Let’s talk about driving leads to your business with a few contractor marketing tips.
Right now there are a few million contractors who are wondering where their next job is coming from. Maybe you’re one of them. Several years ago I built a pretty nice painting company in the Chicago area, Jalapeno Paint Werx. We made many mistakes through the years, but one thing we excelled in was getting the phone to ring.
Contractors wear so many hats and are trying hard to keep up with things. Below, you’ll find a list of things you can do on a monthly basis to market your business. Before you dive in and attack this stuff, please read this so you don’t end up wasting more time and money. You may want to read this too, these are the 2 most important words you need to know if you want to grow your contracting business.
Contractor Marketing Tips (online)
- Blogs/Video: Create helpful content that answers customer questions. Blog 1 time per week. Optimize the post and an image for relevant keywords. Shoot for 500+ words and don’t forget to link to other content on your site that is helpful. Project profile blogs are a great way to attract web traffic too.
- Static Pages: Create 1-2 new web pages per month that cover your services. These pages should have an optimized image, be about 500 words or more and not contain duplicate content.
- Email: Send an email newsletter to your client database 1 x per month. Promote events or educate about common problems or issues. This is also a great way to feature projects you do.
- Social Media: Post 2-5 times per day on your social channels. Share blog posts, videos, project profiles or other pictures that are relevant.
- List Building: Create a free giveaway for people who opt in to your email list. If you’re a painter create a “How to Keep Your Walls Looking New” ebook or video. This will feed leads into your company over time. You’ll position yourself as the expert. Create 2-3 of these per year. Here’s mine.
- Paid ads: Google likes money. Consider a small paid ads campaign to help boost your organic results. Spend a minimum of $5 per day on a targeted campaign that solves a problem. Try to send people to a landing page that has a clear call to action and unique tracking form. If you have a phone number on the page make sure its a dedicated ‘pass through’ number that’s different than your main number so you can track the leads.
There are certainly other things you can do online, but these will help you create momentum.
Contractor Marketing Tips (offline)
- Fix your experience: Get the marketplace talking about you. Be different than the other guys. What common complaints do people make about contractors in your industry? Make those things your strength. If at least 50% of your leads are NOT past client referrals you probably have an Experience problem.
- Call past clients: They have already hired you. That means they like and trust you, unless you were a total boob. Past clients want to do business with you and refer you. Stay in touch. Ask, “How’s the project holding up?” They’ll remember that you cared.
- Call past leads: Who didn’t hire you in the last 3-6 months? Call them too. Ask, “Did you ever do that project?” Life happens and people get distracted and don’t do the job. You never know what you’ll kick up!
- Build your Influencer List: Influencers are other businesses that stand in front of your clients each day. As a painter I received dozens of leads per month from carpet guys, plumbers and home inspectors. Who stands in front of your ideal client? Build a relationship with at least 1 new Influencer per month. I had a list of about 40 of them and got at least a lead per quarter from most of them. Don’t forget to give to them too!
- Give to your community: Do a charity project or volunteer for an organization in your area. You’ll build relationships with community leaders who have influence and show people you care about people too.
This is what marketing your business looks like. There are no silver bullets or shortcuts. Advertising sales people will promise you shitloads of traffic, leads and phone calls, but usually don’t deliver. Be clear on what you want and then consistently implement what needs to be done. Over time this will create momentum that will never leave you wondering where your next job is coming from.
Need help creating a marketing strategy for your contracting business? Maybe we’re a good fit….
