Content marketing for roofers plays a critical role in your overall marketing plan. When the concept first came into focus earlier in the decade, it met with very mixed responses.
- “Why on earth would we create content that doesn’t focus on promoting our brand?”
- “Isn’t that the territory of home improvement magazines?”
- “We don’t have the writing talent to create these materials.”
- “That sounds like it takes too much time to keep up!”
- “Why should we be the ones to strike up these conversations? Consumers already do that.”
Taking time to write outside of your immediate service portfolio might feel uncomfortable (or even unnatural), but so many businesses profit from the enterprise. Today, we’ll talk about how your roofing company can profit from a sophisticated content marketing strategy. Be sure to look for our seven content marketing tips that offer natural ways to lead back into your services! Let’s get started.
Key Takeaways
- Create intentional content
- Create keyword-driven content
- Create evergreen content
- Build topical authority
- Funnel users to service pages
- Provide unique expert value
- Prioritize quality over quantity
What is Content Marketing for Roofers?
Content marketing is the process of engaging potential clients through insightful, well-crafted, and valuable content. The focus is not necessarily to promote your services and/or products but to show the context(s) in which your services might shine. You’ll see some fitting examples of context-building in our suggestions later on.
Content Marketing May Also Land You Featured Snippets and other enhanced SERP features.
Roofing contractors use many types of media to engage with their target market. Popular examples include:
- Company blogging
- YouTube videos
- Facebook posts
- Instagram stories
- Infographics
For new roofing contractors, our team at Roofer’s Guild typically recommends beginning with a simple medium like blogging. You can easily write about questions your customers like to ask, such as how to choose a new roof or similar topics.
It doesn’t require a lot of technical expertise, and the consistent production of new content on your website looks good for roofing SEO.
7 Content Marketing Tips for Roofers in 2023
1) Create Intentional Content
Contrary to popular belief, writing about just anything that comes to mind doesn’t provide value for your business or your clients. Content should be loosely related to your services and topics you know clients care about.
While writing about your latest hunting or fishing trip may be fun, you need to focus primarily on the industry and related client concerns. Brief mentions are okay since they showcase your team’s personality, but leave the full stories for your personal Facebook, Instagram, etc.
The best content marketing campaigns address prevalent situations that your clients will look online to research. If you don’t know how to find these hot topics, try utilizing some helpful consumer research tools. Answer the Public is a favorite among our writers at Roofer’s Guild!
You can also try typing in some common questions in Google and looking for “People Also Ask” features in the results.
2) Create Keyword-Driven Content
Keyword research tools like SEMRush, Ahrefs, and Moz are popular in the SEO industry. These tools can identify the most prominent keywords based on your roofing services. While keyword research tools are valuable in showing you the estimated monthly volume of keywords, they are not 100% accurate.
Still, targeting keywords with each of your pages and posts is important to capture as many new roofing customers as possible. One great content marketing strategy is grouping keywords together to form keyword clusters. Your goal is to rank one page or post for multiple keywords based on user intent.
One example of this would be a post targeting metal roofing benefits. Within this post, you’d also like to rank for keywords like metal roofing lifespan, metal roofing pros and cons, and metal roofing cost.
3) Create Evergreen Content
Taking the time to create fresh content may feel like a time-consuming challenge, especially if the material only lasts for a short while. Thankfully, roofing contractors can easily reuse and refine content over the years to create even more value for their businesses and clients. Since the industry doesn’t change very quickly, this means that content has a longer life before it needs changes.
Roofing systems naturally require maintenance and repairs to keep their functionality. Likewise, content must be updated to reflect current industry standards and practices. For instance, if Conklin products change over the course of a few years, you’ll need to update your blog posts or videos to show them.
4) Build Topical Authority
Some roofing websites will have stronger backlink profiles than you, but you can close the gap by establishing topical authority. For example, creating service pages for each of your services, including the less common ones, can help you outrank competitors with more link authority.
Furthermore, building topical authority allows you to make the most of internal linking. When you link from pages and posts about sub-topics to pages and posts about main topics, you increase your chances of ranking for primary keywords and long-tail keywords simultaneously.
While you want to expand your topical authority within the confines of your industry, you don’t want to publish content unrelated to your services. Google will favor your website more if you publish content about sub-topics related to your primary topics.
5) Funnel Users to Service Pages
Whether you create blog posts, YouTube videos, or Facebook posts, they should all funnel users to a conversion page (like a service page). The primary goal of content marketing is to expand the top of your funnel to move more users through that funnel.
For example, a YouTube video about how to repair a metal roof starts getting more engagement. You’ll want to link to your metal roof repair service page within the video description to funnel users to the conversion stage. The same is true of Facebook posts.
For on-site blog posts, the process is even more seamless. You can simply create an internal link to your blog post about metal roofing benefits to your service page about metal roofing repair. Not only does this boost SEO via topical authority, but it increases conversion rates.
6) Provide Unique Expert Value
Google’s recent Helpful Content algorithm update aims to prioritize content that provides unique value to users. You can achieve this designation as a professional roofing company by demonstrating your expertise. When writing content, be sure to reference unique experiences from your career.
Although you probably hire non-roofers to write most of your blog posts, it is important to provide them with your expertise so they can include it in your website content. Google aims to favor content that provides unique value from experts like yourself.
Another way to establish expertise is to showcase awards, badges, and partners on your website. You can also link to the corresponding pages to verify their legitimacy to search engines and users.
7) Prioritize Quality Over Quantity
In the early onset of content marketing, many websites focused on mass-producing content rather than providing unique value. Based on Google’s recent updates, the focus should be on quality over quantity. You DO NOT need a certain amount of blog posts or social media posts per week or per month.
As a roofing company, focus on creating high-quality content that gives your target customers unique insights and solutions. You’ll know best what your clients ask when you perform roofing services. Build content assets that directly address those common concerns.
Remember, you don’t need a blogging schedule or content calendar. All you need to do is ensure that you publish high-quality content when necessary. Sometimes you might go months without blogging or creating two posts in one day. Quantity is irrelevant.
Topics for Roofing Content Marketing
Odds are you’ve already discussed these topics with your clients. They naturally segway into common roofing services and provide real client value. We’ll discuss how to take each topic and develop a working content marketing campaign.
Energy Saving Home Improvement
Energy efficiency offers a very lucrative conversation for bringing up premium roofing solutions like metal panels, foam, PVC, and others. That’s because homeowners and businesses crave savings, especially when coupled with enhanced property values. Many roofing contractors like to utilize this topic.
However, too many fall into the trap of turning their “Consumer Guide” into a glorified service pitch. That sends readers running for the hills. While all content marketing materials should end with a short section for your company, keep in mind that 90% of your conversation must focus on consumer topics.
How to Tackle Energy-Savings
- Do your research!
- Find respected authorities on the subject and quote them (ex: Energy.gov; Energystar.gov).
- Create a list of applicable solutions.
- Incorporate related, high-quality photos.
- Write a blog.
- Review and make your edits.
- Have someone else do an error check, then publish.
- Post a link and short description of your blog on Facebook and/or Instagram.
Protecting Your Home From Storm Damage
This one ties in directly to roof damage repair and emergency services, making it a compelling topic for roofing companies nationwide. Perform your localized spin on the subject and throw in some handy tips only an experienced professional can offer.
Without overselling, you might even relay a personal experience or how your team might handle a situation. Focus on targeting the emotions a homeowner or business owner would feel in this stressful situation and how they can prevent that in the future.
How to Write a Storm Damage Blog Post
- Draw from personal and professional experience.
- Try using a client’s story.
- Create a step-by-step guide for handling damage.
- If you feel comfortable, create a helpful video tutorial.
- Share with your Facebook Business and other social media profiles.
How to Handle Insurance After Storm Damage
Again, we have another easy tie-in for insurance claim assistance companies. Post-storm damage repairs represent a very stressful challenge for homeowners, especially when insurance gets involved. A simple how-to guide for first-time homeowners unfamiliar with the process may provide all the insight they need.
It will also familiarize them with your brand for future projects or maybe even win you the repair project!
How to Tackle Insurance Discussions
- Include a real-life example.
- Focus on the step-by-step process with a numbered checklist.
- Provide insights into key consumer decisions (repair or replace, for example)
- Include an FAQ section on related hot questions (consult Google’s “People Also Ask”)
- Share on social media.
Summary of Content Marketing for Roofers
Content marketing remains an important aspect of digital marketing for roofing companies in 2023. However, Google’s Helpful Content Update and the onset of AI-generation tools like ChatGPT have altered the climate and SOPs traditionally utilized by marketing experts.
Ultimately, roofing companies that can effectively demonstrate EEAT (expertise, experience, authority, and trust) within their web content will benefit the most as we enter a new content landscape.