How do you stand out from the crowd and ensure homeowners choose you when their walls need a makeover?
That’s where marketing comes in.
Marketing your painting services gets you discovered by potential customers actively seeking a top-notch painter. It captures their attention and prompts them to hire you for their painting project.
Below, you’ll learn 20 digital and traditional marketing ideas for painting companies. We’ll also explore how to use ServiceTitan to implement them.
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How to Market a Painting Business with Digital Marketing
Digital marketing involves advertising your painting services to prospects and customers using online channels such as social media, email, SMS, and search engines.
Digital marketing is important for painting businesses as customers usually rely on online channels such as social media and search engine result pages to find a professional painter.
Furthermore, digital marketing helps you reach about 91.8 percent of the United State’s population (aka potential clients and new customers) who are internet users.
Here’s a brief breakdown of the digital marketing tips you can use to drive paint jobs.
1. Local SEO
Local SEO is a strategy businesses serving a specific geographical area use to increase their local search ranking for local-intent queries like “painters near me.” It’s a vital marketing tool for local businesses, such as painting companies, which rely heavily on local leads.
Painting contractors can use local SEO strategies to appear in two sections of local search results: the familiar organic blue links and the local map pack.
The local map pack is a unique Google search feature containing three painting company listings relevant to the search query, their brief details, and a map insert with their pinned locations.
You can be featured in the map pack when your Google Business Profile (GBP) is complete, optimized, and, most importantly, accurate. That’s because Google’s bots rely heavily on GBP accuracy to pick companies to feature in the map pack.
You can also use the following tips to tilt the odds of getting featured in the map pack in your favor:
Maintain a consistent company name, address, and phone number across your citations (online mentions of your business).
Gather multiple online reviews from satisfied customers to attract new clients.
Maintain a high star rating on your GBP.
Create web pages for each service location and service—house painting and/or commercial painting.
2. PPC
This online marketing strategy allows you to promote your services by placing ads on digital media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and search engines.
PPC advertising is an excellent way to establish an online presence quickly without waiting for your search engine optimization efforts to yield results.
To generate high-quality painting leads, you must find the keywords your target audience uses to search and then include those keywords in your PPC ads. Free tools such as Google Keyword Planner are perfect for this.
Furthermore, regularly track your ads’ performance. Drop those that aren’t working and reinvest in those that are to lower your cost per lead and maximize your marketing budget.
ServiceTitan's Home Services Marketing platform allows you to track the exact ROI on each PPC ad campaign.
The platform uses unique trackable phone numbers to identify each lead’s source campaign and tracks generated revenue rather than just calls and clicks.
Its intuitive dashboards also deliver helpful insights into the campaigns, such as identifying those zip codes generating the most revenue. This allows you to optimize your campaigns for revenue and adapt to shifts in your target market.
Painting companies use this feature to supercharge their marketing efforts. For example, Arizona Painting switched to ServiceTitan after a long search for a competent tool to handle marketing and end-to-end customer communications.
“We were using tons of Excel and Google Sheets to gather our marketing data and track our leads and job costing. And then for our scheduling, we were using Excel and a dedicated CRM,” says Joe Campbell, Arizona Painting Owner, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Marketing Officer.
The software’s various functionalities give the company a competitive edge.
“We talk to many smaller companies, and it's amazing to me how many are surprised to learn that we track our leads on a weekly basis.”
“We know what we're getting, we know what sources they come from, and many of them are just like, ‘Wow, I don't even know how many I get each week. I don't even count them,” says Campbell.
3. Local Services Ads
Local Services Ads (LSAs) are a unique ad offering from Google that allows painting contractors to appear in search results at the exact moment when customers are searching for a painter.
LSAs help you occupy a unique position in local search results, allowing customers to call or message you directly. They also have a higher return on investment since you only pay for qualified leads.
Recognizing the power of LSAs, ServiceTitan joined forces with Google to develop an LSA integration that helps painting contractors leverage LSAs' lead-generation capability.
The integration automatically collates all new LSA leads and job bookings into a central dashboard, streamlining lead follow-up.
ServiceTitan’s LSA integration also includes a robust analytics dashboard that delivers detailed performance insights to improve ROI.
Find out more about local service ads.
4. Organic social media
Building an active presence on social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram is a powerful way to connect with prospects and build brand awareness.
Using different social content formats, you can promote your services and engage with followers who may later inquire about your services.
For example, Paint Zone LLC uses a before-and-after transformation TikTok video to promote its services. The video demonstrates the company’s expertise, which can help generate leads later.
Beyond before-and-after videos, here are other social media content formats you can explore:
Educational posts: Connect with DIY project enthusiasts by sharing valuable painting tips. For example, you can create a post series on picking the right colors for painting interiors.
‘Backstage’ photos of your team: Reveal the faces behind the projects to humanize your brand. You can also discuss your colleagues’ expertise, experience, hobbies, etc. This helps you win customer trust.
Customer testimonials: Use video, text, and photo testimonials to show the value customers can enjoy by hiring you. Highlight why a particular customer hired you and the impressive results you helped them achieve.
Before-and-after photos: Use before-and-after photos to showcase the impressive results you helped to deliver for a client. The images should be clear and non-pixelated, so customers see the makeover you can help them achieve.
Beyond posting engaging content, interact with your followers by responding to comments and brand mentions to build a community of loyal brand advocates.
5. Social ads
Social ads allow you to reach a broader audience beyond your followers. They also have precise targeting options, which will enable you to reach specific audiences using their interests, locations, and demographics.
Social media platforms also have intuitive performance dashboards that deliver valuable performance insights you can use to adjust your strategy and discover customer needs.
Before you start social media marketing campaigns, find out which platforms your target audience uses the most. Then, create ads with appealing visuals and persuasive copy that contain an irresistible offer and call to action.
6. Email marketing
Email marketing is the perfect tool for promoting your services directly to customers and prospects. You can use it to share job updates, promote discounts, and upsell to existing customers.
Email marketing is also great for maintaining top-of-mind awareness by sharing valuable content, such as painting tips and color palette ideas. This keeps your business at the forefront of recipients’ minds so they call you when their home (or building) needs a repaint.
However, customers and prospects often receive emails from multiple brands. To declutter their inboxes, they mustare forced to delete some of these emails or unsubscribe from newsletters.
Here are tips for running email campaigns that cut through the clutter and keep subscribers engaged:
Always help recipients solve a problem in each newsletter issue.
Use short and descriptive subject lines.
Obey national and international email regulations.
Regularly remove unengaged subscribers who haven’t opened your emails in a long time.
Never buy email lists. Only send email to people who opted into your newsletter.
Personalize content to the recipient's needs.
To efficiently deliver personalized emails, consider using ServiceTitan’s Marketing Pro – Email that lets you bulk-send hyper-relevant emails using customer details.
Simply build audiences using criteria such as expiring memberships. Then, pick any of the professionally designed templates provided, customize them, and launch your campaign.
After the launch, you can rely on ServiceTitan’s Marketing Pro-Email dashboard to track key performance metrics, including revenue generated by each email.
ServiceTitan’s Marketing Pro – Email streamlines creating and tracking email campaigns, saving time and supercharging lead generation.
The #1 newsletter for the trades.
7. Social media groups
Another excellent digital marketing tool is social media groups. Painting contractors can use social media groups to cultivate a large community of loyal customers and showcase their expertise to prospects.
Social media groups are also great for organically growing brand reach by connecting with a highly engaged audience interested in your services.
Two key ways to use social media groups as a marketing tool are to create a new group or join an existing one.
If you’re doing the latter, seek permission, actively participate in discussions, and offer helpful information before subtly promoting your services.
For example, if someone asks a question about surface preparation, you can share a link to your informative e-book or article on the topic.
Creating your own social media group takes more effort to set it up, attract members, and foster a thriving community. However, the upside is that you have complete control of the group.
Here are tips for starting and growing a functional social media group:
Pick a platform your target audience is familiar with and determine how the group will help you achieve the goals outlined in your business plan.
Lay out guidelines and penalties in the group’s ‘About’ section to discourage spam and off-topic discussions.
Use incentives such as downloadable resources and expert Q&A sessions to attract members.
You can moderate the group or hire an agency to help you. The moderator should consistently post on the group using a defined cadence—daily, two times per week, etc.
Engage the community with member shoutouts, games, free Q&A sessions, etc.
8. Listings and directories
Local listings and directories are essentially a digital repository of local businesses in different niches, alongside their key details—business name, location, contact information, and customer reviews.
They often rank high for local-intent painting search queries. Customers sometimes rely on them to find local painting companies and read reviews from past customers.
Search engines such as Google also use information from listings to understand your company’s relevance to a search query and its local ranking.
Considering Google’s reliance on listing information, ensure consistent name, address, and phone number (NAP) across all platforms. This strengthens your local SEO and makes it easier for customers to find you.
Furthermore, fill up your listings with positive reviews from satisfied customers to demonstrate credibility and position your company as customers’ top choice.
Consider using ServiceTitan's reputation management platform to ensure consistent information across your listings and streamline the review-request process.
The platform lets you monitor your information and respond to reviews across 60 listing platforms. This saves time and helps you preserve your credibility.
ServiceTitan’s Reputation Management platform also lets you create automated customer review–request workflows triggered immediately after a tech completes a job.
The platform has a review request template you can personalize to each customer using their name and details of the completed project.
Customizing the message and sending it while the customer's experience is still fresh in their mind ensures that each request feels genuine and encourages customers to leave authentic positive reviews.
9. SMS marketing
SMS marketing involves texting promotional content to customers, such as remarketing messages, discounts, surveys, and appointment confirmations.
A recent survey by Klaviyo places SMS as the second most preferred medium by customers for communicating with brands. With most marketers planning to ramp up their SMS marketing budget, this trend will only increase.
A foundational best practice for effective SMS marketing campaigns is to text only customers who actively choose to receive text messages and include an option to opt out.
This helps you obey legal guidelines for marketing communications and avoid costly penalties.
Other tips for running an effective marketing campaign via SMS include the following:
Shorten your messages to within 160 characters. If your message exceeds the character count, use another channel like email.
Use the first line of your message to identify yourself. Customers will only read the rest of the message if they know who it is from.
Send your text appropriately by using area codes to identify subscribers’ time zones.
Contact customers immediately after a service call. With your service fresh in their minds, they're more likely to be receptive to your message.
10. Local website advertising
Advertising on local websites is a strategic way to reach residents in your service area who rely on these platforms for information and local news.
You can advertise on local websites using sponsored content, advertorials, banner ads, and featuring in local news stories.
Here are some local website advertising tactics you can use to reach prospects and customers:
Build relationships with journalists and local website publishers to feature in articles. You can also volunteer quotes and share press releases.
Subscribe to digital ad platforms like Google Ads to distribute your banner ads to local websites.
Position yourself as a local authority to encourage journalists to submit quote requests. You can speak at local events, organize free painting workshops or seminars, and network with other business owners.
How to Market a Painting Business with Offline Marketing
Offline marketing encompasses all promotional activities that don’t involve digital channels. This includes radio advertising, flyer marketing, direct mail, etc.
Painting businesses can leverage offline marketing to reach people in their local service area, build local brand recognition, and generate new leads.
Here are some offline marketing plans for painting contractors.
1. Outdoor advertising
Outdoor advertising encompasses all marketing strategies designed for reaching customers in public spaces. Such strategies often use eye-catching displays and signage to capture the attention of passersby.
Also known as out-of-home advertising, this traditional marketing channel delivers high impression volume for a low price.
However, generating targeted, high-quality leads using outdoor advertising takes time and effort. Plus, potential customers in transit need to remember your contact information or marketing message.
Fortunately, you can increase the odds of succeeding with outdoor advertising by following these steps:
Strategically place banners and billboards in areas with heavy traffic and visibility.
Include your physical address alongside a well-known landmark so passersby effortlessly recall your location.
Turn your vehicle into a mobile billboard with vehicle wraps.
Use eye-catching visuals with bold colors and high-quality images to make your message stand out.
2. Flyers
Flyers are a cost-effective way for painting contractors to market directly to members of their community. They’re essentially glossy pieces of paper with printed marketing copy and eye-catching designs.
Creating flyers costs little and does not require technical expertise. You can use flyer design templates in free tools such as Canva, Small SEO Tools, and BrandCrowd.
After designing your flyers, hand them out to prospects door-to-door and place them in local restaurants, barber shops, etc. You can also give them to satisfied customers after a project is completed.
3. Direct mail
Direct mail involves sending promotional materials such as brochures and postcards to customers’ homes. Its tangible nature cuts through the digital clutter and creates a lasting impression, making you the customer's top choice when they need a painter.
Direct mail’s tangibility lets customers connect with your brand more personally, fostering trust and brand recall.
Although direct mail is a traditional yet sometimes overlooked marketing channel, a study by Temple University and the United States Postal Service proves its effectiveness.
Direct mail has a higher memorability rate than digital ads.
Direct mail triggers an emotional reaction, boosting conversions.
People understand direct mail messages better than digital ads, which compete with multiple distractions.
Direct mail subtly triggers a desire for the product or service.
One way to fully leverage direct mail’s effectiveness and ensure your mail doesn’t get tossed is to focus on hyper-relevant content. This means sending the right mail to the right customer.
For example, you can promote discounts to recent estimate requesters or target recent interior painting customers with exterior painting promotions.
ServiceTitan’s Direct Mail platform helps painting contractors achieve such personalization. It allows them to segment their audience using specific criteria stored in ServiceTitan’s CRM, boosting conversion rates.
ServiceTitan’s Direct Mail platform has a library of templates that painting contractors can use to create fully customized mail in minutes, which ServiceTitan helps print and send.
The platform also has an analytics dashboard that showcases your campaign’s deliverability, allowing you to optimize your campaigns for revenue continuously.
With ServiceTitan’s Direct Mail platform, you can launch targeted campaigns in minutes and refine your approach using data-driven insights.
4. Radio ads
This involves broadcasting ads to listeners via radio, using formats like live reads, jingles, testimonials, and straight reads.
Although it can be cost-prohibitive, placing ads on local radio stations is an excellent way to build local brand awareness among residents in your coverage area.
Radio advertising also lets you strategically target listeners using the shows, music genres, and radio hosts they listen to.
While measuring a radio ad’s performance can be challenging, there are still ways to gauge its effectiveness.
You can use trackable phone numbers to monitor your campaign’s call volume, direct listeners to a dedicated landing page, or ask customers how they found you.
Here are some tips for generating more leads from your radio ads:
Instead of using your phone number, use your physical location about a prominent landmark or website address to boost memorability.
Hire an expert to write the radio script. It should be concise and clear.
Pair your radio ads with catchy taglines and memorable jingles to increase brand recall.
5. Business cards
Business cards are simple square paper pieces containing your contact and business information. They are valuable tools for networking and demonstrating credibility.
A business card facilitates lasting personal connections with prospects. It serves as a pocket-sized reminder of your services, ensuring prospects contact you whenever they need a painter.
When creating a business card, use an appealing template and include only essential information to avoid clutter and ensure legibility. Use your brand elements, such as color scheme and logo, to match your brand identity.
6. Advertising in local newspapers
Another traditional marketing medium painting companies like yours can leverage is advertising in local newspapers.
Newspaper advertising allows you to reach a population of highly engaged readers who actively subscribe to local newspapers to follow events in their community.
Beyond being affordable, newspaper advertising lets you pick from different formats—half-page or full-page spreads, insert cards, and booklets. This flexibility gives you control over how your message is delivered.
Unlock the full potential of newspaper advertising with these tips:
Provide your contact details.
Keep your message short.
Advertise in both digital and print versions of the local newspaper.
Always end with a call to action.
7. Trade shows
Attending trade shows is an excellent opportunity to connect with customers and suppliers in person, leading to stronger relationships.
You can use it to showcase your services to prospects and keep up with recent painting industry trends. This allows you to remain in sync with the evolving market and change strategy when necessary.
Interacting directly with prospects and existing customers at trade shows also provides real-time market insights, allowing you to understand your target audience's needs.
This empowers you to tailor your services and messaging to address the customer’s pain points.
When attending trade shows, consider paying for a booth to showcase your services and offer free painting consultations. Also, collect prospects' email addresses to follow up and nurture them into customers.
8. Sponsorships
Participating in your local community through sponsorships grows your brand reach and builds a positive reputation, strengthening customer loyalty.
Customers are more likely to trust and use a company that supports local causes they care about. Such customers may also recommend your services to others, expanding your reach.
Here are different ways to use sponsorships to promote your services:
Sponsor local events such as community fairs and festivals.
Support local charities. For example, you can volunteer your painting services to a charity building a homeless shelter.
Host free painting workshops.
Support the local school’s art club.
9. Partnerships
Partnering with local complementary businesses is a cost-effective and easy way to generate leads. They help you tap into each other’s customer base, expanding your reach.
You can use business partnerships to learn more about your target audience and execute joint marketing initiatives such as cross-promotions, bundled packages, and co-hosting seminars.
Here are some complementary businesses painting companies can partner with:
DIY stores
Home renovation companies
Interior designers
Real estate agents
10. Promotional products
These are free branded products that companies hand over to prospects and customers. The idea behind promotional products is to generate buzz and encourage people to remember the brand until they are ready to book an appointment.
Promotional products only generate a return on investment if they are helpful and valuable to your target audience. Therefore, when picking promotional products, use one relevant to your services and the customer.
First, research your target audience and find their interests. Then, generate a list of potential products and choose one after comparing their costs and perceived value to customers.
Over to You
With these digital and traditional marketing strategies, you can grow your brand’s awareness and generate more revenue.
Harness the power of painting contractor software like ServiceTitan to streamline your marketing process and track its performance using intuitive dashboards.
ServiceTitan is a comprehensive, cloud-based software trade companies use to automate and track marketing campaigns to grow their customer base. Join thousands of service providers nationwide who use the software to grow their revenue.
ServiceTitan Software
ServiceTitan is a comprehensive software solution built specifically to help service companies streamline their operations, boost revenue, and substantially elevate the trajectory of their business. Our comprehensive, cloud-based platform is used by thousands of electrical, HVAC, plumbing, garage door, and chimney sweep shops across the country—and has increased their revenue by an average of 25% in just their first year with us.
