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How To Market Your Decorative Concrete Business

Submitted by Administrator on Sat, 2011-08-06 07:21

Are you watching the DIY’r Network while your competitors are working? Many new contractors go to training to learn new skills, new applications or even a new career, but once you have learned what you came for what’s next? You bought all the equipment and materials you need and your shiny new trailer is sitting on your driveway, but now, what do you do?

This question usually starts nagging you when you are sitting in front of the TV watching the DIY channel eating some potato chips while wondering why your telephone is not ringing, and why you do not have any jobs in the books. Decorative Concrete is like any other job in this world, God gives us the ability and creativity to do it, but we have to work hard to get ahead.

The 1st thing that you need to think about before planning your marketing strategy is how did you find out about Decorative Concrete? Where was the 1st place that you saw it? Did you know what it was? or that you could do that with concrete? Start thinking like a customer not like a contractor and ask yourself where would you go to look for it? And the most important thing! How much money do I have to spend in marketing to tell my customers what I do? Here are a few questions to get you started and on your way.

Budget: What is your advertising budget? Whether you are just starting out or you’re a Fortune 500 company, you need to know what you are going to spend and to whom you are going to give your money. Do you have your Budget for advertising in the bank? If not, you do not have a budget… maybe it's time to get creative. Did you know it takes 3 times for someone to remember your company's name? Let’s get you started and away from the Television.

A new company starting out should expect to invest at least $2500.00 to $5000.00 on advertising for the first year in business. Business Cards are the basics of advertising and starting a new business, so why not put them to work for you. Business cards can be given to anyone, anywhere. Whenever someone wants your number give them your business card and write your contact number on the back.

This gives you an in on telling people what you do, or even better, the nosey mom/dad looks at your web page to see what exactly you do, they start asking questions and WOW, that .03 business card just sold a job because they know someone who was looking for Decorative Concrete. People always ask me if I know someone who does???? Well if I have received a business card or have been a nosey soccer mom and looked at their web site, which I usually do, I give them the number.

Magnetic Signs: Unfortunately most of us live in cities where we spend hours in traffic to and from the job sites. So sometimes, we find ourselves reading the boring and often outrageous billboards or truck and trailer signs, I even find myself reading them more than once. (Remember it takes 3 times for someone to remember your company, well I have just read it twice in 2 seconds!) Truck / Trailer magnetic signs are cheap and can give your company a very professional appearance and make your telephone start ringing. Internet: See you later Yellow Pages, hello Internet. Who would have thought that the Internet would be so huge!

Customers are so amazed that they can google themselves, and that now they can find that long lost contractor that was hidden in the yellow pages. Did you know that most homeowners search for home improvement ideas that they have seen on TV on the internet? This is normally done once they have cooked dinner and put everyone in bed. Take time and think about what your web site should say to your customers, after all this is the time that they will determine what type of company you are.

It used to be that the 1st impression of a company was how they answered the telephone, this is still a very important factor, but by no means is this 1st look they are taking at your company. Most of your customers will go to your website and research how you do things. This boils down to whether they get the answers they need from your website or not, if they do, you are going to get a pre-qualified customer who already knows what they want when calling you for an estimate. Make your web site simple and easy to use. Think of the questions you answer on a daily basis and put the answers on a Q&A page. Have your customers write testimonials about the work your company does, and put job images on your photo gallery page. This allows your future customers to look at your portfolio and read what other customers have to say about you. And of course it always sounds better when a customer is doing the bragging than yourself.

They can look at the detail of your work and how well the pictures look to see your artistic ability and attention to details. Your website saves you time and money by answering the many simple and repetitive questions customers ask, and it leaves the more detailed and qualified questions for to ask when they are calling you for the estimate. Promoting your Web Site: Now that you have the web page what are you going to do with it? There are thousands of search engines on the information highway, but how are you going to jump on it. Well there are several ways and not all of them are fast but it has to be done.

The simplest way to explain this sometimes complicated mess of search engines is basically that if they do not know that you are there they will never recognize you. What I mean by that is that you have to submit your web site to the search engines so that they can look at your web site index it in the search engines.

Use submit programs: Most companies prefer to have a search engine submit programs to do all that work for them, instead of submitting to the entire search engines directory 1 at a time, these programs will allow you to enter your URL address and submit to all of them while you are sleeping, but be careful not to do this more than once a month or the search engines will look at it as spam and drop your URL. To get your company indexed may take months so don't be discouraged if you do not see immediate result, to not waste any time waiting to get listed, you may se other resources.

Use pay per click services: Most major search engines offer paid per click services. The trick is to list yourself in your local market, not nationwide. It does not do you any good to be listed # 1in the country; it will be too expensive you won't get good results, instead, go local! If you type acid stain, you get a million results, if you type acid stain Atlanta; you get local information and local contractors. This way your advertising money will be a lot more effective. Ask you supplier to list you on their website.

Many companies have a directory for their contractors from which they can link directly to you. Change your advertising budget and switch directories until you find what works best for you. Advertise your company on Internet sites dedicated to Decorative Concrete. The Decorative Concrete Forums for example offers contractor listings on all categories.

Yes, these are very simple steps, but remember: “they work, if you work at them”. A little saying that I always tell our trainees is, "If you are not marketing yourself today you will not be working 3 months from now!" So get out there do great decorative concrete and remember someone is always watching what you do and don’t forget to ask for help when you need it.