The #1 Thing Missing From Your Painting Website (and It’s Costing You Jobs)

There’s a critically important element of your website that is often missing. I look at painting websites from time to time. I don’t know anyone else that would have an interest in it, but because I’m in the industry and because we specifically build painting contractor websites for our members, it’s something that I keep up with.

And one thing that I find that is often missing on websites and social media, anywhere that you have what I would refer to as a web property, is the who factor.

You see, there’s really not much branding that goes on in painting. And when people ask for a referral, they never say, “Can you refer a brand of painting, a brand of painter?” They always say, “Who would you recommend?”

Who who? It’s like an owl. Everybody wants to know who. But for some reason, when you go to web properties and painting websites and profiles, the who seems to be missing most of the time.

When people go to your painting website, we’ll take that for example, but this applies to other web properties. They really want to know who. Who is the owner? Who is the estimator? Who are the crew leaders? What do they look like? What are their hobbies? What are their backgrounds? What are their families?

And I will go to painting websites and I look around. It’s not on the front page. It’s not anywhere that’s commonly trafficked. If you go looking for it, once people start making a serious decision, they do start clicking around on your website before they write an estimate. That’s a buying signal when they start clicking around online.

And you look at the website and you’re like, is this some kind of faceless corporation? Is this website even active? Is this a real website? Is it owned by a real person? Is the thing even in business anymore? You can’t tell.

It is very personal what we do. When you go into particularly in residential environments or commercial environments, people are trying to figure out if they can trust you. Can they trust you with the security of the property? Can they trust you with the integrity of the property? Can they trust you to paint their baby’s nursery? Can they trust you with the money? Can they trust you?

And if you do not have a personality that is woven throughout your web properties — you, your estimators, your crew leaders, people in your business — then you are failing to connect with people at the very point in which they want to make a decision.

And so if you do not have team profiles on your website, I encourage you to add them. It is one of the most trafficked areas on websites we build. People really want to know who they’re doing business with. And even in commercial work, which is less personal than residential work, it is still important to understand who the people are behind the proposal.

So if you’re not currently doing that, if you’re not showing pictures of yourself, your crew leaders, your estimators, your administrative assistants, whoever they are — if you don’t have pictures, a little bit about who they are, their family, what their role is in the company — you are missing a massive opportunity to connect with prospects online before you ever meet them face-to-face.

It’s something you can fix. It’s relatively easy. Get out your iPhone, get some decent pictures. Don’t use the bad ones. And make sure that you are really pushing the who factor.

Because who you are and who your people are matters. And it’s a critically important factor in the buying decision.