The ideal “painters marketing plan” should include these following components
1.) Finding All the Painting Customers You Can Handle. If you know how to do this you got it made and you can make as much money as you want. Whether a small, 1 to 2-man painting operation or a painting company that has a large painting crew, you can make it happen when you know how to find customers.
2.) Knowing How To Estimate Paint Jobs – for maximum profits, this is the second power stroke that should be in a painters marketing plan. When you know how to get as close to the “threshold of pain” as you can get, (the maximum you can charge someone before price resistance kicks in) whether residential or commercial, you can MAX your profits.
3.) Customer Retention – just how much is a painting customer worth to you? When you know that, you will really do whatever it takes to hang on to them. Finding new customers is not always as easy as painting for the existing ones. If they run out of things to paint over time, how many “referrals” can they give you? Why wait 10 years for them to call you again when you can be painting for their family and friends right now?
HERE ARE 3 WAYS TO SQUEEZE MORE PAINTING BUSINESS OUT OF EACH EXISTING CUSTOMER:
4.) Go the Extra Mile – always do a great job and even do a little more to please your customers. This gets you more repeat business and gets them talking about your painting service. And “word-of-mouth” advertising also kicks in, which is the BEST form of advertising there is!
5.) Thank You Cards – sending out thank you cards after every job completed “shows professionalism” and creates more business for us house painters. Plus they see your contact info again and will put it on file for future use.
6.) Customer Rewards – reward your loyal painting customers who give you lots of repeat business and especially those who refer you to others. Surprise them with a gift card for their favorite restaurant maybe.
7.) A Painting Business Newsletter – these are considered the BEST way to stay connected to your customers. E-mail newsletters are the easiest to send out. Physical mail newsletters get better response than digital ones. Using both in tandem is a winner. The idea is to “stay connected” and never let a customer lose your contact info. That could mean losing out on a $10,000 job maybe or even MORE!
8.) Word-of-mouth – again, this is by far the best form of advertising. Do everything you can to get your customers buzzing about your painting company (in a good way of course) and recommending you to new painting customers. This is the number one thing a painting business owner should incorporate in their painters marketing plan. It’s like having a small private army of affiliates selling your goods for you.
9.) Offer Your Painting Customers A Referral Fee. Offer them a 10% – 20% commission for any new business they get you. This could be like putting “gas on a fire” for you. I’ve never had to pay anyone for referrals but it’s an idea I thought I would mention anyway.
