When no one offers a solution to your problem, sometimes you have to become the answer! Through a strange adventure filled with twists and turns, a long-time professional in the home security industry became the founder of an SEO and web design company. Nolen and Jason talk about the history of Roofing Webmasters!
Table of Contents
Key Lessons for Roofing Professionals
Marketing is one of the most powerful factors contributing towards roofing company success.
Online marketing grows your digital channel of leads.
It takes dedication to make page one in search results, but the payoffs are huge.
In-house marketing is impractical (and expensive) for most small businesses.
A Brief History
Roofing Webmasters actually grew out of a completely different industry! Years ago, our founder Nolen Walker ran a home security business out of the Dallas / Fort Worth area. When telemarketing began to face strong federal backlash, he saw that online advertising and website optimization was the best way to further his business.
Unfortunately, few local marketing companies had any experience with SEO. Those that did charged a fortune for the most basic services. Their cockiness and patronizing drove Nolen away from their services very quickly!
Dissatisfaction Breeds Innovation
Nolen decided to take matters into his own hands by hiring an in-house team of marketers to promote the business. It was a very expensive proposition at the time, but it laid the groundwork of what would ultimately become Roofing Webmasters! Today, our team consists of over twenty content writers, web designers, programmers, video specialists, and SEO analysts.
We take on the online marketing challenges that are too time-consuming or costly for many roofing professionals to handle themselves.
Earning a Spot in the Local Map Pack Can Mean Significant Increases in Site Traffic and Leads!
Crucial Lessons From Our Past
It took years of trial and error to find the well-balanced team of professionals we have today. We learned some crucial marketing lessons during that time.
The most successful businesses typically invest heavily in marketing.
Not all digital marketing firms have the necessary experience to manage SEO.
In-house is an expensive challenge that most businesses can’t manage.
Cockyness isn’t always a sign of expertise.
Clear communication with your marketing team is essential for long-term success.
These are lessons that we continually honor and share as we serve businesses across the country. They are why we strive so hard to provide timely, customized service for our clients. But enough about our business! Why does online marketing matter for your roofing company?
Why Online Marketing Matters
The concept behind marketing is a simple one to grasp: if you want people to know about your services, they have to be told. If you need prospects to choose your team over a competitor, you have to persuade them. Marketing accomplishes both of these goals, providing the necessary information and persuasion to draw clients into your revenue stream.
Marketing is simply part of doing business.
That truth extends into the realm of search marketing, which connects your company brand / website with local consumers on Google Search. With so many people relying on Google to find their essential services, it’s amazing how many professionals in the roofing industry still don’t quite grasp the significance of this type of marketing. Yet there are so many benefits to reap from it!
Expanded Revenue Potential
Think of all the consumers looking for roofing service online! Search marketing provides roofers with the essential visibility and authority needed to earn premium rankings. Scoring page one rankings could land you thousands of dollars in new revenues each year. The best part? Organic search results are so much cheaper than buying leads from a seller!
Search Marketing Increases the Number of People Exposed to Your Brand.
Enhanced Branding Growth
How people perceive your business is just as important as what you have to say about it, if not more. With a high ranking website on Google Search, people automatically perceive your business as more authoritative and trustworthy. Enhance that site with professional web design, plentiful client reviews, and verified local citations (from Yelp, BBB, etc) for an even stronger online performance!
These are all activities your search marketing strategy should include.
Empowered Customer Service
Be where the customers are. That’s a crucial pillar of business and an even more essential facet of customer service. If your potential clients can’t even find your business online, then how can they find the relief they need? Search marketing enables your company to better communicate with the thousands of homeowners, through your website and other online assets.
Thousands of contractors claim superior skill and expertise, but few take the time to answer the key questions that consumers ask every day.
Search Marketing Also Reveals Which Keywords are Securing Clicks for Your Business.
When you own your own company, it is vital to get the word out about that company. After all, it doesn’t matter if you have the best service if no one knows about you. But, as simple as that sounds, it isn’t. There are so many different ways to attempt to reach your target audience and develop the leads that will ultimately lead to more revenue for your company.
One of the more underrated ways to do this is by using a marketing letter for your roofing company. It might seem like an outdated method, but it serves several purposes. Best of all, it can be used across several different formats, making it an incredibly versatile form of reaching your target audience and potentially getting roofing leads.
Marketing Letter Users for Roofers
You can use these marketing letters in your email campaign. When you reach out to current customers, and any leads you might have, use the marketing letter as a newsletter. Communicate what your company has, what they offer, and why these folks should opt to invest in your business.
You can use these marketing letters for standard through-the-mail campaigns as well. Send letters to prospective customers or any leads that you might have. Direct mail gets more responses than email marketing because that mail is in the hands of those prospective customers, and they see it; with email, they could potentially skip through and never see it.
How To Construct Your Marketing Letter
There are a few things that you will want to implement into your marketing letter. These are essentials, something you should never omit for any reason possible. Without them, you are defeating the purpose of having a marketing letter, and you will not get the results you are after.
So, what should you have in your marketing letter to make it as successful as it possibly can be?
Make Contact Info Visible
You want to make this the easiest bit of information for the customer to see. Never, ever make the customer work to find a way to contact you. More often than not, if you make it a complex process, the customer will lose interest, and you will lose out on a prospective sale.
Start by putting it at the footer of your letter. Make it large enough to be immediately noticeable but not so large that it feels out of place. Put your phone number, address, any relevant emails, and your website for starters. Anything else you can fit without it seeming out of place is a bonus.
You would also want to sign off on your letter with this information as well. Again, give your leads as many opportunities to see how to contact you, so they never feel like they have to work for it.
Add Pictures
The old saying is that a picture is worth a thousand words; get many thousands of words in with pictures. Ultimately, the way to show potential customers what your business can do is to show them photos of jobs you have completed.
The key here is to implement them to fit in with the rest of the letter. Perhaps create a space on the margins to implement these pictures so that your leads can see exactly what it is you have to offer. In addition, these pictures will give those leads an undisputed look at just what your company is capable of doing for them.
Showcase Accolades or Awards
One of the quickest ways to get a lead to consider your business for their needs is to list off the ways that your company kicks butt. In addition, any certifications and awards that your company has received should go just above the information you have placed in the footer.
These awards don’t need to be dominant; they need to be there so that the customer notices them and notes how many different accolades and accreditations your company has. Endorsements from 3rd parties are essential not to toot your company’s horn but to build trust in the eyes of those potential customers.
Trust is one of the most significant factors for developing leads and turning those leads into sales. If you can build a level of trust with the customer, you have broken down one of the most significant barriers that companies face. These accolades will only strengthen that sense of confidence.
Add a Personal Touch
The most delicate line to walk here is delivering a message to these leads. It can’t be too preachy, too much of a sales pitch, but it must be personal enough to feel like a family friend is speaking to them. If you can get the leads to trust you, you have a better chance of securing their business.
Perhaps make a note of instances where you did an excellent service to someone, gave them a discount, went above and beyond to deliver the superb service, or something similar. You can showcase anything to where your company went above and beyond for them whenever it is needed.
When the customer feels like your company cares, that is another huge barrier that you have broken down. Companies across all industries struggle to find that level of trust from their customer base. Developing brand trust is one of the most significant aspects of owning a business; if you can achieve this, you have already won a massive battle in the marketing world.
Make the most of your marketing letter. Implement it across multiple platforms and make sure that it concisely delivers your message. Then, when you create a marketing letter that delivers on all of these points, you will have a leg up on the competition.
Generating roofing sales can be challenging, especially given all the competition in the industry. Having an effective marketing strategy is the best way to stand out. When you have an effective marketing strategy, you reach a broader audience and expand your influence.
But one thing that is often forgotten in branding is the need to acquire repeat customers. Reaching new customers is fine and well, but you can’t grow your business unless they come back regularly. With this in mind,
check out some ways to improve your marketing and generate more sales for your company.
1) Launch a Sales-Oriented Website
Your roofing website should be the top way to interact with your customer base and prospective clients. With this in mind, site speed is essential so that potential customers remain on your site as long as possible. Most importantly, your website has to be mobile-friendly. Over 57% of users access the internet through their mobile devices. If you don’t have a functional mobile version of your site, you are behind the eight-ball.
Finally, it needs to be informative. Prospective customers are coming to your website for information about your business. Informational statistics and reviews are the best ways to make your website as informative as possible. Leave your prospective customers with no unanswered questions.
2) Acquire More Leads Through SEO
The roofing industry is crowded in every city or state. Many businesses are competing for a limited number of customers. Therefore, it is so essential to make sure that your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) rankings are as good as they can be. SEO leads are the easiest to convert as the prospect has already demonstrated interest in your services before the sale.
In a practical sense, SEO is how Google and other search engines sift through to find the most relevant search results. You want to make sure that your business comes up in the Google search rankings. And because your website is so important, you want as many prospective customers to see your website as possible.
For example, there was an infographic on SEO, and this is what they saw:
Over 90% of website visits start via a search engine
47% of users click on a top 3 SERP result
It’s a good idea to invest in SEO services for roofers, if possible, as it can work wonders for your business and produce sales consistently.
3) Make Use of Pay-Per-Click Ads
One of the most effective strategies that you can use is to implement pay-per-click ads. For example, investing in Google Ads places your ads at the top of search results. So if your business is located in Austin, TX, and someone searches “Austin TX roofing,” your ad will appear.
While PPC costs money for each click, it’s one way to get roofing leads quickly.
Additionally, PPC pushes visibility to your website without having to fight through those challenging SEO rankings. The best part is that you don’t have to spend a fortune to see actual results. Instead, allot a small amount, say $50-$100, to these PPC ads and see what it does for your business. It won’t be massive, but you should see incremental growth.
4) Consider Google Local Service Ads
Local Service Ads are in the same vein as Google Ads, but they explicitly target your local service area. You can pop up near the top of the search engine page results and receive a total of 13.8% of the local SERP clicks. Local service ads are great because they target services, not keywords.
Again, your goal is to target within your service area, and with these Google Local Service Ads, you can keep your sights set on the local service areas instead of slogging through search results that might not directly impact you. In addition, LSA ads are a great way to advertise locally and close sales.
5) Email Marketing is Your Friend
It might seem like an outdated way of marketing your roofing business, but email marketing gets your name in front of prospective customers. It is crucial to keep in mind that not everyone who receives those emails will become a customer; the goal is to get as many eyes on your service as possible.
Another great feature of email marketing is that it lets you keep in touch with your current customers. While you want to get as many customers as possible, you also want to retain existing customers. Personalized emails make them feel as though they are unique and special and in the mind of your business. Plus, this is an excellent way to present coupons, specials, or rebates to those customers to get their return business.
Email campaigns are simple, cost-effective, and a great way to reach both current and prospective customers.
6) Place Lead Magnets on Your Website
Your website, as mentioned, is one of the essential tools that you have in your arsenal to reach new, prospective customers and develop the leads that are the lifeblood of your business. Getting these prospective customers to your website is a huge first step, but you must convert them once they enter.
Make a contact form on your website one of the first and most important things to any visitor. Forms are one of the best ways to develop leads: have them fill in basic contact information in exchange for coupons or rebates. So you get a potential lead; they have a service to keep in mind the next time they need assistance.
Consider investing in a WordPress-compatible plugin like Thrive Leads, which allows roofing companies to create appealing pop-up forms that encourage visitors to submit contact information in exchange for a value proposition.
7) Retargeting Ads Help Close Sales
What is a retargeting ad, you might be asking? It is the kind of ad that will “follow” you around as you make your way around the web. It will pop up on whatever website you are on, making you aware of the company. It is a common way of advertising and one of the best ways of getting your company noticed.
With something like roofing needs, a lead can take many months to develop. Therefore, keeping your company in the mind of a prospective client is essential so that you always remain in their mind’s eye. This way, when they finally make their decision, your company can close the sale.
With remarketing ads, you might not see immediate benefits, but it is a great way to keep prospective customers from forgetting about your business. If nothing else, retargeting will keep your company relevant in the mind of prospective customers.
8) Develop a Value Proposition
Let’s face facts: in an industry as crowded as roofing, your company is one of many vying for the attention of a relatively small customer base. Considering that most of these companies have a local reach, there are only so many people that will need the service.
Companies must stand out by giving prospective customers a reason to choose their service. With a unique sales proposition (USP), you can offer a specific benefit and communicate to your customer how you plan to solve the problem. And most of all, it shows that you can offer something to the customer that the competition either can’t or doesn’t.
The best way to separate yourself from the competition is to make your company seem different, as if the customer can’t get the same service from anyone else in the industry. When your company can do this, you set yourself apart and will be the first to jump into the minds of prospective customers by offering something that no one else can.
A value proposition is a great way to make your company a recognizable brand in a crowded industry. That’s a win for you and the customer.
9) Manage Your Reputation
When it comes to roofing sales, your reputation proceeds you. So the first thing a prospect does is check online reviews and the company website.
A website sets a great tone and first impression, but it will not necessarily establish a reputation. Positive reviews on Google and other 3rd party platforms provide the social proof that consumers covet online. People will often check multiple sources to get a feel for a company’s standing.
With websites like Facebook, HomeAdvisor, and others, customers can find genuine reviews from real customers and develop opinions about that company. Positive reviews encourage trust, while negative feedback raises red flags.
Roofers can cultivate reputation by sharing positive reviews on a website, social media accounts and even using them in advertising material.
10) Make a Promotional Video
There was a time where TV commercials were the best way to reach a prospective audience. The concept still works, but the medium has changed substantially over the last decade.
YouTube videos that promote your company can have a similar impact. You can even produce “how-to” videos that show your prospective customers how to do certain things that maybe don’t warrant a call to a roofing contractor.
Because it’s easy to share YouTube videos on a website and social media, roofing companies can quickly build trust with prospective clients and make the sales process more manageable.
It has never been easier to create a professional-looking video for a cost-effective price. Moreover, most smartphones can film high-quality videos and also offer video editing tools. Take advantage of this convenience by making frequent videos that positively feature your company, connecting to your prospective clients in new and exciting ways.
11) Partner Up
Many businesses make one mistake: they treat advertising as an “us versus them” scenario. And sure, your company is in competition with the others in the industry, but that does not mean that you have to go it alone.
Look to local businesses in your area that might make good partners. Create campaigns that promote your business in their building and vice versa; give the customer a reason to use your service. For example, think about partnering with a local hardware store. This way, the relationship is mutually beneficial, and prospective customers get exposure to your business that they may not have had before.
Use selective partnerships to enhance your overall reach and visibility. It can only do good things for your company, and it will give you exposure that you may not have had previously. Your company can succeed, but it doesn’t have to do so alone.
12) Be Patient
There is a significant flaw in how roofing businesses promote their business. They are looking for massive, immediate results. Unfortunately, without an enormous advertising budget, fast results are rare.
Try to stay realistic. If your ad budget is limited, don’t expect everyone in town to rush to use your service. The results will only be incremental, but they will add up over a long period.
The key is to be patient and be persistent. Ensure that your ads are relevant and informative so that any prospective clients can get the best understanding of your company possible. The results will come, and you will see growth in the revenue that your company generates. It just takes patience and an eye toward the long-haul instead of immediate results.
13) Answer FAQ on Your Website
As stated (a few times at this point), your website is one of the most important tools you possess to make the most of your business. It sets the first impression that is so important when trying to reach prospective customers, and it can draw those prospective customers back to get a second look at your company.
Developing trust in your company is a great way to increase sales. Customers value trustworthiness in the service companies. When you create an FAQ on your website, you make the kind of trustworthiness those customers love.
Answer common questions and post them to your website. Then, if you need ideas, take feedback from users over the phone, social media, and Google My Business, and publish the most frequent concerns in question form. FAQs will get them coming back to revisit your website and will help build trust for sales conversions.
The results won’t be instant, but you will see a repeat in visitors as they frequent your website to find the answers to their questions. That in and of itself is a massive victory for the marketing tool that is your website.
14) Personalize Sales Interactions
Customers generally feel that most companies don’t care about their concerns. However, roofers can change the narrative by delivering a personalized sales pitch that puts competitors to shame.
For instance, Roofing Webmasterstreats each client as a top priority and customizes everything from their website color scheme to their contact forms.
Roofing companies can apply the same sentiment to their roofing services by giving a personal touch to sales interactions. Never make the consumer feel pressured into buying your services, but always make yourself available for any additional questions. Treat your customers like friends and family, and you will increase roofing sales in 2022 and beyond.
Are you considering starting a roofing business? We don’t blame you. The roofing contractor industry is currently worth over $51 billion in the United States, and revenue is projected to grow by 3.8% in 2021.
However, starting a roofing business isn’t something that you can do overnight. Aside from acquiring your business license, permits, and insurance, there is a lot to consider. With this in mind, you shouldn’t start your contracting business on a whim, but if you’re serious about reaching your goals, you can undoubtedly achieve them using this guide.
While it would be folly to provide a step-by-step guide of everything you would need to start a roofing business (every state has different requirements), our guide will run you through some of the critical considerations you need to consider. These tips will provide you with a general blueprint on what it takes to start and maintain a successful roofing business.
If you are looking specifically to start a commercial roofing company, be sure to check out our previous post about that subject so you can begin getting commercial jobs as soon as possible. But for a residential roofing company or all-encompassing roofing business, continue with this guide.
Selecting a Company Name
The name of your roofing business needs to do a lot of things. It has to stick out in the mind of consumers. It has to convey the spirit of your business. It has to be memorable. It has to look good on print and on computer screens.
In general, though, you don’t want to choose a name that’s too long. Try creating a shortlist of titles that you are considering and then workshopping them with friends, family, or colleagues. Remember that the name should also be simple for people to type into their web browser’s address bar.
Networking With Experienced Businesses
Having the guidance of established members of your local business community can be a huge help when you’re just starting. When starting a roofing business, one of your top priorities should be to get involved with the local business community. Consider local business networking groups or chambers of commerce.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to members of the business community for help. Chambers of commerce and networking groups will likely have valuable resources too. Try getting on local business directories for roofers. Expanding your reach can help market your young roofing business and make more consumers aware of your services.
Acquiring The Necessary Licenses
Depending on what state you operate in, you will need a variety of licenses. Of course, you will need to get your business license first and foremost. Some states will also require that you get a contractor’s license and a roofing license. You can find a helpful guide of the kinds of permits you will need according to the state you live in here. It can also be beneficial to contact your county clerk to point you in the right direction. Also, be aware that some states regulate business licenses at the county level. So even if you live in California, what is required in L.A. county may differ from what’s needed in Ventura county.
Bracing for Seasonal Changes
Depending on where you are in the country, you may have an off-season. Some regions are too cold or snowy in the winter to do roofing work. If this is the case where you live, you need to have a plan to carry you through each off-season. Your strategy may be as simple as saving enough money during the busy season to cover business expenses (rent, equipment, salaries, etc.) during the off-season. However, you could go as far as to branch out and offer supplemental services for inclement weather conditions.
Investing in Digital Marketing
The failure rate of new roofing businesses is over 50%. Most companies fail within the first five years too. One reason that roofing companies fail at such a high clip is that they don’t get enough leads in the first few years. Lead generation is where digital marketing comes in. Digital marketing is crucial for new roofing businesses. It will help get your name out there and drum up all-important leads.
Digital marketing could be a sizable investment at first, but it pays off huge in the end. Digital marketing could include:
Review Management: It’s essential to let customers know that you care about their experience. Replying to reviews (good and bad ones) is a great way to get more people to notice your business and increase customer satisfaction.
PPC Ads: PPC stands for Pay Per Click. It’s an ad model that displays your ad to your target audience, and every time someone clicks on it, you pay a certain amount to the service provider. It sounds like it could get expensive, but it pays for itself in leads if done correctly.
Content Marketing: Content marketing involves providing something of value to consumers. It can take the form of blogs, video content, and social media posts. It’s important because most consumers prefer to learn about companies and their services through blog content or articles rather than traditional advertisements.
Accumulating Valuable Equipment
Of course, as a roofing contractor, you will need certain types of equipment. Roofing equipment can be pretty pricey, so you may be tempted to opt for cheaper products. Fruglness isn’t always the brightest idea in the roofing industry. You have to be careful about buying affordable or used equipment because you could be paying more for replacements in the end.
Besides, doing quality work will be the best way to make it in the roofing business. You have to make sure that you have the equipment to help you get the job done right. Buying the right tools and equipment is also crucial for safety. You have to make sure that your workforce is healthy and able as much as possible. The right equipment will eliminate safety hazards – not to mention lawsuits.
Hiring New Roofing Employees
As your business starts to pick up steam, your role should shift. When you first start, you will likely wear many hats – project manager, accountant, secretary, supply manager, and, oh yeah, roofer. While playing all these different roles may be manageable when you only have a handful of customers, it will become impossible as your business grows.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help or hire help. One key to successful businesses is knowing how and when to delegate service to the right people in your organization. As your workforce grows, train people within it up in different areas. The best help will come from people who are already familiar with your business.
Scaling Your Roofing Business Long-Term
There are a lot of things to consider if you are planning to start your own roofing business. While our guide on how to start a roofing company is sure to provide you with helpful insight, there are certain things you won’t see coming. That’s where we come in. We offer an essential service for all roofing companies. Our job is to market your business so that it gets more leads and more customers. If you are starting a roofing company, give it the best chance at success by working with our team.
There are many SEO scams online in today’s marketplace, and roofing companies can fall victim to their shadiness. On today’s podcast, Nolen and Jason of Roofing Webmasters discuss SEO scams for roofers and how to avoid lousy marketing companies like the plague. Investing marketing dollars wisely can make or break your roofing business, and choosing the wrong agency can ruin your company. Let’s take a look at some surefire scam signs.
Long-Term Contracts
Any roofing marketing agency that locks you into a long-term contract (6 months or more) should be considered a red flag. Roofing companies should only partner with agencies that offer month-to-month agreements so that they can keep them accountable. In addition, once you’re locked into payments, your agency can stop worrying about your website because they get paid either way.
Black Box Billing
One of the biggest scams in digital marketing is black box billing for PPC. If your agency handles your Google Ads, they should offer transparent billing through Google. You should know how much of your ad spend goes directly to your Google Ad campaigns and how much goes into your agency’s pockets. If they can’t provide detailed billing for your PPC campaigns, you have entered into a bad deal.
Choose Your Keywords
If an SEO agency asks you to choose from a list of keywords, run for the hills. While it might sound like a good idea at face value, the reality is that choosing keywords is a horrible SEO practice. A good SEO agency will optimize your website for every viable keyword in your niche rather than limiting it to select keywords. Worse yet, most of the listed keywords are easy to rank for and require very little expertise from the agency. As a result, they fool you into thinking they accomplished something great when most SEO companies could easily replicate the rankings.
Branding and Big Words
Any highfalutin marketing agency that tries to act superior by using vague terminology that makes them sound smarter is acting in bad faith. If they speak about branding from a conceptual standpoint, they’ve likely hooked you into a bad deal. The actual value of branding is lead generation. So the idea of branding from a theoretical perspective is a waste of time. Unless your agency can show you how their services lead to sales, they are just talking to sound smart.
General Marketing Agencies
Not every generalized marketing firm is terrible, but it certainly helps to choose an agency that focuses on roofing. If your agency handles everything from eCommerce to medical accounts, they may not have the expertise to handle roofing, or they may lose your account in a pile of higher-paying clients. If you choose a general SEO company, make sure they can provide examples of roofing campaigns they’ve helped succeed recently.
So you’re a newb when it comes to marketing for roofers—big deal. The reality is that everyone has to start somewhere, and there’s no better time to start than now. Embarking on a new business venture can be both exciting & intimidating. There’s the lure of the unknown and the challenge that comes along. At Roofing Webmasters, this podcast wasn’t created to earn new clients (we have a line out the door) but instead to impart our knowledge of what it takes to become a successful roofing contractor in 2021.
No Money, No Problems
Nolen Walker, the founder of Roofing Webmasters, started from humble beginnings. Like those of you reading this post, he didn’t have the money to invest in big-time marketing right away. So instead, he spent his time mowing lawns & painting curbs to build enough cash to parlay into a long-term investment.
Planting your flag as a digital footprint, albeit a comparatively minuscule one, lays a foundation that you can build on many years later—Google factors in tenure when assigning trust to a particular brand or entity. Claiming a domain name now (even if it shows a dirt cheap website) is still a step in the right direction for prospective roofers. Here’s what you need:
Website
It would help if you had a website and domain name ASAP. Although you can’t expect to succeed on Google organic with a template website, having any website at all is better than not having one. Why? Tenure matters in the eyes of Google. So while you won’t directly benefit from your website today, you will be setting the stage for future endeavors in terms of lead generation.
Remember, you have limited funds, and so you have to make the most of them. You can’t compare yourself to other roofers with massive budgets because that will only discourage you from trying. Even if it is a baby step, the first step can start a meaningful push to lead to sustainable success. Domains usually cost 9.99. Go for a roofing domain name that has a dot com extension.
Google My Business Listing
If you do nothing else with your web presence, make sure you at least claim & optimize your local Google listing. GMB listings account for both your Google My Business profile & Google Maps address. Every business owner in the world can do this free of charge if they have a legitimate business.
Google explains how to claim your business which is the simplest way to establish a web presence with no money. Make sure you add company photos to your profile as you take them. As a newb, you may not have many to start, but your GMB can be continuously improved over and again. First, maps addresses must be verified, which is most commonly done via postcard mail. Once verified, you can rank on Google Maps.
Google Reviews (And Other Reviews)
Once you’ve claimed & optimized your Google listing, you should pursue as many reviews as possible. Even if you have a dirt-cheap website, consumers can find appeal in a GMB listing with several positive reviews. If a prospect searches your brand name, they will see your GMB listing in the knowledge graph on the top right of search results.
Google is not the only platform on which you should generate reviews. You also want to disseminate them to business directories like Angie’s List, BBB, MapQuest, etc. But perhaps more importantly, you want to get them on Facebook, which serves as a social media platform as well as a top business directory.
Social Media
Speaking of Facebook, social media platforms are free to market and present a powerful web entity for roofing newbs with no money. Sure, you can’t advertise on Facebook or Instagram without funds, but you can certainly market yourself on them. Facebook marketing is primarily about establishing a business page that will show up on Google search results.
With Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, you have a chance to generate some organic impressions on the platforms themselves. Unfortunately, Facebook no longer empowers brands to show up on organic feeds as a way to discourage the clickbait that has plagued the social network over the past decade or so. But you can still use it to your advantage, as a newb roofer with no $.
Transitioning to a Higher Level of Marketing
Once you transition from newb to moderately successful roofer, you should take your earnings and re-allocate them towards superior marketing. The first step will be contacting a professional web designer who can replace your old site with a newly customized one coded for SEO.
Since your domain will already have tenure at this point, you can leverage its age to hit the ground rounding with your newly designed website. Yes, that’s right, you keep the domain that you bought for 9.99 some years ago but now energize it with a superior design. Combining tenure with SEO creates a perfect storm of digital promotion that one can enjoy the benefits of for years and decades to come.
Roofing Webmasters Can Help
Remember, this post is not for people who already have a dominant online presence; it is just a reminder to those who want to reevaluate once they gain that position. Roofing Webmasters has been working with roofing contractors for years, and our data supports consistent excellence in roofer internet marketing. We attend to detail, review the latest algorithmic trends, and constantly look for advantages to put our clients over their competitors on Google organic rankings.
