Unless you’re franchising under an established brand’s banner, most home services businesses don’t have the luxury of having most of your customers come to you. Instead, you need to go out and find customers for yourself (especially in the early years, until you’ve built a clientele), and home improvement leads aren’t easy to come by.
If you’re not at the point where you have all the work you can handle, here are eight tips to help you get there.
Tip 1: Build a Presence on Social Media
This is an indirect way to acquire leads, but it builds a foundation you can work from. Let’s say this up front, because it’s important: Your business needs a presence on social media sites Facebook and NextDoor, as this is where people usually turn to first when they need something and they’re looking for a local company. It’s especially important if you don’t want to invest the time and money in building a website. A business page on both platforms is free and only takes minutes to set up. You should include full contact information, your location, and a reasonably full outline of your services.
Other platforms like Instagram and TikTok can be useful too, if you focus on their strengths (great photos on Instagram, short videos on TikTok). Remember, you don’t need to be a social media guru to do this. There’s probably someone in your family or your immediate circle who can take care of the setup for you, and maybe handle the actual posts as well. Just having a solid NextDoor page will bring in a trickle of new leads on its own, but — as we’ve already mentioned — at a minimum, it’s also a base to build on. Which brings us to our second tip.
Tip 2: Make Your Social Media Work for You
For entrepreneurs, social media is a classic case of “what you get out depends on what you put in.” There are a few important ways you can maximize its value for home services lead generation.
The first is establishing yourself as someone with the expertise that potential customers are looking for. There are several ways you can do that. One is by posting photos or videos of your jobs in progress, or before-and-after photos (always get the clients’ permission first; you may find it’s easier if you offer them a discount in exchange). Encouraging followers to contact you about their own needs (in marketing-speak, a “call to action” or CTA) in every such post goes a long way, especially if you pair it with a promotional offer.
A second is posting frequently about your area of expertise. These can be short posts in the form of quick tips (“Three reasons to check your windows before winter”), or longer posts or videos that make a more detailed case for your services (“Five ways a metal roof can extend your home’s life and improve its resale value”). Encourage your friends, family, employees, and clients to like, share, and repost them, so they can get a viewing from others in your working area. Don’t worry if you’re better with a hammer than a keyboard; we’ll circle back to that part.
Finally, you should use your social accounts to really engage with the local community, because that’s where your potential clients are. Even small and rural communities have community pages, which serve much the same purpose as the town square (or front porches) used to. Join the groups and participate (respectfully and professionally) in the discussions. Also — and this is very important — learn and observe the rules of each group. Some allow you to explicitly market your services, but many will consider that to be “spamming.” Even in those, it’s usually fine to offer advice when the subject turns to your expertise (“Well, I’m in the business, and usually what it means is…”) or to refer them to something you’ve written on your company page, blog, or website.
Tip 3: Happy Customers Make the Best Freelance Salespeople
Positive reviews go a long way to helping you get new business, especially when you’re working within a relatively small community. This is known in marketing as “social proof,” and it’s a powerful tool.
That means happy customers are among your best potential sources of new customers. At the close of every job, while they’re still enjoying the feeling of having their home upgraded (or a longstanding problem fixed), that’s the time to ask if they know anyone else who might be interested in your services. Those referrals make some of your strongest leads. If they don’t have that person’s contact information at their fingertips, assure them it’s fine and you’d still love the name (we’ll circle back to this).
This is also when you should ask for a review you can post on your social media, or ask them to rate your work on Google, Facebook, Yelp, Angi, or any other platform you target. Positive reviews and high star ratings go a long way toward establishing your credibility with other potential customers, even if your customer doesn’t currently know anyone who might be a prospect.
Also — this is important — never forget a customer, and never let a customer forget you. If they’ve mentioned another upgrade they’d like to do in the future, drop them a line periodically to check how close they are to pulling the trigger on it. Let them know if you’ve expanded your products or services, and remind them that you’re always interested in hearing from them if they know anyone who needs work done. You can even consider offering them an incentive for leading customers in your direction, whether that be a discounted rate on future work, a small standalone product or service, or even a direct cash payment.
Tip 4: Invest Time in “Circle Prospecting”
Selling real estate is different from selling home improvements, but there’s enough overlap to make some realtor techniques applicable to what you do. One key real estate technique is “circle prospecting,” which means identifying key characteristics of your existing clients and then using that as a way to screen for other good leads within the same immediate area.
You could do this the old-fashioned way, by walking a neighborhood and looking for homes of the same age that may well need your services. Sometimes you can even judge from other clues (the age and quality of the cars in the driveway, how well the property is kept up, the age of the residents’ children as shown by what’s in the yard, and so on). The closer these things match your existing clients, the better a possible lead the residents are. Children of similar ages also increase the likelihood that they’ll know, or know of, your existing clients.
Of course, that takes time, and time you spend pounding the sidewalk is time you aren’t spending on the job (and vice versa). A more intelligent way to attack the problem is through a search tool like Spokeo for Business. You can use it to search each address in your target area (you can save shoe leather by using Google Maps to get those), and Spokeo’s results will show you all kinds of useful information, including where available:
- The name of the owner or resident
- The age of the home
- How long it has been in the current owner’s hands
- If it’s rented or owned
Better yet, it provides a number of ways to get in touch with your new potential customer, including phone numbers, email addresses, and their social media accounts.
A quick sub-tip: Do searches on your existing customers, too. It’ll help you figure out which neighbors are most like them, and why.
Tip 5: Piggyback On the Biggest Companies In the Game
Remember what we said about “social proof”? Well, when people don’t know who to ask for recommendations with home improvements, there are three places they predictably go in great numbers: Google, Facebook, and Yelp. Reviews on those three platforms can make or break your business, so the time and money you invest in positioning yourself there is really important.
Google alone offers you multiple ways to increase your presence. Creating a Google Business Profile is an essential starting point: It’s free, and it lets you customize what people will see when you turn up in Google’s searches and on Google Maps (so really emphasize to your clients how much those reviews help you!). Then there are Google’s advertising products, including AdWords (which is how you show up in those top listings labeled “sponsored”) and the Google Display Network, which puts your ads on related content as potential clients go about their day online. You’ll get plenty of analytics tools to help you understand how to get the most out of your advertising dollar, as well.
Facebook has its own powerful advertising program, which rivals Google’s in bang for the buck. You can also advertise your services directly on Facebook Marketplace. In either case, you’ll have the ability to use videos and photos in your ads to get the biggest possible impact.
As for Yelp, reviews there are also useful, and paid ads are also available (it’s even rumored that its policies may favor companies that advertise there). Whenever you’re exchanging messages or emails with your clients, make a point of asking for a review (and sending them a link, to make it easy). A steady accumulation of good reviews really magnifies your presence on the three platforms.
Tip 6: Every Contact, However Imperfect, Is a Potential Lead
One of the frustrating things about trying to generate referrals from existing clients or leads from your encounters around the community or on social media is that the information you get may be sketchy or incomplete. The name might be misspelled, the phone number written down wrong, or it might even be as unhelpful as “Honey, do you know Ken’s last name? Over on Bluebird Street?”
Those potential leads often go untapped because you’re unable to locate the correct information or because the client making the referral never follows up on it. Yet, because they’re personal referrals, those are some of the best potential leads you can have. Spokeo for Business provides a crucial tool for breaking this cycle of frustration.
With any one piece of accurate information, you’ll usually be able to fill in the blanks to find what you need. Here are a few ways you can turn potential leads into actual leads using Spokeo for Business:
- Searching the address can give you the full or corrected name, or searching the name can give you the address.
- Searching either of those can give you multiple phone numbers or email addresses, so you can make contact.
- If you’ve had people call with inquiries, but not give you their name or address, you can find those from the phone number and drop them a line.
- You can even search a made-up username from social media, if someone drops a question into your company page or DMs, and learn the name, address, and contact information of the person behind the account.
Tip 7: Network for What You Need
This is two tips in one, depending on who you’re networking with and why you want to connect with them. Remember a few paragraphs ago, when we spoke of being better with a hammer than a keyboard? Well, if you don’t have someone in your immediate circle of family and friends who’s willing to run your social media for you, or do pictures and videos — anything you don’t have time for, or aren’t good at — those are things you can get through networking.
There’s almost certainly a professional or semi-pro photographer out there who’d happily trade a few hours of picture-taking every month for a nice discount on a home-improvement project. The same goes for freelance writers to take your notes or a video shot on your phone and turn that raw material into a well-written, informative post for your company’s social media accounts. You can also just pay them outright, of course, and write off their fee as a business expense.
Cultivating other professionals in related but non-competitive niches is another excellent way to generate leads. Roofers and solar installers, for example, make a natural pairing because panels frequently go on roofs, and it makes sense to have them done at the same time. Windows and insulation both improve a home’s energy efficiency, so homeowners investing in one are probably interested in the other. The same holds true for heat pumps. Just remember to vet the other companies carefully, because customers won’t be happy if you recommend someone who does shoddy work.
Tip 8: Skip Lead Generation Companies
When you’re first starting, it’s awfully tempting to turn to a lead generation service to build your initial client base and try to get enough customers to float your business and pay your bills. This, however, isn’t necessarily the best way to spend your money.
First, only a relatively small subset of these businesses are specifically home improvement lead generation companies. Like any business, most of them want to appeal to the widest possible number of potential customers. So, while you can specify a lot of details about the kind of client you want, they aren’t explicitly home improvement leads.
Second, those leads aren’t necessarily exclusive. They may have been sold already to companies in your area, or a rival from a nearby area that’s since moved into your chosen turf.
Finally, though they fit the profile of your preferred customer in a general sense, they’re really only potential leads. They can’t be compared in quality to a direct referral from a friend or existing customer, or someone responding to your own actual advertising or social media page.
In short, they aren’t usually the best place to put your money. The combination of your favorite tips from our list and an affordable Spokeo for Business subscription can give you higher-impact results, often at a lower cost. Better yet, leads from advertising with Google or Facebook can start coming in within hours of your purchase, putting you and your crew to work right away.
You Know the Value of the Right Tools
If you’re in the building trades, you know the value of having the right tools. Your work goes smoothly, you get better results, and you’ll deal with a lot less frustration. And if you’ve already spent on the right tools to do the job, it only makes sense to also spend on the right tools to get the job.
Spokeo for Business is a tool that can be just as essential to your business as anything you keep in your truck. You don’t need to be a computer whiz to use it — it’s as simple as doing a Google search (but a lot more powerful). You don’t need to have a fat bank account, either, because we offer usage-based subscription tiers that make sense for even the smallest and newest companies.
To find out more about how Spokeo can help you generate home improvement leads, reach out to our team through the contact information on our home page. They’ll be happy to go into detail with you and answer your questions. Better yet, they can set up a demonstration of the product, or even a no-cost, hands-on trial. There’s no better way to test out a product than actually using it yourself.
Sources
Marketing91: Social Proof: Definition, Importance, Types, and Examples
Google: Stand Out With a Free Google Business Profile
Google Ads Help: About Display Ads and the Google Display Network
Facebook: Ads Manager
Yelp: Yelp Ads
San Francisco Chronicle: Yelp Can Manipulate Ratings, Court Rules