How to Get More Customers

Read my top 10 marketing tips for painters & decorators to take the guess work out of how to market your business and get more customers.

Take before and after pictures

When it comes to painting and decorating, words can only say so much and putting before and after pictures of your work on your website and flyers will speak volumes.

Target local search terms

If your painting and decorating business only covers one town or city then you need to focus your SEO efforts accordingly.

For example if you’re a painter and decorator who only covers Edinburgh then you should include Edinburgh in your key phrases so that you’re found by the right people i.e. “painter & decorator Edinburgh”.

Use a professional copywriter for your website

Have a look at other painter & decorator websites and you’ll probably find the text on them is all quite similar. Writing the text for your own website may save money in the short term but could cost you dearly over a period of time in lost business.

A professional copywriter will be able to use words to target your market and encourage them to contact you, as well as helping sure your text is optimised for the search engines.

Don’t put all your marketing eggs in one basket

If you’ve not promoted your painting & decorating business online before, be careful not to concentrate all your marketing efforts in just one area.

For example, pay per click may be a good short term measure but you should also think about long term SEO too as it will be more cost effective.

Contribute to online forums and networking sites

If you have any spare time during your working week, use it to market your painting & decorating business.

One way to do this is to join local business forums and networking sites. You never know who’ll need a painter & decorator for their home or office premises.

Make sure all your branding is consistent

Branding your business is important for recognition in your local area. Make sure your website, vehicle livery, work wear etc all use the same logo, colours and fonts so that your branding is consistent across the board.

Ask your clients for testimonials to use in your marketing

Testimonials from real customers can help you get new customers. After every job it’s definitely worth asking your customer if they would be happy to give you a testimonial.

You can then use these testimonials on your website and flyers to help promote your business. Don’t ever be tempted to write your own testimonials; always use genuine ones using the customer’s own words.

Keep your marketing efforts up even when you’re busy

Even when you’ve got lots of work on you should still try to find time to market your painting & decorating business. Not everyone will want work done right away so it pays to keep your efforts up so you can fill your diary for longer, rather than waiting until the work has dried up.

Get a professional email address

If you’ve gone to the expense of getting a website designed make sure you get a professional email address to go with it. For example if your domain name is abcdecor.co.uk your email address should be something like john@abcdecor.co.uk rather than using a Yahoo or Hotmail address.

Team up with other local businesses

By forming alliances with other local businesses you could get more work for your painting & decorating business. For example, building companies may need a reliable company to finish off their projects. Local letting agents are another market you could target.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 17th, 2011 at 8:04 am and is filed under Industry Specific Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.