising, get in touch with our experienced graphic designers today.
Direct mailing campaigns provides an effective way of staying away from the online noise. Since roofing is a visual industry, leaflets and postcards featuring images of your previous completed projects can be a great way of grabbing your target audience’s attention.
Leaflets can also offer excellent snapshots of your roofing services or products’ advantages compared to those provided by your competitors.
3. Trade Shows
Trade shows just don’t offer an opportunity to analyze your competitors; you can create awareness about your business, develop partnerships, and get new roofing leads. The trick is to give every prospect who visits your booth a freebie that they will consider valuable. Finally, make sure that you follow up on every prospect you meet.
4. Strategic Partnerships
There are thousands of roofers in your city that can refer you to good business. You only need to organize meetings with them and create strategic partnerships. You might also consider joining the various contractor alliance groups that are in your area. Take advantage of such opportunities to bring more new clients to your roofing company.
5. Host a Free Dinner
You can also identify some of your top commercial roofing prospects and invite them for a free dinner at a four or 5-star hotel. You can nick-name it “commercial property symposium.”
6. Local Seminars
Besides hosting a free dinner, you can organize an educational-based seminar for your client. Besides, you can also host a workshop for your business networking group. This is an excellent way of getting qualified roofing leads and positioning yourself as an expert in the roofing industry.
7. Free Roof Estimates and Inspections
Your offer can break or make your campaign. By providing free inspections and estimates, you are just opening the door for new clients. Make sure that you follow up with every new client.
8. Word of Mouth
It has long been said that word of mouth recommendations is the best form of outbound roofing marketing. This means your satisfied clients recommend your roofing services or products to their workmates, relatives, and friends. This way, you will get roofing leads without spending a dime on marketing your roofing business.
9. Outdoor Advertising
You don’t have to break your bank account on huge billboards to get your roofing company name in front of prospective leads. Professional-looking yard signs and vehicle graphics that are branded with roofing company names will help potential customers remember and think of you first when they need your roofing services.
If your roofing business does not have money to invest in billboard advertising, make sure that you keep your message simple and the artwork uncluttered. This will help the passing motorists to know what your roofing company is all about and convert to qualified roofing leads later when they require your services.
Effective Inbound Strategies to Generate Roofing Leads Online
Offline advertising still plays a vital role in doing your business in the roofing industry. However, if your company does not have an online presence, it will be hard to differentiate your roofing services or products. Your roofing business will get more traction via inbound strategies than with conventional or outbound marketing techniques. Here are some online marketing strategies that will give your business quality roofing leads if done correctly;
Get a Functional Roofing Website
Having a website is a must for any roofer who wants to get quality roofing leads online. If done correctly, your roofing website can be a lead generating machine that can turn around your business fortunes. You don’t require a fancy website with several pages to get roofing leads online. Here is a list of information that you need to include in your roofing website to convert prospects into leads:
- Your phone numbers and roofing company logo at the top.
- Eye-catching images: Potential customers who may require commercial roofing services will be persuaded by a relatable image that you put on your roofing website
- Trust Indicators: This can include everything from industry certifications to online reviews or testimonials.
- A Compelling and clear Call-to-Action (CTA): Your CTA should be assertive, prominent, and clear.
- Your roofing website should load faster regardless of the device used whether on a desktop or mobile phones
- Your roofing website should be optimized for search engines both for text and voice search results.
Invest in Google Ads to Get More Roofing Leads Online
Google ads work differently than other forms of roofing marketing. Whereas other marketing methods require the roofer to pay an upfront fee, irrespective of whether it works or not, roofers who use Ad words only pay a small fee when potential customers click on their ad.
This is what is known as Pay-Per-Click advertising. PPC is advantageous because it helps you target clients in a specific geographical location and demographics where your roofing services are needed most.
PPC tools make it easy to track your ad expenditure against the results you are getting. Ensure that you are giving your prospects bait like a free roof inspection or estimate to help them click on your ad.
Our tested and proven tricks and tips will help you make most out your Google Ads campaign:
Optimize Your Keywords
There could be hundreds or thousands of property owners searching for roof installation or replacement services in your neighborhood, therefore selecting the right keyword for your ad is crucial. To save your marketing dollars, make sure that you concentrate on keywords that have buying intentions behind them. Avoid using broad keywords but instead, focus on more specific keywords such as
- “Roof fix.”
- “Commercial roofing contractors.”
- “Residential roof installation.”
- “Roof leak repair.”
When using online advertising, roofing contractors need to promote their services or products—grabbing your potential customer’s attention with a voice or text-based text if it might seem like an uphill task. Fortunately, there are some guidelines you can follow to make sure that your roofing ad stands out online.
For instance, make the best use of your title/headline such as “Professional Roof Installation in Tennessee” and a sub-header like “Obtain a 24-hour roofing estimate.”
In your roofing website content, briefly mention your BBB ratings and incorporate a compelling CTA “call now to obtain a no-obligation roofing estimate.”
Optimize Your Budget
Failure to set the correct marketing budget is one of the errors that most roofers commit. We highly recommend that you select the daily option, so that you don’t spend a lot of dollars within a short period.
Optimize Your Location Settings
When you post a roofing advert online, potential clients living in your neighborhood should find it. Google will determine which adverts will appear in any search or not based on the specified location settings. In other words, the location settings of an ad serve as an extension of its roofing keywords.
There are two main location settings that you can use to manage your PPC campaigns. A roofer can use keywords so that the ad will only appear when the prospect types the geographical location in his or her search. Alternatively, roofers can tweak their ads only to appear when searches are done within a specific geographic area.
Whatever the case, it is advisable to select both approaches when optimizing location settings. Let’s assume you are in Nashville, TN; you can use “Nashville Roof Replacement “or “Roofing Replacement Nashville.”
Test Your PPC campaign
Make sure that every element of your ad is working as it should. Check for errors and preview how the ad will appear in the searches. Develop up to five ad variants and test to see which one will be more catching, informative, and capable of generating more qualified roofing leads online.
Create Targeted Landing Pages to Get Roofing Leads Online
One way of getting quality roofing leads online is by creating landing pages with your potential customer. The main aim of running internet marketing campaigns is to send your prospects to your roofing website. So, consider your web visitor’s first impressions. Your ads should send potential clients to the right place to have the desired impact. Your homepage might not assist a prospect in making a decision, and the wrong page can send your chances away.
For instance, if clients click on an ad for TPO roofing, they might get annoyed if they finally land on a general roofing page. If they find information about flat roofing, they will navigate to another roofing company website. Similarly, if a customer searches for “Roofer in Memphis,” they expect to see results for roofers in Memphis, TN.
It is essential to design custom landing pages for all the clients that you target. If your roofing company serves customers all over the nation, then you need to create pages for every city that you serve. If you do different kinds of roofs, then consider creating separate landing pages for each roof.
Optimize Your Roofing Website for Search Engines to Get Quality Roofing Leads Online
You need to ensure that your roofing website is secure for search engines like Bing or Google to understand. It should be engaging, creative, and optimized to draw prospects in thus making it one of the best ways of getting free roofing leads online. Here are some factors that you need to consider when optimizing your roofing website:
- Make sure that your roofing website loads in less than three seconds
- Add authoritative content to your roofing website
- Optimize your web pages using popular keywords related to your business
- Add your site to Google My Business Listing.
Collect Online Reviews and Testimonials
With over 90% of clients reading online reviews/ testimonials, this is an integral part of the decision-making process. Clients trust what others say about far more than what you promote yourself to be. After you deliver exceptional service to happy clients, request for reviews /testimonials. It is essential to have a presence on major review sites like Yelp, Facebook Local, and Home Advisor.
Use Social Media to Get Quality Roofing Leads Online
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn can be powerful marketing tools that are mostly free to use. Having a vibrant presence on social media allows engaging prospects personally and giving a lot of essential tips on the challenges they face and how your company can help solve them. Here are some tricks you can use to boost your social media presence:
- Answer client questions live on Facebook: A live video on Facebook can generate some interest in your prospects. Take questions from customers and offer informative, thoughtful answers.
- Post-after-and-before photos: To prove that you an authority in business to your social media followers; post pictures of completed projects and quotes from your previous customers.
- Create a blog and share it on your social media profiles; sharing individual blog posts is an excellent way of adding value to your followers and encouraging prospects to visit your roofing website.
While such methods may not generate roofing leads directly to your business, they play a crucial role in your marketing efforts.
Roofing Leads FAQ
Q: How do I get more roofing leads?
A: Generating more roofing leads begins with establishing an online presence with roofing website design and SEO. You need to make sure that your roofing company appears on Google’s Local Map Packs so that nearby prospects can easily find your business when they conduct a local search.
Q: How do I promote my roofing company online?
A: You can promote your roofing business online with website design, SEO, content marketing, and Google My Business. The stronger your online grows, the more likely you are going to generate quality roofing leads consistently. Your roofing website should have a compelling and clear CTA that converts visitors to leads.
Q: How can I grow my roofing business?
A: To help your roofing company grow, you need to improve your online visibility by implementing various internet marketing techniques discussed in this post.
Partner with the Blackstorm Roofing Marketing team to get Consistent Stream of Roofing Leads (Both Offline and Online)
With this guide, you have numerous tips and hints on generating roofing leads, both offline and online. As a roofer, you have many tasks requiring your attention, from managing workers to sourcing raw materials. Thus, you may not have all the time to test and implement some of the lead generation tips discussed above. So let the team at Blackstorm Roofing Marketing take that off your plate!
At BlackStorm, we provide the best internet marketing and website design services for roofing contractors who want to generate more leads and book more jobs.
If you are serious about creating a lead generating machine for your roofing business, kindly book a free strategy session with our growth experts and bring in more quality roofing leads to your company today.
