Don’t Forget To Build Your Brand! It Takes Time, But It’s So Important

When the over­all U.S. econ­o­my expe­ri­ences a down­turn, the home improve­ment mar­ket often takes a hit. Home­own­ers con­tem­plat­ing a remod­el or paint­ing project might post­pone it until they feel more finan­cial­ly secure. It’s a famil­iar sce­nario – we’ve all tight­ened our belts dur­ing uncer­tain times. I’ve done it myself!

As busi­ness own­ers, our knee-jerk reac­tion to dwin­dling num­bers is often to focus ONLY on imme­di­ate lead gen­er­a­tion. What gets the phone ring­ing, keeps your esti­ma­tors busy, and keeps feet on the street? This response makes sense, and it’s an impor­tant part of your response strategy.

But it’s only a part.

And as you pump more and more of your mar­ket­ing dol­lars into lead gen­er­a­tion tac­tics, your cost per lead will con­tin­ue to climb. Plus, if you’re hit­ting a mar­ket that isn’t aware of you and your busi­ness, you’ll have to work hard­er to win their trust and the job (espe­cial­ly if there are oth­ers will­ing to under­cut you on price).

So, what can you do?

I would chal­lenge you (as I’ve chal­lenged myself) to focus not JUST on leads, but also on your over­all brand­ing. I’m absolute­ly con­vinced that invest­ing in your local name, brand famil­iar­i­ty, and rep­u­ta­tion will pay long-term dividends.

Flip the Nar­ra­tive: A Slow­down Can Be Your Gold­en Opportunity

A weak­er econ­o­my (or what peo­ple feel is a weak­er econ­o­my) can be a real oppor­tu­ni­ty with the right mind­set. Rather than hun­ker down, tight­en your belt, and wait out the storm, con­sid­er tak­ing advan­tage of the situation.

• Is it time to acquire a small­er com­peti­tor who may not be able to weath­er a slowdown?

• Are there oppor­tu­ni­ties for stream­lin­ing your operations?

• Can you revis­it and rede­fine sys­tems, posi­tion­ing your­self well for when busi­ness picks back up?

• Are adver­tis­ing ven­dors will­ing to rene­go­ti­ate terms in the face of cus­tomer pull-outs? This is your time to get bet­ter rates, bet­ter spots, bet­ter bill­boards, etc.

Use these oppor­tu­ni­ties to strength­en your oper­a­tions and build your brand. Be the name that dom­i­nates your local area, not a stranger that needs to win the con­fi­dence of your prospects.

Invest In Stay­ing Top-of-Mind

Let’s drill down even more deeply into how you can remain agile and well-posi­tioned for the future.

• SEO. Will the leads come pour­ing in overnight? No, def­i­nite­ly not. Will you ever regret mak­ing sure your web­site is a con­tent pow­er­house, attract­ing local traf­fic? No way. Search Engine Opti­miza­tion takes time and con­sis­ten­cy, so start the process now.

• Run Facebook/​Meta ads that don’t just push for lead forms to be filled out, but work like an online bill­board. Get your name and ser­vices in front of your tar­get audience. 

• Using Google Ads, there are plen­ty of cost-effec­tive ways to man­age brand campaigns. 

• Incor­po­rate prospect­ing into your sys­tem regard­less of the economy.

• Cul­ti­vate cus­tomer rela­tion­ships and refer­rals through reg­u­lar communication.

• Uti­lize direct mail strate­gi­cal­ly for con­sis­tent out­reach. Folks might throw away two or three mail­ers, but every sin­gle one is a touch point.

• Smart TV ads (like OTT - see here for more details!) are a pow­er­ful, new­er way to get in front of peo­ple who may not watch cable, but are spend­ing time stream­ing shows on their favorite enter­tain­ment apps. 

• Stream­ing is huge, and not just visu­al con­tent. Spo­ti­fy ads, for exam­ple, can be a smart way to get in front of your tar­get audi­ence. Will some folks pay for the ad-free ver­sion? Yes, but not all. It doesn’t hurt to try, test, and mea­sure results.

Speak­ing of OTT, there are oth­er plat­forms that you should check into as well. Posts and ads on Red­dit, NextDoor, and even Quo­ra might be worth your time, espe­cial­ly if you focus on adding val­ue to a con­ver­sa­tion, answer­ing ques­tions, and not just push­ing sales. 

How Active Are You In Your Community?

Time to get real old-school here.

When was the last time you spon­sored a local base­ball team? Or showed up at a com­mu­ni­ty event with give­aways? Gave back with a char­i­ty project? 

Chances are, your com­peti­tors aren’t doing these things either. Or, maybe they are! Either way, you’re get­ting left out and miss­ing a huge oppor­tu­ni­ty to invest in ways that mean some­thing to the peo­ple who might hire your busi­ness. Use a weak­er econ­o­my as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to grow and devel­op your rep­u­ta­tion, be vis­i­ble, and estab­lish your­self as an indus­try leader. 

Don’t Slow Down

Trust me: I’m not down­play­ing the need for leads. I have a paint­ing team that I’m anx­ious to keep busy, and we’re all doing what we can to be sure their sched­ule is full. With that said, as a reminder to myself as well, I want to encour­age you to focus on the longer game in every way you can. Think big­ger than num­bers week-to-week and the NEXT slow­down won’t have as much of an impact.