Marketing for  Roofing Contractors

A Fast, Great Looking  Roofing Website

A website is your prospective client's first impression of you as a roofer - the first glimpse into who you are and how your roofing business operates. For roofers, that means having top-notch images of your roofing work while also ensuring that your website will load quickly.

DIY roofing websites may be tempting, especially for newer companies that are looking to reduce their operational costs. Do-It-Yourself websites come with their issues, including…

• Major Time Loss: The time spent to design, build, and maintain your roofing company website while still maintaining your business operations
• Tech Problems: Technical troubleshooting with hosting and email problems associated with your roofing business operations
• Slow Load Times: Loads and operates slower than roofer websites designed and built by professionals using the appropriate tools and methods
• User / Design Issues: User experience and design issues may come about from a roofer building a website instead of a web professional doing the work

As soon as possible, using a professional marketing agency - preferably one with experience with roofing contractors and an understanding of how to build websites for a roofing company’s target audience - will garner the best results and ultimately get you the best leads.

Organic Search Engine Optimization  For Roofing Websites

For your roofing website to be seen when someone searches for terms like “roof repair” or “do I need a new roof?” in search engines like Google, you need to worry about search engine optimization.

Sometimes called organic search engine optimization, it is basically the practice of properly building, writing, and developing websites so that search engines can best understand the subject matter of your website.

When roofing SEO (the common shorthand for “search engine optimization”) is done right, your website can outperform your competitors for common search phrases that your potential clients may be using when looking for a roofer.

SEO for roofing websites requires roofing keyword research to understand the relevant keywords that your audience may be using. Once that is assessed, you can use on-page optimization to optimize your website for those specific target phrases and keywords in an attempt to bring the appropriate, qualified web traffic to your website.

The Benefits Of Well-Prepared Roofing SEO

The end goal is to create a web presence that ranks highly in search engine results pages (commonly known as SERPs) for those roofer-centric terms. The better you do your job of creating an SEO-friendly roofing website, the more that search engines will understand that your roofing company’s site is relevant to that particular searching audience in need of roof help.

That ultimately means you’ll rank higher in the results and, thus, more likely to get a user to click on your website and learn more about your specific roofing services.

Roofers need Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to boost their online visibility and attract more customers. Here's why:

• Local Visibility: Most people seeking roofing services will search for local providers. If your website is optimized for local search, you're more likely to appear in the search results when someone in your area looks for a roofer, making it easier for potential customers to find you.
• Increased Traffic: By optimizing your roofing contractor website with relevant keywords (such as "roofing services," "roof repair," your location, etc.), you can draw more organic traffic to your site, increasing the chances of converting visitors into customers.
• Authority and Trust: A well-optimized website tends to rank higher in search engine results. Higher rankings can give potential customers the impression that you're a leading figure in your field, which can build trust and influence their decisions.
• Cost-Effective Marketing: SEO is a cost-effective roofing marketing strategy. It may require an upfront investment, especially if you're hiring an SEO expert, but the long-term benefits, like consistent web traffic and increased visibility, usually outweigh the costs.
• Compete with Larger Companies: SEO can level the playing field, allowing smaller businesses to compete with larger, more established companies.

Roofing SEO is a part of the design, content creation, website building, and ongoing content development over time. While you could try to hire an in-staff SEO pro, you’re more likely to have better results at a much lower cost by finding a marketing agency with previous roofer SEO experience.

More Online Reviews  For Your Roofing Business

Online reviews are increasingly important for small businesses, including roofing contractors. A survey from Brightlocal found that "87% of consumers used Google to evaluate local businesses in 2022", which was an increase from the previous year.

Specifically, roofers and service businesses are industries where consumers are looking for online reviews as an important part of their decision-making processes.

So, when the majority of web users take stock in online reviews, roofing companies must make active review management a priority in their business and marketing operations.

Manual Versus Automated Review Management Options

Old-school paper forms were great for helping you assess internal review issues and concerns, but to get the maximum benefit from your efforts, your reviews must be visible online.

For your roofing company, places like Google, BBB, and Facebook will likely be the most important review platforms to worry about.

Manual marketing efforts to get more reviews online can be time-consuming. It entails manually emailing your clients and/or providing them with support print marketing materials to make the review process as simple as possible. This would generally happen manually after a job was completed.

The ideal situation would be to automate your review management processes as much as possible. Automated review management software can help you simply import your client list or otherwise integrate with your existing CRM - so that your customers are contacted (and followed up with) appropriately after you close the book on your client.

Getting more reviews online on platforms like your Google Business Profile can improve your local optimization as well help to provide social proof - which means you’ll have an easier time finding and converting those home and business owners who are seeking roofing services from a professional just like you.

Ongoing Marketing And Planning To  Keep Your Roofer Marketing Fresh

A complete roofer marketing plan is so much more than just your website. You’ll need to continually plan and upgrade your overall, ongoing marketing efforts so that you can continue to grow your business and expand your reach.

If you don’t have a team of marketing professionals on staff, we’ve got a few options that you can consider to continue to enhance your business and try to outperform your competition.

Creating A Customer Referral Program For Roof Replacements

Chances are you’re not going to get repeat roof replacement from most of your customers. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t value in your past customer list.

Develop a customer referral program that rewards your past customers for promoting your roofing business to their friends and family. Referral programs work best when you incentivize both parties - discounts for the new customer and cash or gift card rewards for your happy past customer.

The great thing is that you only pay when the customer referral is successful. Isn’t a guaranteed new roof installation worth paying a $100 restaurant gift card?

You can use your website, social media, email newsletter program, and print marketing tactics to promote your referral program with your past clients - and reap the benefits of low-cost, high-value roofing services from clients you may never have had access to.

Seasonally Appropriate Roofer Marketing Tactics

In most places, a roofer’s workload and daily routine vary with the season. Your marketing should ebb and flow as well - working in advance of the shifts in the season.

By having marketing materials or paid ad campaign concepts ready before spring storm season or hail season, you’ll be positioned perfectly when customers react in real time to the world around them.

Create Home Service Marketing Partnerships With Contractors Other Than Roofers

Chances are you’ve got friends in the construction and home service space - so it makes sense to formalize those relationships into marketing partnerships.

If you’re a roofer exclusively, work to network with other professionals where you could enjoy a reciprocal relationship. Real estate agents are often in need of professional roofing contractors to rehab or rapidly complete roof repair and replacement services. Home builders may need subcontractors. From deck builders to landscapers and everyone in between, find marketing partnerships that work to fill in the gaps.

Referral fees and commissions can be a low-cost way to open yourself up to a different audience.

Consider Video Marketing For Your Roofing Business

While it is a bit daunting to get in front of the camera the first few times, consider that YouTube users watch one billion hours of video each day, and TikTok also has one billion active users of its own.

Long-form and short-form videos are more popular now than ever before. Getting your insight and unique point of view as a roofing contractor gives a layperson an inside look, personalizing and humanizing your business.

So when you safely can, consider taking a few extra videos from your next job site (though probably not from the rooftop itself, in case your insurance agent is watching.)

Build Mini-Case Studies With Project Posts

Project posts are a great way to provide mini roofing case studies for your audience to consider. It’s simple enough to gather the information necessary to create a roof project page. You’ll need to gather…

• Work Details
  • Information about what work was completed (roof repair, inspection, replacement, etc.)
  • Vendor materials (like CertainTeed, GAF, Owens Corning, TAMKO, Atlas) that were specifically selected for the climate or job type
  • Any unique part of your process, like using Equipter trailers to reduce the potential for damage from waste materials
  • Any specific restraints on your workflow unique to the property that had to be overcome
• Location Details
  • The city and state where the work took place
  • If applicable, you could get more granular and mention the neighborhood or subdivision name where the work was completed
• Media
  • Before and after photos of your work
  • Video of the job site
  • Drone photography or videography for more unique vantage points
• Customer Reviews
  • A text-based review at a bare minimum
  • A photo of you shaking the property owner’s hand on the job site
  • A video testimonial for bonus points

You can gather these elements and create a single page on your website dedicated to explaining the work that was completed. This page serves as a great example to your website visitors of how your work is done, providing a bit of peace of mind for potential customers who may see themselves in a similar situation.

As an additional bonus, such a page on your website also serves as an additional point of information for search engines to better understand and rank your website organically.

Ensure top-of-mind awareness and stay in regular contact with your past roofing customers with email marketing. Sending monthly email newsletters is a great way for your roofing company to maximize its past client list and capitalize on your previous hard work.

Power your referral program with regularly sent email newsletters that help entertain and inform your client base. Our monthly email marketing program will keep your roofing business in front of the right people to grow your referrals.

Facebook ads are an excellent way for roofers to target the demographics of their ideal roofing customers on social media. With almost 75% of American adults on Facebook, chances are some of those people are your target customers.

While trying to reach your potential customers via organic social media may work, using targeted Facebook ads can hone in on the right audience with the right messaging. With the right know-how and expertise, you can target the neighborhoods and customer persona of your ideal client.

Facebook audience segmentation and ad creation processes can be daunting. To ensure you maximize your Facebook ad campaign effectiveness, consider partnering with a Facebook Ads management professional who specializes in home service companies and roofing contractors just like you.

While AI is all anyone’s talking about, there is a simple way that roofers can harness its power. Using an automated chat system on your website can help you interact with your web visitors 24/7/365.

Footbridge Media’s Contractor Lead Chat is the best way to communicate with your customers in the way they want to be communicated with. Instead of waiting for your roofing website visitors to navigate your site and complete passive web forms, Contractor Lead Chat engages with your users, validates that you are a good fit for their roofing needs, and captures their lead information.

At a cost lower than managed live chat services and without the per-chat cost limitations of self-service chat options, your website’s AI chatbot is a great way to instantly connect with your roofing customers at a great cost!