Stephan Boehringer, Managing Partner, Get The Clicks
Are you running social media for your roofing company and its not delivering? Well, you are not alone.
According to AdEspresso, a large social media content delivery company, less than 20 percent of all posts and less than three percent of all ads deliver any kind of action. The exceptions are those ads and posts that are driven by an emotional message.
If you are going to promote yourself on social media you better have an emotional pitch because “emotion” drives buyer behavior.
Your posts must have a deeper meaning. You can’t just make an announcement and hope that people will engage. You may get a few
likes and some folks will see your brand, but you are likely going to be “crickets” in the leads department.
The answer is: it depends. It depends on you. More specifically, it depends on the image you are portraying to your audience. If you are involved in your community, doing good for society, etc. then you are likely to do better than if you are merely placing ads or posting about recent jobs you have done. In that case, you are not going to get much out of it.
There are a few core things you can easily implement to gain fundamental traction: evaluate if this type of marketing is right for you. It takes quite a bit of goodwill activity to be successful. It’s a long-term investment.
Start by joining a community service organization in the town you are located in. Don’t just pick any though, be selective. You want to work with an organization that is already active in your community, preferably organizing events that bring people together. Your goal is to leverage their activities to increase your exposure. An example of such an organization is Rotary International. Of course you can also simply jump online and search “[your city name] community service organization” and see what you find.
Once you have joined, and you get involved with events, use social media to help promote them. Let your business be a sponsor, invite folks to come to the events and then hand out your swag. You want to be the goodwill partner helping in the community, not the company cramming sales messages down a reader’s throat.
As you ramp up your community involvement, share your community accomplishments. Show (don’t tell) how you changed peoples’ lives. In this process, you will inevitably meet more folks in your community. Very quickly you will learn who the people are that drive your community forward. Usually it’s a select core group of business owners, find them and befriend them. Let them know that you are here to help and that you are available to support their endeavors. Your goal is to pull them to your side and turn them into advocates for your business. This is called influencer marketing. You want the influential folks in your community advocating for your business.
The approach you read above is a tried and tested approach to social marketing. It’s not rocket science, it just requires diligence and patience. Thus your biggest challenge in all of this is going to be implementation and consistency.
Here are the key points to get this done: pick one or two social platforms and stick to those. Don’t try to do it all, you’ll drive yourself crazy. Think about where your target market is located. For roofing, we like Facebook and YouTube.
■ Set realistic expectations. Social media starts slowly and then gains momentum.
■ Benchmark where you currently are. Just use some simple metrics (current page likes, average number of comments on a post, number of followers). Something simple.
■ Set goals with realistic timelines. Set your first goal 90 days out, then 180 days, then 360 days. Your goals need to explain what you want people to do.
■ Assign a specific person to accomplish this and give this person leeway to get things done. All too often companies embark on a social media strategy, only to see it die because you are constantly pushing “urgent tasks” ahead of it.
■ Develop an implementation calendar. By this we mean a calendar that outlines when specific things need to be done. For example, if you are planning on promoting a community event with a nice ad on January 15, you need to have the ad designed no later than the 12 and the ad copy written by the 9. You should have made a decision what you want the ad to say sometime in December. The point is, you need to plan ahead. The best way to assure everyone is on the same page is to have an implementation calendar outlining all of this.
■ Consistency is super important. Much like the good old days when the web wasn’t around, we had to consistently advertise in publications to get our name out. The same principle applies here.
■ Combine your social media with offline marketing. For example, tell folks to learn more about your community involvement by going to your Facebook page.
■ Recycle content. Often community events repeat each year. Reuse some of your content to make it easier to implement.
■ Pay attention to your competition. You don’t want to join a community group that already has a strong presence from another roofer.
■ Always use a "call to action" in your ads. Always include an image that evokes emotion. Real images work much better than canned images. Even better, use images of your community that readers will recognize.
■ Always use a # or @ for your messages. This allows your message to be grouped with other relevant messages, giving it more traction.
Social media is a game of Give and Take. It works for some folks and not others. Patience and consistency are key components. If implemented properly it will certainly deliver leads, but much like Rome – it won’t be built in a day.
Stephan Boehringer is managing partner of Get The Clicks, a digital marketing solutions company specializing in SEO services, pay per click management, website design and maintenance, consulting and expert branding. Stephan has also taught courses on social media, website design and marketing for FRSA.