How to Attract More Customers with Roofing Email Marketing

Roofing contractors, it's time to ramp up your roofing social media. Whether you like it or not, the business world today requires a social media presence. Why? Because social media isn't just for saying hi. It's how customers make decisions—like who should install their new roof.Before even calling for quotes, most customers research online reputations by looking at social media profiles. Property owners use social media to make purchasing decisions and learn if you're a brand they can trust.For example, did you know 90% of Instagram's 1 billion users follow at least one business account, and 60% say they discover new products on the platform? Or that 78% of U.S. consumers made purchases through discoveries on Facebook in 2018?That means sharing news about new roofing technology, posting photos of successful roof installations, and engaging with customers online should be a crucial part of your marketing strategy. Here are some simple steps to help you make the most of social media marketing.Building an Online CommunityRoofing keeps you busy, but it's important to make time for social media. You can get started by setting aside 15-20 minutes each day to post, respond to comments, and engage with other people's posts. This organic marketing pays off over time by giving you a credible social media presence. Try these best practices for roofing social media success:Build your brand identity: Help potential customers recognize you anywhere they find you online. To ensure you have a consistent brand identity, ask yourself these questions: On each social media profile, are my company logos the same, is the wording similar in tone, do I use the same brand colors, and are photos of staff members consistent? Is my business contact information and website easy to find and up-to-date on all of my profiles? Create community: Follow and engage with a range of users, from home remodeling influencers to large roofing companies to individual customers. Always tag relevant partners (like GAF) in posts so they can share their favorites with their followers and increase your visibility. Additionally, you should get permission from property owners to post photos featuring their homes or buildings, or encourage them to share photos and tag your business page. When they share those photos with their followers, you get free marketing!Engage customers: Homeowners and building owners use social media to ask customer service questions, debut completed projects, rave or rant about experiences, and give advice to friends or colleagues looking for a new roof. Respond to all comments and queries, especially the unhappy ones. Taking responsibility and showing you're invested in customer service tells potential clients that you're serious about their satisfaction.Use hashtags: A hashtag is any word with the # symbol placed directly in front of it. People search by hashtags for topics they're interested in. You can weave hashtags into captions or compile them at the end of posts. Try using hashtags like #roofing, #roofersofinstagram, #roofingcontractor, #roofingcompany, #roofrepair, and #MyGAFRoof to get visibility. Hashtags are especially important for Instagram and Twitter posts. On Instagram, add 3-5 relevant hashtags. For Twitter, 2-3 targeted hashtags will do.Be socially conscious: Customers like companies that better their communities. Use social media to show how you give back, whether it's participating in charity efforts like local food drives or partnering with organizations like Habitat for Humanity and Team Rubicon. Remember to tag partner organizations.Choosing Roofing Social Media SitesEach day, 3.8 billion active users spend, on average, nearly 2.5 hours on social media sites. Different sites help you connect with different audiences, and you can tailor content—including blog posts, photos, videos, and news stories—to your demographic. Facebook and Instagram are effective places to start if you're new to social marketing. Here's more on the top sites for roofing social media:Facebook: 69% of U.S. adults are on Facebook. They write company reviews, engage with brands, and peruse business profiles to check credibility. To engage with these users, get permission to post before and after photos of roof installations, videos of your workers in action, testimonials from happy clients, and blog articles that will interest customers. Tagging businesses or people who are part of the post will help you build relationships while boosting your visibility.Instagram: 67% of people age 18-29 and 57% of people age 30-49 are active Instagram users. These are your current and future customers! Get permission to post before and after roofing portfolios, video highlights of company employees, video clips showcasing the roofing life in Instagram Stories, and news about upcoming events.YouTube: 73% of U.S. adults use this video site. Creating content for YouTube requires more time than a quick post to Facebook, but informational roofing videos can establish you as an industry leader and a go-to for DIY homeowners.LinkedIn: Use this professional networking site to engage with business peers, learn and share roofing industry thought leadership, and build business connections.Twitter: Post your company updates, retweet industry news, and connect with local media when participating in community events.Post, tag partners, use hashtags, and engage with customers, and over time you'll see the payoff. To get an extra boost, follow GAF on social media —Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube—and tag #MyGAFRoof in photos of your projects that use GAF materials for a chance to be featured on GAF's social pages.Building a social presence may feel like a chore, but by following some best practices and investing just a few minutes a day, you can build a strong social media presence that instills trust in potential customers.Once you have your social media in motion, you may want to look into using online reviews for roofing reputation management next. For more tips and solutions that can help you achieve your business goals, check out GAF's resources to grow your business.

COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on many businesses, including roofing companies. A study by the Society for Human Resource Management revealed that 62% of small businesses have seen drops in revenues since the pandemic began. Using roofing marketing to increase your customer base has never been more important.The downturn in the economy has reshaped the business landscape for contractors in America, but here's how to increase market share so you can thrive during these challenging times.Get Clear About Your GoalsEven during a pandemic, it's important to set targets, advises business consultant Jon Paramore, who spoke to roofers during a webinar as part of GAF's Expert Value Speaker Series."Nobody gets on an airplane with a pilot who doesn't know where he's going," he says. "Tell people exactly where you're going, or they won't stay on your plane."Rather than diminishing sales goals due to COVID-19, consider mapping out a different direction by aiming high, he adds. You can then capitalize on the opportunity to seize a bigger proportion of market share."Ask yourself: How are you dealing with adversity? All the guys that are quitting or closing down have given you the opportunity to take more market share," he says. "2020 could end up being the greatest gift you were ever handed as a business person."Tap Into a Larger Pool of Job SeekersNow may be a great time to find and recruit incredible new team members, suggests Paramore."In 20-plus years, I've never seen this level of sales talent come into the market," he says. "Part of the reason is companies that were not able to withstand what we're going through right now furloughed some of their sales, marketing, and operations teams. These people are right there, ready to roll and hungry. You can benefit from just one of them joining your team."Show Up for Your CustomersWhether you send out email updates, a newsletter, or post short blogs on your website with photos of successful projects, customers appreciate positive messaging and your efforts to stay in touch. Set up a customer engagement strategy that includes offering promotions or tip sheets, and make yourself available by telephone or video conferencing to answer any questions potential clients might have.Relationships formed with people in your community help roofing company leaders stand apart from their competition, says Paramore."Empathy is what people are looking for right now," he explains. "Anyone can put on a good roof; what are you doing to be different?"Find small ways to help, such as easing the stress of not being able to go out to eat by dropping off gift cards and saying, "Have some pizza on me," suggests Paramore. Follow up by asking if they know anyone in their neighborhood who needs a replacement roof.Build Buzz About Your Company on Social MediaIn 2019, more than 240 million Americans engaged on social platforms. That's a big pool of potential customers, so why not market to them?Be active, authentic, and engaging on social by joining conversations, posting useful information for homeowners, celebrating your team, and sharing your core values. Doing this builds trust and shows you take your roofing business seriously. Bonus: It doesn't cost anything except your time.Using social media to build up virtual networks is another great roofing marketing tool. Paramore suggests connecting with real estate and insurance agents, commercial property brokers, and other tradespeople on LinkedIn."Tell them what you do and set up a networking event via Zoom for coffee and to talk business," he says. "Exchange referrals and see if you can help each other during these tough times. Ask your team to connect with 10-12 new people. It's really powerful."Build Strong Relationships.Rather than collecting new sales leads in your customer acquisition strategy, seek to build authentic relationships, advises Paramore.While it can be challenging to not make as many house calls due to COVID-19 restrictions, you can boost your potential client list virtually. Your roofing marketing strategy depends on strong relationships. The more you connect with and learn about past, current, and potential customers, the more word-of-mouth referrals or repeat business you'll get."You're not just 'a roofer'—you're a people developer that happens to put roofs on houses. So stop making your company a transaction business. Make it a people business," says Paramore.Strengthen your community goodwill by reporting on any volunteer work your team has done, and share kudos for other local businesses that are supporting people in your neighborhood, too.While you may have faced unprecedented challenges this past year, you can still find business success by becoming creative with your roofing marketing.

Part of being a successful roofing business owner involves figuring out how to get the word out about your company so that when homeowners need a new roof, they can easily find you. This means finding the right advertising formats and channels—whether that's organic, unpaid advertising such as an email campaign or a company blog, or a paid marketing plan that includes buying print space or investing in paid search strategy.Here are some of the key types of advertising formats and channels you can consider that could help you achieve more visibility for your business.Organic Marketing MethodsMany free or low-cost advertising strategies, like sending out email blasts, creating a blog on your website, or posting on social media, can help boost your business by tapping into the huge number of people who are online every day. The best part? It doesn't have to cost you a dime.Becoming more active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other popular digital platforms is a casual yet direct way to build your online presence and create brand recognition. You could try engaging with homeowners on social media by starting or joining conversations about roofing, sharing photos of projects your company recently completed, and spreading the word that you're available to take on new clients. This can help you build an online community and demonstrate who you are to potential customers.Of course, when you cast a very wide net on social media, you can't guarantee that you're reaching the ready-to-sign customers who need a new roof. That's when you'll want to look into some paid marketing options.Print AdvertisingIt may sound old-school, but giving homeowners something to hold in their hands can help you make an impression. Any physically-printed promotional items—such as posters, postcards, bulletins, mailers, sell sheets and flyers—are considered print advertising. Print ads can also be placed in newspapers and magazines. Having print material available offers a physical package you can hand out to clients when you visit for a sales call.BillboardsBillboard advertising kicks things up to a much larger scale, thanks to its design, size, and placement. Often, billboards or public transit ads feature more image-focused design with few words, so your message can make an impression when potential customers drive or walk quickly by. Then, when their roof leaks, they may recall the giant billboard they saw during their morning commute or while running errands around their local neighborhood.TV and Radio CommercialsShort broadcasted commercials are designed to captivate audiences who are watching television or listening to the radio or a podcast. This type of marketing offers viewers or listeners a multi-sensory advertising experience they won't get from print or a billboard. Potential customers can watch clips of a roof being replaced and imagine the work being done on their own home, for example.Paid Social MediaSocial media is an effective way to advertise, but it can take a long time to build an audience. Paid social media advertising can speed this process up.Paid promotional posts on Facebook, Instagram and other online platforms get displayed in user newsfeeds. Some digital platforms allow you to target options like age and location so you can find users who are most likely to become your next roofing customers. Other platforms help you collect followers and have conversations with potential clients online, or spread your message to other business professionals who could refer people to you, such as real estate and insurance agents.Paid Search AdvertisingDesigned to generate leads and target customers, paid search advertising is also known as pay-per-click or PPC advertising. When someone types in certain keywords, your ad can be displayed at the top of the search results so potential clients see your company's post first. Paid search advertising can drive more traffic to your site, allowing you to boost your customer base. Using tools like Google's Keyword Planner, you can research which phrases to employ. This paid marketing strategy can be adapted to any size budget.Online Display AdvertisingThere is also an opportunity to capture potential clients browsing online with a more visual advertisement instead of a text-based one. Usually, banner ads appear in horizontal boxes at the top of a web page and display ads run on the side. Either way, this type of marketing strategy showcases your business and builds brand awareness on various affiliate websites through sharp graphics, vibrant colors, and a memorable headline.Native Ads and Sponsored ContentMarketing through sponsored content happens when a company pays to have custom, brand-oriented content published on a blog or in a magazine. It promotes your services while also offering information to potential consumers. For example, sponsored content could be a blog post entitled, "5 Things to Do if Your Roof Starts Leaking."Whether you choose organic searches, a paid advertising strategy, or a combination of both, there are many digital tools you can add to your marketing plan that will elevate your company and help you connect and engage with new customers. It may take time to figure out the strategy that serves your business best, but continuing to try new things can help you attract more clients and generate more revenue.