In a way, building a profitable business is simple. Building a profitable business, a business the experiences record breaking income each and every year, is all about one, singular idea: booking more business. In our case, building a profitable business is all about booking more floods.
Of course, we all know it only seems simple on paper. It is much more complicated in practice. When we talking about booking more floods and increasing profits, countless questions arise. How do we book more floods? How do we make sure we’re the first name that comes to mind when the unexpected happens? What is the best investment of our precious marketing budgets?
The Downside of Marketing to Homeowners
When you work in water damage restoration, homeowners are the source of most of your work. Because companies like ours specializing in water removal, mitigation of damage, and even removal of mold from homes experiencing water accumulation and damage, we work mostly with homeowners who are facing water damage emergencies.
Because of this, it might seem like the most logical marketing move is to market our services to homeowners. The truth is, marketing to homeowners might work on occasion, but it isn’t the best way to spend marketing dollars.
When homeowners see marketing for a water damage restoration company, they rarely believe the message is for them. Water damage only occurs in a home on an average of once every 50 years. So, it is safe to assume that the homeowners running across your billboard or seeing ads online, aren’t saving your number. They don’t expect the unlikely to happen to them.
This is the downside of marketing to homeowners. When they do experience water damage and flooding in their home, they rarely call restoration specialists first. Instead, they call their home insurance company or a plumber who can stop the leak.
The Secret to a Profitable Business
Of course, we’re not suggesting that you never market to homeowners. Instead, we’re simply suggesting there is a better way to make your business profitable. In our experience, referral marketing is the secret to increasing profits.
The main goal of referral marketing is to build mutually beneficial relationships with the people who are most often in contact with those experiencing water damage in their homes. Through networking with people like insurance agents and plumbing contractors, you can create the beginnings of a profitable referral marketing program. These are the people who receive the panicked calls from homeowners when a pipe has burst. These are the people you want in your corner.
How Referral Marketing Works
Referral marketing is accomplished by offering cash incentives to those who recommend your business to others. This means that each time an insurance agent, plumbing contractor, or any other contractor you work closely with sends new work your way, they get a kick back from you.
The reason this works so well is because it increases your chances of being recommended to the people who need your services the most. After you build strong relationships with your referral sources and you have proven that the relationship is beneficial to them as well, you can rely on them as a source of business for a long time.
The reason relationships like these are so beneficial to you is because they are pure profit. In a typical marketing campaign, you invest your time and money into an ad or a flyer campaign and hope you’ve reached your target audience. With referral marketing, however, you only pay once your relationships have paid off. You only pay the source of your referral if a lead turns into real, on-the-books business.
Building Your Unlimited Network
The value of strong, long-lasting professional connections is that they become the foundation of your unlimited referral network. Think of it like a web, one connection with an insurance agent connects you with the calls they receive each and every day. Their connections turn into your leads. And, after you’ve wowed those leads with your excellent customer service and highly skilled water damage restoration team, they become your next source of referrals.
Begin building your referral network with the people who make the most sense. Share your program, including the incentives you plan to offer, with agents and contractors you’ve worked with in the past. Share your plans for offer referral kickbacks to homeowners you’ve had strong experiences with.
Lastly, don’t neglect these relationships after they become beneficial with you. Tend to these connections, checking back in and asking for feedback on their experience with your referral marketing program.
At More Floods, referral marketing is just one of the many marketing skills we teach to members of our network. To learn more about becoming a part of the More Floods professional network, click here or call 1-866-667-3356.