Author Archives: Roofing SEO Webmasters

When you pay money to a service provider, whether a digital marketing agency or a healthcare professional, you should refuse to be patronized. Most digital marketing agencies for roofers patronize their clients and tell them to increase their budget while insulting their intelligence.

In today’s Roofing SEO Podcast episode, Nolen and Jason discuss how roofers should react to salespeople and agency owners that patronize them regarding digital marketing services.

The Insulting Nature of Patronization

To patronize someone is to speak to them as an inferior, mainly when providing supposedly helpful information. Unfortunately, patronizing clients is par for the course in the digital marketing industry. Most marketing salespeople don’t respect their clients and talk down to them regularly.

Roofing companies should never stand for these insults. The truth is, most roofers are entrepreneurs and have at least a basic understanding of business marketing. Dealing with web geeks who have a superiority complex is a joke. 

How Much Should Roofers Know About Marketing

At Roofing Webmasters, we deal with a full spectrum of clients regarding marketing knowledge. Some business owners ask us many questions about technical marketing tasks, while others want to remove themselves from the process altogether. Either attitude is fine with us and works well.

Marketing Savvy Roofers

Roofers that want to know the details about marketing specifics should respect the marketer’s expertise but refuse insults or patronizing. Like we don’t know everything about installing a roof, roofers don’t know everything about search engine optimization.

Nevertheless, we never talk down to clients who ask for specific details about the marketing process. In many cases, their hands-on approach to their business makes them successful. We provide clients with all the marketing information they need to foster a great working relationship.

Hands-Off Roofing Companies

Some business owners want to remove themselves from the marketing details altogether and pay us to handle everything on their behalf. This attitude works well, too, as long as you choose the right digital marketing agency. We don’t look down on roofers who don’t care about specifics.

Keep in mind that if you have this attitude with a terrible marketing agency, it can end in disaster. As a result, choosing the right digital marketing agency is critical if you don’t know anything about SEO, PPC, website design, content marketing, etc.

How Marketing Salespeople Insult Roofers

If you’ve tried to invest in marketing services in the past, you’ve probably encountered a salesperson who tried to patronize you with marketing. Unfortunately, these people inherently lack respect for your business sense and talk to you as an inferior. Check out some examples of this below:

“Increase Your Budget”

If the salesperson’s answer to every marketing inquiry is to increase your budget, they are patronizing you. An example of this is with PPC ad spend for roofers. If you find yourself infuriated that the marketing agency wants you to burn through more and more cash, you are with the wrong provider.

“Check Out This SEO Report”

Any salesperson can enter your website URL into SEMRush and produce an SEO report on-demand. Furthermore, they can highlight select metrics that tell you a misleading story about your organic traffic. For example, if you recently lost 45% of your organic traffic on Google, it looks terrible.

However, the lost traffic was to a non-conversion page in many cases. As a result, the traffic was worthless for your roofing company and is being used for manipulation by the salesperson. 

“Act Now, Or Else”

The “Act now or else” sales routine is a popular tactic for roofers with existing websites. The salesperson’s goal is to create urgency and fear around your existing marketing presence. They use select metrics to insult your intelligence and undermine your current marketing agency.

Of course, this particular sales tactic is highly unethical, but that, unfortunately, fits right in with 99% of marketing agencies. By educating yourself about the basics of roofing SEO, marketing, and web design, you can better understand the cheap tricks these salespeople utilize.

What Roofers Can Do About Fraud Marketers

Unfortunately, roofing companies will likely experience unethical sales pitches regularly because the industry is ripe with bad actors. The best thing to do is educate yourself about marketing basics to intelligently dismiss these highfalutin hacks trying to manipulate you.

By signing up with Roofing Webmasters, you can have confidence that your campaign is run by an honest group of people with a proven track record in the roofing industry.

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As the owner of Roofing Webmasters, clients often tell me that I’m refreshingly honest. There are two reasons why I come across that way. First, I don’t like misleading my customers. Second, almost every other digital marketing company in the United States is either ignorant or unethical. Unfortunately, many are both, which is incredibly dangerous for roofers.

In the following podcast episode, Jason and I discuss the truth about digital marketing for roofers, and it’s not comforting. However, it is highly entertaining and insightful.

Does Your Roofing Digital Marketing Company Get Results?

More than 70% of SEO consumers are unhappy with their current provider. Unfortunately, the 30% of companies happy with their SEO services aren’t watching this video or reading this blog post. You are likely one of the roofers with a lousy digital marketing agency if you are reading this.

Does your marketing agency deliver results? Sometimes this can be hard to prove or disprove. How’s your revenue? How is your website traffic and lead generation? These are questions that marketing companies should help you answer. However, you have to pay attention independently also.

What Makes a Digital Marketing Company Honest?

Let’s use my agency, Roofing Webmasters, as an example. We don’t aim to make a lot of money from clients in their first year. Why? Because we intend to form a long-term relationship with our customers. We want them to succeed long-term, which also benefits our agency.

In contrast, dishonest agencies use a churn and burn model that frontloads the agreements. So if they make big money in the first six months and then lose your business, they really don’t care. The model also works for them because they no longer need your business by the time you realize their services don’t work.

Buying a Business Relationship Over a Service

The marketer you spoke to on the phone seems very nice. After all, he repeats your name on numerous occasions and assures you that his marketing model works wonders. However, there’s one problem, he’s selling you a warm fuzzy feeling instead of a productive service.

Roofers often fall into this trap in the buying and leaving stages. A roofing contractor may go with an agency because they had a good conversation with the salesperson. Furthermore, they may hesitate to leave even when they sense something wrong with the services. 

Although many experts claim that marketing is all about relationships, it’s more about results. Suppose you choose a marketing agency that delivers results. In that case, you can form all the connections you need with your new customers and other roofers in the industry, many of who are envious of your marketing position.

Customer Service vs. Actual Service

If Bob, the salesperson, calls you each week to talk about your progress (or his version of it), you might feel good about the customer service. The problem with this strategy is confusing customer service with actual service. He assures you that you’re doing great, but you are doing horrible.

One of the most significant problems with the marketing industry is that roofers will pay for customer service over good marketing. They want to be assured that things are working because they don’t have the time or energy to find out themselves. Unfortunately, marketing salespeople prey on this mindset.

Roofing Digital Marketing Agency Red Flags

To avoid choosing the wrong digital marketing agency, look out for common red flags. These companies often share strategies to reel in unsuspecting roofing companies. They use these tactics because they work more often than they don’t. Check out some common red flags:

• They never tell you something won’t work — instead, they tell you everything you want to hear and confirm everything you say
• They want you to pay a hefty upfront fee and lock you into a six-month or 1-year agreement.
• They sold you based on metric-driven reports from SEMRush or other SEO tools.
• They have a salesy delivery or reek of manipulation, dishonesty, and BS.

From Almost Quitting to Multi-Millionaire

Before using our services, one of our roofing SEO clients was fed up with the digital marketing industry. He told us that we were the last agency he would ever use and that if our services didn’t deliver, he would shut down his business. Fast forward three years, and he became a multi-millionaire.

The story reveals two things about the digital marketing industry for roofers. First, most agencies will destroy your will to compete in the roofing industry. They lie so much that it becomes like putting air in the tires. Secondly, many great opportunities exist if you find a rare agency that does good work.

This roofer was the beneficiary of some circumstances as well. His company operated in San Antonio, TX, and experienced one of the most significant hail storms in city history. As a result, his marketing presence on Google and Google Maps specifically gave him a ridiculous amount of high-ticket leads.

The Bottom Line About Digital Marketing for Roofers

Most digital marketing agencies are sales-driven, dishonest, and provide inadequate services. Unfortunately, this is the rule and not the exception. Roofing companies that find the rare roofing marketing agency that does excellent work can benefit substantially. However, most roofing companies never get there to find out.

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In the following podcast episode, Nolen discusses roofing leads to cash money profits. Roofers sometimes lose control over their operation, resulting in a loss of quality and long-term gains. Similarly, roofing contractors may spend all of their earnings on lifestyle, which is terrible.

Roofing Leads are Critical to Your Business

The lead nurturing process cannot be passive as a roofer. Instead, you must pay special attention to ensuring your leads turn into profits in 2022. Unfortunately, some business owners fall into the trap of removing themself from the operation after initial success.

Although you can achieve this to some degree, you cannot delegate the most critical parts of your business to just anyone. If you choose to remove yourself from the vital levers of your profit generation, be sure to assign these tasks to the person you most trust to sustain performance.

The False Narrative of Passive Income

As a roofer, you’ve probably seen YouTube and Instagram videos claiming that you can earn money passively from your roofing business. Unfortunately, this narrative is at least partially false. Also, when you understand the motivation of those pushing the narrative, it becomes even more concerning.

To maintain peak profits, you must continually immerse yourself in your business operation. You must ensure that every part of the process is refined so that you can continue to make money. This includes marketing, management, sales, and labor.

Investing Your Roofing Business Profits

Financial freedom is not achieved by spending your earnings on lifestyle enhancements or saving all your money in the bank. Instead, investing your money in a hard asset is the way to achieve financial security. Some options for investing money from your roofing business include:

• Stocks
• Real Estate
• Vacation Rentals
• Financial Investments (with advisor)

Why You Shouldn’t Start a Second Roofing Company

One investment you should not make is in a second roofing company. Roofers are often tempted to open a second company in a different location to give them a better chance of canvassing areas hit by hail.

The problem with starting a second roofing business is decentralizing your assets and brand. All you’ll achieve through secondary roofing companies is less focus on your primary operation.

Of course, there are some exceptions to this general rule, and there are rare times when opening new roofing companies makes sense. However, you should thoroughly evaluate your options before going this route.

Cashing Out vs. Building Longevity

When it comes to your roofing company, you can be tempted to cash out before reaching the peak of your sustainable profit. It might be a small change like switching your marketing company or a significant change like removing yourself from operations. In any case, you are making a mistake.

If you stay the course, you can reach a more incredible prize that leads to building a sustainable roofing brand and driving significant profits. The key is understanding that the process that got you success is something you can continue to focus on. Check out more of our podcasts to learn about building your roofing brand.

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determine your level of success in the industry. Contractors work the gig economy, going job to job to meet ends. But, conversely, companies prosper, expand, and enjoy sustainable success for decades or more.

In today’s Roofing SEO Podcast, Nolen and Jason discuss the differences between roofing companies and roofing contractors. Sometimes roofers mistakenly believe they can’t be a company because of their current status, which is not valid. Any roofer can become a company in 2022.

Differences Between Roofing Companies and Contractors

A roofing company invests in its brand, marketing campaign, and long-term perception. Unfortunately, contractors neglect each of these tasks. There’s nothing wrong with being a contractor; however, it’s a more demanding lifestyle, and it’s harder to earn a sustainable income.

Roofing Companies

Roofing companies have a brand, plain and simple. When consumers see their logo, truck, or website, they immediately feel a sense of credibility. While no roofer can achieve this overnight, you can take steps to expand your contractor business into a full-fledged roofing company gradually.

Roofing Contractors

Roofing contractors are stuck in the gig economy, going job to job without expanding. Getting leads is more difficult as a contractor since you have to pitch your skills to the customer every time. For contractors, landing jobs drains energy because you are the one who is always trying to convince.

How To Become a Roofing Company in 2022

As a contractor, you might think, I don’t have enough employees or locations to be a company. That’s not true. Any roofer can turn themselves into a company because it’s not about size or scope. A company is about credibility, brand, and perception. You can do it.

Credibility

Roofers build credibility through proper marketing with SEO, web design, and reputation management. The truth is, nobody knows how good of a roofer you are. You might be an exceptionally skilled third-generation roofer, but if your competitors outperform you online, it doesn’t matter.

Brand

Branding your roofing company starts with marketing. Consumers should see original photos of your team, staff, and equipment online. Aside from your website, you also should brand your Google Business Profile and attempt to increase the number of customer reviews on Google and Yelp.

Perception

How you view yourself is not necessarily how consumers view your business. Even roofers coming from a family business must understand that times have changed. Building your perception starts with marketing and online promotion. Invest in SEO for roofers, digital marketing, etc.

How Marketing Creates Roofing Companies

When you need a roofing lead in 2022, your options depend on your investments. Without a website, Google Business Profile, or online reviews, contractors have to reach out to 3rd-party lead generation sources. These companies have a brand that customers trust more than you.

Roofing companies have a website, Google Business Profile, and online reviews, which gives them a much better option. These roofers get leads on their own digital assets, allowing them to enjoy a consistent stream of high-quality leads. In addition, they don’t need the 3rd-party brand, which means they don’t have to pay them or help them further expand their brand.

Website

A website is essential, and personalization is equally vital. Your homepage should show photos of your owners, company, and staff. Also, your logo should be apparent and memorable. A custom website is critical to online marketing in 2022. Every roofing website should be fast and user-friendly.

Google Business Profile

A Google Business Profile, formerly Google My Business, helps customers find your business locally. Roofers with a profile can rank on Google’s Local 3-Pack, which appears over organic results for local service queries. In addition, you can upload photos and complete your profile to optimize your listing.

Online Reviews

Your online reputation is one of the most critical elements of online success. You should attempt to garner reviews on Google, Yelp, Facebook, and other platforms to enhance your reputation, credibility, and trust. Most consumers won’t use any roofing company before reading reviews.

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The roofing marketing industry is growing in 2022. Still, many roofing companies fail to implement marketing into their business model properly. Nolen Walker, the founder of Roofing Webmasters, learned the hard way that marketing can make or break a home service business.

Nolen once owned a Home Security business and found that his company only found success after investing in marketing. However, the marketers he utilized ended up screwing him with horrific SEO strategies. This disturbing occurrence prompted Nolen to start his own SEO agency.

In today’s Roofing SEO Podcast episode, Nolen and Jason discuss why they have their mind on roofing marketing and roofing marketing on their mind. 

Do Roofing Companies Need Marketing?

Marketing is the single most crucial aspect of your roofing business. As insane as it sounds, marketing is even more critical than competence. A lousy roofer with good marketing will get more business than a good roofer with awful marketing. Unfortunately, that’s the world we live in.

Common Marketing Mistakes for Roofers in 2022

Even as roofers begin to understand the concept of marketing, many fail to implement it into their business model properly. Below, we’ll outline several examples of roofing marketing mistakes that can lead to your company’s demise in 2022.

Choosing Software over Marketing

Software is a recent trend in the roofing industry, and many roofers are eagerly investing significant resources into clerical software for estimates and other functional tasks. Although this software is generally outstanding and necessary to running a roofing business, they heavily rely on marketing. Without marketing, the software doesn’t do anything.

Why do you ask? If you never get leads, there’s nothing to enter into your system, computer, etc. There are no estimates to perform on prospects you have not yet acquired. Without marketing, the software can’t perform its intended functions. Marketing is the key to all this software.

Delegating Important Marketing Decisions

Another mistake roofing business owners make is delegating marketing decisions to inexperienced staff members. Some roofers have an in-house marketing team that might call a web designer or an SEO strategist. Unfortunately, these people often lack the authority to make decisive marketing decisions.

Here’s the bottom line, the business owner should be personally invested in marketing. Delegating essential decisions about business promotion to an intern is a recipe for disaster. The smartest roofing companies have fully invested owners in marketing decisions and choose the best agency for roofers.

Failing to Participate in Your Marketing Success

As you heard on one of our recent podcast episodes discussing the best SEO clients, the reality for roofing contractors is that participating in your success is critical. You’ll fail if you call your marketing agency to criticize them and their families without investing your insights.

For example, are you taking photos of your staff that you can send to your marketing agency to publish on your website? Are you invested in performing pins using the DataPins software? If you are unwilling to commit to these self-fulfilling tasks, you probably won’t succeed in marketing. That’s the harsh truth, but one that roofers must-hear.

At Roofing Webmasters, we love working with roofers. However, there’s a difference between a roofing contractor and someone who chooses to go into another trade. In today’s Roofing SEO Podcast episode, Nolen and Jason detail why roofers are our #1 client and what we like most about working with them in 2022.

Businessman vs. Tradesman

One of the primary distinctions between roofers and other tradespeople is their initial expertise. Most roofers are businessmen and entrepreneurs who choose to start a roofing company. This model contrasts with other trades like HVAC, which typically involve a skilled tradesman beginning a business in that niche. 

Roofing company owners are often individuals who could have gone into multiple other industries.

Big Ticket Jobs

One benefit of working with roofers is that they make good money on a single job. For example, a roofer can make anywhere from $3,000 to $30,000 on a single residential roofing project. Commercial roofs can net an even greater profit. As a result, even low-priced jobs bring in a lot of money. 

In addition, roofers can afford to invest in marketing because of their budget.

Hail Storm Miliionares

Roofers can go from doing 80 hobs per year to 400 if their service area suffers a hail storm. As a result, hail damage roofing can turn a businessman into a millionaire, basically overnight. That opportunity is a significant one for the business-minded roofing entrepreneur in 2022. 

But, of course, hail storm millionaires are the direct result of roofing marketing.

Roofers are Dreamers

Roofing contractors normally dream big as many have second homes, lake houses, and boats. In Dallas – Fort Worth, you will regularly see roofing contractors driving F-150s with truck wraps. In many respects, roofers represent the American Dream in 2022. 

As a result, these clients make great marketing partners because they dream of growth and expansion.

Roofing Companies Have Lower Overheads

Unlike HVAC companies that often have to keep their staff for the entire year, roofers have seasonal downtime when they can cut expenses. Furthermore, since their jobs bring in more money, they make enough to account for their down periods. This combination results in a continually superior profit for roofing business owners than other trades.

Roofers Have An Expanding Consumer Base

Construction companies continue to build new homes, so roofing services are on the rise. California and Texas are both still growing so that roofers can make their marks in these states. Optimizing your company for cities within your service area is an excellent opportunity in 2022, and roofing companies know it because they are getting regular calls.

Roofing Companies Understand Marketing

Roofing companies understand marketing more than other contractors. For example, a roofing contractor knows that SEO is an essential aspect of lead generation and understands the value of ranking on Google search. 

In addition, roofing companies are willing to invest in a custom website because they can expect to get consistent, high-quality leads from their forms and calls to action. In addition, some roofers enter the field with a marketing background, so they fully understand its value.

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If you are starting your own roofing company in 2022, you will need a good business name. Of course, you will consider factors like your ideals, values, region, and unique services, but you also have to think about marketing and SEO.

In today’s Roofing SEO podcast, Nolen and Jason discuss choosing perfect roofing company names that will rank on Google and convert sales.

Choosing a Good Roofing Company Name in 2022

Credibility and expertise are two qualities you want to be reflected in your roofing company name. However, you must also consider SEO and conversions. Google looks at user intent for all organic searches so that any roofing consumer will see companies with roofing in their name.

Make Sure Roofing is in The Name

Many companies use terms like exteriors, design, or excavation in place of roofing, which will limit your impressions, clicks, and leads. Moreover, in the rare cases where Google users find your website, they are less likely to convert with such ambiguous names. The benefit of roofing in your company name applies to organic search results and Google Maps.

Make Sure The Name is Topically Relevant

Having roofing in your company name is part of a more significant phenomenon called topical relevance. When you have roofing in your name, not only is your brand name more likely to show up (i.e., your homepage and Google Business Profile), but your interior pages (service and city pages) are also more likely to show up on page one. 

Make Sure The Name is Brandable

When contractors learn that a topically relevant name can help them gain more clicks and traffic, they start to think about exact match domains. But unfortunately, while a domain name like roofernearme.com might show up well on search results, it’s not going to convert as well as a branded title. 

Striking a balance between relevance and brand is difficult, but you must do it. For example, a company name like H-Town Roofing will work better than simply Houston Roofing. The less formal terminology will make it a brand rather than a spam-like company looking to capture leads.

Consider a Regional Name

One pro tip to further increase visibility and conversions is adding regional relevance to your company name. However, this method is not as critical as the others; many roofing companies rank very well without this step. 

Still, if you can add regional relevance such as H-Town for Houston, or South Beach for Miami, you can get some local SEO signals and increase conversions. One caveat is to avoid exact match names like Miami Roofing.

Roofing Company Name Ideas

• Heroic Roofing Houston
• Carmel Roofing Co.
• Upgrade Roofing Group
• Footprint Roofing Co.
• Glacier Roofing IL
• Click Roofing Group
• CT Roofing Team
• Aspect Roofing Co.
• BlueWater Roofing Group
• Rise Roofing Team
• Roofing Guard LLC
• H-Town Roofing & Construction
• D-Town Roofing Group
• South Beach Roofing Co.
• Denver Roofing Group LLC
• Springleaf Roofing 
• DoubleDown Roofing Co.

What Are The Best Roofing Company Names?

Although the strategies we’ve outlined in this podcast are extremely valuable, the quality of your services ultimately determines your name’s reach. You can have the most relevant and catchy title, and it won’t matter if you have inadequate services and a bad reputation. 

As a result, the best roofing business names are those that incorporate topical relevance, brand-ability, and region while also performing excellent services. If you can translate your success through Google Reviews and a robust website, you can truly dominate your local roofing market in 2022.

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An initial SEO report (sometimes framed as an SEO audit) is B.S. 95% of the time for roofing companies. It’s not that the report itself is dishonest; it’s that the presentation of the data is manipulative. In today’s Roofing SEO podcast, Nolen and Jason give examples of SEO reports that are B.S.

What is an SEO Report?

SEO reports are digital documents that present metrics and analysis of a website and online presence compared to competitors. Many popular SEO software tools like SEMRush can autogenerate reports by entering a URL.

Types of SEO Reporting

Consumers may confuse the term SEO report as it is used in different contexts throughout the industry. An initial SEO report often called an SEO audit, is different from an SEO progress report that your current agency delivers. Salespeople often push SEO audits as a way to get new customers.

SEO Audits

An SEO audit is an initial SEO report aimed to identify problems with your existing marketing campaign. Unfortunately, salespeople use SEO audits to manipulate roofing companies into false narratives and perceptions of what’s wrong with their websites, if anything is bad at all. 

SEO Progress Reports

An SEO progress report is typically delivered to the client each month to highlight improvements in particular metrics. Although these types of reports can be helpful, they are also used manipulatively. As with SEO audits, the presentation of metrics can be spun to fit a narrative.

Principles of Manipulative SEO Reporting

While SEO reports are a tool for genuine marketing analysts, they are also powerful for spineless and soulless salespeople. An SEO report is one of the top weapons salespeople use to poach roofing companies from other agencies or convince them to pay a higher monthly rate for SEO services.

Fear Mongering

Salespeople tap into visceral human instincts like fear to encourage swift reaction. One way to achieve this is by presenting SEO reporting metrics in a way that threatens the roofer’s livelihood. For example, if the metric suggests that if you don’t take action A, your competitors will overtake you permanently and go out of business.

Competitive Spirit

Another way salespeople use SEO reports to manipulate roofers is by tapping into their natural competitive spirit. For example, Joe at so and so roofing is dominating you on Google search results, aren’t you mad? That’s essentially how they frame the narrative, and they use out-of-context metrics to drive home their portrayal.

Automation

SEO tools like SEMRush are handy for agencies and roofing companies. However, it takes little effort to produce reports using these tools. For example, a so-called SEO agency can enter your website URL into SEMRush and produce a full report within seconds. Reporting on SEO requires zero skill and expertise but can be used for quick manipulation.

When Are SEO Reports Useful?

SEO reporting is valuable when metrics roofers understand how the metrics relate to their business success. For example, Google Business Profile insights provide raw data like the number of calls you receive directly from your listing. This is the metric that gives you tangible evidence of your online presence. 

Data from Google, whether Google Analytics, Search Console, or GMB Insights, is necessary and helpful. 3rd party tools like SEMRush, Moz, and AHRefs are also beneficial in the proper context. However, you or your marketing agency must properly place the data into the appropriate context.

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