Tips for marketing a painting business

It’s safe to say that there’s quite a lot of work that comes with running your own painting business. From admin and finance to completing all the paid work you’ve taken on, it can feel like you don’t have time to squeeze in other tasks - such as marketing.

However, if you plan on growing your painting business, then a good marketing set-up isn’t just useful – it’s essential. Be it winning new customers with a carefully planned social media upload schedule or updating your website to better reflect the niche services your decorating business offers, putting time into marketing your painting business is almost always worth it.

So, if you want to know more about what goes into creating a marketing plan for painting companies and what sort of painter marketing strategies you can use straight away, keep reading to discover our top tips for marketing a painting business.

Why is painter marketing important?

No matter if you’re a local sole trader or a larger limited company, at the end of the day, if you want to grow your business, you need to find new customers. New customers are the bedrock of good growth, but such growth can be hard to achieve without good marketing.

With good marketing, you can place your business in front of new customers both online and in-person, which in turn will lead to greater rates of new leads and customer conversions for your business – and the sooner you start implementing your painter marketing strategy, the sooner you’ll start seeing its returns.

Therefore, even if you’re painting business is new, you should aim to have a marketing strategy in place well before you launch your business. Even if it’s only a small scale, having such a plan ready to go will do wonders for bringing in new customers from the start.

How to create a painter marketing plan

Like any good business plan, creating a marketing plan for your business will ensure that any marketing you want to carry out will be that much more effective. So, before you actually start marketing your business directly, you should plan out what sort of marketing will be most beneficial for you to try.

First and foremost, you need to know who your ideal customers are going to be so you can target them directly with your marketing, as different marketing approaches will appeal to different age groups and customer bases.

Needless to say, as a painter and decorator, your customers are unlikely to be those just leaving uni. More likely, you’ll want to be targeting new homeowners or those looking to freshen their home up before selling it, or perhaps even interior designers or home flippers looking for assistance on their latest project.

On top of this, it’s also very important to know what your business niche is, and how you differ from your competitors so that you can put this at the centre of your marketing. Standing out from the crowds is very important, and the more you can demonstrate the unique aspects of your business, the more new customers you’re likely to get.

Online marketing for painting companies

Now that we’ve touched on why marketing for painting contractors is so important, let’s examine what sorts of marketing strategies you can try to get your business name out there.

And for this, there is no better place to start than with online marketing for painting companies:

1. Claim your GMB Listing

Starting with one of the simplest things you can do when first marketing your painting business, claiming your GMB Listing (Google My Business) is very easy to do and will give you an immediate advantage over competitors when potential customers are searching for painter-decorator businesses in their area – and it’s completely free to do!

A GMB Listing is that box that appears on the right-hand side of the search results page or on Google Maps when you click on a specific business. It displays their address, contact hours, opening times, etc., and basically tells you everything you need to know about the business at a glance.

So, as soon as you get the chance, you should look to claim your GMB Listing and then fill out as many details as possible to provide a complete breakdown of your business for new customers. And once this is done, you never have to touch it again unless you need to update your business information in the future.

2. Get active on social media

Next up, once your GMB Listing is sorted, you should look to create a social media business strategy to visually advertise your work to customers on a variety of platforms. Simply put, social media is the new word-of-mouth marketing and is a potent marketing tool that all businesses should be taking advantage of.

TikTok, Instagram, Facebook; you should look to establish a presence on all of these platforms going forward to reach the widest audience possible. Instagram, in particular, is a fantastic tool for painter-decorators thanks to its focus on imagery, but TikTok is well-suited for providing décor advice and tips in shortform content.

Once your profiles are up, get into the habit of posting at least once a week on each platform, or after the completion of each job. That way, you’ll have a constant stream of new examples being fed to your audience as a means of displaying the quality of your work.

3. Create a professional website

Chances are you’ve already considered building a small business website as part of your business plan. However, if you’re yet to create one, then this is something you should look to do as soon as possible.

Think of your business website as your painter-decorator business card. It’s a space in which new customers can find you online, see your services and prices, and then contact you directly to book work.

And a business website doesn’t have to be a big investment. All you really need is a breakdown of what your painting business specialises in, what services you offer and how you price them, contact details, and visible reviews from other customers that can act as social proof and build trust with new leads before you even begin working with them.

Naturally, your business website should also be SEO optimised. Written content should include relevant painting keywords for your business, services, and local area, and booking work should take as few steps as possible. Don’t forget to add a dedicated portfolio section for your work as well for new customers to browse.

4. Write relevant and engaging content

While writing and content production are not everyone’s cup of tea, finding ways to establish you and your business as experts in your field is a fantastic way to draw in new leads and prove to customers that your painting business has the skills necessary to produce exceptional work.

Whether this takes the form of an SEO-optimised décor blog around DIY tips or producing video reels and guides on how to solve common decorating problems is up to you, but don’t underestimate the power of well-made and written content for drawing new leads into your business by building an authoritative narrative.

5. Offer multiple ways to book your services

Finally, when it comes to online marketing for painting companies, providing multiple ways for customers to book your services is an absolute must – both for the sake of convenience and for maximising lead coverage.

Phone calls, social media messages, email forms, or contact boxes on your website, any and all of these booking methods should be used to provide customers with the flexibility they need to book your services no matter where they are.

Traditional painter marketing strategies

Although online marketing should form the backbone of your painting marketing strategy, that’s not to say that it should be the only form of marketing you turn to in order to attract new customers.

While being prominent, there are plenty of tried and tested traditional marketing strategies out there that you can try your hand to capture extra leads:

1. Share special offers to new and old clients

Special offers have been a common marketing tactic for decades, and they’re just as relevant now as they have been in the past. And while you might not be able to offer a direct discount on work carried out, that doesn’t mean you can’t provide additional value to customers in other ways.

For example, you could provide seasonal or limited time offers on certain work that’s proving popular at any one time as a means to encourage potential customers to book work with you. Alternatively, you could provide additional work or gifts to customers who spend over a certain amount.

Take some time to think about exactly what you could provide new and old customers with, and then choose which of these special offers are feasible for you to provide.

2. Provide the means for customer referral

In the past, many smaller and local decorating businesses relied heavily on word-of-mouth to find new clientele, plenty of which would come via referrals from previous clients. And while it might be less common today, there’s no reason you can’t put a referral programme in place as a means for past clients to send new customers directly to you.

Keeping things short and sweet, provide previous customers with a simple and easy way to provide new customers with your contact details. You could even sweeten the deal to encourage referrals through the aforementioned special offers.

3. Network with local businesses

No matter the industry or sector you work in, networking is always a useful tool, and one you should make the most of as a painter-decorator. Networking can increase the visibility of your business and essentially provide you with free marketing from other companies.

Naturally, you don’t want to network with direct competitors in your field of work, but businesses like realtors, interior designers, carpenters, and other trades closely but indirectly associated with your trade are all good candidates for this.

4. Invest in business branding

Much like building a business website, investing in business branding can draw in an unexpectedly high number of additional leads without you needing to do much marketing directly.

For one thing, having a business brand makes you look more professional than businesses that don’t, and if you choose to put your branding on your work van and uniform, then you’ll essentially be gifting yourself free marketing while out on jobs.

Grow your painting business as a Trusted Trader

With all those points covered, you should have more than enough painter marketing strategies to get started with. These aren’t the only marketing tools out there you can use to promote your business to new customers – you can also become a Which? Trusted Trader.

As a Which? Trusted Trader, you’ll be provided with your very own business page to display work and reviews, as well as a dedicated account manager to help you get more from your Trusted Trader endorsement.

Speak with our team today to learn more about our assessment process and don’t forget to visit our guide hub for more helpful articles like this one.

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