7 Tricks For Promoting Your Painting Business Using Online Directories

Did you know that 68% of all clicks go to only the first 5 results in the search?

Having that knowledge truly shows how important it is to get your painting website ranking!

With your painting business in an online directory, it can help people find you easier and get you to the top of searches.

Let’s look at 7 tricks for promoting your painting business using online directories:

1. Avoid Paid Directories

The first thing that you should know when you are looking to get your painting business into a directory is to avoid paid directories.

Though they might seem like the right place to list your business, the truth is they’re all style and no substance.

With the money they rake in they can make their directories look really nice, which attracts businesses.

This does not mean that they are going to be useful in attracting customers, however.

As a business owner, it’s far more important to do this than to look good but not be seen by anyone!

[Related: 7 Email Marketing Tips For Painting Contractors in 2020]

2. Optimize Your Listing With The Best Information

If you want your listing to really help your business, you are going to need to make sure that it has the best information.

This means, for example, that you will not list all of your phone numbers but the best one to reach you.

It’s also useful to have the kind of information that is going to best represent what you do as a company.

You will want to say you paint kitchen cabinets, for example, not just kitchens if you have a specialty.

3. Ask For Reviews

You may know that reviews are key to doing well as a painting business — and you can find them in online directories as well.

Though you could always wait and hope for reviews to make their way to directories, this is not the best way to get them.

To greatly increase your chances of getting reviews, you should make sure to ask for them after painting projects.

It’s best to ask people to leave you a review once you have finished  the project, and are going over what you did.

As you explain everything you did, you can say that good reviews really help you, and where they can leave it.

Here is a video tutorial on how to ask for reviews:

4. Always Respond To Reviews

As good as reviews are, they are even better when you respond to every single review that is left.

This is going to be the case whether the review that was left was positive or even negative.

When you have a good review, you will want to thank the person of course.

You can even say they can come back to you in the future for their painting needs.

If they leave a negative review, however, you’re going to want to take an entirely different approach.

In responding to a negative review, you will want to sympathize that they had a bad experience with you.

You can additionally explain how the process typically goes when you do that kind of painting project.

Try to keep this kind of response short, and ask them to contact you directly to discuss the issue further.

5. Think Like A Customer

When you’re looking to write your directory information, you should think about what a possible customer will need.

How would a possible customer approach a directory of painting businesses, and what would attract them to yours in particular?

Think about what it is that you offer, and how you can write about these services for directory readers.

Remember that people tend to be a bit impatient online — if you make your listing too long they’ll move on.

Keep it short and you will get the attention of your future customers and possibly win them over.

6. Use Google Analytics To Track Effectiveness

You’re going to be making use of at least a few different directories to promote your painting business.

If you don’t know what results you’re getting from having these directories, it’s hard to know if it’s worth having them.

By using tracking tools like Google Analytics, you can see exactly where traffic is coming from.

If you see that you start to get traffic from one of the directories and not the others, you can focus more attention on that one.

Here is the ultimate tutorial for using Google Analytics for your site:

7. Review Your Listings For Updated Information

Lastly, you have to make sure that you always keep your directory listings as up to date as possible.

When you change your phone number, for example, it’s important that you go to the directories where you are listed and update it.

The reason that this is such an important thing to regularly do is that people coming to the directories count on it to be accurate.

If they find your business through a directory and try to contact you but fail, they will understandably feel let down.

Quick Recap:

1. Avoid paid directories, as they tend to take your money and do nothing to really help your business

2. To ensure people are able to contact you, optimize your listing with the best information such as the best email address and phone number

3. Ask for reviews so that people who find your listing will know you can do what you advertise well!

4. Always respond to reviews so that people will know that you are listening to your customers

5. Think like a customer – if you were to see your listing, what would you want to know about the company?

6. To be sure that your listings are having the right impact, use Google Analytics to track the effectiveness and tweak appropriately

7. As time passes your information may change and so it’s worth it to review your listings for updated information and then update it appropriately