It’s hard out there for a restoration company owner. Typically, people don’t even think about your services unless they need them – NOW. It’s important for your company to be top-of-mind when they do need something though; that’s the tricky part. Here are three tips on how you can stay relevant in the eyes of prospective customers.
1. Adapt to New Technological Trends
Technology changes all the time. Like, every second. And if you’re not adapting because “this way works just fine,” you’re going to get left behind.
Things will change around you, and you’ll be out of a job.
Sorry. That’s the hard truth. I know it hurts.
There’s good news though: There are tons of ways you can adapt to new technological trends. Here are a few of them:
Read up on the Latest Digital Marketing Blogs
You can’t try out the new trends if you don’t know what they are. More importantly, reading up on what’s new will help you determine which ones aren’t worth your time.
“Hey, wait, but you just said – ”
OK, yeah, I know; I can see how this can seem like mixed signals here. But listen, this is what I’m saying: No one’s going to follow a restoration company on TikTok. You know?
No one cares. So it’s not worth your time to teach Phyllis, the receptionist, that no, TikTok is not a thing she can work from her flip phone.
Here are some blogs we follow that we think you’ll like:
- Our blog. Duh.
- Neil Patel. His blogs are easy to follow and informative.
- Wordstream. They’re great for PPC-specific stuff.
- Kissmetrics. An analytics tool with a cool blog.
- WPexplorer. Great for WordPress-specific stuff.
- R&R Magazine. Restoration-specific marketing.
- Hubspot. A software company that specializes in breaking through the noise.
- Cleanfax. They specialize in tips for restoration companies.
Attend Conferences
I’m talking techy conferences. It sounds boring, but I promise it’s not.
It is filled with a bunch of nerds though, so if that’s not your thing, get over it and stop being a bully.
But seriously, in Dallas, they’ve got really cool assets like SM (Social Media) Dallas and DFW SEM (Dallas/Ft. Worth Search Engine Marketing).
They’re always bringing in guest speakers – these big kahuna guys, who’ve been in the digital marketing industry for like, eight decades or something – and they talk about these topics that you would never even think of.
I went to one recently and they were talking about how mobile usage is changing the way people search for services, and the results were mind-blowing.
I left with my brains in a doggie bag.
Which is a good thing.
2. Post Regularly
My boss likes to say, “Closed mouths don’t get fed,” which roughly translates to “You’ve got to speak up for yourself, or no one will hear you.”
You can’t just shout into the void though. Be clever. Make yourself stand out. Otherwise, you’re just part of the noise.
You may as well not say anything.
It’s a delicate balance. But don’t worry, we’re here to help hold you up.
Content Marketing
If the pen is mightier than the sword, then the keyboard is mightier than the – ah, forget it.
Just write stuff, OK? You really don’t have to be a literary genius to create good content.
Do these things, and you’ll be alright:
- Write short paragraphs
- Write how you talk
- Use bullets
- Use headings
- Bold stuff
- Number things in order of importance
- Break up the text with pictures
- Use high-resolution images
- Actually write about something people want to read
Now that last point is kind of tricky. You can read your competitor’s blogs to get ideas, but you don’t want to take the full topic.
For example, if Joe Blow Schmo Restoration is writing about “10 Ways to Check Your House for Signs of Water Damage,” you should be writing about “5 Common Places Water Damage Can Hide in Your Home” or something like that.
Take a new spin on it. Give your unique, snowflake perspective. Don’t regurgitate the same B.S.
Also, heads up: There’s a tip coming up in this article that can also help you come up with more blog topic ideas. Stay tuned.
Social Media
Remember that thing I said about Snapchat not being relevant to you? I hope you didn’t take that to mean you shouldn’t be on social media at all. Because you totally should.
It’s just that you need to be on the right social media platforms.
You have to meet your customers on a platform they’re already familiar with. You have to know your audience.
Because we partner with a restoration company here in Dallas, Regent Restoration, we know that your target demographic is likely middle-aged, middle-class people. Usually, women make the call for restoration help. That means these are the platforms you should be on:
Duuuude, Facebook is pretty much where your target demographic lives.
On their tax forms, your prospective customers are listing Facebook as their permanent address.
It’s so so so important for you to have a Facebook business page set up and for you to be posting regularly. Three times a week ought to do it. You don’t want to clutter people’s feeds.
You might find this platform a little difficult to infiltrate at first – since some of the most popular topics on Pinterest are wedding planning, crafts and interior design – but we believe in you.
Because if you can break through the noise on Pinterest, your voice will echo into eternity.
Unlike other social media platforms, content on Pinterest doesn’t get lost in time. It stays right at the surface. That’s because Pinterest is sort of like a blog and a diary mixed into one. Posts don’t go out of style or get uninteresting.
Get creative and go crazy.
3. Listen
“Closed mouths don’t get fed,” but you’ve gotta stop eating sometime, right? Sometimes you have to let your stomach settle.
In other words, you have to stop producing content long enough to listen to your customers. Listen to your prospective customers, so you can find out how to communicate with them. Find out what they want.
You can do this a number of ways:
Social Listening
Social media is like that room that Professor Xavier goes to in X-Men – the one that helps him hear everyone’s thoughts. People are just shouting their opinions for free.
Look to see if anyone’s said anything about your company on social media. Respond to them and let them know that they’re heard – whether the feedback was good or bad.
Be nice.
Seriously.
Most importantly, take note of what they’re saying. These are just posts or tweets or gobbledy-gooks, so they won’t be very long, most likely.
So listen carefully.
Pro Tip: Don’t limit yourself to what people are saying about your own company. Check out your competitors’ feedback, too, and learn from their mistakes and triumphs.
Reviews
Here we go. Reviews – the bane of your existence.
The thing about reviews is that no one writes them unless they had a life-changing, awe-inspiring experience with you or a dramatically catastrophic one. I’m sure your review pages are littered with one- or five-star reviews, rarely anything in between.
Even though one-star reviews totally suck Popsicles, they can be good because:
- You can show how your company deals with negative feedback – by addressing customer concerns and responding professionally.
- You can learn from your mistakes because you’ll be able to clearly see what they are. Right there in black and white.
Take advantage of them.
Digital Analytics
Oh my goodness, there are so many tools that can help you understand your customer better, it’s not even funny.
The Magical Internet lets you do all kinds of crazy stuff.
Like:
- Find out how your customers got to your website
- Track mouse movements on your webpage
- Learn the language of search queries
- See how long calls take on average for “good” quality leads
- Discover which of your services are most popular – in certain areas
I mean, if you wanna know it, there’s something on the Internet that can tell you the answer.
Surveys
If you’re feeling like an over-achiever, you can always send out surveys to your former customers.
You can kill two birds with one stone like, “Hey, it’d sure be swell if you left us a review on Best of the Web, but also could ya answer a few questions for us?”
Seamless. Stealthy. Superb.
Olympic judges would give you 10/10.
But also you get to get down and dirty with the data and figure out what really makes your customers tick.
Staying relevant will definitely get you more water damage leads, but you know what couldn’t hurt? Partnering with Best of the Web. We can make your account live in less than a day. All we need you to do is sign up.