Morgul Marketing

    Atlanta, GA

    Social media for roofers working subdivisions that all age at once

    Whole streets in Cobb County and Gwinnett County went up inside a couple of building seasons, which means the roofs on them wear out inside a couple of seasons of each other too. A homeowner in that position is not searching yet. She is watching a dumpster appear two doors down and asking the neighbors who did it. A roofing account here is trying to be part of that conversation, and this metro makes it harder in two specific ways: the tree canopy takes away the aerial shot most roofing marketing leans on, and red clay decides what your finished job looks like in a photograph. What follows is what to film here, and what the northern suburbs will argue about in the comments.

    A street that went up in one year needs roofs in one year

    Subdivision waves are the closest thing this trade gets to a predictable demand cycle, and the neighbors move through it together.

    Across north Fulton County, Cobb County and Gwinnett County, hundreds of houses were built within a few seasons of each other with the same builder shingle on all of them. They reach the end of that shingle's life on roughly the same schedule.

    One job on such a street is already an advertisement to everyone who drives past the dumpster. A short video of that job, posted the same week with the neighborhood named, reaches the ones who did not drive past.

    Film what a neighbor is actually anxious about. Where the dumpster sat on the driveway, what the yard looked like once the crew packed up, whether the flower bed under the eave survived, how many days the crew was on site.

    Then post the second job on the same road when it comes. Two houses a month apart, both named by street, does more locally than a year of general roofing advice ever will.

    The wave also tells you what to say. On a road where every roof is the same age, the useful post is what that shingle looks like at that age, not a warning about roofs in general.

    The architectural committee has a shingle list, and your comments are where neighbors argue about it

    In much of the northern half of this metro a color goes past an association before it goes on a house.

    Owners ask each other what passed and what did not, and they ask in public. A roofer who answers those questions usefully becomes the name in the thread without pitching once.

    Photograph approved roofs in real light. A shingle in a supplier brochure and the same shingle on a two story in Alpharetta at four in the afternoon are different colors, and homeowners already know it.

    Show the same line on two lots. Under a canopy in Decatur a weathered gray reads almost black, and on an open lot in Cherokee County the same product reads silver. Those two photographs answer the question a submission is really asking.

    Say which manufacturer lines you carry and what a submission usually asks a homeowner to attach, then let them take the paperwork to their own board.

    A board member reading that content is a small audience with real leverage over a whole subdivision. Treat the association as a reader rather than an obstacle.

    The canopy takes your aerial shot and Hartsfield-Jackson decides the rest

    Roofing marketing everywhere leans on drone footage, and across much of this metro the drone is either the wrong tool or not an option.

    Intown and through the older northern suburbs the tree canopy sits directly over the roof. Often there is no clean line of sight, no safe launch spot in the yard, and limbs exactly where the camera wants to be.

    Airspace handles the rest. Flying near Hartsfield-Jackson or one of the smaller fields around the metro can require authorization, and whether a particular address needs it is worth confirming with the FAA before anyone launches. A crew in the habit of launching anywhere will eventually launch somewhere it should not.

    So build the habit around the ladder and the ridge. A phone held at eye level on open decking shows rot, nail pattern and tired flashing better than an aerial ever did, and nothing has to be flown or charged overnight.

    The canopy hands you the subject in return. Limb strike, moss holding on a north slope, gutters that fill twice a season and a valley packed with leaf litter are all close-up material an aerial could never have shown a homeowner.

    Shoot the debris beside the repair. A pile of what came out of the valley next to the finished valley is the whole argument for the job, and it needs no commentary at all.

    Red clay decides whether the finished job photographs well

    What a neighbor across the street worries about is not the roof. It is what the yard looks like when the trucks leave.

    Red clay holds onto a dropped nail and holds onto a tire rut. Where the dumpster sat stays visible for weeks, and a magnet pass over wet clay picks up less than one over dry ground.

    So film the cleanup as well as the roof. The magnet going across the yard, the ruts raked out, the bed under the eave still standing. A neighbor two doors down is looking for exactly that.

    A wet week ruins the picture. A job that finished in the rain leaves a yard nobody wants photographed, so let the return magnet pass and the seed happen before you shoot the finish.

    Say what you do about clay before anybody has to ask. Plywood over the driveway, where the dumpster goes, when the crew comes back for the second pass with the magnet. Nobody else on that street is explaining any of it.

    How often to post, who should be holding the phone, and what to say when somebody asks about an insurance claim do not change between Marietta and anywhere else in the country, and we have set that part out on our roofing social media page at /industries/roofing/social-media.

    Questions we actually get

    Do we need a drone to compete on social here?
    Less than you would think. Much of the intown and northern suburban housing sits under a mature tree canopy that blocks the shot anyway, and flying near Hartsfield-Jackson or the smaller airfields can require authorization that is worth confirming with the FAA before anyone launches. A phone on the decking showing rot, old flashing and nail pattern is more persuasive to a homeowner than an aerial that could be anyone's roof.
    The whole street wants the same shingle their neighbor got. What do we post?
    Say what was installed and show it on their kind of lot. On a builder shingle road the neighbors treat the first replacement as the spec for the whole street, so a photograph of that product on a shaded lot and on an open one is doing more work than any description. The submission to the board is still the homeowner's to make, and saying so keeps you out of an argument you were never a party to.
    Our yards look terrible on camera after a wet week. Should we still post the finish?
    Wait for the clay to dry and the crew to come back. Red clay after rain photographs like a construction site no matter how well the job went, and posting it teaches the street the wrong thing about your work. Shoot the finish after the second magnet pass and the seed, which is also when the yard actually looks the way you would want a neighbor to remember it.
    A neighbor's tree came through our customer's roof. Can we post that?
    Post the damage, not the argument. A limb through decking is the most watchable thing this canopy produces, and it is also the opening of a dispute between two neighbors about a tree that was probably rotten for years. Show the hole, the wet insulation and the tarp going on. Say nothing at all about whose tree it was or who owes for it, because both households are reading the thread and only one of them hired you.
    Is the dumpster worth filming, or is that just clutter?
    It is one of the more useful things you can show. A neighbor watching a job two doors down is thinking about the driveway, the noise and how long the container sits there, not about underlayment. Showing the plywood under it, where it went and when it left answers the question that street is quietly asking about you before anybody calls.

    What is different here

    Florida has tightened what a roofing contractor may say to a homeowner about an insurance claim, and the rules around soliciting claim work carry real consequences for the client rather than the agency. Design wind speed and product approval also vary by county, so a re-roof specification is a local document. Marketing built around storm claims needs legal review before it runs.

    Written by KC Thompson, Morgul Marketing.

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