Tactfully Market Your Roofing Business during the Coronavirus Pandemic With These Tips.
With more than 20,000 new cases reported daily worldwide, there is no doubt that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has wreak havoc and changed the way people do business worldwide. Unfortunately, no one knows when this pandemic will end. Because it has adversely affected the global economy in various ways, the global stock market has crashed, and the pandemic has hit many roofing contractors in multiple ways. This post will explore how the novel COVID-19 has affected lead generation and website traffic for roofing business owners plus what they can do to stay afloat during these turbulent times.
How Has COVID-19 Impacted the Roofing Industry?
Like all other industries, the roofing industry is feeling the ripple effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Mass public quarantine, social distancing, curfews, and restriction of movements put into assisting fight the spread of the virus have adversely affected most businesses worldwide. In the roofing industry specifically, the adverse effects have been on the production and distribution of solar roofing panels, mostly in China, where these panels’ mass production occurs.
Among other adverse effects, U.S roofing contractors can expect to experience the pandemic results, including price fluctuations and higher costs, logistics breakdown, order cancellations, material shortages, and extended delay in product shipping and fulfillment. Ultimately, this will result in slow project completion times.
With more than 2 million cases across the U.S., the novel COVID-19 has become a severe threat to our economy. There is uncertainty all around, and roofing contractors are not an exception. The restriction on social distancing is making it difficult for roofers to schedule appointments even for roof inspections. Homeowners are worried that they might contract the virus and prefer that no roofing technician visits their homes.
What Does COVID-19 Mean for Roofing Contractors?
The roofing market is expected to be on a downward trend for the next few months or so. There will be a drastic shift in supply and demand; many customers are only spending money on what they deem essential during this pandemic. With the reduction in the roofing marketing budgets, many roofers have resorted to delaying or canceling their advertisements campaigns to ride out of the pandemic unscathed.
Besides, Pay-per-Click advertisements are also facing problems. Despite a significant drop in web traffic and the turbulent market, Google ads prices are the same as before. Hence, cost-per-conversion has increased for every industry and market, even travel.
These points are adversely affecting lead conversion or failing to generate roofing leads in the first place. The roofing and travel industries have been negatively hit by the pandemic, unlike other industries like pharma, food, and media, which have seen a spike in website traffic over the last few months.
You may think that lead generation is futile in such a scenario, or you might find it hard to generate roofing leads. As a roofer, there are several things you can include in your marketing strategy to generate qualified roofing leads during this pandemic. During the coronavirus pandemic, door knocking is not an effective way of generating roofing leads. Put merely; door knocking is dead.
How Do You Generate Qualified Roofing Leads During the COVID-19 Crisis?
Business Magnate, Warren Buffet, once said, “Be fearful when others are greedy, be greedy when others are fearful.” That should be your mantra during this pandemic. With experts suggesting that the global economy is headed towards a recession, others like Carl Icahn say there is still room for the market to plunge. Scary, isn’t it?
You can still see this as an opportunity; your roofing business requires doubling down and strengthening your internet marketing strategies. There will be less competition. Hence, it will be easier to see great results, and in some instances, get some Google ads deals when prices are slashed due to their low demand.
So, instead of reducing your roofing marketing budget, you need to concentrate more on it. You need to take this pandemic as an opportunity to strike and gain a competitive advantage in the long run. Sure, the results may not be instantaneous; but you will achieve some significant gains in the long term. Which brings us to the next point; there are two methods of generating leads during the coronavirus pandemic-you can opt for instant lead conversions or stock-up on leads when the roofing market is healthy or booming.
Tricks and Tips for Generating Roofing Leads during COVID-19
With the two options in mind, here are some tricks and tips to help roofers generate leads during COVID-19; some focus on stocking-up leads and others on instant lead generation.
Concentrate More on Audience Engagement
One of the most effective ways to use internet marketing to generate qualified roofing leads is through social media networks. Hence, you need to concentrate more on your roofing social media marketing strategy even now. Many roofers are making a mistake here by abandoning their social media pages altogether to focus on other things that they deem to be more important. Don’t make the same mistake! When your roofing brand is active on social media networks, it shows your prospects that your business is running. This will also keep your business ahead of the competitors.
Most social media networks contain built-in features to generate roofing leads like live streaming, hashtags, and pay-to-trend, amongst others. Use such features to their full potential to create exclusive roofing leads. Use them to bring the attention of your active roofing services and products, or use it to push other forms of content, including webinars or blogs. It will help your roofing business to interact or socialize with your clients on a more personal level. You can generate more roofing leads for your active roofing services or stock up leads that will convert once the pandemic is over.
Improve Your Online Presence to Generate Roofing Leads during COVID-19
With the novel COVID-19 in full swing and more and more homeowners boarding in the online bandwagon, there is no better time to improve your online presence. Having a superior online presence can help you build your brand and attain credibility that will help your business attract new clients. Plus, it makes your roofing company more readily accessible to clients to find out what your business has to provide.
According to a source, Internet hits have increased up to 70% during the coronavirus period. With so many property owners, spending much of their free time online, why can’t your roofing business take advantage? To improve your roofing company’s presence, you can;
- Optimize your roofing website for mobile devices
- Create resourceful content
- Do some proper SEO research
- Engage in online forums and communities
- Include relevant keywords in your website pages
- Improve customer experience across various online platforms that they are using
Again, there is no better time to improve your online experience than now. And don’t forget, even if you have a superb online presence now, there is always room for improvement. So, step out and give your roofing business the online presence it deserves.
Create or Repurpose Content
Like boosting your online presence, quality content can help your business generate roofing leads by organic searches through SERPs and SEOs. Don’t forget that content is king. So if you were forced to cancel any seminar or event due to the lockdown restrictions, you could repurpose to publish that content online or create new content relevant to the situation and your roofing company. You can launch demos, newsletters, articles, and interactive games, amongst others.
This will assist in terms of SERPs and SEO by generating relevant, roofing website traffic.
Re-evaluate your Current Marketing Strategy and Adapt Your Services Accordingly.
What used to work efficiently before might not work to generate roofing leads now during COVID-19. Hence, you need to adapt your marketing strategy to generate qualified roofing leads online. The easiest way of achieving this is by giving special discounts. But if your roofing services are not relevant in the current market, they will not sell. You can rebrand or invent new services that will appeal to your potential clients in such a scenario.
This coronavirus age is not the time to sit and fall back to your conventional roofing marketing strategies. You need to get creative with your marketing tactics. Having a unique way to market your roofing business will help you to stand out from the competition. Not only that, spicing up your marketing can help to bring new prospects and keep your business booming during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Double Down on Internet Marketing
During times of coronavirus crisis, roofers who will double down their digital marketing efforts will stay ahead of the curve. Some roofing contractors will close their businesses down out of instinct, while others will concentrate on improving their online marketing strategies. While this is unfortunate and understandable, it also presents a chance to roofers willing to be more aggressive to market their business during these uncertain times.
Here are some of the ways roofers can scale their digital marketing campaigns:
Local SEO for Roofing
Roofers who will stay consistent with their digital marketing campaigns will continue to accumulate reviews on their Google My Business Profile. This will help to improve your ranking with the local map pack for short-term lead generation and give you a competitive advantage in the long term.
Organic SEO for Roofers
Google is becoming more intelligent every month. Furthermore, roofing websites that stopped their optimization efforts will eventually die in organic search.
Pay Per Click for Roofing
While some roofers pull paid ads from Google; others capitalize by buying cheaper clicks during the coronavirus period. While we have not seen any significant drop in the ads’ cost, there is an expectation that they will eventually drop. This implies that roofing contractors can purchase valuable keywords at a fraction of the price they would have bought a few months ago. That’s an opportunity!
Give Special Offers
Another effective way of generating roofing leads during COVID-19is by giving out special offers and discounts. Sounds simple, isn’t it? Your roofing brands can develop various incentives like extended trial periods, free access to some roofing services, or refunds. Though property owners may not book jobs impulsively, if your digital marketing strategy is well-crafted, they may be attracted to your roofing brand. Homeowners are spending more and more time online, thus giving them such offers will help your business get their contact details, which you can use later to generate roofing leads online.
Even if you opt to give them free content, they will be part of your roofing service ecosystem, and once things return to normal, they will book jobs post the discount periods. Hence, this method can help you generate instant roofing leads or stock-up leads that will convert later after the coronavirus pandemic. If done correctly, this method can help your business to develop a long-term relationship with your clients.
Host Webinars to Generate Roofing Leads During COVID-19
Roofing marketing events are ideal ways of generating exclusive leads within a short time, but given the current pandemic, it is nearly impossible to organize one. As you already know, many summits and events for Google and Facebook were canceled indefinitely. Fortunately, there is an alternative to this; online sales presentations. That is, you can host virtual meetings for your potential clients to generate roofing leads online. Webinars are the closest alternative to conventional roofing marketing events.
The Bottom Line for Roofing Contractors during COVID-19 Pandemic
Coronavirus pandemic or not, marketing your roofing services or products remains an integral part of running your company. But, how can improving your marketing strategy during the coronavirus pandemic benefit your roofing business? There is no doubt that some roofers will make most of this pandemic by;
Using It as an Opportunity
Now it is the best time to show that you are a superior roofing contractor and market your services that way. If you can satisfy customers’ needs in times of crisis, you are creating an everlasting imprint on their client’s behavior and psyche.
Contact Blackstorm Roofing Marketing
Like you must assist your clients during the COVID-19 pandemic, our duty at Blackstorm Roofing Marketing is to help roofing contractors succeed. Since door knocking is not a viable method of generating roofing leads, Blackstorm Roofing marketing is responsible for providing affordable internet marketing services to keep your business afloat during these uncertain times. Well, we can help your business to:
- Get ahead of your competitors
- Understand your target audience.
- Set your roofing business for success after the coronavirus period
- Build on your roofing business relationships.
If you want your business to more strategic in generating qualified roofing leads online during COVID-19, please schedule a free strategy session online to get started today.