ProPainter   Advice   Blog

When it comes to marketing services, everyone wants to sell you something.  Get your painting company in front of thousands of eyes!  A picture is worth a thousand words!  Guaranteed house painting leads or you won’t pay!  Surely if these companies stay in business, they’ve got to work for somebody.  Right?

Not necessarily.  More than 90 percent of those postcard mailers will get thrown away before anyone looks at them.  A big visual ad is useless if someone isn’t actively thinking about getting their house painted when they see it.  And those “guaranteed leads” – they don’t tell you that they’re sending them to a half dozen other painting contractors too, and the ‘lead’ will pit you against each other until you’re losing money on every job.

In fact, many of the most effective marketing techniques don’t cost as much as you’d expect!  Some of them are free!  Here are the most important things to do if you need more business.

Get your name where it matters online

If you’re trying to get your business in front of customers right when they’re thinking about hiring a painting contractor, these are the three most important facts to consider.

• Over 80% of people use Google to find local businesses.
• Over 80% of people who use Google never get to the second page of results.
• And 80% of consumers say they trust 4 or 5-star rated businesses the most.

To get new customers from the internet, you don’t need a beautiful, custom website.  You need a site with the content that gets you on the first page of Google.  And if you want to earn all of those customers who are trying to learn more about you, you want to have a Google Review rating above 4.0.  That means you need to ask your happy customers for reviews, even if it’s awkward or unpleasant.

Claim your work

Neighborhood houses tend to be built around the same time.  If houses in the neighborhood are still on their first coat of paint, the paint also tends to start peeling at the same time.  That means the house you just painted probably has several others around it in need of a coat of paint.

When you finish a job, ask the customer if you can put a yard sign outside of the house.  People in that neighborhood will see what a new coat of paint did for your customer’s curb appeal – you should make sure they know where to go to get that same effect for their own home.

It’s also a good idea to send a mailer to other houses in the area letting them know which house nearby has your paint on it. Tell them you would by happy to paint theirs, too.  This might make them circle around the neighborhood to look at the newly-painted house, even if that house is further back in the neighborhood and they normally don’t pass it.

Ask for referrals (and explain why)

So many companies build marketing campaigns asking for referrals that it’s easy for consumers to get immune to them.  That’s a shame, because referrals are the lifeblood of a small business.  This is especially true with a business like house painting, where repeat customers are uncommon; it doesn’t really matter how great of a job you do with a customer’s house, you’re still only going to get paid to paint it once.

When you ask for a referral, don’t do it like big business does it – an off-hand, scripted remark that’s said as quickly as possible because it’s awkward and unsure.  Do it in a way that will make it have an impact.

After a customer tells you they’re happy with your work, thank them for the feedback.  Then tell them you’re a small business, and you’d really appreciate the opportunity to do any painting work that their family or friends need done.  Tell them referrals are one of the most important ways that you get business.  Give them a couple of cards and ask them to hand them to anyone who might need painting.

The reality is that most people won’t make the effort of referring you even if you ask.  But if you can double your referral rate, you can have a dramatic effect on the amount of business coming your way.

To get more business for your painting company, call us at 919-424-6121 or email us at Team_PPW@ProPainterWebsites.com.

Painting contractors don’t get into the painting business because they love the advertising business.  For many painting contractors, marketing is the worst part of the job.  For every honest company trying to sell you marketing services, there are at least two that want to assure you, with no evidence, that their expensive solution will bring you thousands of customers.

In many cases, the solution would work if the company wasn’t bad at their job.  Sometimes, however, it’s the idea itself that just doesn’t work.  Here are three really bad marketing ideas.

Cover the Earth with Coupons

There are several reasons that buying 5,000 pages in a set of coupon mailers doesn’t make sense.  First, most people don’t even read through them – they pick it up and throw it directly in the trash.  So if you aren’t on the front or the back, you get no visibility.

More importantly, you don’t want to lead with price.  In many of these coupon books, the 10% off coupon text is larger than the company logo!  This immediately identifies you as the “cheap painter”. People who want the cheapest jobs will come your way, and they’ll try to haggle away your margins.  Most customers willing to pay more for great service don’t go looking for painting contractors in the coupon book.

Let the Work Sell Itself

If you’re not a person who likes to talk about how great you are, it’s tempting to simply let the work sell itself.  While it seems like it should work, most painters never get many leads this way.

It’s not because the work isn’t good.  It’s not because the customer isn’t happy.  It’s not even because they don’t care to help you.  Unfortunately, most people are so busy that they quickly forget to tell everyone what a great job you did.

Think about the last time you had a positive customer service experience.  Who did you tell about it?  For most people, it’s rare to leave reviews, much less make phone calls.  The only way most customers are likely to make a referral if they aren’t asked is if house painting comes up in casual conversation.  And unless someone is walking into your newly painted house, painting is not a frequent topic of conversation for most people.

This is why asking for reviews is so important.  If you know a customer is happy with your work, sending an email after the job asking for a review is not going to make them angry.  In fact, they’re likely to be appreciative of the fact that you reminded them.  And because many people are sitting at their computer when they’re checking email, they’re much more likely to go to Google and provide a business review before they get distracted by one of the many other things going on in their life.

Land and Expand

Of all the marketing techniques the “land and expand” is one of the worst.  Most companies that do this use a coupon, but it’s not required.  Companies using the land and expand strategy advertise a service at an extremely low rate with the hope that they’ll uncover more work when they get to the house. They try to sell that additional work at full price in order to make enough profit for the job to be worthwhile.  For instance, you might have a coupon that only covers painting two rooms, and any additional rooms are at full price.

There are plenty of problems with this.  If you’re advertising a super low rate, you’re likely to get penny-pinchers, and they won’t pay for other rooms even if they need them painted.  Those that do pay for additional rooms may feel like they were tricked and leave a negative review or speak badly of your company.  Finally, the initial price devalues painting; anyone who sees that ad will expect that you, and every other painting contractor, should be charging a much lower price per room than you can profitably charge.

To learn more about what makes a website a good marketing idea, call us at 919-424-6121 or email us at Team_PPW@ProPainterWebsites.com.

Most painting contractors don’t start a business to get rich.  They want the freedom of being their own boss, to create a positive work environment, and to do great work for their customers.

Most owners do reach a point where the financial value of their business becomes important.  You might be trying to decide whether to expand or franchise your business.  You might also be hoping to sell your business and retire some day.  In these cases, the financial value of your business is an important consideration.

It takes more than a steady flow of jobs to make a painting business valuable.  Surprisingly, it also takes more than strong profits.  Here are three factors that help to determine any business’s financial value.

Accurate Financials

Maybe your business has never missed a pay cycle.  Maybe it’s been providing you with enough income to keep your family happy and send the kids to college.  Unfortunately, your potential buyers weren’t likely around for all of that, and those aren’t the criteria they will use to evaluate how much profit they’ll make when they buy your business.

What they want is to see the accounting books – and they want those books to show a consistent trend of profitability, after all expenses are considered.  That means they want books based on accrual accounting, not cash accounting.  Without a few years of well-kept books, the buyer is taking on a heightened profitability risk – and taking that risk means they can’t offer you as much money for your business.

A Business That Runs Without You

What would happen if you took a few weeks off?  Most small business owners have taken very few vacations over the years because they’re terrified of the answer to this question.  They simply don’t have the processes in place to allow the business to function for weeks or months without their presence.

In most cases, however, when you’re retiring, you don’t sell yourself with the business.  If the painting business can’t make a profit in your absence, that means it has no value without you.  Even if you intend to work for the new owner for a year or two to ease the transition, that’s not always a reality.  Sometimes, unexpected health issues or other factors force a retirement.  You want to make sure that these unforeseen circumstances don’t wipe out the value of your business.

This means that your business needs processes in place to produce a strong profit even when you aren’t there.  Employees need to have the knowledge, and to be empowered, to make good decisions without being able to reach you first.  Painting contracting businesses that can “run themselves” are far more valuable than businesses that require hiring new management to be profitable.

If your business cannot run without you in the middle of it, you’ll want to develop a plan to get there if you plan to sell in the next 3-5 years.

A Competitive Differentiator

The highest profit painting contractors have customers who are willing to pay extra for that business’s services.  There are many reasons that might be the case.  Your employees might be more professional, and make customers more at-ease with strangers in the house.  It might seem well-run, and inspire confidence even among new customers.  You might be the only painting contractor with hundreds of five-star online reviews in the area.

If your painting business doesn’t have a competitive differentiator, the profit that you’re making is likely to be whittled down over time by other nearby painters.  If the differentiator is you, that’s also not good.  Remember, you’re not generally trying to sell yourself with the company.

If you don’t know what your differentiator is, it’s a great opportunity to improve your profit margin!  Competitive advantages tend to build on themselves, leading to higher profits, more satisfied customers, and more confident, purpose-driven employees.

Figure out why customers select you as their painter.  See if you can find trends among their answers.  Finally, focus on those things, always working to make them better, and tell your employees these are the reasons that customers choose to let them paint their house.  Don’t forget to advertise your excellence in these areas!

To learn how ProPainter Websites can help your business generate more revenue, email us at Team_PPW@ProPainterWebsites.com or call us at 919-424-6121.