The Art, Science, and Discipline of Marketing Your Painting Company

Imag­ine a slot machine. You put the mon­ey in, pull the lever, and hit the jack­pot. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, while the first two steps are required, part three isn’t, and it’s rarely the outcome.

When you think of mar­ket­ing like it’s a slot machine, you often get slot machine results — spent mon­ey, spent effort, unre­li­able results. Mar­ket­ing is a lot less like a night at the casi­no and a lot more like a course in art, sci­ence, and discipline. 

In our last blog, we talked about five core ele­ments that make your mar­ket­ing suc­cess­ful and resilient to exter­nal mar­ket shifts you inevitably face in busi­ness: brand, author­i­ty, leads, com­mu­ni­ty, and return­ing cus­tomers. Prop­er­ly invest­ing in those ele­ments not only pro­tects you, but it also makes your mar­ket­ing a force mul­ti­pli­er, deliv­er­ing more results with less effort over time.

Brand Posi­tion­ing: Your Unique Offer

We all enjoy mak­ing fun of the snowflake cul­ture. But as humans, we have an impor­tant sim­i­lar­i­ty to snowflakes. No, it’s not that we are del­i­cate. It’s that we are unique. And your busi­ness offers some­thing unique, even if you haven’t dialed in on exact­ly what it is. Posi­tion­ing your brand is one of the most impor­tant foun­da­tion­al steps you can take. 

Sci­ence: Defin­ing your brand involves research. Who’s your tar­get mar­ket? What do they need? What are their chal­lenges? What is their price point? What do they val­ue? Where/​how do they shop? It’s not just them you are try­ing to fig­ure out — it’s you. If you are already estab­lished, observe what you do well and how you meet the chal­lenges and needs of your tar­get mar­ket. If you aren’t, begin think­ing about what you want to do well. 

Art: Once you’ve fig­ured out the answers to the ques­tions above, it’s time to build your brand. Find­ing your col­ors and fonts, cre­at­ing your logos, and deter­min­ing your mes­sag­ing guide­lines are all part of the art! 

Dis­ci­pline: Once you have your brand guide­lines, use them. All. The. Time. That can be a lit­tle tough, espe­cial­ly when pro­grams like Can­va serve you with a ton of cool-look­ing tem­plates that have noth­ing to do with one anoth­er. Avoid the temp­ta­tion; stick to your brand guide. 

Author­i­ty Build­ing: Telling Your Brand Story

This is my per­son­al favorite. As a writer for the paint­ing indus­try, I’ve told the sto­ries of paint­ing con­trac­tors for over 20 years. To dou­ble down on the ​“snowflake” the­o­ry, I’ve nev­er told the same sto­ry twice. Every con­trac­tor had a unique sto­ry to tell. 

Sci­ence: Peo­ple trust author­i­ty, so posi­tion your com­pa­ny as the author­i­ty on paint. Use your tech­ni­cal knowl­edge, sub­strate expe­ri­ence, and social proof to show them how you over­come their chal­lenges. Tes­ti­mo­ni­als, case stud­ies, and how-tos are all great ways to tell your story.

Art: There is also an art to telling sto­ries. You could cre­ate some­thing with per­fect struc­ture, gram­mar, and vocab­u­lary, suc­cinct­ly explain­ing all the tech­ni­cal rea­sons you pro­vide the very best, most long-last­ing fin­ish. And it could fall com­plete­ly flat. Get cre­ative, get per­son­al, and con­nect. Cre­ate a mix of media from writ­ten blogs to short-form videos. 

Dis­ci­pline: Con­sis­tent expo­sure is key. Con­tin­u­ing to tell your sto­ry, test how your sto­ries res­onate and con­vert. Always be curi­ous and keep going. 

Lead Gen: Keep­ing the cof­fers full 

A diverse strat­e­gy for bring­ing in leads is crit­i­cal. Con­sis­tent expo­sure on plat­forms where peo­ple research paint­ing projects is imper­a­tive. Your Google Busi­ness Pro­file, GLSAs, and social pres­ence are all places you want to be present. For last­ing, force mul­ti­pli­er results, add lead gen­er­a­tion efforts that have a longer shelf-life and rein­force your brand like direct mail, web con­tent, and social content. 

Sci­ence: There is a ton of sci­ence to lead gen­er­a­tion. Just look at all the data you can col­lect! Impres­sions, click rates, con­ver­sion rates, size of sale, cost per lead, cost per sale! It can be over­whelm­ing if you don’t know why your Key Per­for­mance Indi­ca­tors (KPIs) are impor­tant or if you are spo­radic at track­ing them. Put a sys­tem in place. 

Art: The bal­ance can also be an art. Know­ing when to spend a lit­tle bit more on a direct mail cam­paign vs. push­ing more bud­get into GLSA requires a thor­ough under­stand­ing of your long- and short-term goals, not to men­tion a will­ing­ness to try new things. 

Dis­ci­pline: Two things come to mind. First, when the lead comes in, the par­ty gets start­ed. Make sure you have a sys­tem for fol­low­ing up quick­ly and clos­ing leads. Sec­ond, don’t be too impa­tient when test­ing new strate­gies or plat­forms. Give every­thing the time it needs to gain momen­tum and start deliv­er­ing results.

Com­mu­ni­ty Involvement
This is your chance to get out and be with the peo­ple! It builds famil­iar­i­ty, trust, and it’s just flat-out fun. 

Sci­ence: Com­mu­ni­ty endeav­ors should have a return on invest­ment. Use your sys­tems to track your direct results, but don’t for­get that while a lead may have come in via GLSA or search, see­ing you at a com­mu­ni­ty event might be why they reach out to you through oth­er platforms. 

Art: Mix it up. Donate time to a local non­prof­it that needs a refresh, spon­sor a local sport­ing event, or have a BBQ in the park! This is a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to be cre­ative with all the brand work you’ve already put in. Put it on dis­play and make it shine! 

Dis­ci­pline: Every­one gets busy, but it’s impor­tant to whit­tle out time for com­mu­ni­ty involvement. 

Reten­tion & Life­time Value

We real­ly can­not over­state the val­ue of return­ing cus­tomers. Not just when they return, but when they rec­om­mend you. Don’t let them for­get the name of your com­pa­ny. The biggest missed oppor­tu­ni­ty for painters is when past cus­tomers think to them­selves, ​“What was the paint­ing com­pa­ny I used? I real­ly liked them.”

Sci­ence: The sci­ence is in the sys­tem. Be sure to have a CRM and good data col­lec­tion and clean­ing practices. 

Art: Get cre­ative with your com­mu­ni­ca­tion. In your newslet­ter, tell your sto­ry, high­light local events, cre­ate games, etc. Have fun with it and do a nice mix of stand­alone emails that call atten­tion to a spe­cial or a new ser­vice, and reg­u­lar con­tent that your neigh­bors and com­mu­ni­ty will enjoy reading. 

Dis­ci­pline: Keep going, even if you don’t seem to be get­ting a direct response. Again, these past clients are worth invest­ing in. 

Strug­gling to jug­gle all these ele­ments? We know! It’s hard to keep all these balls in the air! At DC Mar­ket­ing Group, we spe­cial­ize in mar­ket­ing for painters. Our vast expe­ri­ence and insights can stream­line your mar­ket­ing process­es and get your mar­ket­ing up and run­ning faster. Sched­ule Your Free Con­sul­ta­tion Call today!