advertising

how much do you spend a year on advertising not including lawn sign/truck lettering?>>>

Nope. I sell ME.

My ad is a simple white background with black text that tells the story of my roofing life and experience.

Fortunately, there are many people looking for ME.

This "First Page" BS has got to be the biggest scam going these days. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to see right through it. The "First Page" contains approximately a dozen business. So that is ALL that can be on the first page. lol So legitimately these people could only have the dozen customers and thats it. ROFL Yet they "trick" thousands of business owners into paying them to do the impossible. Simply put, It is not possible for "Everyone" to be on the first page.They could get you on the first page for an hour and say ok we did it. But then there is the matter of "keeping' you on the first page. Run Forrest Run!

To get your company name out there will require some cash. There are many ways but most all of them are gonna cost ya. Also, keep in mind that their is no "quick fix". You would have to invest and not expect immediate results. Like so many have already said the best leads are referals and repeat clients. To increase those you must increase your customer base and those customers must be satisfied. Do everything you can to make sure everyone you serve will remember who did the job for them and what a great job it was. If i had just ten bucks for every time I've asked a home owner who did the work the last time around and they said i can't remember then i would be a millionaire. :dry:

Donnie Said: Im curious as to what is the best way to get my company name known? I have tons of people calling telling me that they can get me on the first page in all search engines. Prices ranging from $45 to $1,200 per month. I have ads in local papers and the calls are slow. I seem to get just enough work for me and that Im grateful for. Eventually i want to get to a point again to where i can hire employees. Any advice is appreciated

Donnie, here is some advise from a roofer of over 20 years. Stop thinking of random advertisig, and start thinking of targeted marketing. Money better spent. I don't advertise at all, sure referalls are great from word of mouth they are already sold before you even go talk to them. However if you want to get to a point like where I am with 4 crews doing a house a day each every week, then start targeting specific customers. Oh and by the way I put up yard signs on every job and leave them until the customer takes them down I always get calls from them.

Bump

Good truck signs pay for themselves. Vic, Google "roof repair Miami". Roofer Mike Inc is solid Page 1 for a top keyword phrase in a very competitive market WITHOUT Adwords or an SEO company. We also are Page 1 for "roofers miami" on Bing & we're not done. "We" is me and a computer geek friend. I wrote it, he built it. Took 1 1/2 years of working the laptop every night writing text, reading Seo articles, etc. Up to 12 pages now. You can get there but it's a LOT of work. The payoff will be when we're up to 15 pages, the domain is older and we rank consistently high for $100/yr to Godaddy. Then we can drop our Angie's List listing, which costs a bundle. YP will build you a site and put you on Page 1 of their OL listings plus a bunch of affiliated sites for $4K/yr. Looks like the best "jump start" for the money.

Old School, how large is your company? Employee wise?

The largest repair/reroofing contractor in Arizona does about 18-20 mil a year. About 22 years old, I remember when they got started. They were fortunate that a nice size hail storm had hit. Not a real big storm. Couple of chasers came in to town, of course Phoenix was much smaller. This company, family owned, immediately started radio, tv, and billboard advertising and bought their way into the market place. They haven't stopped since. They probably spend 5-6% of their budget on advertising and another 2-3% on marketing. They stay at the top, year after year. I, am sure some of their work is referral and repeat.

We are celebrating our 10th year in business. We do the truck wraps, yard signs, website, facebook, some radio in the past 2 years and we are considering tv in the near future. Most of our work is referrals, we do door knock when job is in progress, and the custom homes are starting to make a comback. That used to be our bread and butter because they are repeat clientle. Some 5-6 times a year at $50k plus.

After that hailstorm we had in Oct 2010 and a bad economy there hasn't been a lot of roofing activity here in the past 6 months. Commercial has picked up some but we dont do alot of that as it seems to be price driven. Some refferals though. Negotiated work.

Well Donnie, I was hoping for more. We already know; - An established contractor doesn't need to advertise if they're getting all the work they want. They've spent many years "advertising" by their work in-place and acquiring clients/contacts/local, (be it demographic or industry), recognition. That's nothing new/exceptional; It's just the way it generally works, and is the safe/conservative route, although a bit slow for some with more rapid growth expectations. it will only take you so far, in so much time. - Commercial and new construction requires very little advertising. Your client base tends to be educated, and it's generally price-driven between qualified contractors. - Residential re-roofing however....Your dealing with the general public/Joe/Sally homeowner....It's all over the board.....Salesmanship is key. regardless of technical ability or ethics, the silver-tongue generally wins out. They're also going to go to the internet....No one thus far has shared any secrets, (and won't either).

I'm surprised at this topics brevity...it's a complex subject. I've had the fortune to operate in several different business climates. What works in one area, will fail miserably in another.

Case in point; I started in a "license sate" where most of our business came from yellow page ad, and of course, referrals, in time. An ad in the yellow pages generally reflected an authentic/established contractor, where the consumer could enjoy reasonable comfort. One would never dream of knocking on doors! Very lax, however, deliberate contractual negotiations.

Then I moved to a "non-license" state.....The yellow pages were chock-full of roofers....Page after page of big/tacky, (IMO), ads....A lot of which had disconnected phone numbers....Fair-minded individuals rarely utilized the yellow pages....Yard signs, flyers, door-knocking, glitzy painted-up Hummers, tele-marketing, high-pressure sales tactics...what a zoo I thought...The consumer is bombarded with sales tactics, from every , (to steal a quote), chuck-in-a-truck, locally, as well as from other states! The really long-established contractors had no ad what-so-ever, (quite the opposite of the "license state").

Dear Colletti:

I think that the door knocking is really smart, especially if you or your crew do it and not a paid kid. The premise of advising them of noise and traffic sets you up as conscience and basically you have kind of just made them a referral without even doing the job for them. Referrals are the life blood of the residential roofer and that's how you start to create them. Let them know who you are and let them watch you work and if they are not ready for a roof they will remember you when they know someone who wants one.

Do you have your phone number on your vehicle? (Wink)

Me too Tim. I send them to nearby site to look at my old roofs, not my newer ones. :)

THERE IS ALOT OF GOOD THINGS ON THIS FORUM ..I STAY AWAY FROM THAT 1ST PAGE STUFF TO ..BUT I HAVE A METHOD THAT HAS BEEN WORKING REAL WELL.. WHEN EVER I DO A JOB I USUALLY TAKE ALL THE SURROUNDING HOUSE TO THE HOUSE I AM WORKING ON AND I KNOCK ON THE DOOR AND GIVE THEM A BUISNESS CARD .. LET THEM KNOW THAT I WILL BE DOING THE ROOF ACROSS THE STREET AND IF THEY HAVE ANY TROUBLE WITH OUR TRUCKS BEING IN THE WAY OR MUSIC LOUD OR MAYBE DEBRIS IN THEIR YARD OR WHATEVER ..THAT THEY CAN CALL ME DIRECT AND I WILL TAKE CARE OF IT FOR THEM ...I USUALLY GET AT LEAST 1 TO 2 MORE JOBS THAT WAY OR A REFFERAL ..I DONT KNOW WHY IT WORKS AND I DONT KNOW HOW I THOUGHT OF IT BUT HEY IT WORKS AND WE ARE SLAMMED ALL THE TIME ..HOPE IT HELPS ..MOST OF THE OLDER PROJECT MANAGERS THINK IM STUPID BUT I GET MORE WORK THAN THEM SO I DONT CARE

Good advice Vickie. I had 4 more phone calls when I got home today. 1 website, 3 referrals.

That was good Vickie. We've avoided the "1st page" type sales pitches....

The only actual tried 'n true method is just plain ole, referrals....I think most all roofers have their trucks lettered....We've never been much for the yard signs, (kind of tacky? Possibly?)

I will say; I personally never use the phone book anymore...So, I would think search engine results would play a major role....

Well what you are asking is kind of what I am trying to do for my site and customers and I must tell you do not spend a dime on those scams about getting you on the first page. The methods to getting on the first page are complicated and cannot be done without access to your website. No-one can guarantee you the first page without a staff of 20! EXCEPT if you pay for Google AdWords for a sponsored spot.

The first thing you need to do is re-contact your past customers for a referral. Just touch base with them and make sure they have your card, etc. in case they have a friend that needs a roof. Thank them for their past business. I know that's not the same as getting your name out there by advertising but a testimonial from a happy customer is worth more than 10 ads!

Next, do not be afraid to ask for testimonials or ask your clients to submit a testimonial on the various online spots. The entire social community is our new search engine.

People do not want to hear that you are telling them you are great. They want to hear that a happy customer telling them that you are great.

A website is essential. All marketing and advertising should point to that. And the website should be designed to be a lead generator not just an online brochure for your company.

Next project you do put in a yard sign with your contact information or take-one brochures. Many times you get a job and a neighbor needs his roof done too.

The truck sign idea is important. It works.

Change your newspaper ads to start with a question and end with a call to action:

How to ...?

Please contact us today for...

If you start with a question subliminally a reader may answer it. I you ask them to do something at the end subliminally they may more inclined to do it.

But then again what do I know. I'm not a roofer. Just don't pay for those scams is all I wanted to say.

Referrals and my website work for me. Cost is about $5.00 per month for hosting.