Your contracting or construction business will thrive or die based on your ability to get consistent clients. And in order to get consistent clients, you need consistent leads.
It’s no great secret that referrals will likely be the lifeblood of your business. After all, the best lead is one who is already pre-sold from the recommendation of a friend or family member.
But how do you get clients as a contractor when your referrals have dried up?
How do you get clients for your construction business when you’re just starting out?
How Do Contractors Get Clients? 3 Proven Strategies That Combine to Drive Leads
More leads = more clients.
That’s a pretty good formula when it comes to marketing yourself as a contractor.
Today, I’m going to talk about 3 proven strategies you can use to start generating consistent leads for your contracting business. These strategies work whether you’re a general contractor, roofer, home builder, or anyone else in the home services niche. They also compliment each other.
Moreover, you don’t have to hire a contractor marketing agency to make them work.
With a little work, you can implement each of these marketing strategies yourself.
1. Claim and optimize your Google Business Profile.
Your Google Business Profile is perhaps that most important part of your marketing strategy.
Hands down, it’s the best way to attract local clients – even without a dedicated local SEO strategy.
Most contractors don’t utilize their Google Business Profile (GBP) to its full effect. This leads them to thinking that the free profile isn’t all that effective at generating leads.
But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Truth is, you have to put some work into your GBP to have it work for you.
When filling out your profile, focus on the following:
- Categories: Start specific, go general. Don’t try to stuff irrelevant categories, but be sure to include every category that makes sense. Here’s a list of all categories in 2023.
- Service area: Start with the city in which you’re located, and then spread out. Google allows counties, too. List as many as are relevant to you.
- Description: You have 750 characters to work with. Use them all.
- Products: Do you sell them? If so, fill it out.
- Services: Your selected categories will automatically show up as services. However, you can provide more. If “kitchen remodeler” is your primary category, you can add custom categories beneath it such as “cabinets” and “countertops,” along with descriptions.
- Images: Your logo and cover image are first. Put some care into this – people will see them when your Google Business Profile shows up in Google. “At work” photos are for when you’re on the job. “Team photos” are of, well, you and your team. “Identity photos” can be of signage on trucks or vans, office signage, business cards, etc… Fill out every category.
- Website: This is where your general contractor website goes. Generally, you’d put your home page, but not always. Don’t have a website? More on this later…
As an ongoing basis, you should work to do the following:
- Add regular updates: The “updates” feature of your GBP is a great way to add blurbs, project photos, blog posts, events and more.
- Actively seek new reviews: You should have an active strategy to continually get new reviews. Email marketing is a great way to automate this.
- Respond to reviews: You should respond to every review you get. While not a huge ranking factor, it does help with conversions.
- Respond to Q&As (or post them yourself): The Q&A feature is a great way to provide additional information about your business.
Not all GBP’s are created equal. Don’t believe me? Take a look at one of your largest competitors. Notice what they include in their profile. Chances are, it’s filled out completely.
Yours should be, too.
If you’re unsure if your profile is optimized as best it can be, book a free strategy session today.
2. Get a lead-generating website.
I know, I know… you’re probably tired of hearing about contractor web design. You probably get dozens of SPAM messages in your inbox every day about it.
But the truth is… an effective website will generate consistent leads for you.
It’s how we were able to get a local paving company to average 44 free quote requests per month.
It’s how we helped a custom home builder increase their phone calls by 98% in less than a year.
But this article isn’t about us – it’s about you.
If you’re not ready to hire someone like us, that’s okay. For low-cost, easy-to-use options, I recommend going with Squarespace or Wix. Either one will get you set up for a couple hundred bucks per year.
Here’s the important part: focus on content.
Content is what will help you show up in search results – not fancy graphics.
Your website should have:
- Pages for each service you offer (yes, all of them)
- Pages for each location in which you offer those services (ditto)
- Pages for your beautiful project portfolio (you have one, right?)
- Pages showcasing your team members (show some personality)
- Blog posts people actually want to read (and that target some useful keywords)
If you’re going to bootstrap a website by yourself, don’t worry too much about having the prettiest design out there. Instead, focus on publishing the most content you possibly can. For information on how to optimize each page, you can follow along to our SEO guide for contractors here.
3. Build a large digital footprint.
Your GBP and website work hand in hand to help you show up on Google.
However, they’re not all it takes – you likely have a lot of competition, after all.
You need a large digital footprint. You need a strategic digital marketing plan.
Your business needs to be listed on the most popular local business directories, review websites, social media platforms, and more. These are called “citations,” and they help Google and other search engines see your business as an authoritative source in your industry.
The best part? Most of these are free to join.
Here’s a list of 267 free citation sources for contractors you can submit your business to right now.
If you don’t want to comb through that list, here are some of the most popular directories:
And here are some of the best social media profiles you’ll need:
While time-consuming, it’s critical you get listed on as many directories, social media platforms, maps listings, and more to increase your business’s visibility online.
You can always book a free strategy session with us to see how we can do it for you :)
How to Get Clients as a Contractor
It isn’t rocket-science.
You’ll need:
- A claimed and optimized Google Business Profile.
- A lead-generating website.
- A large digital footprint.
All of these things work hand-in-hand to make your business more visible online.
Of course, it doesn’t happen overnight. But most things don’t, anyway. Marketing your business online is like rolling a snowball downhill. Sure, it starts off slow, but as it gets bigger and bigger, it picks up more momentum until it’s unstoppable.
If you don’t want the hassle of doing any of this yourself, book a free strategy session with us.
I’d love to talk to you about how we can help achieve your business goals together.
