How to Gain New Leads?
The web opens up an abundance of channels to advertise your business through. It has never been easier to gain new leads, however, tackling how to effectively utilize the web can be a daunting task, especially for those who haven’t been in touch with new technology for a couple of years.
Utilizing these platforms is only possible through a solid sales strategy, which in itself can be difficult to build. However, once you understand the basics of how these strategies and methods work, your lead generation will help take your business to the next level.
What is Lead Generation and How Does it Help Contractors?
Lead generation is a marketing tactic that helps businesses reach and engage with prospective customers, or leads, in a more natural way. A lead is someone who shows interest in your services. The key is to move that lead through the sales funnel so that they convert to a paying customer.
This process is useful for all kinds of businesses – including general contractors. With the right lead generation tactics, you can improve brand awareness, drive more sales and build loyalty with customers. Here are six tips on how to get new leads.
1. Focus on SEO
When potential leads in your area search “contractors near me”, “building services near me” or anything else of that nature, you ideally want your company to be the first search result they get. That’s what SEO (search engine optimization) is all about; optimizing your company’s profile so you rank higher in search results.
There are a few solid ways to optimize your SEO. The easiest way is to do keyword research to find out what words, phrases or questions your customers are asking related to your market. After you’ve found those, you can incorporate them into your website, in which Google will start to rank you higher since your website matches keywords that your customers are already searching for (for example, project management or remodeling contractor). A great way to do this is to write blogs that use these keywords- Google ranks websites higher that have relevant content with relevant keywords, which will help push you to the top of the list for potential leads.
There are plenty of SEO tools out there, such as semrush, Google Search Console, and many more that you can use to help find keywords for your industry to help increase your ranking. Once you’ve found those, incorporate those keywords, and over time, you’ll get more and more leads.
2. Use Your Website to Convert Leads
In the digital age, almost all customers will come to your website before actually contacting you. Having a website that is easy to navigate is important- if you don’t already have that, wix.com is an easy way to create a website, no coding involved. Regardless, once the customers reach your website, you want to have a way to convert them into a lead right there; having your phone number is great, but you won’t always be at the phone, which is why there should be a second way for them to contact you.
Having a simple “Request a Quote” page on your website is a great way to generate leads. It is similar to email, but removes one extra step for them; they can just fill out the demo page with the details of their remodel, and you can get back to them with more information. It’s a simple, yet powerful tool to set up on your website, and we’re seeing more and more contractors moving towards utilizing these types of lead generation methods.
3. Email Marketing
Email marketing for contractors is crucial if you want to grow your business. It’s a simple, effective way to keep in touch with previous clients while also generating new leads. Strategies can be as simple as a weekly newsletter that showcases new offerings or sales, or emailing out your latest work while giving a shout out to your customer. Showcasing your latest work with a note of “It was a pleasure to work with Emily!” not only increases the chance that she will become a repeat customer, but also shows new leads that you enjoy working with them. You’ll be spending a lot of time communicating with them so it’s important to show that you’re easy and friendly to work with.
4. Social Media
Social media is becoming an ever more powerful tool to market your business. It is free, easy to use, and offers the possibility of connecting with hundreds of thousands of individuals in the event that your work goes viral.
We highly recommend that any contractor gets on social media, specifically Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. They all offer the ability to showcase your work while engaging with future clients and competitors. Although following competitors seems counterintuitive, doing so in the infancy of your social media presence is a great strategy for growth; the algorithms of these social medias will rank you higher for their followers when you engage with their content, which is an easy way to naturally gain leads.
As the market for customers is getting younger and younger, they will turn to social media to find high-quality work to be done for their projects. Having a presence on these platforms can be the quickest way to grow your business and gain leads- a contractor’s work is very tangible, showcasing it is a great way to let your work speak for itself.
5. Utilize Construction Management Software
Utilizing construction management software is good for marketing, but even better for saving time. Any experienced contractor (or homeowner) has had an experience of project gone sideways; letting your clients know that you use software to effectively manage their project not only puts their minds at ease, but also makes your job a lot easier. Softwares that engage the client, such as Pillar, streamlines contractor-client communication, essentially offering a solution to managing projects and managing clients. Payment schedules, order deadlines, and anything else relevant to keeping the project on schedule are all laid out by these construction softwares, which can save you weeks on your year and allow you to take on more projects, allowing you to gain new leads.
Visit Pillar and learn how easy both project management and client communication can be.
Leave a Reply