You may find this statement surprising but there is a lot of winter work. Winter is a time of opportunity for your painting business on several levels. Seeking winter interior painting is sensible since exterior projects are unlikely even though you can now paint down to 35° with advance paint formulations.
Customers tend to shy away from interior painting in winter. For the most part the culprit is the concern for paint odor in the home or office in cold weather when windows can’t be left open.
But the more interior work you can garner for the cold months, the better. Some painting contractors just except the season for what it is, and tough it out. Others take vacations. In both cases, you lose revenues. But if neither of those options set well with you, keep reading.
Winter Work: 3 strategies to help you generate business and avoid the winter blues
Reach out with savings
One way to weather painting possibilities is to contact your current and past (inactive) customers. Let them know you are offering some kind of savings for winter projects. But I urge you not to use the word discount. It can in some ways tarnish your image.
Your marketing message can instead be geared around savings due to your winter slow period, and the fact that you can apply low odor/no odor paints.
Think simple, to start
As the cold season approaches, many homeowners consider upgrades or freshen-ups since they often entertain family and friends for the holidays. Therefore, your offer to provide savings and low/no odor paints could spur them on to bring you in, especially for easy touch-ups, wallcovering repairs, covering stains in hallways and high traffic areas.
The key here is to promote simple fixes rather than bigger interior projects. Homeowners can mentally deal with small, fast, painting projects and repairs. Of course, once you’re in the door, more opportunities will likely appear.
Best ways to get the word out
You can get your message out with letters containing a small coupon with your “winter special” offer, or send inexpensive postcards. Then combine that with your social media marketing to get the word out.
Social media is an effective media to keep your awareness active. And, it gives you another fantastic opportunity. You can write brief articles about the advantages of winter painting. Social media can help you educate your audience.
Once you have an interior project, offer the customer some reward for giving you a referral to more winter projects among their contact network.
Another excellent target is condominiums and apartment complexes. The latter always have renters moving in and out (often in the winter), which means the apartments usually need to be painted.
Winter Work Bottom Line: Be proactive
The important point here is to do something proactive to beef up winter work. Many customers would likely bring you in to paint if that was at the top of their mind in winter. It isn’t! So it’s your job to get on their radar screen and let them know they can paint in the cold and save money in the process.
This is based on the oldest sales principle in the world: People want to be asked to buy! Send your message out and ask, ask, ask. You’ll get winter work.
So Amigos, do you recommend any other strategies to help you generate more winter work? Comment below…
Also, check out Paint Amigo’s book recommendation for growing your social media presence below (Amazon affiliate links)…
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