Consumers have high standards and demands when it comes to choosing a contractor for a particular task, as they must ensure they are finding the right person to meet their specific needs. Often, consumers will collect several estimates and select the one they think best suits their needs, highlighting the competitive nature of the work.
While it’s indeed a challenging task, with the right strategy, you can dominate your locality in your own field. This article will cover five ways to win more business for your contracting firm.
- Encourage past customers to leave positive reviews
A single customer review, be it good or bad, can have a massive impact on a firm’s reputation. Unfortunately, the reality is that customers are more likely to review something when they have had a poor experience than a positive one.
That’s precisely why it’s a good idea to actively encourage your customers to leave positive reviews. In doing so, you’re effectively boosting your reputation as a contractor, which, in turn, maximizes your chances of attracting prospects that require your specific services. (1)
You can either create a review page on your website if you have one or list your services on lead generation sites, like Home Advisor or Angie’s List where people can review your services too.
- Consider running a PPC ad
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a form of marketing where a platform displays your product listing or service offering, and you pay them for every click the ad receives, hence the name.
While it requires you to invest an initial sum of money, it’s one of the most efficient ways to generate leads. For example, you can pay Google to display your ads at the top of their search engine page results (SERPs). Naturally, this advertisement would be the first thing most users will see, which essentially means you’ve already managed to get your business seen. Another advantage of PPC advertising is that you can set criteria for the audience you want to target. You can choose to target only those with houses or people who are in your locality. (2)
Keep in mind that you’ll likely gain several leads from a single campaign when using this strategy. This is why it’s always a good idea to have an effective system for processing these leads. After all, what good would your lead generation efforts be if you can’t manage the leads properly?
- Create valuable content
If you don’t necessarily have much leeway on your finances, creating your own content like eBooks, how-to guides, and articles is another way to generate more leads for your contracting firm.
The reasoning behind this is that by providing valuable content that is essentially free to your audience, you can become an online authority in your field. This is in essence what an SEO (search engine optimization) strategy can offer you. ‘Content is king’ as is often said, and the more rich and fresh content you can provide, the more highly search engines will reward you with greater visibility in the results pages.
An ability to drive traffic to your site that stays there for lengths of time is also rewarded by the search engines, as this is an indicator that users have been able to find what they wanted by visiting your site.
Depending on the purpose of your website and the investment you have in it, consider integrating it with your business management suite to the benefit of your customers. Take for example this pest control software developed by Jobber. This software has been developed specifically for contractors operating within the field service sector and can integrate with your site to provide a ‘client hub’ where customers can log in and pay their invoices and schedule appointments, amongst other things. If your website becomes a destination for the benefit of your customers, you are essentially creating valuable content that the search engines will reward you for in very simple terms. (3)
While creating content and integrating your site with software does require considerably more effort than simply making an ad campaign, it can be considerably cheaper. Your content can also be delivered via emails to keep your newsletter subscribers up-to-date.
- Establish a social media presence
It’s no secret that social media platforms are incredibly popular around the globe. In fact, social media users have been in the billions for several years now, and this shows no signs of slowing down.
What this means is that by not having a social media presence, you’re losing out on a wealth of potential customers. For that reason, as late as it may be, it’s high time you established an online presence on these platforms. Not only can you extend your reach to a lot more people, but you can also join communities already interested and talking about what you offer. (4)
- Launch a referral program
Word of mouth has always been one of the most effective ways to spread the word about a business. It goes like this—if a customer finds your services satisfactory, they most likely will recommend your firm when their contacts require the services you’re offering. This provides you with prospects that you didn’t work for, or in other words, free leads. After all, people are more likely to trust the recommendations from their friends and family rather than an advertisement they see on a stranger’s website. So, how can you leverage this? (5)
To start with, you can create or launch a referral program on your website. When someone sends a person to your business, they’ll receive an incentive. This will encourage your past customers to spread awareness of your brand via word of mouth. (5)
Final words
It may require a bit of effort, time, and money, but considering the payoff, it’s almost always worth it. But keep in mind that lead generation is by no means the last step to your firm’s success. You must also make sure that before you become active with your lead generation efforts, you already have a system in place to manage the leads you’ll end up generating.
References
- “7 Reasons Online Reviews are Essential for Your Brand”, Source: https://mention.com/en/blog/online-reviews/
- “What Is PPC? Learn the Basics of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing”, Source: https://www.wordstream.com/ppc
- “5 Types of Content That Every Business Must Employ”, Source: https://ducttapemarketing.com/5-types-of-content-that-every-business-must-employ/
- “The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Outreach”, Source: https://hyperise.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-social-media-outreach
- “Referral Marketing 101: How To Create A Referral Program That Wins More Customers”, Source: https://referralrock.com/blog/referral-programs-101-everything-you-need-to-build-a-referral-marketing-program/