How to Market a Garage Door Business
January 11, 2023
Does your garage door business need more leads? Are you falling behind in the world of digital marketing?
These excellent garage door marketing and lead generation tips will open up new business opportunities to help you dominate your market.
9 garage door marketing tips to drive leads
#1: Build an updated, mobile-friendly website
The garage door service industry suffers more than most from dated website designs. There are a lot of established businesses that have been around for decades, but unfortunately, it looks like it’s been decades since they last updated their garage door website.
This creates two problems. The first is that many of these websites are not mobile responsive, meaning they don’t format to be usable on mobile phone screens. Given that over half of all browsing takes place on phones (and that number is going up), this is slowing lead generation for many garage door services.
The second problem is that a website creates a first impression. People are looking for a service they can trust. clunky, outdated website sends the message that your business has seen better days.
It’s neither expensive nor time-consuming to update your site. Marketing 360® has a website builder that makes building your own website easy and affordable.
Here’s an example:
Notice that this design is not fancy — it’s simple, clean and easy to use. What you want is a site that helps you convert visitors into leads, not something you show off to your friends.
If a Bush was president when you had your website designed, look into getting an update. This is a vital tool in your garage door lead-generation arsenal.
#2: Get reviews and manage your reputation
Because garage door repair services involve access to people’s homes, leads want to see that you’re trustworthy. Today, one of the main ways they’ll check this is through online reviews.
It’s basically a necessity for a garage door repair service to have a positive review profile and testimonials. To build your profile, be proactive.
When you finish a successful service, ask the client to leave you a review — just say you’d appreciate it. This simple step makes a big difference.
If you need to get more reviews on a certain platform, like Facebook or Google, use a follow-up email like this:
This type of email takes people to the review platform link if they like you, and opens a feedback form if they didn’t.
You can’t beat this content for persuading new leads:
For your best clients, get testimonials to add to your website. These work best when they’re specific about your service and include a full name. Also, use Top Rated Local® to centralize your reviews.
Be aware of your ratings on any review site or local directory you’re listed on, including Google, Facebook, HomeAdvisor, Yelp and Top Rated Local. Make sure you own the profiles and have updated content on each.
In the end, remember that a strong reputation is all about your service levels. Every time you go above and beyond, you help your marketing. Every time you cut corners, you hurt it.
#3: Dominate page one of the search results
Garage door repair and installation is not a service people use frequently. Some homeowners go decades without calling someone in.
This means that when they do have a need, they’ll go to Google to find local services. You want to be all over page one. There are three ways to dominate the search results.
The first is pay-per-click advertising. These ads are run through auction-based systems, like Google Adwords and Bing Ads. The main advantage here is that you show up in the top positions (reserved for paid ads) and that you can control the ad copy and landing page. For example, you might want to run an advertisement for discounted garage door installations for new homes. Your ad and the page it goes to on your website can match that offer.
Next, you need to set-up and rank for Google Business Profile. This is the maps listing and review platform Google uses for geo-targeted searches. It’s a free listing you can optimize.
Then you have the organic website listings. These are also free clicks, with ranking gained through garage door SEO and content marketing, which includes by optimizing your website for keywords, gaining links, getting social media traffic and adding content to your blog.
If you do this right, you’ll show up in three places on page one:
Pro tip: Sign up for Local Service Ads
In 2017, Google began running a new paid advertising platform for home service professionals called Local Service Ads. Garage door service is one of the categories using the type of advertising, and it’s an excellent way to drive exclusive garage door leads.
LSA is a pay-per-lead platform where rankings are determined by the business’s ratings and reputation. You have to apply and go through a screening process to be included.
It’s based on your Google Business Profile, so get signed up for that right away if you’re not on it already.
#4: Create a company video
Video is a fast way to spruce up your garage door marketing and get your main message across. It will help you in search, and will also rank on YouTube searches.
Here’s a nice example of a short, to-the-point video with a strong call to action:
If you can, include some testimonial comments from happy customers. Also, if you have any deals or specializations, include that information.
#5: Distinguish yourself from the competition
Here is a simple test you can run.
Pretend you’re a customer looking for garage door repair or installation services. Do a search in your area and check the websites, reviews and Facebook pages of the local providers.
Would you choose you? Do you stand out with the best website and highest review ratings? Do you have a clear, enticing offer?
Or — in all honesty — is a competitor edging you out?
Many small businesses fail to conduct this test, which is a mistake. Because you can bet leads are comparing you to the competition, and they’ll choose the most professional looking business with the best offering. They’ll likely ignore any service with troubling reviews.
Make sure you have a strong value proposition that gives you an edge. If you wouldn’t choose you, how can you expect leads to?
Pro tip: Content marketing
People shopping for garage doors or experiencing problems with their openers often research online. They’re looking for information on how to set their openers, choose the right opener for their needs and diagnose issues.
You can use videos on your YouTube channel and blog articles to provide useful information for these leads. You provide this information to be helpful, but it also helps your garage door SEO and YouTube rankings. This is called content marketing, and it’s a useful way to get in front of leads as they start their research.
#6: Retargeting
Online consumers surf. We drift around online, about as committed to a direction as a leaf in the wind.
It’s because of this behavior that retargeting ads work so well. These are ads that appear on the web and social media after a person visits your garage door website.
Retargeting is a reminder for leads to follow through and contact you. The ads are banners with a basic call to action:
These campaigns often have low cost-per-click and high conversion rates, particularly for garage door services.
#7: Build a Facebook Business Page
Today, so many potential garage door service leads are already on Facebook that every business needs a presence there.
This starts by developing a complete Facebook business page. Set this up with all the available features, making sure to include a call to action, contact info, videos/images. Be sure to activate Facebook messenger and reviews.
Messenger can be a good lead source, so be prepared to respond to messages.
Keep your timeline updated with anything of interest for followers, but at this point, don’t expect to get many leads through organic postings. Facebook is not looking to rank business content in people’s news feeds, and the truth is that you’re unlikely to get many reactions (likes, shares, comments) on content pertaining to garage doors.
If you want to run direct-response ads, you’ll need to use the paid advertising features. These can be effective because you can target events, like buying a new home.
And though you won’t get a lot of traffic from organic postings, people will look your business up by name and peruse your business page much like they would your website. This is another important place to have a branded online property.
#8: Have a strong intake process
If you execute the ideas we’ve discussed so far you’re going to generate significant leads for your business. We’ve done it for many garage door services at Marketing 360.
That makes it really unfortunate when the business is blowing their business opportunities with a poor intake process.
Your intake process is being responsive to garage door leads by taking phone calls and responding to website forms. It’s communicating clearly on the phone and doing a good job of selling your service. It’s showing up on time for estimates and being fast, fair and professional when you meet a lead.
Never answering the phone and not returning messages doesn’t get it done. Being curt on the phone will cost you. Getting back late with estimates is pretty much a waste of time since you’ve already communicated that you’re not reliable.
Work on your phone skills. Be responsive to web inquiries, including Facebook messages.
Getting the lead is just the start. It’s up to you to close the deal.
#9: Use marketing software
Digital marketing opens up lead generation opportunities garage door repair services of the past never would have dreamed of. These tools are powerful.
However, they’re also more complex. Multichannel digital marketing requires more effort than just creating a Yellow Pages ad.
In fact, most small business owners come to the conclusion that trying to manage all this marketing while running their business isn’t worth it.
Marketing 360 is designed as a solution to that very problem. Our garage door marketing software takes all the channels and puts them on one platform so you can keep track of what’s happening from a single place. You work with a dedicated marketing executive who helps you develop and execute your strategy. This combo saves you time and makes for a more effective marketing process.
The right marketing will give you a competitive edge and keep you busy year-round, year after year. See our plans and pricing.
Originally published 2/27/18
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