It’s one thing to start a roofing company. It’s another thing entirely to scale that business and grow it to its full potential. Depending on where you live, there could be a lot of competition the roofing industry, and learning how to grow a roofing company can be easier said than done. If you do not grow your roofing company at a rate that is both strong and sustainable, however, it can be difficult for you to ensure that your business will survive. Additionally, just because you’re the best roofer in town doesn’t mean that you’ll necessarily have the capacity to be own a roofing company. Not every general contractor, for example, is ready to run a business.

With that in mind, let’s look into some quick and easy ways that you can explore how to grow a roofing company. While some of the ways that you grow your company may depend on where you live and the types of roofing that you offer (for example, not every roofing company is going to offer metal roofing services) others can be applied across the board. The more prepared you are when growing your company, the easier it will be for you to ensure that your business lasts for the long term.

1. Reach Out to Other Roofers and Business Owners

When exploring how to grow your roofing company, you may not initially think that connecting with other roofers in your area would be very helpful. After all, other roofs are your competition, right? While this isn’t untrue, just because you and other roofers are in competition doesn’t mean that you can’t help and learn from each other. In fact, you may be required to work with each other someday. If you’ve already been working as an active roofer in your area, you are probably already familiar with local roofing contractors. It may be time for your o use those contacts and grow your business. You and the roofers that you are in competition with can exchange tips to an extent, and you may even get mentorship by older roofers.

It’s also important to build up business relationships with other small business owners in your area on a more general level. Roofers often do not work entirely alone. For example, a lot of roofers find themselves working in conjunction with remodelers and real estate companies. If you develop a strong working relationship with a real estate company, your company could be the first company that they reach out toil when trying to sell a house that needs serious renovations. A lot of remodelers and house flippers, on the other hand, quite often need to replace the roofing on old houses. If you’re looking into how to grow a roofing company, you should make it a priority to be the first resource that they reach out to when they’re in need.

You may also want to create reciprocal deals with these other business owners. Offer to refer customers to them if they refer customers for roof maintenance to you. Make sure that when you’re participating in community events, with or without other small business owners, you’re doing so with branding in mind. You may, for example, offer to sponsor a local sporting event; this is a tactic that many small business owners use to strengthen their businesses. During that time, you’ll want to make sure that your branding is very visible at the event; you may even want to pass out branded t-shirts and other merchandise.

2. Take Advantage of Search Engine Marketing

It’s difficult to grow any kind of business, let alone a roofing company, if you aren’t actively engaging in search engine marketing. When exploring how to grow a roofing company, you’ll quickly discover that though traditional forms of advertising (like print ads and billboards) are not entirely without merit, in many ways they are now obsolete. You would be better off investing in digital marketing, which to a large extent is going to feature search engine marketing.

One type of search engine marketing is pay per click advertising, which is essentially the practice of buying visitors to your website. Ads will appear at the top of search engine results in these cases. You may have already seen this yourself as an internet user. Although pay per click advertising can be expensive to an extent, it can be quite effective in terms of lead generation for roofing services. Additionally, as your roofing company books more jobs, it will naturally begin to rank higher on the list of search engine results. In turn, your roofing business will continue to grow.

Pay per click advertising can be used to generate both residential and commercial leads, but it’s not the only form of digital advertising that you can rely upon. Search engine optimization is increasingly possible in terms of lead generation, and in some cases it can be more cost effective if you’re looking into how to grow a roofing company. Search engine optimization involves the creation of content that utilizes different keywords. When this content is hosted on your website, it will help your website rank higher than others organically. For example, if your website hosts a post about gutter installation, it could help your website rank higher for those that are searching for that keyword than other roofing company websites. No matter which option you decide is better for you, there is much for you to choose from in terms of digital advertising. In fact, you could always choose both!

3. Build An Accessible Website

There is much more to learning how to grow a roofing company than just digital advertising. It’s one thing for you to draw potential clients, both commercial and residential, to your website. It’s another thing entirely for you to actually convert those leads to business. Part of that process is going to revolve around the strength of your website. Many online users do not spend much time on websites in general, and they will often leave a website fairly quickly if the content on that site is outdated. Your website needs to be professionally built, and kept up to date on a regular basis.

Part of maintaining a strong website is also going to involve ensuring that it is easily accessible. You don’t want people to have a hard time browsing your website if they’re on a mobile device. A lot of people almost exclusively use mobile devices to browse online, relying on their phones and tablets to do their research. Websites must be outfitted to be accessible through mobile devices. The last thing you want is for someone who was exploring a commercial roof inspection to turn away from their search because your website is difficult to use on a mobile device.

Furthermore, you may want to add a chatbot to your website. A chatbot will essentially allow you to easily answer questions from internet users as they visit your website. Now, there are pros and cons to chatbots, otherwise known as chat. Chat allows you to be accessible to browsers quickly and efficiently, answering their questions in a way that many may find simpler than talking on the phone. The con is that you can’t always be available, which means that you’ll need to set specific hours for chat. You may need to designate chat responsibilities to a specific employee as your company grows. After all, a chat feature isn’t worth much if you aren’t utilizing it properly.

4. Promote Yourself on Local Websites

Again, a lot of advertising that is truly useful today is going to be primarily online. But as much as you may and should invest in pay per click advertising and search engine optimization, self promotion through online forums is really valuable as well. It can also be a lot less expensive, while still generating interest in your business. Online forums will certainly vary depending on where you live. Some cities and towns have actual websites dedicated to their communities. Others rely on websites like Facebook and Reddit to create local forums. It’s often inexpensive or quite commonly free to make accounts on these sites, and which will give you the ability to not only post about your business but answer questions about specific services yourself.

Of course, you’ll want to make sure that you’re following community guidelines when you make these posts. Some communities discourage or even ban self promotion. The last thing you want is to make a bad impression on your community by not following specific guidelines that are clearly set forth. Do some research, be a presence in your online community, and be open. Even answering questions as an expert, without clear self promotion, can help build your reputation as you learn how to grow a roofing company.

5. Monitor Your Reviews

People go online for reviews all the time, exploring whether or not a business is trustworthy through word of mouth. Now, there is no way for you to completely control word of mouth. What you can do is ensure that you and your employees do the best possible work that you can, and you can additionally ensure that you’re keeping an eye on your reviews. Reviews offer valuable feedback, through which you can better your business. But you don’t want negative reviews to be overly prominent when people look up your business online.

Have a system in mind. Make sure that you only send online review prompts to clients that you know will give you good reviews. You may also want to eventually invest in online reputation management. An online reputation management team, or even a software program, can help you determine how your business is doing in terms of cultivating positive reviews. Additionally, consultants in this field can help you determine what to do when you do get a bad review that seems unfair or untrue. While it isn’t always a good idea to respond to these types of reviews, it’s not inherently bad to offer a rebuttal if you feel that you have been unfairly charged in a poor review.

6. Grow A Sales Team

The reality is that you will be facing competition as you lean how to grow a roofing company. Unless you live in a very rural, remote area, chances are high that there will be other business owners offering similar services. This is why, as your business grows and you hire workers, you may also want to consider building a sales team. A sales team is vital for chasing leads for the sake of your business, especially commercial leads which will be more competitive and require aggressive bids.

Now, it’s true that in the beginning you as the business owner can likely handle sales by yourself. But the larger your business becomes, the more likely it will be that you will need some kind of sales force. You could keep it small, perhaps designating account managers or even consultants within your business. But your sales team will be able to help on several levels, getting involved in marketing your business as well. Yes, this means that you will need to hire more people. However, there is some truth to the idea that you need to spend money to make money.

7. Keep Up with Industry Innovations

Roofing is an area in which there are often new innovations being made, and new concepts that appeal more to clients than the typical standbys would. A lot of people are, for example, becoming more interested in installing solar panels in their roofs. While you may currently have a metal roof company, you need to be open to changing your business as new innovations come to the forefront.

Remember, the competition will inevitably pay attention to these innovations as well. Don’t let them beat you to the punch! Be ready to adapt and scale your business as time goes; and before you know it, your roofing company will be more successful than you could have imagined.

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