Brand First, Then Market Your Company

RCS Influencer Wendy Marvin says that both customers and employees can be your company’s brand ambassadors.

At Matrix Roofing & Home Solutions we advertise differently than a lot of other companies.    Marketing can cost thousands of dollars.  It can either help the business by bringing in leads or it can be a bottomless pit of disappearing cash flow.  As an owner, I enjoy finding ways to market without spending a ton of money.  Utilizing your customers AND your employees as brand ambassadors is an inexpensive way to market your business.  More on that later. 

First, I’d like to back up.  I want to clarify marketing vs. brand.  Ultimately this is the foundation of this topic of employee ambassadors. 

Advertising 101

Branding is deciding what is and who is the company.  What is your focus?  Quality?  Speed?  Community involvement?  Low Cost?  Colors and logos are then brought in to differentiate this company from others.   This is an area I’d recommend consulting with a professional.  Noticing how customers respond to certain colors and shapes is important and it’s not usually our area of expertise. 

Once brand is set, THEN marketing begins.  Read that sentence again. 

Marketing is the act of placing your logo, colors and name in places where your customers will notice.  WHO are the customers?  Homeowners?  Builders?  Who buys the product?  A few customers outside the box are Realtors, Property Managers, and Home Inspectors.  Churn on this for a bit, who else could call asking for roofing help?

Since brand has been established EVERYTHING is a potential marketing opportunity.  Notice logos, billboards, vehicles, business cards, signs, Facebook ads, Instagram and more.  The job we face as owners, is knowing which ones bring in leads.  Gather information and think outside the box.  At minimum, customers that call must be asked “Where did you hear about our company?” every time.  Keep stats so that future marketing can be profitable.  Until you have stats, marketing is a best guess opportunity. 

Are you thinking yet?  There are SO MANY places to potentially advertise and most of them come with a price tag.  I’ve known companies who spend over $100,000/year on marketing and yet they still can’t say what was the most profitable.  What best brought in sellable leads.  Don’t be that company. 

Brand Ambassadors

Customers:  Brand ambassadors create conversation about your business.  Customers make exceptional brand ambassadors IF the job was done right.  Focus on quality to ensure their positive reviews.  People often find roofers by asking a neighbor, friend or family member who was used on their personal job.  Give your customers tools to use.  Provide them with additional cards after the install and offer referral gifts.  Typically, this is a low-cost, great response tool. 

Another opportunity lies within your workforce (and we’re finally back to the topic!).  Employees offer another low-cost opportunity to market your company.   Here are the ways we utilize our workforce to bring in customers.   

Employees: 

• Telling our Story:  Messaging about the company comes from the top, and it needs to be CLEAR and uniform throughout the organization.  What does the company care about?  Who are they in the community?  At the very least, what is the “3-minute elevator” speech they use to tell someone where they work and what they do?  Practice this with each other so the words flow easily.    Never miss an opportunity to have an employee share with a potential customer that YOU are the company to use.  Give them pride in the job they perform.  No one is EVER “just” a roofer.  We practice this at safety meetings and with our administration teams. 
• Dressing the part:  Professionalism is often a perceived value.  Put your salespeople in logo shirts with similar colors.  Buy logo pens.  Roofing crews should be in logo t-shirts (make the logo visible from the ground).  We offer both long and short sleeved options.  Logos invite customers to ask questions.  Refer to the previous bullet for answers. 
  • Guidance may be needed to assure the presentation of your employees matches your brand.  Shirts must be clean and in good repair. 
• Give tools:  Employees need business cards on hand.  ALL employees.  We have a basic card (same face as all others) with our main office phone and main email on the back.  Obviously if their job warrants a personal business card, give them, but if not give all other employees the “generic” card for distribution.
  • Note:  Clear communication is key to assure potential customers receive your information if they approach an employee.  Often our roofers know family members who do side jobs, etc.  Make it CLEAR that any customer that approaches while they are working for you, are to be given YOUR card.  Make sure they carry the cards.  Ask for them on jobsites randomly and reward those who can produce one when you ask.  Offer incentives if you like to invite conversations. 
• Stepping out:  Community event attendance, a must do.  Put employees who are adept at sharing your brand, in events where they can talk about your company.  Locally, among others, we participate in our Chamber and other events via businesses.  Recently it led to winning Small Business of the Year for 2018.  It wouldn’t have happened without stepping out and meeting people at our local events. 
  • Logo name tags are a must for these events.  Often overlooked, a branded name tag is a low-cost way to build recognition and spark conversations. 

Hopefully I’ve given you things to think about.  Utilizing your employees as brand ambassadors is a low-cost way to market your business.  It also engages your employees within your community and enhances their relationship with your company. 

None of us ever “arrive” to doing all of this perfectly.  Remember, owning a business is a marathon and checking in and adjusting along the way are the keys to success.  After 13 years in business, we launched a new website at www.matrixroof.com.  Feel free to let me know what you think and how I could do better at marketing our company.  Even the day of the launch, I already had ideas about things I wanted to change.  AH, the life of a business owner.   

Wendy Marvin is CEO of Matrix Roofing. See her full bio here.