Emerging Digital Trends To Earn New Clients For Your Roofing Business

Being a tradesman is challenging. Along with having to hone your craft, in many cases you also need to run your own business, navigating through changing trends and new technologies. With the housing market continuing to defy expectations for growth with no signs of it slowing down, the future looks very bright for roofers all over the country. Yet, the constant struggle to stay ahead, stay competitive, and work efficiently shows no sign of slowing down.  The work of staying relevant and competitive alongside the day to day of roofing can make an already back breaking job even more exhausting. At Roofing Direct we strive to do all we can to make the roofer’s job a bit easier; from first class customer service to shipping your product to you where you need it, the team at Roofing Direct is solely focused on supporting roofers. When we can we like to highlight what is out there that may help you run your company more efficiently to give you more time with the ones who matter most. 

Whether you are focused on residential or commercial, running a large operation or just you the truck and a couple hired hands, there are great tools out there that can make your company run smoother and make your life easier. Here we have a collection of a few recommendations to elevate your business to the next level. If you are like most of the roofers we know in the field you have more than one job going at a time. An online scheduling tool can be a wise move in creating seamless communication amongst your team and help you stay scheduled and clients stay happy. No more stacks of manila folders, receipts with numbers on them, or post-it notes on the dash of the truck. An online scheduling tool can keep all of your job notes in one place, along with your clients information, bids, and materials list. Easily share the information with your team and check in on jobs that you are not even at. There are lots of offerings out there that do mostly the same thing, Jobber, JobNimbus, and Build Trend are a few of examples services that help organise and manage projects, clients, and your team.   

Word of mouth has always driven work to great contractors who do professional and reliable jobs. However, as you work to grow and expand, it is smart to have other marketing strategies available to keep you competitive and ensure that potential clients know that you are there. Social media is an important tool for getting the word out about your company and growing your reputation and client base. Properly using social media for your business is not the same as using it for your friends and family. Educate yourself on the best uses and smart practices of social media to ensure that you are getting the most out of these mostly free tools. Most of the sites people frequent have informative how-tos and online training to support you using their site to its full advantage. Facebook has a whole section produced just for business you can utilize.  Remember that boring posts are just that and quickly ignored. People like informative posts that show how to fix a problem or what to look for when experiencing an issue. Don’t be afraid to have a personality, but always keep it professional. Encourage your past clients to leave you reviews and let potential clients know how you did. There is a lot of information out there about how to best use the web to support your business. It can quickly get overwhelming. Take it slowly and start simple. There are many businesses out there that pay for fancy web pages, yet have not checked google to see if their company is listed properly. Google also has free services to maximize its benefit to your business. 

Job posting websites are also a valuable resource to leverage for your business, especially if you’re wanting to step more into the digital age. Right now, we have more home owners are tech savvy digital natives than ever before. When they need something done for their home, they don’t pick up a phone book or even the telephone. They head to the web first. It only makes sense to connect with them in the most cutting edge ways before our competitors do. Start with sites like Angie’s List (which was recently rebranded to just Angi) and HomeAdvisor. You can build your business’s profile there and connect with potential customers in a flash. You can also try True Home and Thumbtack which allow you to set up a business profile and book jobs with local customers directly through their website. Let the web bring you directly to your potential clients. 

Things are getting easier and more digitized everyday. Staying competitive in an environment of constantly changing technology and opportunities is a challenge for every business. Waiting for two weeks for a check is almost unheard of these days, and if you cannot process payment from a card on the job then you are seen possibly too old fashioned to customers. On top of a job well done people want things to be easy, we all do. A couple of wise investments in online tools to gain efficiency, and properly using online marketing options can make all the difference in a potential client seeing you and deciding to hire you. 

At Roofing Direct we win when our hard working roofers win. While we try to get you everything you need when you need it, there is a limit to how much we can help build your business. We are constantly looking for ways to better serve our clients, and we hope that these few pieces of advice will help you grow your business as big as you want it to be while making your life and work a little bit easier.