painting company – Page 9 – IFTS, Inc. Blog

10 Of Our Favorite Marketing Hacks For House Painting Companies In 2022

Would you like to know about our 10 favorite super sneaky marketing hacks that you can implement today?

We use these marketing secrets to help our painter clients rank their website #1 for their favorite keywords, get more organic traffic and ultimately, get more leads to grow their business.

In this article, we are going to cover ten actionable strategies that you can use RIGHT NOW.

The best part?

You don’t have to be super tech savvy or Elon Musk to get them implemented.

Let’s start this section with our favorite Google Business Profile hacks.

Hack #1 - Social Proof Will Get You More Leads

The best two platforms to get reviews on are:

Google
Meta (Formerly Facebook)

Google reviews are the best type of reviews that you can receive because not only do they talk you up and show people how great you are, they also help your website with its SEO. As an added bonus, once you have 100 reviews, your star rating will be shown when you run Google ads.

Meta reviews are great to have as well because of the platform’s popularity in a house painting company’s target market. Most house painters that we work with have a target audience of women that are between the ages of 35 to 64. Consequently, that is the majority of Meta users. By using this platform, you are more likely to get in front of your ideal client than any other social media option.

If you can get a video testimonial from a client, that can go a long way as well. A lot of people get stuck on the logistics of creating the video, but it shouldn’t be that hard. You can interview them via Zoom and record that call or just have them use their phone to record a quick video.

The more authentic the video looks, the better. This is for two reasons. One – if the video is over-produced, it will seem scripted and less credible. Two – if people see that someone took time out of their day to create a quick video for you, it shows that they really liked you and your work.

Once you have these videos, be sure to put them everywhere a potential audience may look. This could include:

YouTube
Your website
Social Media
Your Google Business Profile
and more!

Reviews are a great way to show how great you are without you ever having to say a word.

Want some help getting more reviews? Check out our article on implementing a review system.

Hack #2 - Get Your Listing On Google Maps

Getting your business listed in the Google Maps results is based on many factors. A few big ones are:

how close the searcher is to your business location
your review ranking and volume (which we discussed above in Hack #1)
profile completeness
local signals

To start, make sure that your profile is completely filled out with correct information. Your name in the Google Business Profile should match exactly the name on your website. This goes for your address, website, and phone number as well. Then, be sure that your business categories and services are filled in completely.

The final part of your profile that should be completed is the “Photos” section. Be sure to add as many photos as you can as this is a feature that not many painters take advantage of.

For a complete walkthrough of filling out a Google Business Profile, check out our article here: https://blog.iftsdesign.com/introducing-google-my-business/

“Local Signals” are another big factor for showing up early on Google Maps. These are website links to your website from other local businesses or services. A few examples of this would be:

a back link from the local chamber of commerce
a back link from a local scholarship that you sponsored
a mention or link to your business from a local paper

Anything that you can do to get your business associated with your area is a great “local signal” to Google.

Hack #3 - Ask and Answer Questions Via Your Profile

An easy way to get keywords and locations associated with your Google Business Profile is through the question and answer section.

Previously, you were not able to add questions to your profile yourself, You had to wait for someone to ask and then you could answer them. This has now changed.

The Q&A section of your Google Business Profile is a great way to show all of your most frequently asked questions up front to prospective customers.

Write down the 10 questions that you receive all of the time from prospects and then answer them in 3-5 sentences. While you are answering them, be sure to use common keywords/phrases as well as locations that you want associated with your house painting business.

Once you have accomplished this task, copy and paste them to your Google Business Profile.

Now, we’ll move to our favorite Paid Ad Hacks.

Hack #4 - Solve Your Prospects’ Small Problems For Free In an Ad

What are the questions you most commonly get asked? If you’ve already implemented Hack #3 from this article, you should have this list already.

Side Note – Need some inspiration? Check out https://answerthepublic.com/ or https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/ for commonly asked or searched questions in your field.

Make videos answering these questions and position yourself as the expert in your area. Again, just like the testimonials, the videos do not have to be fancy or highly edited. They should be authentic and can be filmed with your cell phone. Some painters will even film on the job site.

Sample Common House Painter Questions To Get You Started:

How often should I paint the exterior of my house in this area?

What is the best time of the year to stain a deck?
How many coats of paint should be used on the exterior of your house?
How many coats of paint should be used on the interior of your house?
What does it mean for a painting company to be bonded and insured?
Should I paint my kitchen cabinets or should I replace them?

Once you have your videos, post them to your social media, YouTube channel and on your website.

You should also run them as Meta ads to your local audience. You don’t have to spend a lot of money, just one to five dollars per day. This helps you get in front of a fairly large group of people in a small amount of time.

These videos will help you create an audience that already knows/likes/trusts you when it comes to painting topics. When they have a painting project come up, you will be the one that they know they can trust.

Hack #5 - Make Your Ad Stand Out

When creating your video, you want to be sure to stand out amongst the crowded marketplace.

The first way to do this is to use contrasting colors to the platform that you are running the ad on. If you are going to run the ad on Meta (Facebook), we recommend having a red or yellow bar at the top of the video because it helps you stand out from the Meta blue color scheme. An easy way to do some small edits to your video is through Canva.

Don’t want to take the time to do any edits to the video? Try wearing a brightly colored red or yellow shirt.

The second way to stand out is to immediately call out your audience or target market. So, if you were advertising kitchen cabinet painting to the residents of Dallas, you could start your video with the sentence:

“Are you living in the Dallas area and thinking about redoing your kitchen?”

Or, you could do some video editing and add that sentence as text to the beginning of the video.

A final way to stand out is to start your video with a big action or a memorable prop at the beginning. You want to grab someone’s attention – movement or something unexpected will typically draw the eye.

A few big actions you could try:

come in through a door
big wave and a smile
use a paint sprayer or other tool of the trade
jump into the frame

A few memorable props you could try:

Comically large-sized paintbrush
Wall of stacked of paint cans
stand halfway up a ladder

The important thing to remember is you want to get their attention within the first 3 seconds of the video and keep them watching. These tactics all use “pattern interrupt”. This basically means – do something to get a person to stop scrolling through their feed and watch your video/read your ad.

Hack #6 - Use Retargeting Ads In Multiple Ways

The average consumer is only prepared to make a purchase about 3% of the time.

So, how do you attract the other 97% of people?

Retargeting Ads

Retargeting allows you to stay in front of someone that is interested in your services until they are ready to make a purchasing decision. If you are advertising on Meta (Facebook), you can do this in 2 ways:

Meta Pixel
Video Viewers

The Meta Pixel is a small piece of code that you install on your website. It then tracks who has visited the site and allows you to show them ads on Meta.

One caveat – The usefulness of the Pixel has diminished over time as Apple now requires users to opt in to being tracked. Only about 10% of people opt in (not surprising). Advertisers now have a much harder time reaching Apple users via this method.

The other way you can retarget someone is through their video views. Meta tracks who watches your videos and for how long. So, you can advertise to people that have watched at least a certain percentage of a video.

We recommend retargeting people who have watched at least 25% – 50% of a video.

Sample Retargeting Strategy For House Painters

A good video strategy for painters is to run 3-5 FAQ ads to women 35-64 in your local area. Then, retarget the women who have watched at least 25% of one of the videos with an ad that has a special offer or a more direct call to action.

Finally, let’s cover our favorite psychological marketing tricks.

Hack #7 - Get an Awesome Business Card With Your Picture

One strategy that isn’t commonly used by painters is to get a really nice business card with your picture on it.

Why use your picture?

First of all, people want to do business with people, not a faceless business. Secondly, it will help them remember who you are.

Now, how nice is nice, you may ask…

Stand out from the crowd of people that are handing out the white, one sided business cards that they ordered by the thousands from VistaPrint for under $50 and get a card that is plastic, like a credit card. Check out plasticprinters.com for decent pricing.

Not only that, make the card graphically pleasing and “cool looking” by having it designed professionally. Look on fiverr.com for a great deal on the design aspect.

Because the card is so nice, people feel bad about throwing it away. So, you’ve got a tangible remarketing tool that they will keep, unlike other painting companies. This will set you apart from the cheap lookalike cards that are thrown away easily.

[On an aside] We do recommend having 2 sets of cards created. One set should be plastic and lux for giving away to potential customers. The other set can be on paper. These paper ones should be given away to people that may not necessarily hire you, but you may use as a contact or meet at a networking event.

Hack #8 - Make Your Voicemail Work For You

Your clients should never reach your voicemail. Preferably, you’d have a call center in place to make sure that they never had to talk to a machine.

However, if the perfect set of circumstances happen and they do manage to reach your voicemail, there is one phrase you should add to the end of the message:

Add “I will call you in the next 15 minutes”

When people hear this, they will be much more likely to leave a message because they have that expectation of receiving a call back soon. Even if you aren’t able to call back in that amount of time, you still get a chance at that lead.

Hack #9 - Give a Compliment At the Beginning

People want to be liked and this plays into that psychology.

Before you start an estimate, give a compliment to the prospect. It could be about the house, the neighborhood, a family picture, furniture, their pet etc. People like people who like them. People also HIRE people who they like.

Most of the time, people don’t remember what you say, but they do remember how you make them feel. This applies to most human interaction. So, if you make them feel good about themselves at the beginning, the feeling should carry through the whole experience.

By making a prospect feel good about themselves, it puts you in a better position for you to get their business.

Hack #10 - Go Get Started

Getting started is half the battle. Choose one thing from this list that you want to accomplish in the next 24 hours and GO DO IT! You’ll be ahead of 95% of your competition.

Want Some Help?

Is there something on this list that you would like to implement, but aren’t quite sure how or don’t have the time to do?

This is where IFTS comes in. We have been working with house painters (and other businesses) for over 5 years on all aspects of their marketing. Give us a call at 412-715-6266 or send us an email (si@iftsdesign.com). We’d love to help you grow your painting company.

How to Use Infographics for Marketing Your Painting Business

If you’re looking for ways to stand out online and build your painting company’s brand, infographics are a great way to do it.

A powerful tool for communicating, Infographics provide complex information in a visually pleasing way that’s also easy to understand. When used the right way, they can be very effective at bringing people to your website and getting them to interact with you on social media, and they don’t have to be expensive or take a lot of time. And because they are so easily shared on social media, they’re a great way to boost your SEO.

So, what is an infographic anyway?

As a small business owner, you wear a lot of hats. You’re the CEO, the estimator, the team lead, and the marketing team all rolled into one. And while you might be good at a lot of things, there’s only so much time in the day to get your message out.

Enter – infographics!

An infographic is a picture that shows information or data. They usually have both images and words and are used to show complicated facts in a short, easy-to-understand way.

Plan to use infographics instead of spending hours poring over spreadsheets, making newsletters, or writing long blog posts. And the best part is, they’re fun to make!

In this post, we’ll show you the best ways to use and make infographics for your painting business, but feel free to apply these tips to other markets, as well!

Make infographics about your painting services or products.

When creating an infographic about your product or service, be sure to focus on one key point that you want to communicate.

This should be something that will interest your customers and help them understand what you do. Most of the time, less is more because too much information can turn people off.

Explain how your product or service helps solve a specific problem or shows off an interesting process you use at work. Use clear, concise language and make sure the visuals support the text.

For example, an infographic that points out the areas of a house that should be painted for the best return on investment is a great way to help potential clients decide which walls to paint when they are getting ready to sell their home.

Or, do you have a favorite way to prepare a surface or a favorite type of paint that you use for different projects? Creating an infographic to share your tips and tricks about this topic, provides a new way for your audience to rely on your years of experience for their painting needs.

Create infographics about your company's history and personality.

An infographic is a great way to share the history of your business.

Use it to talk about important people, important events, and even interesting facts about how your business got started. This is a great way to get potential customers interested in your business and show them what it’s all about.

People LOVE stories! If people know and like your story, it builds trust, making them more likely to want to work with you in the future.

Another example is an infographic timeline that shows the different kinds of work your business has done over the years. Again, this shows that you have experience and makes your business stand out as unique and likable to potential customers and employees.

How to make an infographic.

Now you can start making your infographics!

First, think about your values and your brand’s style.

What is your mission statement?

Check out this article on creating a brand style guide for more ideas, and take some time to brainstorm and write down everything that you can think of.

When you really understand your company’s values and style, you’ll be able to communicate with your audience consistently. Which makes sense and builds that trust again!

Also, be sure to think about your customers’ age, gender, location, and income level.

What are they passionate about?

What do they like to do in their free time?

What are their buying habits?

Answering these questions will help you create content that really speaks to your target market.

Once you have all of this information, you can start designing your infographics. Be sure to use visuals, such as charts and graphs, to make your infographic more engaging and fun to look at.

Canva is a great, easy-to-use app that you can always turn to. It has infographic templates that you can use to get started quickly, and you can format them for many different social media sites.

Share your infographics.

Now, if you’re happy with your infographic, it’s time to share it with the world! Post it on your website, social media, and anywhere else your target audience is likely to see it.

If you need more ideas on where you should be posting your infographic, learn more about the social media platforms we recommend for your painting business here.

By using these tips, you can create informative and visually appealing infographics about your company. This will help you attract new customers and employees and build a strong online presence for your business—and there’s no need to hire a professional designer to create them (although you certainly can if you want to)!

So what are you waiting for?

Get started making infographics for your small business today!

If you need more help in this area, give IFTS, Inc. a call at 412.715.6266 for a FREE consultation!

How To Create and Optimize Your Company’s YouTube Video (With A Secret Step That Not Many People Know About)

Did you know that every day YouTube has over ONE BILLION hours of video watched, which results in billions of views?

Is your business taking advantage of having videos on YouTube? If not, today is a great day to start!

Most people think that creating a video for their business is really time consuming or that you need expensive equipment to start – Not true! All you need is your smartphone and a location that is relatively quiet with good lighting.

Choose Your Video Location Carefully

Find a room where there is a window in front of you so the natural light illuminates your face. Make sure that there is no distracting clutter in the background.

Prop up your phone so that it is pointed at you and you are centered in the frame. Another option for this is to purchase an inexpensive stand that holds your phone. Most of these stands also come with a remote control so that you can press “record” more easily.

Choose An Outfit To Film In

When choosing an outfit to film in, pick something that represents your brand. If you’re in a professional field, you can never go wrong with a suit and tie. If you’re in a service business, a polo or T-shirt with your logo makes sense.

Make sure that there aren’t any distracting patterns on what you are wearing. Patterns can appear fuzzy or out of focus on camera. Noisy jewelry is also a negative. You want your microphone to pick up what you are saying rather than your bracelet clanging off of your watch.

Following these guidelines will ensure the professionalism of your video, and it will make you look good.

Choose Your Video Topic

A lot of businesses have videos all over their website about themselves…and this is where they go wrong.

Your clients don’t really care about you, they just want to know that you are the best company to solve their problems. So, prove it!

Choose 5-10 questions that you are asked regularly, then answer them on video. Don’t use industry jargon, and speak as if you are talking to a potential client.

On an aside – A lot of people wonder if they should write scripts when filming videos like this. It really depends on you. Write a script, create an outline or conduct a practice run; do whatever makes you feel most comfortable. You want to do your best to sound natural and relaxed, so your expertise shines through.

Stumped for ideas? Go to https://answerthepublic.com/ and enter your business type or a problem that you solve. This website will give you frequently asked questions about the topic.

Edit Your Video For YouTube

This is the part of the process that most people find difficult. There are multiple ways to edit your video easily that don’t require expensive video software, like Adobe Premier Pro. If you have a Mac, you can use iMovie. There are also many apps on your phone that will allow you to edit a video you have created.

Whatever software you decide to use, make sure your sound is clear. If it allows you to add background music, choose something that is unobtrusive and appropriate for your business.

Secret Step That Most People Don’t Know About – Do Keyword Research For Your Video

Once you have your video completed, you’ll want to do a little research on keywords that go with it. Keyword research helps tell you:

Most googled phrases about your topic
How many times per month something is searched
How difficult it is to rank for that keyword or phrase
And more!

Use a tool like SEMrush or Ubersuggest for your research. Both options have free account versions.

In this example, we will use SEMrush.

Let’s say that you are a painting company, and you created a video on how to prep a house to paint.

Go to SEMrush and type in “how to prep a house for painting” to see the search statistics that go with that phrase:

As you can see, this keyword phrase is googled 320 times per month. That means it’s a great phrase to use in the title of my video. The keyword difficulty is 42%, so it tells me that we will need well-structured and unique content to rank, which is exactly what my video is for.

The keyword research also shows me:

Variations on the keyword that I could use in my video description
Common questions that are googled about my keywords
Related keywords that can act as secondary keywords that can be used in my video description on YouTube (more about this later)

When choosing a title for your video, be sure to choose a keyword phrase that is googled at least 100 times per month (rule of thumb). Be sure to also choose 1-3 other keywords or phrases that go with your video that are searched over 20 times per month.

Upload Your Video To YouTube

You’ve created your video and have your research, so you are ready to upload your video to YouTube and have clients find you!

Before you upload your video, change the name of your video file to be the title of your video, separated by hyphens.

So, in this example, I would name my video “How-to-prep-a-house-for-painting.mp4”

Then, go to your YouTube channel and hit the “Create” button. Once you upload your video, YouTube has multiple fields that you can fill in. The most important field is the “Title” field. This is where we would put “How To Prep A House For Painting In 2021”. If possible, it’s a great idea to add the year in the title to let YouTube know that this is the most up to date information available on your subject.

The next most important field is the description, which can be 5000 characters. This is where you will tell people about the video, and why they should watch it. Remember the secondary keywords that you chose? This is the place to use them.

You can’t use the same keyword phrase over and over again. This is called “Keyword Stuffing” and YouTube/Google don’t like to see it. So, you use keywords and phrases that are similar to your primary keyword (your title).

Another good rule of thumb is to place a link to a page on your website within the description. It helps you build backlinks and send people to your website if they are interested in your product or service.

YouTube will also ask if the video is made for kids (to create an age restriction if needed) as well as a few other questions that you should be able to answer easily.

Once the video has processed, the last thing that you will want to do is set the thumbnail. This is the image that YouTube will use to represent your video before it is played. Typically, we recommend creating an image that is 1280x720px and following the YouTube tips on creating an effective thumbnail: https://creatoracademy.youtube.com/page/lesson/thumbnails

BONUS – What To Do After Your Optimized Video Is Live On YouTube

Once you have your optimized video live on YouTube, don’t stop there. You took the time to create it, now promote it!

There are multiple ways to get your video out there:

Post a link to the video on your social media
Share the video on LinkedIn
Send the video to your clients
Send the video to your prospects
Share the video with partner companies that you have

In addition to promoting your video, you can also use the content again! Upload your video to a tool like otter.ai to create a transcript of it. Use this transcript to create a blog entry on your website and link to the video. This allows you to give information about your business topics to multiple audiences, and it helps with your SEO (search engine optimization).

Start creating your content on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to see your traffic increase and your videos start to rank.

If all of this seems overwhelming and you’d like some help getting started, call IFTS today and ask about our “Beginner’s Video Package” at 412.715.6266.