Don’t Let the Silver Bullet Suck You In

Ahhh, the sin­gle, mag­i­cal tool that fix­es all things. Its sim­plic­i­ty is what makes it so allur­ing. Its inef­fec­tive­ness is what makes it the great destroy­er of mon­ey, time, and effort. 

We all know that there are a ton of mar­ket­ing vehi­cles and strate­gies out there. But suc­cess does not lie in find­ing the one that works. It’s how you mix and match them over time to cre­ate an acces­si­ble sto­ry about who your paint­ing com­pa­ny is and the val­ue you pro­vide that ulti­mate­ly makes your mar­ket­ing successful. 

Avoid these four mis­takes to ensure you spend your time and mon­ey build­ing effec­tive and sus­tain­able mar­ket­ing cam­paigns instead of chas­ing false hope. 

Mis­take #1: Putting All Your Eggs In One Basket

You have a lim­it­ed mar­ket­ing bud­get, and it’s dif­fi­cult to slice, dice, and allo­cate it to all the chan­nels avail­able. How­ev­er, avoid the temp­ta­tion to sim­ply drop it all into one plat­form that you’ve heard does well. 

Of course, there are plat­forms that per­form bet­ter or worse than oth­ers at dif­fer­ent times. For instance, we’ve seen Google Local Ser­vice Ads per­form­ing quite well for many paint­ing con­trac­tors recent­ly. You can allo­cate a healthy por­tion of effort and bud­get towards it, but remem­ber, algo­rithms change, strate­gies change, and plat­forms change. Diver­si­fi­ca­tion reduces risk. Even when you’ve found plat­forms that per­form well for you, keep track­ing and be pre­pared to change course at a momen­t’s notice. 

Note: As you are try­ing to find new leads, don’t lose sight of your own trea­sure trove of leads — your cus­tomer and prospect list. Always ask your­self and your team, what are we doing to keep these peo­ple aware and engaged? 

Mis­take #2: Ignor­ing Tac­tics That Are Hard to Track

Small, fre­quent touch points can have a huge impact over time, even if you can’t direct­ly track that impact. Direct mail, organ­ic social posts, refer­rals, net­work­ing, and com­mu­ni­ty involve­ment are all exam­ples of effec­tive mar­ket­ing strate­gies that might not show up neat­ly in a lead dash­board. Allo­cat­ing bud­get towards these impor­tant tac­tics builds long-term val­ue by mak­ing lead gen­er­a­tion push­es more effective. 

Mis­take #3: Chas­ing Shiny Lures

There is no short­age of ​“hacks” or even bet­ter, ​“guar­an­teed hacks” out there. A new one pops up every day. It’s hard not to take notice of the ads that promise 5X growth in 30 days, but the truth is that growth takes work. Strat­e­gy, sys­tems, and con­sis­ten­cy are what ulti­mate­ly lead to success. 

Strat­e­gy is know­ing your mar­ket, know­ing your num­bers, and track­ing your efforts and results year-over-year. 

Sys­tems ensure that leads are fol­lowed up on prompt­ly, esti­mates are clean and entic­ing, and cus­tomers are tak­en care of and want to return. 

Con­sis­ten­cy means that you remain dis­ci­plined in telling your sto­ry — every­where and often. And don’t just tell your sto­ry, show them who you are. Use video. Use pic­tures. Use words. Show off your projects, show off your team — just keep show­ing up day in and day out. 

Note about busy times: This is one of the hard­est times to stay con­sis­tent in your mar­ket­ing. We’ve seen con­trac­tors that are booked so far out that it seems like the sun will nev­er stop shin­ing! But the rains of the slow sea­son even­tu­al­ly arrive. Always keep that mar­ket­ing fire burn­ing. Even if you aren’t direct­ly dri­ving leads, con­tin­ue to invest in branding.

Mis­take #4: Ignor­ing Long-Term Brand­ing in Favor of Short-Term Leads

Hey man, you got­ta keep the cof­fers full. We get it. But brand­ing is like a retire­ment account: It com­pounds over time. 

Famil­iar­i­ty builds trust, and trust builds sales. A rec­og­nized brand will almost always out­per­form an unknown com­peti­tor. If you’re just start­ing out or if your mes­sag­ing is get­ting a lit­tle bit old or tired, look at your logo, taglines, web­site, and truck/​van wraps. It’s worth spend­ing the mon­ey on a pro­fes­sion­al who can help you cre­ate a strong visu­al iden­ti­ty that’s unique and modern. 

It’s total­ly nor­mal to want to sim­pli­fy the task of mar­ket­ing. But mar­ket­ing done well does more than fill a fun­nel with leads. It con­sis­tent­ly fuels your paint­ing busi­ness with the right cus­tomers, the right jobs, and even the right employ­ees. Com­mit­ting to inten­tion­al and con­sis­tent mar­ket­ing is ulti­mate­ly the fastest and most effec­tive path to success. 

Feel­ing over­whelmed? At DC Mar­ket­ing Group, we spe­cial­ize in mar­ket­ing for painters. Our vast expe­ri­ence and insights can stream­line your mar­ket­ing process­es and get your com­mer­cial com­mu­ni­ca­tions up and run­ning faster. Sched­ule Your Free Con­sul­ta­tion Call today!