Generate Quality Leads without Increasing Marketing Spend

As a residential home improvement contractor, you know the importance of generating quality leads. However, it can be difficult to do so without increasing your marketing budget. Fortunately, there are some tried and true methods that can help you generate quality leads without breaking the bank. Let’s take a look at what those strategies are.

#1 – Get Leads from a Google Business Profile: IT'S FREE!

You are a local home improvement business! Your Google Business Profile is one of the most impactful ways for you to rank #1 in your local search results and generate leads. If you’re in roofing, siding, windows, doors, painting, foundations, insulation, landscape, lawncare… well, you get the idea… this is the best way to get free leads from your local area.

Turn people who find you on Google Search and Maps into new customers by setting up your free Google Business Profile for your storefront or service area. To maximize your shot at generating quality leads, your Google Business should be personalized to include:

• Basic business information like office address and hours

• Contact information - email and phone

• Ratings & reviews

• Professional-looking photos

• Special offers

• Recent blog posts or content

On top of that - by using Google My Business, you can get insights on calls, reviews, bookings, discover what keywords people search to find you, and more to understand how your business connects with customers.

#2 – Robust Testimonials and Real Project Work 

Putting a few customer quotes on your website isn’t enough to get leads these days.

To gain homeowner trust and turn them into leads, you need to show great work. The best way to do this is via customer testimonials.

Pro tip: Take a before and after photo of every project you do – use the same angles – so that homeowners can see that nice new roof you installed, or the new pool you put in.

Show where you’ve done work, along with the details of each home improvement project. We recommend using BluePagesPro with their ProjectMapIt integration. Or embed projects from CompanyCam onto your website so people can see before and after photos of your home improvement work.

#3 – Referrals: Avoid these two critical mistakes

Not asking

Yes, it’s that simple. If you’re honest with yourself, you’re probably not asking every customer for a friend, family member, or neighbor they may know need your service. Ask - Every. Single. Time.

1. Ask for 5 stars and a brief text review.

2. Use a tool like Get The Referral to organize this lead generation effort.

 

Rewarding the wrong thing 

Stop paying them only if you sell the lead they gave you. They don't care. Instead, give yourself an opportunity to give them MORE rewards NOT BIG rewards.

1. We suggest a $50 Visa gift card for any referral they provide that meets with you.

2. Avoid the big “$250 if the referral buys from you” crap - it limits your ability to reward your customer AND besides, your customer has no control over your ability to close a lead.

#4 – Bite-size Canvassing: Get out of your truck

Canvassing apps can be overwhelming, we know. Too much to do. Where do you start? But canvassing is one of the best ways to leverage your existing sales team and resources to increase your leads.

 

 We recommend taking a different approach to it:

• Target a bite-sized list of homes (6-12 homes) around an area you’re already in (like the appointment you’re running or a neighborhood you’re scouting)

• Walk up to the door and leave a sticky note and write a few words and your name on it. And of course, if you're feeling courageous, you should absolutely knock that door!

Simply getting out of your truck and knocking doors is an extremely cost effective method for businesses to spread their message, increase awareness, and put themselves in the path of opportunity. Just make sure your focus area is small so you don’t get overwhelmed. 

By hitting a few doors per day, you’re putting your best assets (your sales team) in the pathway of your next potential customer. These door visits DO NOT require you to knock the door (that’s optional - but definitely recommended). However, if you’re new to this, simply put a sticky note or flyer on their door. 

Here’s the math: 

• 2 appointments per day (or just 2 random stops per day) x 8 doors x 200 business days = 3,200 doors per year.

• If 1% of these doors requested a quote and you closed 40% of them, you’d have 13 new customers simply because you took an extra 15-20 minutes per day to let a few people know who you were.

Bite-sized canvassing can be a powerful, cost-saving marketing tool for growth minded home improvement businesses, no matter if you’re in the roofing, gutters, pool, windows, siding industry and beyond.

Lead generation & marketing without the big spend

Generating quality leads as a home improvement contractor doesn't have to come at a hefty price tag – the examples above are easy to do and will help ensure your continued growth without breaking the bank.