I thought it was about time I sat down and wrote a quick blog on the best marketing strategies for Painters and Decorators. I’ve been in the industry myself for over two decades, and as part of my role at the Decorators Forum UK, I speak to hundreds of Decorators every month. I may not have experience with every marketing strategy available (I’ll be honest as I go), but I understand the trade relatively well.
Why Marketing is Important for a Painter and Decorator
Loads of Decorators don’t do any marketing what-so-ever, and they may well be very successful. Once your decorating business is established, providing you do well on each job, most of your work comes through word-of-mouth anyway.
That’s great if you’re already established and you carry out general painting and decorating work, but it’s no good for anyone who isn’t established or Decorators who specialise. It can also be difficult to raise your prices if you rely on word-of-mouth.
If you’re in business, then the ultimate goal is to make money. Getting bogged down with the work and neglecting your marketing, means less leads come in. That means you try and price competitively because you need to win more of the work, and you ultimately earn less income.
Say if you spend £10 a day on marketing, but because you generate a lot more leads, you might only need to win one in three or one in five jobs you go to see, rather than four out of five if you don’t. This can be the difference between earning an extra £50 a day or even more. Or it might mean you don’t need to slog at the work to earn a living, and you have a better home/work life balance.
Every decorating business is different. Word-of-mouth is fine for some of the vets of the industry. For us mere mortals, marketing makes a huge difference.
I’ll give you some guidance, but there are a couple of books that will give you a more in-depth insight.
Sales and Marketing for Decorators – Click here to see online prices.
Social Media for Decorators – Click here to see online prices.
Phoning Other Tradesmen
This can be done whenever you’re quiet. If you’re looking at your diary and you only have a few weeks of work booked in, or you’re worried about staying busy over Christmas and January, then it’s time to be proactive.
Phone Other Decorators
I know it isn’t much of a marketing ‘strategy’, but if you’re quiet, then you can usually drum up work quickly by spending a couple of hours on the phone. Call round the local Decorators, introduce yourself, explain you’re quiet and ask if they have any big projects you can jump on. You might end up subbing, which means you’ll earn slightly less, but you don’t have the stress that comes with running a job yourself. I like subbing occasionally, but I wouldn’t want to do it all the time.
Phone Builders
Same sort of thing with Builders. You can phone them, introduce yourself, and ask if they have anything you can price for them. It can be difficult working for builders, but there’s work to be done.
Visit Estate and Letting Agents
This has been very effective for me over the years. Estate Agents will often advise a homeowner to have decorating works completed before they put their property on the market. Letting Agents oversee rental properties and use Decorators to revamp rooms in between tenants.
All you need to do is pop into your local letting and estate agents, introduce yourself, and ask if you can leave a card. This is a fantastic strategy, particularly if you want ongoing work.
Leaflets for Decorators
I spent a lot of time leafleting when I first started my business. Some Decorators say it’s worthwhile, but not in my experience. It would take two of us to distribute around 800 leaflets in a day. From those 800, I had an average of 3 calls and won 1 job.
So, a day’s wage each for someone to assist me and myself, plus £25 for the leaflets, all for one job. £300 or so for 1 job isn’t commercially viable. That said, there are companies who will distribute the leaflets for you, which may make it more cost effective.
Using Location
You know why word-of-mouth is so effective? It’s because you’re getting an endorsement from someone you’ve worked for before. It’s the same sort of thing when you’re working on a job, and one of the customer’s neighbours comes and asks you to price their house. They see you working on a house belonging to someone on their road, and assume you are good at what you do. It makes them feel more comfortable.
One of the best marketing strategies for Painters and Decorators is to encourage this. An advertising board outside the house you’re working on works well. Having a sign written van is good, but having an advertising board openly tells the neighbours you’re taking on more work. It invites them to ask you to price anything they’re thinking of having done.
And I know I gave you a negative opinion on leafleting earlier on, but leaflets on the road you’re working on does work. This just goes to show that potential customers are more likely to contact you if they see you working on their road. Popping a leaflet through their door leaves them with your contact details, and just reinforces the fact you’re taking on more work.
Social Media Strategies for Painters and Decorators
I’ve done loads on social media over the years. For me, it’s the best bang for your buck. You do get a lot of time wasters, but you can usually filter most of those when they first make contact. Using social media means you can target better work.
Let’s take Facebook for instance (which I believe to be the best). If you’re on the look out for high-end jobs, knowing full well you can charge more money, simply display high-end work on your page. Showing the type of work you want to win is like an endorsement; a potential customer knows you’re capable.
Use emotion at the top of your post, for example, “my clients where absolutely delighted with this”. Or “this was such a fun room to work on”. This evokes emotion from your following and they’re more likely to interact with you.
The other tip I can give you (without turning this blog into a full essay), is to try and establish yourself as an expert. The first line on your post should evoke emotion, then you might talk about the products you used on why.
You might have opted for a low-sheen emulsion on the ceiling to avoid defects like flashing in an open plan room. Or you might have used water-based satinwood in a hallway because oil-based paint discolours in low levels of natural light, and you might have used a specific brand of water-based paint because it “leaves a flawless finish and is very durable”.
If you can show a potential client that you are the expert, you use the best products, and they are in safe hands, you are much more likely to generate the correct type of leads. Leads for high-end, well-paid work. This is the best long-term marketing strategy in my opinion, simply because it’s the type of work that will generate more income.
The worst strategy would be to focus on price in your posts. Saying things like “at a price you can afford”, or “will not be beaten on price” will generate the type of leads you don’t want. You’ll attract customers who choose a Decorator based on budget, and you’ll be in a race to the bottom with all the have-a-go-heroes in your area.
Once you know how to write a post, just pop a boost on it. Set your audience so your ad is shown to females between 35 and 65 within a 10 mile radius (or variations of those settings), and you should do well.
Work Leads Sites for Painters and Decorators
This is a marketing strategy that I have had no experience with. I can tell you that most Decorators who I speak to who use work leads sites like My Builder have negative feedback. Checkatrade is more expensive, but a lot of people seem to use it with great effect. Other than that, I don’t know.
Final Thoughts
There’s probably more that I haven’t touched on. I can only really give you advice based on my experience. I know which marketing strategies have worked for my painting and decorating business, and which ones haven’t. I hope this blog helps someone anyway.
One thing I have always wanted to try is Google Ads and a website with a proper funnel. If you specialise in say kitchen spraying, uPVC spraying, digital murals etc, then you can even have an automated pricing system on your website.
So, Google Ads sends potential customers to your site, they enter their details, get an approximate cost for the work, and you only contact those who accept. But this is next-level stuff. If you want to set something like this up, then you’re going to need a digital marketing agency.
How to get work as a Painter and Decorator
A quick explination of some of the points in this blog.
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