As a contractor, the number of customers you can bring through the proverbial door directly affects your income. That’s why you need a marketing and advertising strategy to build your pipeline of prospects.
What does effective advertising for contractors look like? And how about broader marketing ideas—what tactics can you try to strengthen your brand, engage new prospects, and close contracts?
Read on for tactics to help fill your pipeline and keep you and your team busy year-round.
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Contractor marketing ideas
Marketing consistently seeks to build awareness, nurture leads, and (eventually) convert those leads into customers. These contractor marketing ideas can help you make an impression with people in every stage of the sales funnel.
1. Make the most of your Google Business Profile
Since Google is where most online searches begin, it’s essential that you do everything you can to optimize your presence there.
Your Google Business Profile can appear in traditional search and Maps results, so it’s a vital marketing tool for businesses with a distinct geography.
A basic Google Business Profile includes your business’s name, contact information, hours, and links to your website and social profile.
But don’t stop there. You can optimize your Google Business profile by adding:
- Photos: Take advantage of the gallery feature to add pictures from past projects. Before-and-after shots can show the quality of your work.
- Reviews: The more, the better! Contact past customers to ask for reviews and take the time to respond to each one.
- Posts: The posts feature allows you to add updates or highlight specific deals or offers.
- FAQs: Respond to questions prospects have asked on your profile and proactively add answers to other queries you regularly field.
2. Refine your website CTA strategy
A call to action, or CTA, gives your audience a clear next step to take. Often, these words appear on or above a button on your website—phrases like “get a quote,” “see work,” or “contact us” are all examples of CTAs.
It’s important to provide different CTAs for visitors across all stages of the customer journey. For brand-new prospects encountering your business for the first time, you want CTAs that encourage them to get to know you better. An invitation to check out your portfolio or read reviews is a great fit for this audience.
This site features three CTAs on its homepage. “See our work” speaks to new visitors, “Book your free consultation” is for people in the consideration phase, and “Contact us” is for those with additional questions or who are ready to convert.
For those who are closer to deciding, you need CTAs that encourage conversion. A button that prompts them to call you or request an estimate invites them to take an immediate action.
3. Create a referral program
People are 90% more likely to trust and buy from a brand that a friend recommends. That’s why referral marketing programs can be a powerful marketing tool for contractors.
A referral program formalizes a process that might already be happening. You’ve probably received referrals from customers in the past; your program simply encourages others to follow suit by offering incentives to both parties when a referral becomes a new client.
It’s up to you how you structure your referral program. Some businesses offer a discount on future services, while others send a gift card when referrals result in new business.
Whatever approach you adopt, be sure to promote your referral program! Add it to your website, tout it on social media, and consider referencing it in follow-up emails to past clients.
4. Revitalize your social media presence
Organic social media can be a wildly effective part of a contractor marketing plan.
Social media allows you to tell your business’s story in a visual, interactive format. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok allow contractors to do everything from showcasing past work to sharing maintenance tips with homeowners.
These tips can help you make the most of your social media platforms.
- Post consistently: When you share regular updates, you remain top-of-mind among followers.
- Use hashtags: Hashtags can help your posts get noticed by a wider audience. Select hashtags that are popular and relevant to boost your brand awareness.
- Be helpful: People turn to social media for advice on everything. When you provide homeowners with helpful tips, you can become a trusted source of information for prospective customers.
- Sweat the visuals: Most social platforms these days are image-driven. Share arresting, well-composed photos and videos to stand out in a crowded feed.
5. Build up your reviews
The stats on online reviews speak for themselves. Reviews have a tremendous influence on prospects and leads, so it pays to amass as many positive reviews as possible.
If your online reviews are looking a little sparse, consider reaching out to past customers to invite them to write something about their experience. Just be sure that the platform doesn’t prohibit review solicitation (for example, Google allows you to ask, while on Yelp, it’s a no-no).
After you’ve garnered some more reviews from past clients, create a system to gather feedback from future customers. Consider building an email campaign that follows up automatically with customers after you close their project.
This practice provides several benefits. Yes, it allows you to generate more reviews with less effort. But it also helps you catch valuable feedback you might not otherwise have heard.
By soliciting customers’ thoughts, you can turn a negative experience into a positive one, which can generate even more goodwill for your business in the long run.
6. Invest in case studies
Outside of online reviews, consider creating more in-depth case studies with your top clients. A case study allows you to get into the details of your work and showcase your attention to detail, problem-solving skills, and ability to deliver top-notch work.
A happy client narrates this testimonial video, which features gorgeous images of the finished home, and the client shares what a joy it was to work with this design-build firm.
Reach out to some of your best clients to see if they’d be open to taking part in a case study. This may be a video interview or a longer page on your site that includes a narrative about their project and lots of before and after photography.
No matter how you structure it, the goal is to provide a comprehensive narrative for leads that invites them to envision what it would be like to work with you.
7. Revisit your follow-up strategy
Have you ever had a lead go silent after you provided an estimate? Of course, it happens to the best of us.
It’s easy to convince yourself to simply let these people go. But there can be tremendous value in following up with these lost leads.
After all, you don’t know why they fell away. Maybe something else came up in life that delayed their decision-making process. Perhaps the first contractor they hired didn’t work out, and they’re now back to the drawing board.
Whatever the case, if you plan to follow up with lost leads, you may win some back in the end. The key is to create a system around this process. You may even automate your follow-up so you have one less task on your plate.
Contractor advertising ideas
Advertising is a paid tactic that is essential to fueling your business. It can play a role in each stage of the sales funnel, from start to finish.
Paid ads can raise awareness of your business, introducing you to new people who fit the profile of your ideal customer. They can generate leads and provide prospective customers with vital information they need during the decision-making process. And finally, it can make it easy for them to take action, call you, and sign a contract with your team.
These contractor advertising tactics cover all of your sales funnel bases.
8. Promote your business on local listings sites
Establishing a presence across local listings sites helps a new audience discover your business.
Creating or claiming profiles on sites like Yelp, Angi, Houzz, and Nextdoor is vital if you want to be found by people who turn to these platforms—rather than a search engine—to begin their hunt for a contractor.
Sponsored posts show up at the top of search results on Yelp.
To take things to the next level, consider engaging in paid advertising on these sites. Sponsored posts often receive favorable placement on the search results page, helping your business stand out on a list crowded with other providers.
🚧 Are your business listings structurally sound? Use the Free Business Listings Grader to instantly check your presence in the top online directories.
9. Try Google Local Services Ads (LSAs)
If you want to be noticed on the most popular search engine in the game (Google, where 92% of all online searches begin), consider adding Google Local Services Ads to your strategy.
These ads are available only to service-based businesses, meaning contractors of all stripes can run them. Local Services Ads appear right at the top of search results for high-intent queries like “general contractor near me.”
If your business appears in these first few sponsored results, you increase your odds of being seen (and contacted!) by leads looking for immediate help.
10. Bring digital tactics to your offline advertising
Digital advertising offers contractors many advantages, but don’t forget about offline options! In fact, incorporating modern advertising techniques into analog tactics can help you track results and get more from things like print ads.
Whether you’re running an ad in the local paper or sending direct mailers to neighbors’ homes, you can use digital tracking tools to see how your ads are performing. Add a QR code or create a special UTM link, both of which allow you to attribute any incoming leads to that specific print ad.
Adopting these digital-print hybrid tactics can help you calculate ROI and understand if your advertising is performing as well as you’d hoped.
11. Update your ads seasonally
Running the same ads year after year invites your audience to tune them out. The psychological principle of habituation says that we have a decrease in response to stimuli when we’re repeatedly exposed to them.
When you reuse the same ads for a long time, people start skimming past them without really noticing or processing.
To help your contractor advertising stand out anew, refresh your content! Incorporating seasonal messaging is a great way to generate a new twist on your ads every few months.
Update your images and copy to reflect the season. For example, at the start of spring, you might run an ad reminding people that summer is coming and now is the time to build that dream pool.
12. Create tailored landing pages
The difference between a good digital ad and a great one is often an optimized landing page.
Each ad you create should lead to a specific landing page related to its content. For example, if your ad touts free estimates for bathroom renovations, the landing page should include a photo of a beautiful bathroom renovation project and a form inviting visitors to schedule a quote.
Visitors can become confused when your ads don’t drive to a tailored landing page. Your ad reeled them in with a specific offer or benefit. They may leave if they don’t see that messaging clearly reflected on your website.
13. Boost your social media posts
Chances are, you’re already posting organically on social media. But if you haven’t waded into the waters of social media advertising, one of the easiest ways to dip your toes in is to boost existing social media posts.
Meta, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms invite you to boost a piece of content you already created. Boosting means that, for a fee, the platform will show that content to people outside your circle of followers.
A post like this, with a tie-in to a trending cultural event like the Paris Olympics, is a strong candidate for a social media boost.
This is a quick and easy way to engage in awareness-stage marketing. These ads aren’t likely to generate leads directly, but they can certainly introduce you to new people who might decide to follow you.
Once someone becomes interested in your business and services, you can nurture the new lead and turn them into a customer.
14. Try remarketing
Further down the funnel, remarketing can help you with leads who are interested and in the process of making a decision.
Remarketing allows you to show advertising to people who have already interacted with your business online. For example, if someone visits your site, remarketing ads will display a banner ad for your business when that person visits their favorite news site.
Remarketing is an effective advertising tactic for contractors because sales cycles are typically long. Leads like to do extensive research before committing to a big home project.
With remarketing, you can stay top-of-mind as these leads consider their options. Then, when they’re ready to buy, your name is still on their list.
Contractor marketing and advertising tips
Creating a cohesive marketing strategy that encompasses organic tactics and paid advertising is the best way to ensure that your business constantly connects with new people.
The more individuals you can get in front of, the greater the odds you’ll meet someone looking for a contractor. Then, it’s about continuing to provide them with resources, guidance, and an easy way to contact your team.
Here are a few tips to get the greatest reach and return from your marketing efforts:
- Use the power of hashtags: Hashtags help you get your social media content in front of more people with specific interests. Look at your competitors and other content in your niche to find popular hashtags.
- Think about the whole funnel: Not everyone is ready to buy now. But you provide an essential service they’ll need someday. Your helpful emails, videos, and social media posts will make sure you’re the one they call.
- Take advantage of networked marketing: Reach out to real estate brokers, other contractors, HOAs, or any group that works with and welcomes homeowners and businesses. Find ways to share the marketing load and tap into each others’ audiences.
Contractor marketing made easier
You have a lot on your plate. And you don’t have the luxury of running a multi-faceted marketing program from your desk all day.
The ideas we’ve curated here are meant to make marketing easier while still making it effective. Here’s a recap:
- Make the most of your Google Business Profile
- Refine your website CTA strategy
- Create a referral program
- Revitalize your social media presence
- Build up your reviews
- Invest in case studies
- Revisit your follow-up strategy
- Promote your business on local listing sites
- Try Google Local Service Ads (LSAs)
- Bring digital tactics to your offline advertising
- Update your ads seasonally
- Create tailored landing pages
- Boost your social media posts
- Try remarketing
If you’d like to take the pressure off while leveling up your results, contact us! We’ll show you how we’ve helped service professionals ramp up lead generation and cut the time it takes to do it.
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