Choosing the Right Marketing Partner for Your Painting Business: A Transparent Guide

Posted by David Chism | Wed, Jan 22, 2025

 Choosing the Right Marketing Partner for Your Painting Business: A Transparent Guide

As a paint­ing con­trac­tor, find­ing the right mar­ket­ing firm to help grow your busi­ness can feel over­whelm­ing. With so many options avail­able, each offer­ing dif­fer­ent strengths and approach­es, it’s impor­tant to under­stand your choic­es and deter­mine which one aligns best with your goals.

What to Look for in a Mar­ket­ing Firm for Your Paint­ing Business

When choos­ing a mar­ket­ing part­ner, con­sid­er the fol­low­ing fac­tors to ensure you get the right fit for your business:

  1. Indus­try Expe­ri­ence: Look for firms that spe­cial­ize in the paint­ing indus­try and under­stand the unique chal­lenges con­trac­tors face. Be wary of firms that assign account rep­re­sen­ta­tives fresh out of col­lege who may lack the prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence need­ed to tru­ly under­stand your busi­ness. Addi­tion­al­ly, ensure the firm is adapt­able and not stuck in out­dat­ed mar­ket­ing methods.
  2. Ser­vice Offer­ings: Assess whether the firm pro­vides a com­pre­hen­sive suite of ser­vices such as SEO, social media mar­ket­ing, PPC, direct mail, and con­tent creation.
  3. Cus­tomiza­tion vs. Tem­plates: Deter­mine if the firm offers tai­lored strate­gies spe­cif­ic to your busi­ness or relies on a one-size-fits-all approach.
  4. Client Sup­port and Longevi­ty: Choose a firm that pri­or­i­tizes long-term rela­tion­ships and con­sis­tent sup­port. Some agen­cies expe­ri­ence high turnover, mean­ing you could find your­self work­ing with mul­ti­ple account reps in a short period.
  5. Adapt­abil­i­ty and Inno­va­tion: Mar­ket­ing is con­stant­ly evolv­ing. Ensure the firm stays updat­ed with indus­try trends and is adapt­able, rather than being stuck in out­dat­ed methods.
  6. Bud­get and ROI: Some firms invest heav­i­ly in their own mar­ket­ing, which can dri­ve up their fees. Con­sid­er whether their pric­ing aligns with your bud­get and expec­ta­tions for return on investment.
  7. In-House vs. Out­sourc­ing: Eval­u­ate whether it makes sense to hire in-house mar­ket­ing staff or to out­source. Many paint­ing com­pa­nies grow large enough to hire full-time mar­ket­ing pro­fes­sion­als, but mar­ket­ing is a broad field. A sin­gle per­son can­not effec­tive­ly man­age every­thing from writ­ing and design­ing to run­ning Google Ads, social media, and trade shows. Hav­ing a mix of in-house staff and an out­sourced mar­ket­ing team can cre­ate a bal­anced and effec­tive approach.
  8. Team Col­lab­o­ra­tion: If you choose to have in-house mar­ket­ing per­son­nel, ensure they are teach­able and can col­lab­o­rate effec­tive­ly with an exter­nal mar­ket­ing firm. Some com­pa­nies find suc­cess by hav­ing spe­cial­ized team mem­bers in areas like social media, con­tent writ­ing, or graph­ic design while out­sourc­ing more tech­ni­cal tasks such as SEO and paid advertising.

Top Paint­ing Mar­ket­ing Firms to Consider

Today, there are many excep­tion­al mar­ket­ing firms that spe­cial­ize in serv­ing paint­ing busi­ness­es. Some of the most notable names in the indus­try include:

  • Base Coat Mar­ket­ing (basecoat​mar​ket​ing​.com) – They offer com­pre­hen­sive dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing solu­tions with a focus on automa­tion and growth strategies.
  • Painter Mar­ket­ing Pros (painter​mar​ket​ing​pros​.com) – Led by Bran­don Pier­pont, they are heav­i­ly involved in the indus­try with PCA pod­casts and events.
  • PaintScout, DripJobs, and Hel­lo Boolean – These plat­forms pro­vide soft­ware solu­tions and mar­ket­ing automa­tion to help painters stream­line their oper­a­tions. PaintScout offers esti­mat­ing solu­tions, DripJobs pro­vides CRM and automa­tion tools ide­al for star­tups, and Hel­lo Boolean spe­cial­izes in automa­tion for mar­ket­ing, sales, and operations.
  • Paint­ing Busi­ness Pro (paint​ing​busi​nesspro​.com) – They offer busi­ness coach­ing and mar­ket­ing sup­port tai­lored to paint­ing contractors.
  • Painters Acad­e­my (painter​sacad​e​my​.com) – A resource-rich orga­ni­za­tion pro­vid­ing busi­ness train­ing and mar­ket­ing services.
  • AltaVista Strate­gic Part­ners (altavis​tasp​.com) – They pro­vide a broad range of mar­ket­ing ser­vices with a strong empha­sis on lead generation.
  • Foot­bridge Media (foot​bridge​me​dia​.com) – A full-ser­vice mar­ket­ing agency offer­ing brand­ing, web­site design, and lead generation.
  • Painter Growth (painter​growth​.com) – Led by Mike Gore-Hick­man, they pro­vide mar­ket­ing solu­tions and busi­ness coach­ing tai­lored to paint­ing contractors.

Each of these firms has its own strengths, and it’s impor­tant to eval­u­ate which aligns best with your busi­ness goals and budget.

Who Am I and Why Am I Writ­ing This?

I’m David Chism, and I’ve been in and around the paint­ing and mar­ket­ing indus­try my whole life. My jour­ney start­ed long before found­ing A David Cre­ation (ADC Mar­ket­ing for the Trades) in 2009. Grow­ing up, my dad and uncle ran Chism Broth­ers Paint­ing, a com­pa­ny I now own and oper­ate in San Diego. In fact, paint­ing runs deep in my fam­i­ly — my grand­fa­ther was also a paint­ing con­trac­tor, and rumor has it that I am even the 5th gen­er­a­tion of painters on my dad’s side.

I launched ADC to pro­vide tai­lored mar­ket­ing ser­vices exclu­sive­ly for paint­ing con­trac­tors, offer­ing a hands-on, cus­tom approach to help busi­ness­es grow. I was one of the first to focus entire­ly on painters, and while I’m not the largest or flashiest, I’ve remained small, hum­ble, and focused. I haven’t achieved big pod­cast suc­cess­es like some of the firms list­ed above, but I’ve been around and con­sis­tent­ly deliv­ered val­ue. In fact, I also co-host The Com­mer­cial Paint­ing Pod­cast, where I share insights and indus­try best practices.

My approach has always been about col­lab­o­ra­tion and learn­ing, and I’m friend­ly with many of the com­pa­nies I men­tion in this guide and have worked with some of them in var­i­ous capac­i­ties. I believe in friend­ly com­pe­ti­tion — if I saw these folks at a con­fer­ence, I’d glad­ly share a drink or bet­ter yet, toast over drinks to our shared pas­sion for help­ing painters succeed.

How A David Cre­ation is Different

At ADC, I take a high­ly per­son­al­ized and hands-on approach to mar­ket­ing. Beyond res­i­den­tial paint­ing, I have worked with com­pa­nies tran­si­tion­ing into com­mer­cial paint­ing, some of which have grown from under $10 mil­lion to $30 mil­lion or even $50 mil­lion in rev­enue. My team has helped build their dig­i­tal foot­print, and I’ve played an active role in busi­ness devel­op­ment, assist­ing with hir­ing sales­peo­ple, lead­ing peer groups, and devel­op­ing sales teams.

Whether you’re a small res­i­den­tial painter or a grow­ing com­mer­cial con­trac­tor, I can pro­vide scal­able solu­tions tai­lored to your needs.

If you’re inter­est­ed in learn­ing more, vis­it our About Us or Ser­vices pages to explore how we can help your busi­ness grow.

About David Chism

David Chism started his business out of a passion for helping small contracting businesses grow, be more profitable and become better known to their target clients. One lifelong hobby of David is using techie gadgets. So this blog is a place where he writes about technology, marketing ideas, just for fun (humor), personal thoughts on small business and more.

     
   
       

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