# What Marketing Has the Best ROI for Roofing?



## roofrins

I'd like other people's thoughts on this - what is the best marketing method for delivering a high ROI?

I recently listened to the 2014 Roofing Contractor's Webinar, put out by GAF and EagleViewTech. They had the following for "_most used marketing method_" for *residential roofers*:



Friends 34%
Neighbor recommendation 14%
Search engine (Google/Bing etc.) 11%
Truck sign 7%
Phone directory (i.e. Yellow Pages) 6%
Better Business Bureau (BBB) 5%
Lawn sign 5%
Premium consumer review board (i.e. Angie's list) 5%
Direct mail 4%
Consumer social media (i.e. Craigslist) 2%
Personal social media (i.e. Facebook/Twitter) 1%
Other 6%


Then, they had these statistics for "_most used marketing method_" for *commercial roofers*:



Search engine 23%
Friends 10%
Manufacturer's website 10%
Phone directory (i.e. Yellow Pages) 10%
Truck sign 8%
Direct mail 5%
Neighbor recommendation 5%
Lawn sign 3%
Professional social media (i.e. LinkedIn) 3%
Consumer social media (i.e. Craigslist) 1%
Other 22%


A couple questions I had were (1) what is "friends" talking about - is that "word of mouth"? If so, I guess "neighbor recommendation" is segregated out as something else? And, (2) what might some of the "other" items be for the commercial roofer (22%)? You can see the PDF document here: Roofing Contractors Webinar.

For me, word of mouth is a great option, but for beginning a company, you can't rely on that (you can't scale up fast enough with just that). So, what's a good option for beginning companies?

I've had success with my roofing website and SEO efforts, but I need to do more. Any suggestions? Yellow Pages and Google AdWords have not done much of anything.


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## Harleydawg

I think friends is talking about referrals from your clients as apposed to neighbors being people you canvassed or mailed around a jobsite. www.paramountroof.com


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## RoofingDude

Word of mouth is by far the best way to get roofing jobs. Its free and comes with built in creditability. I try to give customers a reason to talk after the contract is signed, while the work is going and after the job is complete. Some of the things I have done for this are I have given away Top Hats a the signing (people talk about this a lot) , bring a grill to a job site and have the customers friends over for some burgers, and a solid referral program after (offer cash that's what people want) plus follow up cards and phone calls. Never hurts to call 6 months later and ask if they know anyone and offer them something. 
All other forms of advertising are just trying to get your business big enough to run off of referral's alone. IMO 

I have heard it say that an unhappy customer will tell 10 people that they are unhappy, but a happy customer will only tell 1. Give them a reason other than just great service and product.

http://tophathomeimprovement.com


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## gtownfunk

Well, hopefully you're in an area where storm damage occurs, because in that case there are bazillions of dollars just laying on the table waiting to be spent on new roofs. So, it really seems like more of a game of educating people and helping them to get their claim filed. I would check out my software Black Maps. 

I mean.. I'm here because I've found that a few roofing companies are using it to do some lead generation.

http://www.botnetworks.com/pages/blackmaps/

Ben


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## cjsewell

I also agree that word of mouth is the best as well as the cheapest way to market. This method can happen both in the real world and in the world of internet. But word of mouth could either build up or tear down the reputations of one’s company, products and services. Therefore, trust and credibility always has a center point in every business. However, this is not done overnight but rather nurtured over time between business owners and customers. 

As for the top most used marketing method, the search engines, this has to do a lot about SEO. The problem with doing SEO is that it constantly changes. Search engines are always trying to update and advance their technologies. This is why business or website owners always need to stay on top and be aware of the new updates and guidelines to be successful and remain competitive.


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## CyFree

Hi Roofrins.

I couldn't access the PDF but I am curious to know if the "preferred method" of advertising in both categories, is actually the one that gives the best ROI -- and whether the respondents are able to accurately track the source of their leads. 

For example, we know based on our own experience that if all you do is ask the customer "where did you hear from us?" when they call for a quote, lead tracking is only 42% accurate. 

Also. based on our experience with specialty contractors -- a well marketed, established residential contracting company gets around 33% leads from referrals, 33% from the internet, and 33% from other advertising. A company that is new and not yet established enough to generate referrals could get 50-80% of its leads from the web. 

In our experience, a well-marketed specialty contractor's website should be bringing in at least 35% of their lead, and should be their largest lead source next to referrals.


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## market mailer pros

Most of my customers have great ROI using direct mail marketing, the trick i have found and i use to this day with roofers all over the country is not wasting your money on every door direct mailings, i target only homeowners, not people who are renting homes and not businesses such as shopping centers or things like that. A lot of times people will waste up to 40% of the mailers they bought going to people that dont need them or are not the shot caller such as every address in a shopping center or apartment complexes will take up a lot of them as well. Make sure the people you're doing business with to market your company understands that.


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## natemarshall303

*Canvassers and Call Center*

We are using both a call center and canvassers who work directly with the sales reps in the field and are 5-10 minutes away. LIVE lead systems work great. 

We pay the canvassers $12.00 an hour for 4 hours per day and a bonus for the contingency being signed and the roof being built. They will make $150.00 per roof build.

Our call center people get a base plus similiar bonuses. We are ramping up to 10 callers doing daytime to commercial and 10 at night calling residential. I expect to do 1,500 to 1,800 roofs this year.


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## natemarshall303

I would point out that the difference between making 50K and 250K a year in sales is asking for referrals and not asking for referrals. It is mandatory that you ask for referrals.


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## midmich

When I was still installing roofs, ironically the best results came from SEO and lawn signs. But a lot depends on what you have to offer. Since we manufactured our own materials, we could install a metal roof for about the same as shingles, sometimes even less. That seemed to get peoples attention. There may be more effective methods, but the cost vs investment was unbeatable. Lawn signs are cheap.

As for SEO, a well designed website is essential for any advertising. People are always going to look for more info and if your site looks amateurish, your results will reflect that.

I don't know a lot about SEO because we hired a local guy to do that, but I know he emphasizes local results like Google+Local. Being in Michigan, what do I care if we show up number 1 in Google in Texas or some other state. So many local businesses neglect that, yet our sales went up considerably.

Now as a supplier, the strategy is a little different since we ship nationwide. We're still listed locally, but getting nationwide coverage apparently is a lot more difficult. My dad still does roofing and gets his supplies from me so that helps. And we're getting local business, as well.

Bottom line, you need to start with a good website, get listed locally, and then start testing other methods. What works for one may not work for another.


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## natemarshall303

While referrals are the best lead we run a call center in house which is controlled for quality control and our sales reps close the lead then canvass the neighborhood around it. We set about 25-30 leads per day 5 days a week and close about 8-10 a day.


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## midwestrestoration

natemarshall303 said:


> While referrals are the best lead we run a call center in house which is controlled for quality control and our sales reps close the lead then canvass the neighborhood around it. We set about 25-30 leads per day 5 days a week and close about 8-10 a day.


What do you guys mean by "call centers" ? 

Who are you calling and where are you getting numbers??


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## natemarshall303

We have agents call from our office. Right now we have 6 stations. We get our hail swath maps and use a street atlas program to identify the streets and neighborhoods that align to the swath and they call 4 hours a day for residential. We have a dialer software program that rolls through the list and brings up the name of the homeowner, address and phone number. We can go street by street, neighborhood or city. It is very flexible. 

Generally we close about 25% of these which get bought. Then the sales reps and canvassers work around the phone lead.

During the winter we have managed to contract about 80 roofs. We also call commercial leads during the day and we generally get about 2-3 inspections scheduled a day for that.

Our agents get a base hourly of $10 plus 2 bonuses for residential that pays them another $150.00. For commercial we pay them 400 for a contingency contract and 1000 bonus for a sold and built roof.


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## natemarshall303

By May I expect to be doing 125-150 roofs a month and with my call center and canvassers and the 15 reps I have now of which I have zero deadweight I can expand to 25-30 for a fresh storm and sell 250-300 roofs in the first month of a fresh storm. My boss has the bankroll and credit accounts to do that.


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## businesspartner

This is my free consulting..The strongest marketing tool is word of mouth. Period. Go to BNI.com find a chapter near you and join...BNI is a group of professionals who are always on the lookout for when your product and services are needed and give you the referrals. One member per profession is allowed to join and locks out the competition....You should find a chapter who's professions most relate to yours. I.E. someone who does remodeling.
I have more consulting tips if you liked this one. I know how to have another company warranty your work for free. All my consulting is free.. PM me if you want more info.
Paul


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## CalvinT

If you targeted your ideal residential customer, with an irresistible offer that they could not refuse, told them there was a limited "time/supply" and gave them a reason to act now, while laying out stunning customer testimonials.....

What marketing channel would *not* work?


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## Katy Martin

Our marketing numbers consistently show that efforts that are based around personal interaction always perform the best.


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## GoodNeighbor

For ROI it is word of mouth, incentivised referrals, yard signs, Google local for us.


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## SFRoofing

*WOM vs SEO*

I love that WOM is the winner for almost all of us. which means, were paying attention to our customers, our businesses and community. 

as for SEO, it seems like a never ending rat chase. exhausting but necessary. 

I did just get signed up with an app company called instabell. they charge per lead and thus far, i have been averaging $29 per estimate or 29 per new customer, which is far better than what i was paying with Angies and PCP. lmk if anyone has other suggestions on lead gen companies. thanks.


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## D'Angelo&Sons

Referrals still bring in the most leads for me. Though I have recently started doing AdWords PPC. I pay a company to do this for me and they bring in 5-10 leads per week. It's not cheap but it's been working great for me so far.


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## RoofSolutions

There is nothing like getting referrals because the closing rate on them are typically extremely high, and you pay nothing to acquire them. We use other methods of course that work well for us, but referrals will always beat any marketing method and that goes for any type of business.



______________________

Roofing Contractor El Paso


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## TheRoofStrategist

natemarshall303 said:


> I would point out that the difference between making 50K and 250K a year in sales is asking for referrals and not asking for referrals. It is mandatory that you ask for referrals.


Could not agree more! Even the top sales guys don't ask for referrals enough. I'd like to add one thing to this... a referral program that works and incentivizes customers to work for you. The right format is key.


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## CalvinT

midmich said:


> As for SEO, a well designed website is essential for any advertising. People are always going to look for more info and if your site looks amateurish, your results will reflect that.
> 
> Bottom line, you need to start with a good website, get listed locally, and then start testing other methods. What works for one may not work for another.


See my thread about http://www.roofingtalk.com/f4/10x-your-search-engine-optimization-efforts-4841/

Once your SEO is set up correctly, you can start supercharging your efforts.


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## majorleague

*best marketing*

my seo guy gets me leads by doing emergency seo type work, they are hot buyer leads, closing 75%. I tried all of seo guru's nothing worked.


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## rooferpro911

TheRoofStrategist said:


> Could not agree more! Even the top sales guys don't ask for referrals enough. I'd like to add one thing to this... a referral program that works and incentivizes customers to work for you. The right format is key.


Referrals can be daunting to ask for, but I think once you know the right formats and techniques that you can boost your sales and revenue. Being organized and prepared to ask for referrals has helped us best, know your questions and understand what you want to get out of it.


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## Severe Weather Roofing

SEO / PPC is absolutely the best way.


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## WebRoofer

A lot of the good stuff has already been mentioned... Google Paid Ads for local and referrals. 

My secret sauce has to do w/ increasing my closing rates instead of volume. I use free esignatures to text and email my quotes to clients. It also let's me know if they viewed it so I can follow up when I know it's fresh in their mind. I definitely closed more jobs this way by being a little tech savy.


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## focoroofing

In my experience, web marketing has the current best ROI because of the amount of people that are searching for roofers online. Other than that, I agree that word of mouth is probably the best outside of web. 

Our website, www.focoroofing.com has brought us quite a few leads in the past few months, and those have resulted in closed business.


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## skipper1946

So I am curious. I'm a contractor in Little Rock, Arkansas. On your web site you promise to inspect and repair you customer's roof for life or for the time they own the home. It seems that might produce some nightmare scenarios. Can you share what your actual experience with customers accessing that guarantee. Thanks


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## ilmroofing

I've had the best marketing ROIs on SEO and the most customer leads from referrals


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## skipper1946

natemarshall303 said:


> We are using both a call center and canvassers who work directly with the sales reps in the field and are 5-10 minutes away. LIVE lead systems work great.
> 
> We pay the canvassers $12.00 an hour for 4 hours per day and a bonus for the contingency being signed and the roof being built. They will make $150.00 per roof build.
> 
> Our call center people get a base plus similiar bonuses. We are ramping up to 10 callers doing daytime to commercial and 10 at night calling residential. I expect to do 1,500 to 1,800 roofs this year.


You show locations in both CO and OK. Do these call centers service both locations? With your canvassers, do you place them at random, or in known hail damage ares? Finally, on the average, what average advertising cost do you incur per completed residential roof? Thanks in advance for your response. My company is in Little Rock, Arkansas, so I am not a direct competitor.


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## daviddeschaine

First Take A Day Or Two & Create A "Ketchy" Slogan and then Create A Television Commercial And Buy Local Cable Advertisement at first this is what you may need for the low cost per spot & the Radio Is The Fastest Way To Get Quick Branding and most advertising mediums will create something for free or very low price if you buy a advertising package... Nothing Makes You A Roofing Star Like TV


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## miknamron

where do you get the hail swath maps?


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## skipper1946

So Windows only? Or Mac?


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## davidm

I've had the best ROIs on SEO. But it was a pain in the ass to find a quality and responsible SEO agency. Most of them are doing this to get easy money but you can find the good ones too.

David
www.ah-contractinggroup.com


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## noahsroofing

*Local & PPC have been a lifesaver*

We integrated our PPC with local SEO and have gotten great results when it came to building our leads for roof repairs not so much on full roof replacements.


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## azroofing

SEO/PPC/Social media. Don't rely only on referrals

Josh
www.azroofingsystems.com


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## MichaelHayward

azroofing said:


> SEO/PPC/Social media. Don't rely only on referrals


Yes, I agree! 
These are the proven ways to get best ROI for your site.


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## dekkamick

Word of mouth is good, of course. That's where I generate most of my business. Rated people and mybuilder send alot of links to me on a daily basis. I too would like some advice on how to get my webpage listed on the first page of google? At the minute its second page :-/

Thanks for your time

T Davies & Son Roofing

www.tds-roofing.com


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## sellin

One thing that is Zero dollar a few minutes is...

Every time you have a job, just scan the neighborhood for potential roof jobs, knock on the door...

Intro yourself as working on Billy's roof down the street... 

And tell the owner that you are seeing issue, and that needs immediate attention..

Leave your flyer, business card etc.. You can also give discounts and such saying we are going to be in the area working, I can bring my other crew, economies of scale when I can make one trip for delivery etc etc...to motivate them..

This method gets you 3 things to your advantage.

1) You are in the same area working for another guy in the street - Social Proof, much better than online ratings.. beats every single time

2) You make this a process to knock on 25 doors for each job... @ 5% conversion - you should land a job everytime you are out to work.. compare that with 1% with your mailer
+ Cost to implement = zero dollars and time ofcourse

3) in the 10% discount, since we are inthe area - economies of scale - there is an embedded urgency. If you call me once I leave this place you are getting no discount, coz I can't pass on the benefit... 

Good luck knocking doors!!


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## visitorstoleads

roofrins said:


> I'd like other people's thoughts on this - what is the best marketing method for delivering a high ROI?
> 
> I recently listened to the 2014 Roofing Contractor's Webinar, put out by GAF and EagleViewTech. They had the following for "_most used marketing method_" for *residential roofers*:
> 
> 
> 
> Friends 34%
> Neighbor recommendation 14%
> Search engine (Google/Bing etc.) 11%
> Truck sign 7%
> Phone directory (i.e. Yellow Pages) 6%
> Better Business Bureau (BBB) 5%
> Lawn sign 5%
> Premium consumer review board (i.e. Angie's list) 5%
> Direct mail 4%
> Consumer social media (i.e. Craigslist) 2%
> Personal social media (i.e. Facebook/Twitter) 1%
> Other 6%
> 
> 
> Then, they had these statistics for "_most used marketing method_" for *commercial roofers*:
> 
> 
> 
> Search engine 23%
> Friends 10%
> Manufacturer's website 10%
> Phone directory (i.e. Yellow Pages) 10%
> Truck sign 8%
> Direct mail 5%
> Neighbor recommendation 5%
> Lawn sign 3%
> Professional social media (i.e. LinkedIn) 3%
> Consumer social media (i.e. Craigslist) 1%
> Other 22%
> 
> 
> A couple questions I had were (1) what is "friends" talking about - is that "word of mouth"? If so, I guess "neighbor recommendation" is segregated out as something else? And, (2) what might some of the "other" items be for the commercial roofer (22%)? You can see the PDF document here: Roofing Contractors Webinar.
> 
> For me, word of mouth is a great option, but for beginning a company, you can't rely on that (you can't scale up fast enough with just that). So, what's a good option for beginning companies?
> 
> I've had success with my roofing website and SEO efforts, but I need to do more. Any suggestions? Yellow Pages and Google AdWords have not done much of anything.


That info has changed a ton over the last couple of years since you originally posted that. Google is the majority of how business is sold. Sure, word of mouth will always do well. But, now most people are doing research online. I normally recommend my clients start with PPC (paid traffic on Google or Facebook) while we work on an SEO campaign. SEO takes time to build up.

The majority (Like close to 75%) of people do a search on Google and over 60% of them do that on a mobile device now. So, by not having a mobile enabled website and a presence with social media, SEO, and/or paid advertising you are leaving money on the table. Lots of it.


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## MarkGentry

word of mouth will always be king


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## Nic

A solid online campaign is the best way to go. You need to have a well designed website with a bit of seo to feature in the local rankings. Create a google- my-business account and ask clients to give a few good reviews. This helps with rankings.
Most people underestimate the power of social media. Facebook is massive and can get you loads of work. Join as many FB groups as you can in your area. It doesn't have to be in the roofing industry - anything is good. Be active - post comments and join in. This will get you noticed, and you will be the guy they call when they have roofing issues.


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## Lane13

*Additional Tips*



Nic said:


> A solid online campaign is the best way to go. You need to have a well designed website with a bit of seo to feature in the local rankings. Create a google- my-business account and ask clients to give a few good reviews. This helps with rankings.
> Most people underestimate the power of social media. Facebook is massive and can get you loads of work. Join as many FB groups as you can in your area. It doesn't have to be in the roofing industry - anything is good. Be active - post comments and join in. This will get you noticed, and you will be the guy they call when they have roofing issues.



Some great tips here, especially making sure your Google My Business page is claimed and accurate. That's easy and free.

I also think developing some helpful content your website that homeowners can download for free is really powerful. Something like these:

https://www.ntrca.com/files/pagecontent/files/2016-6-23-FINAL-MED-high-INFO-V-10-98.pdf
http://roofermarketingsolutions.com/insurance-claim-guide/ 

Homeowners love that stuff. Then if you want to get aggressive, you can target rich homeowners with Facebook ads and offer the guide. Once they give you their email address so they can download it, you can follow up with email marketing (also free).


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## andpaul97

*Save on expenses and increase profits!*

Hello All,

I wanted to reach out to those who are replying with an established roofing company, I have been doing some research and have been working with a few roofing companies helping them save $15-$30K annually on taxes and creating a new hire retention program for veterans which can define your company's image and produce increased profits by 100-200K/year.

Are you available for a call sometime next week? I'd love to have a strategy session and share some ideas of what is working? If you would like to setup a strategy session e-mail me at [email protected] or call me at (856)232-0958 to make an appointment.

Thanks,

Andre Paul


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