Don’t Forget Past Clients

It’s Jan­u­ary. The hol­i­days are behind us, and every­one is focused on los­ing those hol­i­day pounds, sav­ing mon­ey, and decreas­ing their screen time. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, for the paint­ing world (depend­ing on where you live and the ser­vices you offer), that can some­times mean inquiries for a nice, new paint job slow down to a trickle.

Before you mail it in and sink into the dol­drums of win­ter, remem­ber that some­times the path ahead is found by look­ing behind. In this case, we’re talk­ing about your list of past clients. 

The beau­ty of clients who have already hired you for paint­ing work is that they know you. They know you keep a clean job site and deliv­er qual­i­ty work with friend­ly staff. They already know your rates and have paid them. So long as you left them hap­py the last time, the sales process should be much faster and eas­i­er this time around. All of this means that repeat clients can deliv­er work dur­ing the slow months (or any months) at a high­er ROI. So how do you engage them?

Reac­ti­va­tion Marketing

One-off Mes­sage: This can be in the form of a sim­ple email, door hang­er, or mail­er ask­ing if it’s time for a touch-up, main­te­nance paint, or col­or change. Even bet­ter, upgrade to a one-off cam­paign for bet­ter results by mix­ing and match­ing mar­ket­ing vehi­cles for more touch­points and repetition. 

Direct Con­tact: If you have a CRM where sales­peo­ple keep notes on clients, now is a great time to dive in and look for notes on future upselling oppor­tu­ni­ties. Sales­peo­ple should use this time to nur­ture the rela­tion­ship with old clients, ensure their paint job is hold­ing up, and see if they need any touchups or new work done. 

Painter for a Day: A qui­et time of year is also a great time to con­sid­er offer­ing a ​“painter for a day” ser­vice, where some­one can come out for a flat rate and han­dle mul­ti­ple small areas that need a bit of spe­cial atten­tion. It might seem like an end­less month of small jobs, but it could also reveal a big job that oth­er­wise might have slipped through the cracks. 

Dis­counts: For those clients who are on the fence about a job, this might be a good time to offer a dis­count, incen­tiviz­ing them to sched­ule the job before the sea­son gets busy. Know your num­bers and don’t dis­count too much.

Main­te­nance Pro­grams: If you offer main­te­nance pro­grams to clients, win­ter is a great time to sched­ule any annu­al main­te­nance they have pur­chased. You won’t have to rush, and clients will appre­ci­ate the time and effort you have put into keep­ing their home fresh and updated. 

The Stallers: We all have clients who got an esti­mate and just nev­er got around to pulling the trig­ger. Fol­low up and find out what’s need­ed for them to move forward. 

The Mes­sage: This is not the time to be pushy. Keep the tone light and let them know you are just check­ing in.

Reg­u­lar Upkeep

If you haven’t been dis­ci­plined about keep­ing up with past clients, that’s ok. Today is the very best day to start. As you plan for the future, it’s worth adding in reg­u­lar efforts to keep your com­pa­ny vis­i­ble to past clients. You’d be sur­prised how many home­own­ers want to use the same com­pa­ny twice but just can’t remem­ber who they hired.

Newslet­ter: A month­ly newslet­ter high­light­ing excit­ing local infor­ma­tion, jobs you’ve recent­ly com­plet­ed, upcom­ing dis­counts, staff high­lights, or any­thing that might be inter­est­ing to your local com­mu­ni­ty of clients. Newslet­ters that we do for our clients at DC Mar­ket­ing Group reg­u­lar­ly receive 35 – 40% open rates, indi­cat­ing strong interest. 

Per­son­al Out­reach: Noth­ing beats a per­son­al touch. A quick phone call, email, or text to thank a client for busi­ness, for a refer­ral, or just to check in is an excel­lent per­son­al touch that goes a long way in ensur­ing that they remem­ber you and all the care you gave them when they need that next paint job. 

Incen­tivized Refer­rals: Some con­trac­tors find great suc­cess by offer­ing a pro­gram that incen­tivizes refer­rals by way of dis­counts on future work. Not only are you gain­ing a new client, but you’re mak­ing it far more like­ly that the refer­rer comes back to you for their next paint job. 

As we begin our jour­ney into 2026, don’t for­get the gold­en list of past clients. To get reg­u­lar mar­ket­ing columns and advice, sign up for our newslet­ter or fol­low us on Face­book, Insta­gram, and LinkedIn.