Looking for a Strategic Marketing Plan that will be Right for Your Roofing Business?

When promoting your business and incorporating  small business marketing tips,  it is important to try to think how your customers think. Ask yourself, ‘if I needed to get my roof redone or fixed, where would I look for a roofing contractor?’ It is a big decision and on average people only make two to three major decisions a year. People are always afraid to make a wrong decision. So ask yourself would you look in the Yellow Pages, ask a friend, or do a search online? Combining all three in a strategic marketing plan makes sense. You will get a better return on investment for your advertising dollar.

Steps to Starting a Small Business

One of the first steps to starting a small business is to take the time to plan out your marketing strategy a year in advance. It is much more effective than trying the hit and miss approach. I have seen too many new businesses try that approach unsuccessfully. And it costs way too much.

How to Effectively use the Yellow Pages in Your Marketing Plan.

The Yellow Pages print and on-line directories are a great way to promote your roofing business. When people are ready to buy they will look for you in the Yellow Pages. In Canada, for example, 72% of adults use the Yellow Pages once a month, and 60% of their usage is still the print. They have also been actively using web marketing strategies and positioning themselves as an online leader to connect buyers to sellers.

How much should you spend? It depends on what your budget is and how much business you can handle. Another consideration would be to figure out how many jobs would you have to get in order for this to make sense. You must also set aside part of your budget for other  business marketing ideas  so you are not putting all your eggs in one basket. And lastly see what your competition is doing. How much are they spending? You do not have to have the biggest ad in order for it to work. Ask your sales rep for testimonials and examples of other advertisers in the roofing business.

Referrals !

Referrals are golden. They give you instant credibility. But they may take longer than you want when you are  starting a small business. You should get in the habit of asking for referrals from your happy customers.

Web Marketing Strategies are an Important Way for You to Grow Your Business

More and more people are using the internet to research businesses before they choose to do business with them. They want to see if you are credible and reliable before they want to pick up the phone and talk to you. They see this as a time saver, a convenience. I know that I won’t even call a business if they don’t have a web site. So it is very important to get a website.

You can do a website yourself, hire a web designer, or a  search engine optimization company. The later is best as a search engine optimization website promotion will get you traffic to your site. You can do this in a geographical area that would make sense to your strategic marketing plan. Do your research to find a reputable company or visit  Advantage Solutions  to get this done.

Use Signage on Your Vehicles and Job Sites

This is an important part of your strategic marketing plan and building your brand. Use a clean bold design that includes your phone number and web site address, and is easy to read.

Radio Advertising

When you have covered the basics in marketing and promoting your roofing business, have a larger budget, and are looking to do more advertising, consider radio. It brings immediate results. When looking into this ask for demographics, reach, and any other marketing stats that they are willing to provide you with.

I recently heard an excellent radio commercial promoting an on-line directory for qualified, trustworthy renovation contractors. It was very well done, but there was one really big mistake. The speaker mentioned the web address a couple of times throughout the commercial but I could not make it out. He did not say it clearly. That is really too bad because if I had a hard time hearing it my guess is that so did everybody else. The advertiser spent all that money and will not get the results because of that one seemingly small error.   

I wish you all best when promoting your roofing business!

 Joe.

Written by Joanne on June 21st, 2010 with no comments.
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