Owning a business is a lot of work, especially in the flooring industry. You not only have your employees, products, and clients to manage, but there is also your brand as a whole that you need to manage.
Your brand is what helps identify and differentiate your flooring companies from the competitors. Having brand recognition is important for getting business and finding success.
Building that recognition requires planning, dedication, and the use of various marketing tactics to be successful.
Here are five ways to start working on your flooring company’s brand image:
1. Optimize Your Website
Websites aren’t just essential to your company’s success; they are essential to your growth as a brand. Your website is where you post content, share your work, and list your contact information. Ensuring your website is appropriately optimized for visitors is critical to their experience; if they can’t navigate or find the design overwhelming, they won’t stay long, which means they may not become customers. Optimizing your website includes:
Choosing The Right Design
A company’s website is typically the first introduction someone will have to their brand. That makes making the right impression vital; to do that, you want to ensure your website has the right design. A simple, clean design with easy navigation is ideal, so visitors can easily find anything they may want to see.
High-Quality Images
As a flooring company, having images of your work is essential. Pictures of your work can convince a potential customer to contact you for a consultation or to get more information. they should be high-quality images taken with a camera with at least 12MP.
Have a Call-to-Action
Getting people to your website is the first step. The next is to convert your visitors into customers. To do this, you need to have a prominent link on your website for customers to call, or fill out a form to initiate contact.
2. Share Images of Your Work
Flooring services are an area where people like to see proof of a company’s work. These images can be a deciding factor in a person choosing your company for their flooring services. Some ways to incorporate images into your brand building include:
Have Project Photos on Your Website
Create a gallery on your website to showcase your various projects with a variety of photographs for potential customers to review. If you offer more than one flooring service, make sure to feature pictures for all of them, and consider having separate sections within the gallery. You can also use social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to share your before-and-after photos.
You can also use your photos for headers and in other areas of your website so visitors always see them.
Use a Content Calendar for Posting Pictures
With the popularity of social media, you can use it to your advantage. The more active your social media, the more traffic your brand will get, which leads to website traffic and, potentially, customers. Create a content calendar for sharing pictures of your work on social media platforms so you can have a regular stream of content for your audience.
Utilize Promotional Materials
Promotional materials are another way to help build your brand. Posters, brochures, flyers, and more are all materials that can help you gain recognition. Your project images can serve as the backbone of these products. You also want to include a list of your company’s services with the promotional materials.
3. Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
When optimizing your website, one thing that you must incorporate is SEO. SEO allows search engines to “read” and catalog your website based on keywords and phrases you use throughout the website. That way, when someone searches those terms, your website will appear in their results. The better you use keywords, the higher your website will rank. While SEO is great for reaching large audiences, you will want to focus on local SEO for your brand to attract people in your service areas.
Ways you can use local SEO include:
Create Relevant Blog Posts
Blog posts allow you to incorporate keywords while sharing knowledge, tips, and even ideas related to flooring. Using localized keywords and phrases will allow potential customers to find them easily, to increase your website’s traffic and lead to more business.
Utilize Google Business Profiles
A verified Google Business Profile, formally Google My Business, is essential. One of these profiles will allow your business to show up in local searches and provide potential customers with a quick overview of your company that has information like your address, phone number, website, images, and reviews.
Whenever you add new photos or share new blog posts on your website, share them across your platforms, including your Google Business Profile. It will give your brand more visibility and bring even more traffic to your website.
4. Implement a Reputation Management Strategy
As a company and brand, your reputation is everything. You must take steps to manage your online reputation, including:
Create or Verify Your Business Profiles
When looking for reliable reviews for businesses, people often turn to websites like Google, Yelp, Angi, and more. These sites offer all the important information in a single area, so it is essential to make sure you have an online presence, so potential customers can trust that the information they see is accurate.
Ask Customers to Leave Reviews
After you finish a job, ask your customer to leave a review about their experience. You can do this in person, by email, or by text, and provide them with a link they can use to get to the right page. Every review matters, so follow up by email or text if a customer hasn’t left a review after a few days.
Respond to All Reviews
Responding to reviews shows a dedication to good customer service, so set aside some time to respond to all reviews, positive or negative. No matter how the review is written, respond professionally and respectfully. If there is a negative review, take the time to apologize and provide any possible explanations or reasonings without exposing any personal information.
5. Engage with Local Associations
To become well-known within the local community, you need to be active in that community. By being an active and engaged member of the community, you will have the opportunity to create partnerships with other businesses and cross-promotion opportunities. Ways to be more active include:
Join Flooring, Contracting, and Building Associations
By joining relevant business associations, you are networking with similar businesses and ensuring your name is in more places. These associations give you more credibility as a professional, will attract potential customers and provide you with resources to help grow your business.
Network with Other Professionals
Networking is another important part of integrating yourself into the local community. Reach out to other business owners in similar industries; by networking with these businesses, and when their clients ask for flooring recommendations, your business can be mentioned.
Building Your Flooring Brand
Your brand, in many ways, is your business’s personality; it draws people in and makes them want to hire you for their flooring projects. Building a brand isn’t difficult, but it takes time and dedication. These five tactics are a great starting point and will go a long way in creating a strong brand and gaining recognition. Use them to start building a strong brand image today!
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