There are a seemingly endless number of ways to promote your garage door repair business online. This guide covers each of the major online marketing methods that you can use to promote your business in order to:
Hopefully, this guide will help you to come up with your own garage door marketing ideas.
Having a website really isn't an option anymore. Most of the digital marketing methods outlined in this article require that your company has a well-designed and content-rich website. Through your website, the customer can see:
From your site, your customer will get the sense that you're local to the area and that you've been there and done that. When it comes to garage door repair, this isn't your first rodeo.
Not only that, a website that effectively introduces you and your work to your customers is able to convey that you're a legitimate business - and not some thinly veiled leads site that could be run by people outside of the United States.
This section covers your options for creating your website - or having a website built for your business. For more information about how your garage door company website should look and function, check out our post on Garage door company website recommendations.
There are many different types of website options that you can choose from for your website.
The main categories of website options for small home services contractors are:
We'll touch on all of these options within this section in a bit more depth in this section.
There are services - most notably Google - that offer free websites for your garage door repair business. Google Sites and your Google My Business Website are custom website offerings offered by Google.
Note that most of the free website options don't have a lot of the flexibility required for effective digital marketing. You could put your company website on a free website builder until you have the funds to upgrade to something better.
Google Sites is a website builder offered by Google that allows you to create a company website with a few clicks of the mouse. You can add content such as text, images, videos, and links to other sites. The best part about Google Sites is that you don't need any technical knowledge or experience to build a website.
Google Sites offers limited functionality when compared to other website builders. For example, you cannot upload files directly to your website, and you cannot edit HTML code. However, if you want something simple and easy to set up, then Google Sites is a great option.
(GMB Site for a Garage Door Repair Business)
A Google My Business Website is offered as part of your Google My Business Listing and can be used as a way to showcase your garage door repair business's information. A GMB website allows you to include photos, descriptions, hours of operation, contact information, and even videos of your company. The GMB Site will even show your latest GMB posts and reviews from your customers.
This type of website requires no technical expertise to set up. You can even use the GMB Website as the main website for your business. If you already have a domain name registered through Google, then you can simply point your domain to your GMB listing.
While using your GMB Website as your main company website isn't recommended, it is still probably a good idea to set up a GMB Website for your Garage Door Repair Business. It is another location where you can promote your business online - in addition to your main website.
You can also build your website using one of many online web services. Most of these platforms offer a "free" plan, but in actuality, the plans are so limited either in functionality or are time-limited - making them not really "free" in my mind. Their goal is to get you to try out their web platform - you can then pay more for a full-featured website.
For many of the free - or very inexpensive - website options, you won't be able to have your own custom domain name. Instead, you'll have a domain name that has the hosting company name at the end. As an example, with Weebly, your domain name will have to have "weebly.com" at the end. So your site may look like "phoenixgaragedoors.weebly.com".
Also, the quality of the sites that you can get with most of these website platforms varies greatly. While most of them come with website templates you can plug in and modify, sometimes the end product doesn't look all that great. A notable exception is Webflow - which allows you to create highly professional-looking websites.
For businesses that are just getting started, you may wish to use one of these platforms and then graduate to a more custom website solution (like WordPress) as your business grows. Note that the prices and plans were collected during December, 2021 and may change over time.
GoDaddy offers a free website builder and even has its own website builder which allows you to create your own website. While you can create the site for free, you'll still have to pay for hosting with GoDaddy - which starts at $5.99/mo if you sign up for a three-year commitment.
GoDaddy has powerful marketing and name recognition, but I find the GoDaddy user interface to be needlessly complex. You're probably better off looking elsewhere for your company website.
Weebly is another free website option. Weebly actually offers a completely free website. The website you get is limited, and you won't be able to have your own custom domain name on the free plan (as discussed above). Paid plans at Weebly start at $6/month (when billed annually)
Wix also allows you to build a free company website, but it will have a Wix domain (no custom domains for free). Paid plans at Wix start at $14/mo and have more functionality.
Simplesite is another website builder. The "free" plan actually only lasts for 30 days and is kind of a misnomer on their website. A "trial" site would be a more accurate description. While you're on the 30-day free plan, ads for SimpleSite will appear on your website. This "Free" plan (as they call it) also doesn't include a custom domain name. Paid plans at SimpleSite start at $13.32/mo (billed quarterly).
Site123 has a Free Plan ($0) and a Premium Plan ($16/mo). The Free plan doesn't allow for a custom domain, and also has the SITE123 Floating Tag present on your website.
Yola offers a free website - really up to 2 websites with 2 pages. You don't get our own custom domain name with YOLA, you'll have the yola.com domain as part of your site name. Their paid plans start at $4.95/mo.
Jimdo has a free site with basic features. You won't be able to have your own custom domain at that price, you'll have the jimdosite.com subdomain. Their paid plans start at $9/mo.
You can build your website and play around with Webflow for as long as you'd like. A lot of well-known brands use Webflow, and in the right hands, it can produce high-quality websites. Monthly plans start at $12/mo.
Prices start at $2.95/mo for annual billing - and this includes a domain name.
Wordpress.com is probably one of the better "free" domain choices. You'll get to add a lot to your website and aren't restricted to arbitrary limitations as is the case with other web platforms. But it is still far from perfect. You don't get the use of WordPress Plugins or your own domain name, and Wordpress.com will show ads on your website.
WordPress powers nearly 40% of all websites online, and over 60% of all Content Management Systems (CMS). The next largest Content Management System Marketshare is Shopify - which powers just 3.2% of all websites.
There are advantages of using WordPress for your Garage Door Repair Website.
By choosing the most popular website platform, you'll have the best chance for options and support for your site.
This is outside the scope of this article, but just some of the WordPress page builders worth exploring are Oxygen, Elementor, Divi, Visual Composer (WP Bakery), GeneratePress and Brizy.
As your business grows, you'll likely want a stand-alone website, and WordPress is a great choice for most business owners.
Build your main business site on WordPress. If you must, you can start with one of the platform websites until your business grows and you're ready for more functionality and flexibility.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an extremely effective digital marketing strategy that a garage door contractor can employ to generate new customer leads. However, if you're just getting started with SEO, it can take some time to get traction.
Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website by getting your website to rank higher up in the search engine results page for searches that are relevant to the garage door repair services that you provide.
As an example, if someone searches for "broken garage door spring" or "emergency garage door repair", you will want your website to appear near the top of the search results on page 1. The top search results get a significantly higher number of clicks than the results towards the bottom of page 1.
Local SEO is another facet of SEO which focuses on companies appearing high up in the search results in their local area. It also involves fully developing your Google Business Profile (used to be called "Google My Business") so that it has a chance to be displayed on the Google Map pack.
Search Engine Optimization can get quite technically complicated. We cover the basics in this section. If you're looking for a more in-depth analysis of how garage door SEO might work for your business, check out our post about SEO for Garage Door companies.
In order to rank well in search engines, the content on your website must be fantastic. This is called content marketing.
It should obviously be about servicing garage doors. The content should be highly informative, and even have some information that could help DIY folks with quick fixes. Before and after photos and videos of actual service calls is great content, and it could help to give you a leg up on search engines.
Most garage door repair websites have boilerplate, boring service, and location pages that are pretty much all the same. To stand out, you need to have unique content that goes into much more depth into what is involved in running your business as well as the day-to-day fixes that you perform for customers.
Links are another important consideration for ranking well in search engines. Google views incoming links to your website as votes for your site and they can help you rank higher up for searches.
These incoming links should be from high-quality, relevant sites. Getting links from irrelevant websites (like a forum about knitting) won't help, and can actually hurt your website.
There are strategies that you can take to try to get those quality links. I'll get into those strategies in an upcoming post about SEO.
On-Page SEO gets a bit more technical. In a nutshell, on-page SEO involves formatting each page on your website so that Google knows exactly what the page is about. On-page SEO techniques involve properly structuring the content behind the page that is meant for search engines to read (meta tags), as well as making sure your on-page content as a hierarchy that is easy for search engines to understand - and that emphasizes the right themes of the web page in the right places.
To be successful with social media marketing, you need to have your own website with your own domain name. But you're also going to want to claim your business on as many social media platforms as possible.
One way to do this is to set up Business Profile Pages on LinkedIn and Facebook.
While being active on LinkedIn may not necessarily help you to get more garage door service leads, having another place online for your business can't hurt.
On your business page, you can post specific services you provide as well as information and updates and even videos about your business. As an example, you could share before and after photos of garage door repair jobs and include customer testimonials.
LinkedIn can also be a way to connect with vendors and suppliers to get more commercial garage door leads. You can also use LinkedIn to connect and network with potential future sources of leads. You can connect with property managers, commercial building owners, and small business owners.
All small business owners - including garage door repair owners should create and promote their Facebook business page. Once you've established a Facebook Business page, you can post updates, hours, services, and other information about your business right on Facebook.
Unfortunately, the organic reach of Facebook business posts is only about 5%. This means if you have 100 people who like or follow your business, only 1 out of 20 of them will see one of our Facebook business post updates.
Facebook wants to get paid for you to get your information out - which means you have to run ads to reach potential customers. Setting up a business page on Facebook is the first step in being able to run ads for your Garage Door Repair Business.
Getting your garage door repair business listed in multiple online directories also helps you to claim your space and promote your brand on the Internet.
While Yelp is most well known for restaurant reviews, they cater to almost all local businesses. If you're a garage door repair business, you should set up a local business page with Yelp. Just be prepared for the possibility that their sales team will inundate you with phone calls trying to sell you additional services. Registering for Yelp's standard (free) business page offering should be enough to get started.
Yelp Business Page Upgrades
Yelp does offer additional features for your business page at an additional cost. These upgrades include the following:
Should you Pay Extra for an Enhanced Business Page or Yelp Advertising Services?
In most cases, probably not. That said, with any paid online promotional service, you need to do your homework. Find garage door repair owners in other cities of comparable size to your own and call them. Ask them why they have an enhanced business page and if it is having a noticeable effect on their business. Ask them what benefit they're receiving from Yelp advertising. Ask them what metrics that Yelp provides them so that they know that they're getting good value for their marketing budget. Before investing your hard-earned dollars, you want to see concrete proof that Yelp is able to deliver a return on investment for Marketing Dollars.
The Better Business Bureau is another well-known directory where you should list your business. Doing so can help a bit with SEO (links from prominent directories like bbb.org can help a bit from an SEO standpoint).
Paying for a BBB membership is going to have to be a judgment call on your part. BBB membership cost varies by area, and I've found the benefits to be quite limited. While they do have networking events for businesses, the real, tangible benefit is being able to use their logo.
I was a member of the Better Business Bureau for many years was because of the public perception of having the BBB logo on my website. Whether this is warranted or not, having the logo on your website may add credibility and trust to your website and marketing materials, and could potentially increase your conversion rate of prospects into clients.
I did eventually quit the BBB when my annual fees jumped to $525 per year just for the use of a logo.
It is possible that presenting Google Reviews on your website will be just as effective - if not more effective - than having a BBB logo on your website.
You'll want to get your website listed in local business directories - especially if you can do so for free. Getting listed in these directories can further cement the fact to Google (and other search engines) that your garage door repair business is operating within your local city.
These can vary by city and can be hard to find, but here are some ideas to explore to find places to list your business:
Local Chamber of Commerce - I'm in the Denver Metro area and there are multiple overlapping chambers of commerce. Most of these require payment to join, but joining can increase your profile and get you a backlink which could potentially help with SEO
Local Newspaper and TV Stations - As an example, here in Denver, The Denver Post has a directory that provides free local listings for Denver metro businesses.
Conduct a search on Google - use "business directory + (Your City)" to see what directory opportunities are available to you.
Joining one of the associations related to garage door repair can provide you with marketing benefits - including a directory listing and the use of industry logos in your promotional materials.
If you aren't a member already, explore membership options at the International Door Association (IDA). Industry associations can help in a couple of different ways. Networking with other garage door repair owners can provide insight into marketing and operations strategies that can help your business. Use of the IDA logo can also help to effectively promote your business by adding credibility and increasing the likelihood that someone will convert from a tire kicker / price-checker into someone that ends up buying your garage door repair services.
There are multiple general business directories where you should get your business listed. Manta and Houzz are two directories where all garage door repair businesses should list their business and service offerings.
Angi / HomeAdvisor also falls into this category. Currently, you can get set up a free profile with Angi.
There are other, smaller directory websites that you may wish to get your business listed in as well. Having your business listed in some of these directories may serve as a signal to Google that your garage door repair business is legitimate (and not a thin lead generation service with no consistent business owners running it).
Getting local citations can be a tedious process. There are services that can help you get multiple citations, and make sure that your business listings across the Internet have a consistent NAP (name, address, phone number). BrightLocal and WhiteSpark are two providers that can generate citations for your Garage Door Repair Business and make sure that those listings have the exact same NAP data.
These services can get you listed on MapQuest, FourSquare, CitySearch, and many other less well-known directories.
YouTube is one of the best ways to promote your garage door repair business online. It allows customers to better understand you and the services that you provide.
This section provides a brief overview on YouTube, but to really take it to the next level check out our post on YouTube for garage door companies.
Videos of you and your team doing repairs, talking about garage doors, and even guiding consumers through more simple DIY fixes can be extremely powerful garage door marketing - especially since your competitors likely aren't shooting video at all.
Keep in mind in many cases, what may seem to be a simple DIY fix for you may be viewed as a huge headache for a homeowner. Speaking from experience, home improvement projects take me around 5x as long as they take a professional who does this stuff daily. I (and many homeowners) are much more likely to pick up the phone and pay someone rather than sink my whole weekend.
You can set up a YouTube channel for your business easily and showcase all of the work that you provide. You can also take these videos and put them on your web page. This allows you to easily show how you perform a spring replacement - while at the same time explaining the danger involved to the viewer (it really is better to call a professional, isn't it).
Yet another advantage of using YouTube is that YouTube videos are appearing in the search results for Google searches more and more. If you're shooting video and your competitors aren't, you may be getting a chance for more web traffic.
Another way to promote your business online is by collecting reviews from your customers and making sure that those reviews are displayed on review sites - as well as your website.
Google My Business, Yelp, and the BBB are the most important review sites for your garage door repair business. You should make every attempt to deliver high-quality service to ensure that customers provide you with good reviews.
Google My Business reviews appear as part of your listing on Google, and will also appear on map listings when people do Google searches for your services.
Make it easy for consumers to leave you a Google review by providing them with a direct link to your Google review page. Respond to reviews (both positive and negative) in a constructive way. Never argue with consumers on Google as this will reflect very poorly on your business and can harm the flow of repair leads.
Yelp is a bit trickier than Google because you can't directly ask consumers for a review according to Yelp's terms of service. You can add a link to your Yelp business page from your website - which may help to get some reviews. You should also respond to Yelp reviews in a positive, constructive fashion.
Yelp can be challenging to deal with as its review algorithms appear to be somewhat arbitrary. You may note that positive reviews by seemingly trusted reviewers don't appear on your review page, while negative reviews by reviewers with relatively few reviews may be featured.
It is also important to stay on top of your Better Business Bureau Reviews. These reviews frequently appear on the first page of search results when someone searches for a garage door repair business - usually in an attempt to research your company. You can work directly with the BBB to attempt to resolve any review discrepancies.
Sites like Angi.com will usually have reviews of many different types of contractors, including garage door repair businesses. You'll want to monitor these sites and make sure that your reviews are accurate, and you can attempt to dispute reviews that weren't from actual customers.
You can attempt to find other review sites by going to Google and searching for "Garage Door Repair Reviews" or "<<Your Business Name>> Reviews". This will allow you to see review sites that have reviews for your business. Monitor these sites to make sure the reviews are accurate, and take steps to remedy and false reviews.
One of the most effective digital marketing tactics to get more garage door repair leads is through online advertising.
When it comes to online advertising, the best garage door marketing strategy is to focus on search engine advertising - not social media advertising. You'll want to start with Google search ads - which is by far the most effective at getting nearly instant results.
Most online advertising platforms use pay per click (PPC) marketing. This means that when someone clicks on one of your PPC ads, they are brought to your website, and your account is charged. So you won't have to pay if someone sees your ad - only if a potential customer clicks on your ad and is brought to your website will you incur a charge.
Google Ads has multiple options to get started advertising. Google ads allow you to get your advertising Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) has multiple options to get started advertising. Google ads allow you to get your advertising message in front of homeowners (and commercial building owners) at the exact moment they need your services.
For example, if someone searches for "garage door repair Houston", it is possible that your ad will appear in multiple places on the page.
Now I'm going to hit the highlights and cover Google's three main advertising offerings:
Google Search Ads allow you to bid on keywords. When someone conducts a search related to your keyword, your ad may appear based on your bid and other factors.
Example keywords ("garage won't open", "broken garage door spring").
You will write an ad that closely matches the problem the consumer is experiencing, and the ad will also explain how you're the right person to fix their problem.
Should the consumer click on your ad, they will be taken to a page on your website which goes in more depth about how you can solve their problem. This page - called a "landing page" - also makes it easy for consumers to contact you so that you can fix their problems.
You will have a separate landing page for each type of service that you offer. If someone is searching for "broken garage door spring", they will click on your ad talking about garage door spring replacements, which will take them to a page on your website which discusses how quickly and easily you're able to replace garage door springs.
If you're looking for in-depth information on Google Search Ads, check out our guide on Google Ads for Garage Door Companies.
Google Smart Campaigns are a watered-down version of Google Search Ads. While simpler for consumers to get up and running than Google Search Ads, there is a major lack of control when compared to Google Search Ads.
It is much easier to set up and manage Google Smart Campaigns, but you also lose the ability to fine-tune your garage door marketing campaigns - for example, you can't easily have different bids for different keywords. You also don't have access to quite as much data from Smart Campaigns as you do from search ad campaigns. This makes it a bit more difficult to know the exact searches that are leading to customers for your garage door repair business.
Google Local Services ads are Ads put out by Google that allow garage repair and other home services company professionals to appear at the top of the search results for certain queries.
You must be fully vetted and approved by Google in order to participate in Local Services Ads. For most garage door repair business owners, these ads are worth exploring - along with Google Search Ads.
For more information, check out our guide on Google Local Services Ads for Garage Door Pros.
Microsoft Ads are another great way for garage door professionals to advertise their services online. Microsoft search ads work in a very similar fashion to Google Search Ads. You can actually just import your Google Campaigns into Microsoft Ads (with some minor adjustments), and you'll be able to easily run ads that will appear on the Bing Search engine.
Note that Microsoft Ads doesn't have an equivalent to Google Smart Campaigns or Local Service Ads at the moment.
Check out our Microsoft Ads for Garage Doors guide for how to get more customers with Microsoft Ads.
Yelp Ads may be worth experimenting with after you've conquered Google Search Ads and Microsoft Ads. Before even thinking about signing up with Yelp, do your homework. Find other garage door repair businesses in different areas that are advertising on Yelp (that aren't your direct competitors). Ask them what kind of returns they're getting by investing in garage door marketing on Yelp (get real numbers).
Only if you receive positive feedback with numbers that support advertising on Yelp should you even consider it.
For full details on yelp advertising and an in-depth write-up on whether they may be right for you, see our write-up on Yelp Ads for Garage Door Businesses.
LinkedIn has an advertising platform that should probably be avoided by most Garage Door pros. While you should probably still set up a business page for your garage door repair business on LinkedIn, advertising likely won't make much sense.
The only potential exception would be if you work with a lot of commercial garage doors. In that case, it may make sense to advertise to property managers or building owners on LinkedIn.
Our LinkedIn Ads for Garage Door Pros guide provides more information on LinkedIn advertising options and covers the rare instances where it may make sense for your business.
As mentioned previously in this post, you should set up a Facebook page for your Garage Door Repair business. Facebook advertising works best when advertising to particular audiences. The audience could be based on a certain demographic (age, income, location) or based on interests.
As garage door repair is an emergency service not necessarily tied to demographics or interests, it is likely not the best place for your advertising dollars. You'd be better served to explore Google Search Ads and Microsoft Search Ads first.
Garage Door Repair is an emergency service which means that advertising on Twitter or Instagram would be a waste of cash. Neither platform is conducive to emergency repair advertising.
In this guide, we cover the most important places to market your business online. I encourage you to dive deep into each section of this guide, but here is a brief guide to where your marketing resources should be spent.
You really need to have the following elements in place before beginning major marketing campaigns for your garage door repair business.
You really need to have a functional, modern-looking website for visitors to land on after they come across your marketing materials. The website must make an effective case that your garage door repair business can solve their problem. The site must also make it very easy for the prospective customer to get in touch with you.
The website doesn't have to be perfect or super expensive. You can use one of the cheap platforms to get started, but eventually, you'll want to move to a WordPress Website.
Online advertising is the quickest way to get traffic to your website. Google Ads and Microsoft Ads are both highly effective. Start with Google Ads and then move to Microsoft Ads once you're having success with Google Ads.
Get listed in relevant local directory sites - especially Google My Business. Create a business page on Social Media Networks (just so you have a presence there). Also, pay a service to get citations for your business.
These are all extremely important activities to be performing on an ongoing basis.
Advertising on platforms other than Microsoft and Google
Only consider advertising on Yelp or other services after Microsoft and Google Search Ads are working for you.
Updating Social Media Platforms
While it is good to have a presence on Social Media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, making sure that these social media platforms are consistently updated is unnecessary. Prospective customers likely won't follow your business on LinkedIn and Twitter. Facebook doesn't share business updates very often - for your followers to see your message, you'll generally have to pay for it.
There are other places where your time is better spent.
