Prepping to Market as a Commercial Painter

Adding a com­mer­cial divi­sion to your paint­ing com­pa­ny is entic­ing to many. How­ev­er, before you start plan­ning com­mer­cial rev­enue into your fore­casts, it’s impor­tant to con­sid­er your mar­ket­ing and sales plan. Here are some ques­tions to ask. 

# 1 Where can poten­tial com­mer­cial paint­ing cus­tomers learn more about you? 

A lot of painters ease their way into the com­mer­cial world, and some find them­selves there by total hap­pen­stance. By the time you decide to get seri­ous about build­ing out a com­mer­cial paint­ing divi­sion, chances are you have at least one project under your belt. 

Dur­ing those first com­mer­cial jobs, it’s impor­tant to be dili­gent about doc­u­men­ta­tion, pic­tures, and get­ting reviews. Once you have some sto­ries to tell, you can cre­ate a dig­i­tal hub where poten­tial com­mer­cial cus­tomers can learn more about your com­pa­ny, ser­vices, val­ues, and past projects/​successes.

Web­site: Keep­ing your web­site focused on your core res­i­den­tial busi­ness is a com­mon mis­take made by con­trac­tors already estab­lished in res­i­den­tial paint­ing. After all, the cur­rent web­site does a great job of estab­lish­ing your com­pa­ny as an excel­lent paint­ing ser­vice provider. 

How­ev­er, in the com­mer­cial world, you need to prove that your team is skilled and well-versed at han­dling the com­plex­i­ties and chal­lenges of a com­mer­cial jobsite.

Before you decide how to present your com­mer­cial ser­vices on your web­site, con­sid­er your long-term strategy. 

If you are look­ing to repo­si­tion your­self as a con­trac­tor that spe­cial­izes in com­mer­cial, many of our clients have found suc­cess by hav­ing sep­a­rate com­mer­cial and res­i­den­tial web­sites. Hav­ing two sites allows you to focus on spe­cif­ic vis­i­tors’ wants and needs vs. try­ing to using a sin­gle space to speak to a broad spec­trum of cus­tomers with vast­ly dif­fer­ent needs. 

For those who are still eas­ing into com­mer­cial or want to con­tin­ue a heavy focus on res­i­den­tial, it may not be nec­es­sary to build an entire­ly new web­site. In this instance, direct­ing vis­i­tors to a ded­i­cat­ed land­ing page on your exist­ing web­site that describes your com­mer­cial expe­ri­ence offers is a great jump­ing off point. As your com­mer­cial busi­ness gets larg­er, you can increase the amount of con­tent you ded­i­cate to it. 

The most impor­tant thing is that your web­site speaks to your ide­al, tar­get audience. 

Social: The same rule applies here. If you’re a res­i­den­tial painter, you are like­ly to have many posts, pic­tures, and tes­ti­mo­ni­als about your res­i­den­tial work. Now it’s time to sprin­kle in some com­mer­cial jobs. We typ­i­cal­ly rec­om­mend at least two posts per week (pri­or­i­tiz­ing LinkedIn for the com­mer­cial world). Also, feel free to get your staff involved by hav­ing them share per­ti­nent indus­try news, com­pa­ny posts, pic­tures, and video. 

#2 What con­tent should you cre­ate as a com­mer­cial paint­ing contractor?

Focus on your track record. Once again, giv­en the com­plex­i­ty of these jobs, proof of expe­ri­ence and suc­cess is para­mount! Don’t only focus on before and after pho­tos and videos. Pho­tos and video of a job­site in progress can high­light how you set up, prep, and keep the job­site. Show you’re clean. Show you’re safe. Show you’re efficient.

Set Your­self Apart: Ask your­self, your crew, and your staff what your com­pa­ny pro­vides that is spe­cial. Maybe you have excel­lent com­mu­ni­ca­tion or you’ve nev­er missed dead­line. You might be the com­pa­ny that takes on the jobs that no one else can fig­ure out. What­ev­er it is, pick the top five rea­sons you are the right com­mer­cial paint­ing com­pa­ny for the job. Every piece of mar­ket­ing mate­r­i­al should illus­trate one of those five reasons. 

Tip: If you are strug­gling to find dif­fer­en­tia­tors, ask these two ques­tions: How do you make your cus­tomers’ job eas­i­er? How do you make your cus­tomer look good?

A note on videos: A lot of con­trac­tors get intim­i­dat­ed by videos. Just remem­ber, it does not have to be a Hol­ly­wood pro­duc­tion. Just do it. Start some­where. Authen­tic and gen­uine videos get the best traction. 

#3: What can you leave behind?

Nev­er under­es­ti­mate the val­ue of a print­ed leave behind. In fact, they are a cru­cial part of your com­mer­cial paint­ing mar­ket­ing plan. A fold­er with two or three case stud­ies on great projects is a great mar­ket­ing pack­et. A brochure or a fly­er is some­thing peo­ple can phys­i­cal­ly touch and hold on to. 

Take some time to cre­ate some thought­ful pieces that show how you are the best choice for them. Don’t skimp. It’s worth the investment.

#4 What sales and mar­ket­ing met­rics should com­mer­cial painters track?

A suc­cess­ful com­mer­cial paint­ing busi­ness depends on strong rela­tion­ships. Hav­ing a CRM where you track sales activ­i­ty and com­mu­ni­ca­tions over a long peri­od is a valu­able tool. 

Use this to track how many peo­ple you or your sales­peo­ple con­tact in a day/​week/​month. Track how many times each was con­tact­ed through emails, net­work­ing events, sales calls, etc. Because the jobs are larg­er, track­ing your cost per sale is your best KPI. 

When mar­ket­ing your com­mer­cial paint­ing busi­ness, remem­ber that you are play­ing the long game. Peo­ple can still see your ad, click on it, and reach out imme­di­ate­ly. But it’s more like­ly that your ads and con­tent build brand recog­ni­tion and trust around your com­pa­ny over a long peri­od of time. It allows you to be a famil­iar con­tender when the need for a paint job comes up. 

Obvi­ous­ly, you put time, mon­ey, and effort into your mar­ket­ing, so you still want to be aware of the num­bers. Just don’t expect view and click lev­els to be as high as res­i­den­tial. That’s ok; every click in com­mer­cial is worth a lot more. Fol­low your gut and lis­ten to your reps to see the full picture. 

The Full Picture

Mar­ket­ing any com­pa­ny suc­cess­ful­ly requires an ecosys­tem, not a sin­gle tac­tic. Always remem­ber that there are often ele­ments at play that you can’t direct­ly see or track. 

For exam­ple, if peo­ple see you at an event, you want them to be able to quick­ly and eas­i­ly find you online after the event. On the flip side, you want your tra­di­tion­al and dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing to soft­en the field at events. Peo­ple feel more com­fort­able approach­ing you and start­ing con­ver­sa­tions when they rec­og­nize your brand and are famil­iar with your work. 

Embrace all aspects of mar­ket­ing — dig­i­tal, tra­di­tion­al, in-per­son — and your busi­ness will thrive. 

Need help?

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!