Selling roofing services door-to-door is one of the most common techniques in the roofing industry. Proponents of this sales technique are convinced that it is flawless and that there is no alternative. However, facts tell something completely different. Door knocking is intrusive and frustrating because people dislike uninvited guests, pushy sales representatives, or strangers on their front porch. They find it disturbing and invasive.
On the other hand, as a roofing contractor looking for new leads using this door-to-door technique, you may also feel like you are looking for a needle in a haystack. Let’s be honest; door knocking is time-consuming and frustrating for you too. Maybe you’ve watched a YouTube video or read a blog post in which they assure you that it’s enough to be polite and concise and that the roofing leads will fall from the sky. However, in reality, you encounter a lot of closed doors and rude owners that you’ve interrupted in their daily activities.
But do you need to feel so rejected while looking for new leads? Do you have to lose your voice and your shoe soles so you can run your business and bring home the bacon? Is there another, more effective, and less intrusive way than the out-of-date door-knocking technique? Sure there is, and it is called digital marketing.
What Is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is a set of activities on the Internet that advertise, promote, and sell a particular product or service.
Some of the advantages of digital marketing versus traditional marketing are:
- The enormous reach of potential customers or clients,
- The possibility of closer targeting,
- Chance of retargeting people who expressed some initial interest in your advertisement,
- Flexible budget and excellent control over digital advertising campaigns,
- Exciting and compelling ad layouts and visuals,
- Comprehensive real-time reports and analytics,
- Interchangeable communication, etc.
Digital Marketing Channels
Digital marketing consists of five main channels: Social media, SEO, online advertising, Copywriting / Content writing, and email marketing.
Social Media
Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and other social media channels. Through them, companies create their personal brand, connect with their followers and potential clients, advertise their products and services, publish news related to their business, seek new employees, and create positive PR.
SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimization), i.e., optimization for search engines. It consists of four techniques:
• On-page SEO,
• Off-page SEO,
• Technical SEO and
• Local SEO.
On-page SEO implies website activities that we undertake for better ranking on search engines; Off-page SEO is related to activities outside the website itself that are mainly focused on collecting relevant and authoritative backlinks. On the other hand, Technical SEO is related to activities related to the technical settings of a website, while Local SEO is a set of techniques and campaigns that are undertaken for greater visibility and presence on the local targeting search engine in a specific geographical area (mainly in a narrow part, for example, in some city).
Online Advertising
There are several different types of online advertising. For example, there are Display ads in the form of various banners that appear in specific places on the Internet, i.e., in places agreed by the owner of a particular website and the advertising network (such as the Google Adsense program). Then, we have Search ads that appear when someone types a specific keyword into a search engine. We also have Video ads, Shopping ads, and Mobile application ads. The billing method for these ads is either CPC (Cost Per Click, i.e., billing for ads per achieved click, mainly used for Search ads), also known as PPC (Pay-Per-Click) or CPM (Cost Per Mile, i.e., cost per 1,000 impressions, primarily for Display ads).
Copywriting / Content writing
One of the most important channels of digital marketing because all other channels of digital marketing require content. For social networks, you need posts; for SEO, you need blogs; for e-mail, of course, well-written content; for ads, you need to develop an engaging, strong ad that will attract attention and encourage action. It isn’t a coincidence that even Bill Gates once said – Content is king.
E-mail marketing
E-mail marketing is an excellent method of communicating with existing and potential customers and clients. excellent communication method with existing and potential customers and clients. To create an e-mail campaign, you need to have a list of e-mail addresses, a service for sending e-mails, and, as we mentioned before, good content.
Although the above-listed channels are considered the most important ones in digital marketing, we can say that we have other sub-channels arising from them. For example, there are websites and landing pages, Google Business Listings, Viber or WhatsApp groups, video production, and podcasts.
How Can Digital Marketing Help Your Roofing Business?
We’re sure that while you were reading this text, at least one idea occurred to you about how you could use digital marketing channels for your roofing business. Are we right, or what?
Digital marketing channels can definitely improve and strengthen your business and bring numerous qualified leads in so many ways.
For example, you can build your online presence through your social media channels, connect with your community, create awareness about your brand, and develop a nice roofing story with you in the leading role. And, not to be forgotten, you can create ads on your social media channels and find new leads and customers thanks to them.
You can use online advertising by using PPC ads that appear to those who need a roofer at that moment, or you can create display ads to build awareness and draw attention to yourself as a reputable and reliable roofer.
You can use SEO for a better ranking on search engines, local and global, or you can make a YouTube channel where you will present helpful, informative DIY videos about roofing that will help your viewers and subscribers. These videos will also help you establish roofing authority and expertise in the long run.
Also, you can create your official website where you will present your work and your satisfied customers through their reviews and recommendations. You can also enable a subscription to your roofing newsletter and use received e-mails for your e-mail campaigns.
Digital marketing gives you endless possibilities to promote your roofing business and get more leads and customers.
Conclusion
This text is not written to devalue the door-knocking technique, far from it. You’ve probably used it in your lead search more or less successfully, and we respect that.
As we wrote here, many supporters of this technique are convinced that it is the only one that works. However, we wrote this text to show that there is a much more efficient and less demanding technique for generating leads.
Digital marketing offers extraordinary opportunities; take advantage of them before your competition does, and if you want, combine them with the door-to-door technique and use both.
We are sure that, over time, you will completely abandon door knocking and fully devote yourself to digital marketing techniques in order to take your roofing business to the next level.
