7 Roofing Marketing Ideas: We’ve Got You Covered

Increasing sales is a crucial goal for roofing many companies. Unfortunately, too many roofing companies don’t have a plan that works for doing that.

In the modern competitive roofing market, doing great work and relying on referrals isn’t always enough to keep a roofing business afloat.

There are over 100,000 roofing companies in the US alone in 2020. If you want to distinguish your company from the field, you’ll need concrete roofing marketing ideas to generate consistent leads, but don’t worry—we’ve got you covered.

1. Start content marketing with a blog to generate inbound leads

Content marketing is one of the best ways to generate consistent organic website traffic—and that means more quality leads.

There’s a reason why 70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing, according to HubSpot. It’s not just marketing companies who employ content marketing for roofers, either. Roofers large and small recognize the value that content marketing—and in particular, a blog—can bring to their business.

Want to start a blog, check out our article on 5 Roofing Blog Topics to Attract More Customers.

For example, the largest roofing company in the US in terms of employment, CentiMark, has a blog where they publish five posts a month or more. From articles on ‘Key Factors To Look For in a Commercial Roofing Contractor’ to the article pictured below on ‘Combating Obstacles to get Your Roofing Projects Completed,’ all of CentiMark’s blogs are focused on topics that will drive traffic to their site but also help to convert that traffic into leads.

Even smaller roofing companies get in on the blogging action. Here’s an example from Long Roofing, entitled “10 Roofing Facts That Might Surprise You.”

The goal of this blog, like any on their site, is to draw in potential customers that are searching for information about a new roof, fixing their current roof, or any other type of service they may offer. Then, it’s about providing those customers with quality information and an easy way to contact you.

Instead of a direct sales pitch, these pieces build trust with site visitors and guide them to the use of your services. Plus, they help get your website into top positions in search engines for important keywords.

It’s all a part of search engine optimization (SEO) for roofers. Roofing SEO is the best way to keep organic traffic to your website thriving, which always leads to more sales.

2. Create and optimize your GMB profile for local SEO

One of your best roofing marketing options is to create and optimize your Google My Business (GMB) profile to help draw local customers if you want to do more with SEO after starting content marketing.

GMB profiles allow Google to feature your business in local search results, which appear just below paid ads, but above organic search results. For example, below is a search for ‘best roofing companies in Phoenix’ where three businesses have landed a prominent spot in local results.

On top of that, with a properly optimized GMB profile, your roofing business appears in Google Maps results.

Creating and optimizing GMB profiles is part of local SEO services. Local SEO’s goal is to improve your business’s position in local results, such as the ones featured above, to get more local leads calling and emailing you. It’s perfect for roofers who rely so heavily on local customers.

3. Ask for reviews and referrals

If you’re serious about local SEO, after you’ve created your GMB profile, there are a couple of tactics you can try to drum up more local business and improve your results.

First, the number of reviews you have on your GMB profile and the quality of those reviews matters in determining your position in local results, so don’t be afraid to ask customers for a quick review on your new GMB profile (or Yelp, etc.).

Plus, it’s not just Google who likes reviews—customers feel the same way. At least according to this 2018 BrightLocal study that revealed on average consumers don’t believe a business’ rating until it has at least 40 reviews.

And since these days, over 93% of adults 35-54 read reviews, asking for past customers to give you a quick review via email couldn’t hurt.

Also, don’t be afraid to ask past customers or even friends and family for referrals. Referral business should drive a major part of your roofing leads. If it isn’t, try incentivizing customers to refer their friends with discounts, and of course, continue to provide consistently excellent roofing service.

4. Build your local customer base with citations in business directories

The next step you can take to build your local customer base with local SEO involves securing what are called citations in business directories.

Citations are online references to a business. Usually, they will include the business’ name, address, and phone number (NAP), but they also often contain a backlink, reviews, directions, business information, and more.

Securing citations in directories is valuable in determining local search rankings, creating a professional company image, and as a lead generation tactic for roofers.

For example, many roofers like to secure a citation with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Although it costs money, it helps bring a sense of legitimacy and professionalism to your brand and is a quality citation to help local SEO.

The BBB is an example of a general business directory, where any type of business can secure a citation. However, sometimes the more valuable citations for roofers come from industry-specific directories.

Industry-specific directories are often free of charge, but because Google values the relevance of links when determining local search results, citations secured from these directories are ideal for local SEO purposes.

For example, this simple citation for a local roofer, Scott Roofing Company, provided NAP and a link, plus quality ‘link-equity’—aka ‘link-juice’—to boost your site up local results, all free of charge.

Want more local customers? Learn all there is to know about How to Use Roofer Directories For Local SEO.

5. Get published in online publications to improve your position in SERPs

Speaking of ‘link-equity,’ citations aren’t the only way to secure a relevant, authoritative backlink that will increase domain authority, pass on link equity to your site, and move up search engine results pages (SERPs). Getting published on quality online publications can also help.

Using your roofing expertise, all you need to do is reach out to an industry publication, local blog, or newspaper and write a free article for them. This isn’t going to be a sales piece; rather, the goal is to use your experience to educate the public about something you’ve been working on for years.

For example, you can write an article on “Winter Roof Maintenance.” If it’s published, it will come with a link to improve your ranking in SERPs, but beyond that, the article will act as a free inbound lead generation tool.

Just imagine if you’re looking for information about winter roof maintenance and you come across the article, but aren’t looking to do it yourself, who would you likely call? Well, why not the professional, qualified author of the article.

Getting published online may sound difficult, but it’s not. Of course, if you need help, our digital PR services can get you published online on top sites like Forbes and SHRM. So feel free to contact us.

6. Try Google, Bing, Facebook, Youtube, or Yelp paid advertising

While all paid advertising can be effective, choosing the best place to spend is critical for roofers. After all, roofing companies are usually small businesses, and paid ads are expensive for consumer services like roofing.

Roofing average $6.75 per click, that’s almost three times the average for all industries.

This cost means the usual Google and Facebook ads can be an expensive proposition for roofers that don’t always make sense. Plus, let’s be honest, most people aren’t looking for Roofers on Facebook.

The users of Facebook would have what’s called low commercial intent. Search intent is broken down into three main categories: transactional (or commercial), navigational, and informational.

As a roofer, you’re looking to target mostly users with commercial intent, especially if you’re paying per click for ads. That’s why although advertising with Google, Bing, Facebook, or Youtube business advertising can be useful, it might not be ideal for roofers. These places have a high search volume, but much lower commercial intent.

Instead, if you want to target traffic who are interested in roof repair, try Yelp business ads. Yelp has both high traffic and high commercial intent, which can lead to more sales.

Thankfully, even if you can’t afford paid advertising, you can take advantage of Yelp. Contact us to learn more about how local SEO services can establish your presence on directories and review sites like Yelp, without the need for paid advertising.

7. Offer free estimates and inspections through email marketing

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing tools roofing companies have at their disposal. In fact, according to Hubspot, email marketing generates $38 for every $1 spent—that’s a pretty impressive ROI.

Plus, every time a roofing company does a job, they can easily ask for an email address. Email lists like these have significant value. Of course, you have to know how to put it to use.

One of the best ways is to use email marketing services like MailChimp that help automate the process. But what do you send in the emails?

One option is to use email marketing to offer free estimates and inspections. Estimates and inspections are the perfect way to get out to a house and sell your services after showing just how knowledgeable you or your employee are about the industry,

Even if you’d rather not offer anything free of charge, email marketing can help you maintain your customer base and increase your referrals.

Need more roofing marketing ideas? We’ve got you covered.

Roofing marketing isn’t always easy. With 100,000 competitors in the US and high paid advertising costs, it takes out of the box marketing ideas to increase revenue consistently.

If you’re looking for someone to help you on your roofing marketing journey with all the out of the box roofing marketing ideas you could imagine, look no further. Feel free to contact us for more information, and we’d be happy to help.

Markitors is a digital marketing agency specializing in SEO. We help small businesses rank higher on Google to get more traffic to their websites and increase revenue. Explore what’s in our SEO toolbox: audits and keyword research, digital PR, technical SEO, and local SEO.