Digital word-of-mouth marketing is the digital version of traditional word-of-mouth promotion. It involves building trust for your roofing company via person-to-person sentiments (i.e., consumer referrals). It is important because an estimated 90% of people are more likely to trust a recommended brand.
Most roofers grew up with word-of-mouth marketing. For example, you do a great job on a neighborhood roof, and suddenly your client is spreading the word to their friends and neighbors. These referrals are extremely valuable because the prospects already trust your business, increasing conversion rates.
Key Takeaway: Digital Word-of-Mouth marketing for roofers requires real customers to recommend your company online in an organic, non-promotional manner (i.e., not a blog post, advertisement, or “promoted” article)
What is the Digital Version of Word-of-Mouth Marketing?
The digital version of word-of-mouth marketing is when online users convey trust in your roofing company by recommending you to other potential customers. Google reviews are an example of this, but there are also more powerful ways to contextualize your company’s performance and interaction with the community, like DataPins.
Digital Word-of-Mouth Marketing Examples
Marketing companies like to discuss concepts but sometimes fail to present examples that help roofing companies understand the application. Below, Roofing Webmasters outlines some common examples of word-of-mouth marketing in a digital context.
Online Reviews
Online reviews are the most well-known form of digital word-of-mouth. Google, Facebook, Yelp, and other popular platforms host business profiles that showcase customer feedback about that business. As many companies know, reviews are an essential aspect of Local SEO.
Unfortunately, however, the general trust level in these review platforms is mediocre at best.
Showcasing 3rd-party reviews via a website slider can help spread the word about your company online.
Social Proof
Another example of digital word-of-mouth is online social proof. For example, suppose you publish a picture of your recent roofing job with before and after photos and a connected review from the customer. In that case, you are spreading your company’s reputation to other prospects.
Tools like DataPins can help you automate social proof on your website.
Highlighting recent jobs’ location, service, and context can validate your work and feedback to internet users.
Forum Discussions
Many customers turn to forums like Reddit or Nextdoor to find real answers from real people. Facebook Groups can also be another example of this concept. Generally, people want to skip over the BS influencers that rank on Google and hear from real humans.
The significant part about forums is that people speak as they would in a conversation rather than writing a blog post for SEO optimization.
Reddit users speak like normal human beings rather than SEO blog writers who tend to sound robotic.
YouTube / TikTok
YouTube, TikTok, and other video-driven platforms create high-level engagement for word-of-mouth marketing. Videos on these platforms are consumed based on true popularity rather than algorithmically. Of course, properly titling and tagging your videos is important, but engagement is the #1 ranking factor.
While roofers are unlikely to spend much time creating TikTok videos, some contractors have increased their audience by doing just that.
Videos are the #1 content medium in 2023, and users gravitate toward them more than text-based content.
Digital Word-of-Mouth Marketing Tools for Roofers
You might wonder which tools can help you spread your company’s reputation through digital mediums. After all, choosing a reputation management tool presents the same challenges homeowners face when choosing a roofing company. Who can you trust?
Below, Roofing Webmasters reveals several high-quality tools for digital word-of-mouth marketing in 2023.
DataPins
DataPins: The Map Ranking App™ is the most potent digital word-of-mouth marketing tool on the web. DataPins does everything from inserting schema code and geo-coordinates into your pins to automating review requests via SMS and email communications.
DataPins also helps contextualize your social proof by routing recent jobs to the most relevant website pages. For example, a tile roof repair project appears on your website’s tile roof repair service page. This helps website visitors review relevant jobs related to their needs.
Birdeye
Birdeye is a reputation management platform that helps attract customers and increase revenue. The tool allows roofers to control every business component and reputation while providing insights to inform critical decisions.
The tool also features thousands of API integrations for roofing companies that scale during high growth.
Podium
Podium is a tool that helps roofing companies gather and showcase customer reviews from across the web. The app allows roofers to manage reviews across multiple platforms and send text review requests to recent customers.
The tool also allows roofing companies to add a chatbot to the website so you can monitor visitor inquiries in real-time.
NiceJob
NiceJob is a reputation management platform with an intriguing feature allowing customers to send referral links to friends and neighbors. NiceJob also covers the standard reputation management processes like automating review requests and showcasing them on your website.
Another cool feature within NiceJob is the ability to showcase reviews via social media channels like Instagram and Facebook.
Summary of Digitial Word-of-Mouth Marketing for Roofing
Having real humans spread your company’s reputation online is essential to long-term success. But, unfortunately, consumers inherently distrust marketing materials like advertisements or optimized web pages—many even distrust review platforms like Google, Facebook, and Yelp.
As a result, your website should showcase recent jobs, photos, and summaries connected to customer reviews and testimonials. These things, when packaged together, create the proper context of word-of-mouth promotion. We recommend the DataPins tool to help you achieve your goals in 2023.
