Are you looking to grow your painting company but aren’t sure where to start?
It’s difficult to know what steps to take or where to invest your time and money. However, we have created a proven roadmap for you to follow that will help you 10X your painting business.
Step 1 – Implement A Follow-Up System So Your Potential Clients See You Over and Over
Did you know that at any given time, only 3% of your market is ready to buy from you?
This means that 97% of the people that see your advertising are going to need a little more time. In fact, your average customer is exposed to about 10,000 marketing messages every day.
What are the chances that your marketing message is going to be the one that stands out among the 10,000 that your client is seeing (especially if they had never heard of you before)?
Typically, your potential clients need to see and hear from you multiple times in order to make an informed buying decision. This is why you must FOLLOW UP. In fact, a 2011 study from Google found that a buyer needs 7 hours of interaction across 11 touch points in 4 locations.
Let’s break that down quickly. You (or your marketing) needs to interact (or be in front of) your potential client 11 times. These interactions can be snail mail, videos, ads, phone calls, emails or anything that gets you in front of them.
Then, these 11 interactions need to be across 4 locations. This means that you can’t just always call or email. You need to expand the number of places that people see you. You need to be “everywhere” your clients may be. So, adding to phone or email, text, Facebook Ads, YouTube, the Google Display Network, LinkedIn etc. To accomplish this task correctly, think about where your clients commonly are.
Finally, these touches need to result in about 7 hours of interaction. In other words, you want a prospect to spend about 7 hours thinking about you. This is when it helps to have video. For a house painting business, customer testimonials are great ads to use. It allows other people to “toot your horn”, so you don’t have to.
Another great interaction piece is a downloadable pdf that contains information about your company, examples of your past work, testimonials and more. You can make this available on your website or social media.
How To Implement A Great Customer Follow-Up System – Set Up A 3×3 Contact Matrix
First things first – automation is your friend. Don’t shy away from technology because it seems complicated. In the long run, it will be worth it.
So, what is the first thing to set up?
Start using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, like GoHighLevel, CorkCRM or Keap. It will more than pay for itself in the long run.
In your CRM, you will want to set up what we call a 3×3 contact matrix. You want a potential client that requested a quote to receive a call, text and email from you. If they don’t respond, do it again 3 days later. If they don’t respond, do it 5 days later. This automatically gives you 9 interactions on 3 different channels.
A common fear that we hear from painters is “What if they get annoyed or tell us it’s too much?”
They won’t. Remember, they originally contacted you. The more information that you give them that allows them to make a good decision when choosing a house painter will be appreciated.
Another common question that we get is “What should I say in these emails, texts and calls?”
- CALLS: The calls can just be follow ups to the original contact for quote, which most painting businesses are used to doing.
- TEXTS: The texts should be quick messages asking them for a reply, so you get them engaged. This is also a great time to offer an exclusive discount that they can only get by replying. Keep these short, sweet and to the point.
- EMAILS: The emails are where you can shine and really highlight your company. Send them more information about what it’s like working with your company. Have a testimonial video? This is a perfect opportunity to share it with them. Do you offer something completely unique in your area, like a guarantee or a special technique? Share it here.
People buy with emotions and justify it with logic. Use these 9 points of contact to get them emotionally invested. Then, provide the facts so they can justify their decision.
How To Implement A Great Customer Follow-Up System – Play The Follow Game
Have you ever looked at a toaster on Amazon and suddenly, that toaster is everywhere? You need to apply the same principles to your painting business.
The way to accomplish this is through the use of the Facebook pixel and the Google cookie.
Install these on your website (don’t forget to mention them in your terms and conditions) and they will start tracking your website visitors. You can now show people ads on Facebook that have been on certain pages of your website. You can use the Google cookie in a similar way.
Another way to interact with people multiple times based on their past browsing behavior is making use of Video Ads. Create a set of 3 videos where you answer questions that people commonly have when hiring house painters. Use the questions that you get from potential clients all the time. These videos do not have to be formal or cost a ton of money. A video shot on site with an iPhone will work for this.
Use these 3 videos to advertise to a broad audience. You want to use them to weed out people. Then, advertise your services in a follow up specifically to people that have watched at least 25% of one of your videos.
Why 25% of a video?
Because no one is going to watch a video on commonly asked questions about house painting unless they are in the market for house painting. This is a great way to narrow down your audience.
You can apply this tactic on YouTube and Facebook.
How To Implement A Great Customer Follow-Up System – Advertise on Multiple Platforms
To be “everywhere”, you need to advertise on multiple platforms.
Google Ads are a great resource that lets you advertise on Google, YouTube, Gmail and the Google Display Network (GDN). The GDN allows your ads to show up on websites that Google leases space on. You can decide what type of website “lease” you want to rent from Google. So, as a painting business, Home Improvement sites or Home Decorating sites may be good places to start.
Facebook Ads are another great place to target specific audiences with all types of advertising. Videos perform better than static ads, so start filming!
Depending upon the type of work you do, LinkedIn advertising could help you reach certain professionals.
How To Implement A Great Customer Follow-Up System – Let’s Look At An Example
To really illustrate how powerful just this one step is, let’s look at an example painting business, ABC Painting.
Let’s say that ABC Painting gets 50 leads per month, their close rate is 20% and the average painting project in their area is $4000. This means that they will get 10 clients and the company will gross $40,000 per month.
If you implement the follow up systems discussed above, you will increase your leads by about 60%.
To use the numbers above, this means that instead of 50 leads, ABC Painting will now have 80 leads per month. They will close on 20% of them, which is 16 clients and the company will now gross $64,000.
See, the CRM really will pay for itself…
Stay tuned for next week when we discuss how to double your leads!