I feel like I get a lot of calls these days from people trying to sell me the #1 slot in Google. I’ve never been particularly happy with the results and feel like I don’t get back what I’ve spent.
I’m just curious to know what other contractors are doing to get new clients. What has worked for you?
Referrals are a huge part, and I believe that first impressions area very critical… being clean, presentable and able to speak properly… If you do some of the simple things, you will be busy…
bluebook.com or the site you just wrote this question
business cards on every lumber co billboard you can find
word of mouth is your strongest benefit
Getting a contineuing flow of fresh new clients is a must for any type of business and understanding who, where and when these clients are and where they come from is also a must.
One thing that many business owners do not keep in mind is the value of each new client, meaning how much is each new client worth. For example, if you a building contractor and your average new customer/job is worth $30,000 gross and a net of $9,000 than how much are your willing to spend geting these customer.
Once you realize how much is each one of your new leads and new conversions are worth, than you can make a decision on how much you are willing to spend per lead or new call.
For me, my websites are the best source for new pre qaualified leads. I mentioned websites, because I need to be able to take advantage of natural search results for each keyword or keyphrases my potential new customer is using to find the type of contractor they are looking for. For example if you are a builder and you concentrate on new home construction, then you only realy need one website, but is you are a remodeling contractor and you specialize in home remodeling, kitchen remodeling, bathroom remodeling, than you may want to have one website for each.
Now days, having a website out there in the vast world of the internet is not enough. It has to be optimized and you must invest in off page optimization.
Off page optimization involves the tasks of submitting your website to the search enginges, submiting your website to related directories or high pr directories, article marketing, social media marketing, bloging and other liking techniques that the search engines can acept.
This is just one way to continuesly maintain a fresh flow of new clients. Getting referals still the best and most economical method, you also need to consider local news paper or radio advertising for brand recognition and one method I use is advertising on search engines such as google or yahoo.
If you have any more questions feel free to send me an email
Word to mouth is hand over fist the best way to market do a good job and be honest and fair the rest will come local free sites anything to keep cost down especially starting off
The thing that has worked best for me is BNI, this is a networking group where you talk to profecionals in different fields, from construction workers to lawers, doctors ect. you meet each week and tell everyone there what a great referal would be for you that week, be creative, and they do the same. As you get to know the people in your group and build trust and learn about their buisness, you begin to pass them referals and they do the same. it is where the company I worked for in the past got most of their buisness and it is how I plan to grow my buisness.
I would recomend visiting a few BNI chapters in your area and seeing which chapters are passing the most refferals and which chapters have the most members.
All the answers posted are great answers. It takes a combination of them all. Word of mouth has worked best for me. If you provide high quality work, people WILL talk. Internet ads companies like buildzoom.com and many others help on a large scale. However, in order to keep that working, you have to build a good reputation…not only with your current clients, but with you advertising company. If you keep getting negitive reports, an ad company will most likely drop you because they are trying to make their name good as well.
It all comes down to professionalism and quality of work. If you can offer both of those things, the word will spread…either by word of mouth or by ad company endoresments.
i think that sites like buildzoom and bluebook help. And of course word of mouth is the best way. But many people in this industry overlook the power of SEO and social networking. If I am going to get on my iphone and google search “roofing contractor knoxville, tn,” there is no reason for me to scroll down 18 pages. I am going to call the first one on the list. Hence…SEO. How and where do you rank in google? That means everything. And when someone calls you, do you always answer? I don’t care if I am going to the bathroom…I aswer the phone. You know why? If you don’t, they just call the next # on the list. So in short, make yourself ever present and always available!
Darcy
Simply put…its hard today. people are just afraid to spend money. best advice is first do everything you can for free just to pop up on everything you possibly can. then focus on trying to work a little money into online professional marketing. professional i said! everyone these days searches for answers on the computer so why not add your business to it
Still holds water even today by advertising in the hard copy Yellow Pages or YP.com,door to door flyers, and mailed flyers and brochures. And the best marketing tool is word of mouth referrals as aforementioned.
Local public billboards and always Carry business cards with you. You never know who you may run into ,and possibly be your next job lead or referrals.
Money mailer Special Offers or promotions.
A good website is current and extremely effective. It validates and helps improve your companies legitimacy.
And your profile on this very site,has the potential to grow your you business.
Goes back to the old saying,“You get out of your business what you put into it.”
Get into civic and social organizations and start passing out cards. What have you done to generate new business that has been either low or no cost? Of your customer’s minds. If you are a landscaper, it is easier for you to stay fresh in your client’s minds than if you where a remodeler. But both of you should be doing something to let past customers know you are still out there; just one will do it more often than the other…I’ll let you figure that one out.
Some of the best marketing I have ever seen came from a “borrowed” idea that was made better.
Unfortunately now a days, almost everyone uses the Internet as a way to investigate or research a Contractor in any field. Almost all of the Recommendation sites have some kind of charge whetehr it be to the Customer or the Contractor. I believe in this Economy we have to be over diligent in our Marketing Strategies.
The following are some of things that seem to work for us:
Local Home and Garden Shows
Local Gun Shows (yes you would be suprised at the lead you get)
Searching any free referral site and joining all of them… ( there alot of them out there)
Social Media Pages, alot of them will promote your page with the number of likes achieved for free
An updated website. Visit it daily and create a blog or "letters from the President tab with informative articles on your sompany and prodcuts.
Getting all your employees to like your Social Media page. This allows all their friends to see your Page and Comments. Must Post in these site frequently and have a link to your webpage.
Go and hand out discount postcards or brouchure or do free educational seminars on your company and products to Real Estate Offices. Bring free cookies or donuts and coffee…
Any thing you can do to keep your name on the tips of eveyone’s tongue is my motto.
PPC, and SEO
If you want it done right you have to do it yourself. Start out by checking out your business in getlisted.org.
I’d agree with most of the answers presented here. I think a healthy combination of various marketing efforts is going to lead to the best long term results. If I were starting up and had a smaller budget I would start investing more and more in internet based marketing. I say that only because our internet lead generation has grown every year and the trends are still pointing to more and more people going online to find reliable and trustworthy contractors. Im not saying it is the best form of marketing though, as I agree that “Word of Mouth” is by far the cheapest and most effective. Internet marketing is certainly an investment in the future of your lead generation.
Whatever you choose to do, I think the very most important thing is that you track your results. Without knowing exactly your return on each marketing investment all your efforts will be useless.
I certainly agree with most answers that discuss word of mouth and referrals from existing customers as this is how we have grown our business over the years. The latest influence is social media and I am using an individual that is doing some great work for me. She is using Google + and Youtube as well as infographics, PDF’s and much more. You should email her and at least talk to her. Her email address is [email protected].
I can’t recommend Pam highly enough. She is a go getter and stays up with all the latest changes that make Google search such a challenge.
We have found that making profiles on different websites has produced leads. Many people turn to internet search engines to locate a contractor in their area. We have a Facebook page with photos of every job and we have our own website also. Angies List is also a good lead generator. The people on Angie’s List have to pay a membership fee so when you are contacted through there you know you are dealing with a serious customer. Word of mouth is also a huge job generator. When your past customers not only talk about the remodeling they had done but they also can show off what they had done. The prospective client gets an excellent idea of the quality of work that you perform.
Home improvement companies have a few choices when it comes to finding new customers. What I tell all my peers in the market. If you are good, homeowners will find you. Practice your skills and gather a good crew together. Once you have done that, consider searching your own community for leads. Postcards can be reliable source for leads because they know your local. Costs are relatively low with post cards.
Next i recommend is building a professonal website. Websites are great for new clients in addition to clients that like to read. Expanding into your areas would require a qualified SEO specialists, and that can be slightly expensive if you get someone good. Worth the money vs others. Website like ours www.innercityskylineinc.com check it out and share your thoughts.
Referrals are the obvious next choice. If you keep your clients happy, they will refer. If they refer you save a ton of money on advertsing. Consider doing great work.
Harry ArcherWORD OF MOUTH HAS AND ALWAYS WILL BE THE BEST WAY TO GET NEW CLIENTS !!!COMMERCIAL INDUSTRIAL ROOFING, LLC. HAS BEEN IN A COMMERCIAL ROOF CONTRACTOR SINCE 1985. ALOT OF OUR CUSTOMERS COME FROM 'WORD OF MOUTH’
HAVING A WELL BUILT WEBSITE THAT CAN BE FOUND, WHEN DOING A ‘GOOGLE’ SEARCH, AS ONE OF THE TOP “ORGANIC” WEBSITE ON GOOGLE. WHEN WE SAY “ORGANIC” WE MEAN THE TOP WEBSITES JUST BELOW 'GOOGLE’S “PAY PER CLICK” (ANYBODY CAN PUT A FEW HUNDRED DOLLARS IN “GOOGLE’S PAY PER CLICK CAMPAIGN” BUT WHEN THERE MONEY IN THERE GOOGLE ACCOUNT IS EXHAUSTED, THEY ARE NO WHERE TO BE FOUND.
'YOUR " ORGANIC " WEBSITE WILL ALWAYS BE THERE !!!
The number one way I have found is the power of the review. I have many reviews with a few lead generation companies.