MRA’s digital transformation

By Emma Peterson. 

Learn how MRA’s website relaunch facilitates connections between homeowners and contractors. 

The Metal Roofing Alliance (MRA) kicked off the new year in style with a website launch. Now, almost halfway through the year, we are still exploring the benefits and resources it features. To get the behind-the-scenes scoop on the relaunch, Karen Edwards hosted Renee Ramey, the executive director of MRA, for an episode of MetalCast. 

The launch of this website was a labor of hard work and dedication for Renee and her team at MRA. She shared, “It took hours. It took a lot of my time, but certainly other people's time to go through and identify on a personal level through experience and knowledge of what we're getting asked quite frequently from homeowners, what information provides the best, again, most succinct, easy-to-understand answer and then maybe what was a little more confusing or a little more intense than what we wanted to present?” The result is a sleek and easy to use source of information for both homeowners and contractors.  

On the homeowner side 

When it comes to helping homeowners who are interested in metal roofing, MRA’s new site is centered around connecting them with resources and guides. Renee shared a few examples, “MRA has a very comprehensive buyer guide that helps homeowners through the process of deciding what type of roof to put on their home or what to re-roof their home with. It walks through regional considerations, how to know you even need a roof and then certainly explains the different specifications that you need to be aware of when it comes to metal roofing.”  

In addition to this homeowner guide, they offer additional resources for other more specific topics of interest. These are often created in partnership with other industry leaders, such as the sustainability and resiliency guides that they made with Green Build. There is also an entire section of the website where MRA industry members can submit more resources for homeowners to consider when looking into the metal roofing process. 

Offerings for contractors 

And even as they develop their homeowner-facing section of the website, MRA has not forgotten about the contractors that they serve. Renee shared some information about what they added to the new website for MRA members. She explained, “At the end of the day, our goal is to provide the homeowners with enough information to get them to take the next step. And that next step is typically identifying and reaching out to a local professional...So we have used the website to create connections to local contractors and installers, our members.”  

How exactly are these connections made? Every MRA member gets a profile that homeowners can find when searching for professionals in their area. And beyond the added value of being on a database like this, being in the MRA library is also a great way to differentiate yourself in your local community. Renee explained, “By being an MRA member you differentiate yourself from your competitor down the road...It’s a third-party validation that you know what you are doing. And so, showing your MRA profile to people, using the member toolkit (which includes a certificate and badge icon), can really help your business.”  

Read the transcript, Listen to the full episode or Watch the conversation to learn more about how the MRA is supporting both contractors and homeowners in the metal market. And if you haven’t already, make sure to explore the relaunched MRA website!