If you are in the flooring business, there is a serious need to make sure that you have a strong presence online so that you can attract the attention of the people looking for you. Unless you are the only flooring installer or contractor in your area, then chances are there is going to be some competition, and if you do not take action to make sure you are being seen by potential customers, then you are losing out to those who are. Now, you may already be investing some advertising dollars into Thumbtack, Angi (formerly Angie’s List), Houzz or Yelp already, which is great! The problem is that these leads are shared and at the end of the day, you do not own any of the assets that are created for you. That is not so great. 

In this guide, we will break down the fundamentals of a solid digital marketing strategy and how you can implement it to help grow your flooring business so that you generate exclusive leads, and improve the digital assets that you own. This will be broken into two parts. In part one, we will cover the traditional digital marketing strategies, websites, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and SEO.  

I. Building a Website that Converts

It all begins with your website. If a website is slow, confusing to use or navigate, or lacks engaging content or design, you are going to lose out on potential business from those who visit. 

A well-designed and user-friendly website is crucial for flooring businesses (or any business for that matter). By incorporating clear calls-to-action, engaging content and intuitive navigation, you can enhance the conversion rate of your website, turning more visitors into leads and customers. When someone visits your website, they are subconsciously asking themselves the following questions: Do these guys understand my needs? Do they have a solution for said needs? Can I trust them to provide that solution? Most websites skip right to answering the third question and talk mostly about how great their business, product or service is without first taking time to show the visitor that you understand them. 

In addition to the basic conversion rate optimization (CRO) techniques, it is important for flooring businesses to also make sure their website has an online booking platform, lots of images and videos of your work (before and after images/video are great!), includes relevant reviews and case studies, and has some sort of flooring visualizer tool (we love Roomvo). If you sell specific flooring products or brands that people are looking for, you may also want to consider setting up the website for eCommerce, so people can find those flooring products and add them to their cart. 

II. Google Pay Per Click & Local Service Ads

Google’s Search, Display and Local Service Ads are powerful tools for flooring businesses to increase their online visibility and gain traffic immediately. Google offers Pay Per Click (PPC ads) which are the most traditional forms of paid Google Ads. Now, they also offer Local Service Ads (or Google Guaranteed) where you have to apply to be accepted, and then pay only per qualified leads. 

By setting up ad campaigns, focusing on relevant keywords and local customer targeting, you can drive qualified traffic to your website and generate valuable leads. Just be prepared to spend a good amount on ad spend (we suggest $50/day minimum) for the first few months, especially if your ad account is new and has little trust in Google’s eyes. 

The biggest mistake that we often see when taking over Google Ad accounts is not actively and consistently adjusting keywords, adding negative keywords or testing different keyword types, bidding strategies or ad types. For example, if you offer flooring services in Chicago, and you add the keyword “flooring chicago” to your list as a broad match type, chances are you will get lots of clicks for searches related to “flooring in chicago,” but lots of them will likely be for people looking for flooring from Costco, Home Depot or other competitors. In this case, you have 2 options: 1) continue to add negative keywords on a daily basis for search terms that you deem irrelevant, or 2) shift your focus to exact or phrase match keywords so your search only shows up for “flooring chicago” instead of something loosely related. In option 1, you will spend less on clicks, but will need to wait longer for Google to understand the types of searches you want to show up for. In option 2, you will get fewer irrelevant clicks but will need to be willing to pay much more per click as you are paying to be more selective. 

III. Targeted Social Media Ads:

I often like to say that Google is the best traffic source online because you are getting in front of people who are actively searching for flooring, so you know that they are interested. But targeted social media advertising allows you to expand your reach beyond what people are searching for on Google and offers immense opportunities for reaching and engaging your target audience - whether that be homeowners, property managers, designers, architects or builders. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok and LinkedIn provide robust targeting options to deliver your ads to the right demographics. 

Because you are now getting in front of people who are not actively looking for your services, it is important to understand that these ads will not convert as much as a Google ad at first but are great to bring more brand awareness and exposure online. In order to generate as much traction as possible from these ads, we often use the following strategy.

Start with either some educational ads about the benefits of different types of flooring or flooring services you provide (make it more about the service and the user and less about you) or an offer/promo to opt-in to (financing, money off the installation, free refinishing or cleaning, etc.). Then after a few weeks start to retarget people who have interacted with these initial ads with ads that are more personal - something about you, your business, your installers, a previous case study/testimonial that shows the human side of your business and allow people to connect with your brand.

In order to do these multi-levels of targeted ads, you will need to have a bigger budget. If money is tight, then consider just running some promotional ads, and use either Facebook’s built in lead generation ads or messenger ads to directly talk with people there who are interested. If you want to target a younger audience, then consider being active on TikTok. If you want to target a specific commercial audience, then consider advertising on LinkedIn - just be prepared to invest more on ad spend. 

IV. Improving Reach with Local SEO:

If you are like most people who search on Google, you will likely skip the ads (Google is getting better at hiding them), and skip ahead to the organic results whether that be the Google Map Pack of relevant businesses near you, or the website results below those. If you are not visible in either of these places, then your business is surely losing out on dozens if not hundreds of visitors or leads every month to your website (depending on the market you are in). 

That is why investing in a solid local search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is essential for flooring businesses to improve their online visibility in their local market. SEO is simple, but not easy. Unlike what some people may have you think, it is also not a “set it and forget it” type of thing. In fact, Google rewards websites that are active and continue to add relevant content to their website, Google Business lodging and other branded profiles online. 

Any good SEO strategy begins with the website. If you do not have relevant content and pages on your site for all of the flooring products and services you offer, as well as pages for each area you serve, then you are going to be at a disadvantage. The more thoroughly you cover these topics, the better your website and Google listing will perform. 

In addition to your website, it is important to fully optimize your Google Business Profile (formerly GMB), by completing as much of the information as possible, continuing to add relevant images and posts to it, as well as drive traffic and reviews to it. The more people engage and interact with your listing, the better it will perform in maps. 

Finally, you want to actively build up your brand by submitting it on relevant niche and local directories to grow its authority and trust in the eyes of Google to ensure your business appears in relevant local search results. 

If you need any help implementing these feel free to reach out and I would be happy to help!