Marketing for Painters: 8 Strategies To Grow Your Company

Marketing for painters can seem like a whole additional job. Whether you’re the owner of a painting business, a partner in one, or a one-person show, you probably give a lot of thought to how to grow your business. In fact, you might be ready to jump onto any marketing strategy that promises to get you new clients. 

However, choosing your strategies wisely can be much more beneficial in the long run, especially when you’re consistent. Marketing your business can keep a constant flow of new leads — or potential clients — coming your way. This opens the opportunity for you to nurture their interest further and close the deal. 

Basic tips for creating a great marketing strategy 

To grow your business effectively and market optimally, you need to understand why your users choose you and learn about them and their concerns. Here are some of the ways you can do marketing for painters:

• Understand your “why.” If you don’t know why people should choose you instead of your competition, neither will your customer.
• Get to know your customer. Create buyer personas or profiles based on past clients. Learn their motivations, fears, and purchasing behavior. Then base your marketing on that.

So, where can you put both of these tips to good use? Let’s go through some good marketing ideas for painters.

Top strategies when marketing for your painting company

1. Social media content marketing

When marketing for painters, you may not have seen many opportunities to capitalize on social media the way that industries like housekeeping already have. Take TikTok, where “CleanTok” is an entire corner of the app dedicated to satisfying cleaning videos. Cleaning professionals advertise their services on the app by reaching millions of people with content they love to watch.

Make a plan to create content showing what it’s like for your employees to get a job done. From before-and-afters to tips on paint strokes and more, you can capture simple content that creates high engagement and brand awareness, ultimately bringing you more business.

2. Blogging

Blogging may seem like a strategy that’s unsuitable for a painting business. Still, you’d be surprised to learn how many topics you can educate readers on to gain their trust. By blogging about your industry, you become an expert in the eyes of your blog’s visitors. 

Some options are teaching about primers, best painting techniques, common homeowner painting mistakes, or any other painting topic under the sun. Readers will understand that you’re someone they can trust with their painting needs. From there, you can add information about your business and services within each post and include a way for readers to contact you. 

3. PPC advertising

If you’re just learning how to start a house painting business and only getting started with marketing for painters, trying your hand at paid advertising can provide the boost you need. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a way to compete against local competitors. This method involves paying search engines and social media platforms so you can appear in front of possible clients at the right time. 

Of course, as the name suggests, you’ll only pay once your lead clicks on the ad, and you’ll learn about the types of copywriting and ad content that get the most engagement.

4. Influencer marketing for painters

Partnering with influencers online can be tricky but worth it when you find the right niche. As a painting business, you don’t need someone to pose with your products — you need them to use them. So, what kind of influencers should you look for? 

Make a list of anyone who uses painting products and services to complete their work. This could mean HGTV home transformation specialists, well-known charities that build and renovate homes, or renowned DIY-ers. 

Take, for instance, the famous paint brand Benjamin Moore. The company partnered up with a popular YouTuber called “Lone Fox,” who does DIY videos for renters. Benjamin Moore provides the YouTuber with paint and, in return, gets mentioned in every video. Not a bad deal, right? Think about the influencer partnerships you could make that would be mutually beneficial in a similar way. 

5. Create partnerships

One online marketing strategy for small businesses is partnering with a trusted source who can take your name to a whole new level of notoriety. Partnering can take many different guises. Maybe it’s creating a custom color with a local celebrity or brand. Perhaps it’s partnering with a paint store to get a prominent location or in-store advertising. Partnerships help both parties reach different audiences with enough similarities that they’ll still show an interest in both products. 

6. PR spokesperson

Is there someone in the media who would be particularly passionate about what you do? Consider making a list of people who often speak in public on topics your business cares about. Approach them about the possibility of becoming a spokesperson for your brand, speaking on these topics on your behalf. 

You can also invite them as guests to expos, fairs, and other events. Depending on their level of notoriety, they can even draw a crowd to the event for you. All of these strategies make PR and media spokespeople excellent assets for a growing business. And the great thing is they don’t have to be A-list celebrities — just someone people trust and would be excited about tuning into. 

7. Earned media 

It’s not often that you see owners of painting businesses on the newspaper’s front page. However, you can still create a buzz within your industry. Use your expertise and even any innovative approach you have in your business and talk about it openly. 

Create a pitch and send it to reporters, bloggers, and other media representatives who often cover similar topics. Maybe you know that 50% of painting businesses use toxic paint that is potentially dangerous to workers and homeowners. If your “why” is providing non-toxic paint to every home, this type of lead makes a great headline and can get your business media attention, trust, and more clients. 

8. Referral programs

One of the easiest ways to tap into your existing clients’ network is to give them a reason to talk about you. Sure, they know you do a good job, but is it good enough to boast about at a dinner party? It could be, with the right incentive. 

What if, for every client they referred who bought your services, they could get a discount on future services or even cash? That certainly makes talking about paint more interesting. Set up a program where existing customers can spread the word about your business. After every successful referral, both sides get rewarded. A straightforward way to do this is with Visa or Amazon gift cards. 

Create your first persona

Now that you have eight great strategies to start your marketing for painters, it’s time to start planning, beginning with one simple step. Create the first buyer persona for your business by talking to previous clients. What do they have in common? Learn about what types of motivations come up often in an age group, one particular gender, or anything else, and start creating your first buyer profile or persona. 

Once you have this, start building a simple marketing plan to reach potential clients using the strategies listed here. Then, create another buyer persona and repeat the process. Before you know it, your business will be booming!