What do all buildings have in common?
They all need a coat of paint!
The U.S. painting industry is worth about $37 billion. Although growth decelerated because of the COVID-19 pandemic, running a painting business is still a smart move. The demand for industrial, commercial, and residential painting services will always be there.
However, the competition for clients among the over 263,000 painting businesses is rife. You have to find unique and effective ways to stay a step ahead of your competition. Investing in marketing is one of the best ways to attract more clients and grow your business.
In this article, we’re telling you how to market your painting services accordingly.
Build a Website for Your Painting Business
Long gone are the days when you’d set up a commercial space for your painting business, give it a bit of branding so people can know what you offer, and customers would start trickling in.
Use the same blueprint today and watch your business die a quick death! These days, it’s all about the web. About 80 percent of all product/service searches start online.
If your business doesn’t already have a website, you’re missing out on a ton of clients. Your business needs to be where the customers are, and that’s online.
As a painter, you certainly have great artistic competence. Doing this is your way of life. So, it’s understandable that you might feel compelled to build your own painter’s website. Unfortunately, that would be a bad move.
Building a business website that works isn’t just about buying a domain name and hosting, and installing a theme and content management system. You need a business website that meets design and search standards. If your website isn’t optimized for search, it’ll be invisible to the millions of people who’re looking for painting services online.
Run a Painting Blog
Are you a painter who also has great writing skills? This combination can result in marketing excellence! The answer is in starting a blog.
A blog is a platform that enables you to create and post articles, known as blog posts. You can share your painting insights, tricks, and advice, especially with the ever-increasing number of DIY painters. Blogging can increase traffic to your business website, meaning you could have a higher visitor conversion rate.
Creating blogging content isn’t about having great writing skills, though. You need to create content that’s optimized for search engines. You can learn about this online, but if you have the budget, it’s better to outsource content creation to a digital marketing agency.
Use PPC Advertising for Quick Results
When you start a painting business, the expectation is you’ll start attracting clients immediately.
This isn’t often the case. It can take several weeks or months for any business to build a steady stream of clients. However, if you need quick results, there’s a marketing strategy that can help you achieve that.
Enter PPC (pay per click) advertising.
When searching something on Google or any other search engine, you’ve probably seen some search results appearing at the very top of the page. Those are PPC ads.
PPC advertising enables your business to shoot to the top of the search engine results pages – at a cost. Every time someone clicks on the ad, you’re charged.
Since organic SEO can take several months to push your website to the first page of search engine results, you can invest in a PPC campaign. Still, you need PPC advertising expertise to run an effective campaign. You need to know how to choose the right keywords, for instance.
Make a Splash on Social Media
Painting businesses and social media are a match made in colorful heaven.
When people are looking to hire a painter, they want to see pictures of painting projects they’ve undertaken. No one what to hear what you can do. They want to see what you can do.
There isn’t a better way to showcase your company’s painting skills than on social media. As such, be sure to create social media pages for your business. Facebook and Instagram are the most ideal social platforms for painting businesses, but you can also use Twitter.
TikTok is quickly becoming popular among businesses, but before you jump on the bandwagon, ensure you know who your target customer is. TikTok is popular among Gen Zers, who aren’t the typical target customer for painting businesses.
Having a content strategy is key to finding marketing success on social media. Create content that’s relevant to your audience, and ensure it’s engaging and shareable.
Online Reputation Management
Running an online-first business is the right thing to do. However, this comes with certain consequences. Your business will start building a digital reputation.
As clients deal with your company, they’ll form an opinion about your services. Some of them will post their views on website review sites like Yelp, on social media, and even on your own website.
Positive reviews can build your business while negative reviews can harm it. Considering that about 90 percent of consumers read online reviews about a business before engaging with it, you can see how negative reviews will turn away potential customers.
Thus, online reputation management is an important marketing strategy. Stay on top of your reviews and take steps to address them immediately.
Grow Your Painting Business with Good Marketing
If you’re passionate about painting, starting a painting business is a good way to turn your passion into profits. But you need more than just passion to run a profitable business. You need marketing.
With this guide, you now know some of the most effective marketing strategies you can use to grow your painting business, one fresh coat of paint at a time.
Explore our blog for more business and marketing advice.
