Fortunately, most of the people I talk to don\u2019t have such a high opinion of themselves that they think everyone within a 10 mile radius of their shop or office knows them. But there are contractors out there who are so stuck on themselves that they think there isn\u2019t a living, breathing soul who isn\u2019t clamoring to do business with them when they need that particular product or service.<\/p>\n

If you fall into the former category above (and since you read this site, I am assuming you don\u2019t, but I am sure you know someone who does) then keep reading, because I am going to show you why you still need to advertise even if you have a solid word-of-mouth base of built-in business.<\/p>\n

\n
1. Word of mouth advertising is obviously the best way to gain new clients or customers, but I have never met a contractor who was busy enough with just referral work.<\/li>\n
2. Even with strong referrals, companies typically lose up to 30% of that referral base each year, and you need to fill that pipeline to replace all the people who died, moved or hate you and just haven\u2019t told you (probably because you didn\u2019t ask them).<\/li>\n
3. If you rely only on word of mouth advertising, and you are not found when people (who are unhappy with their current choice) go looking, then you have zero chance of winning that person over EXACTLY when you should be marketing to them.<\/li>\n
4. By relying only on referrals, you are letting other people who are not completely familiar with your business sell for you.<\/li>\n
5. If you have convinced yourself that number 1 doesn\u2019t apply to you, let me ask you this, wouldn\u2019t it be nice to be able to replace existing business with higher priced jobs that earn you more money? Marketing to the need helps you do that instead of sitting back and waiting for people come to you!<\/li>\n
6. If you think that your business is such an anomaly that traditional advertising doesn\u2019t work, then ask yourself this question; how do people who just move into your area ( who don\u2019t know anyone to ask for referrals) find you if you don\u2019t advertise? The answer is they don\u2019t, they find your competition instead.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

   And that\u2019s it Mr. Busyboy, if you can punch holes through my list, then maybe you are the busiest person in construction, but I bet there are always ways to improve your market share in your local market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   Fortunately, most of the people I talk to don\u2019t have such a high opinion of themselves that they think everyone within a 10 mile radius of their shop or office knows them. But there are contractors out there who are so stuck on themselves that they think there isn\u2019t a living, breathing soul who isn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[40,49,6,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-2467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-contractor-marketing","7":"tag-brand-building","8":"tag-brand-management","9":"tag-business-planning","10":"tag-social-media-marketing-for-contractors-2","11":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n