The ideal “painter marketing plan” should include the following components
1.) Find all the paint clients you can handle. If you know how to do this, you have it done and you can make as much money as you want. Whether it’s a small 1-2 person painting operation or a painting company that has a large painting team, you can do it when you know how to find clients.
2.) Know How to Estimate Paint Jobs – For maximum profit, this is the second power stroke that should be in a painter’s marketing plan. When he knows how to get as close as possible to the “pain threshold” (the maximum you can charge someone before price resistance kicks in), whether residential or commercial, you can maximize his profit.
3.) Customer Retention – How much is a painting customer worth to you? When you know that, you really will do whatever it takes to hold on to them. Finding new clients is not always as easy as painting for existing ones. If they run out of things to paint over time, how many “references” can they give you? Why wait 10 years for them to call you back when you can be painting for your family and friends right now?
HERE ARE 3 WAYS TO SQUEEZE MORE PAINT BUSINESS INTO EVERY EXISTING CUSTOMER:
4.) Go the extra mile – Always do a great job and even go a little extra to please your customers. This gets you more repeat business and talk about your painting service. And then “word of mouth” advertising comes into play, which is the BEST form of advertising there is!
5.) Thank You Cards: Sending thank you cards after every completed job “shows professionalism” and creates more business for us house painters. Plus, they see your contact information again and archive it for future use.
6.) Customer Rewards – Reward your loyal painting customers who bring you a lot of repeat business and especially those who recommend you to others. Surprise them with a gift card to their favorite restaurant, perhaps.
7.) A newsletter about the painting business – Considered the BEST way to stay connected with your customers. Email newsletters are the easiest to send. Physical mail newsletters get better responses than digital ones. Using both in tandem is a winner. The idea is to “stay connected” and never let a customer lose their contact information. That could mean losing a $10,000 job maybe or even MORE!
8.) Word of Mouth – Again, this is by far the best form of advertising. Do your best to get your customers to talk about your paint business (in a good way, of course) and refer you to new paint customers. This is the number one thing a painting business owner should incorporate into their painter marketing plan. It’s like having a small private army of affiliates selling your products for you.
9.) Offer your paint clients a referral fee. Offer them a 10-20% commission on 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’d bring up anyway.