This is an ultimate guide to marketing specifically for contractors.

This post is meant to give you tips to help your contractor marketing strategy by:

1. Increase website traffic

2. Increase your click-to-lead ratio

3. Implement a more optimized sales cycle

4. Get more sales $$$

You will learn what marketing techniques are relevant and working this year for contractors, and hopefully get your business growing.

So let’s dive in.

Contents:

1. Optimize your website for conversions
2. Have a strong call to action
3. Get on local directories
4. Advertise on google
5. Create content to increase traffic
6. Get a CRM to optimize your sales process

I. Optimize your website for conversions.

A contractor’s primary goal is to generate leads and increase sales, so it makes sense that the first step in marketing should be optimizing your website for conversions.

Before we get into any details I want to do a quick exercise.

Jump over to your website and give it a quick look and ask yourself:

When a potential customer visits my website- do I convey the same personality, professionalism, and proven results that my business provides?

If the answer is no, then stop reading right now and go give that website a redesign.

Or even better, hire a professional designer to do it for you 

I’m talking about this:

Versus this:

If you feel your website is in good shape- some other questions you can ask yourself is :

-Does my branding match my contractor marketing strategy?

-Is the blog section regularly updated with relevant contractor content that people want to read?

-Is there an explicit call to action for visitors?

-If yes, do I have a clear and strong call to action on every page of my website, including the homepage, contact us page, the about me section, etc.

-Does my website have a clear understanding of what I do?

-Do the photos and videos on your site create a sense of urgency that pushes people to take some kind of next step. e.g., buy, contact me now?

-Is the text on my website broken up with other forms of content/media assets

-Am I utilizing video to gain rapport with my clients without meeting them?

The main point I want to make is- What good is increasing your monthly traffic from 200 monthly visitors to 20,000 if nobody is going to be impressed by your business anyways?

But without getting ahead of ourselves, let’s talk a little more about the importance of your call-to-action.

II. Have a strong call to action for visitors.

A contractor’s website needs to be optimized for conversions-

A conversion is marketing jargon for “when a click turns into a lead (name, number, email)

Putting a call-to-action strategy into your marketing plan could be the difference from a 3% click-to-lead rate up to 15% (and we’ve seen this happen before)

A Deck Above Case Study

Ideally, your benchmark should be hovering around the 10% mark.

A strong call-to-action should 2 methods to increase conversion rates:

“lowering the barrier to entry”

and

“Reduce friction”

Lowering the barrier to entry is simply the idea that the less commitment you ask from a client, the higher the likelihood they become a lead.

A good example of this would be a “call now” vs “schedule an estimate”

When asking your customers to get in touch, they are really not required to do much more than have a conversation.

If you are asking a potential customer to commit to making time in their schedule and have you come to their house- the commitment is larger and thus experiences a greater drop-off.

This is not all bad though. Sometimes businesses that are flooded with calls may want that larger commitment in order to weed through leads that are serious vs. potentially wasting your time.

Reducing Friction is simply the idea of looking at the customer experience of taking action on your website.

Let’s look at BOTH call-to-actions above and see how we may be able to reduce friction.

1. “Schedule a Free Estimate”

Let’s say your website currently offers a free estimate for a service.

When users want to take advantage of your offer, are they filling out a generic form and waiting for you to get back to them?

When you do get back to them- there are probably a couple of back-and-forths before finally locking in a date & time.

You can remove friction on this call-to-action by implementing a scheduling tool that can set general availability and use your current calendar availability so clients can instantly book their date and time without leaving your site.

Additionally, this will automatically send them a calendar invite and remind them 24 hours before you show up so you can reduce the number of times clients forget you are coming.

2. “Phone call”

When you get calls from potential clients when you are in the field working on a job, what percentage of the time do you answer? Do you have a receptionist yet to answer your calls?

If you are having issues answering your phones this could be bad for the customer experience.

To reduce friction (and reduce the chances the call someone else):

You could consider either implementing a scheduling tool so clients can schedule calls that works with your availability (I typically recommend Calendly)

Or you could consider getting a virtual assistant to answer your calls from leads. There are many companies available for contractors that are pay-per-lead meaning you only pay for calls that are turned into leads.

III. Get on local directories-

If you’re not already listed, there are many contractor listings that can get your company in front of thousands of potential leads.

Common popular sites like Home Advisor and Angi commonly show up 1st in Google Rankings and therefore get quite a bit of leads for contractors.

See our “17 Best Websites For Contractor Leads” to grow your business.

If you decide to pay for directories we have some tips to make sure you get the most out of your investment.

1. Measure ROI

The single most important thing you can do is measure the return you get from your investment into directory sites.

You can do this by setting up a forwarding number with a website like Call Rail to measure calls.

Or you can create a dedicated web page on your website that is ONLY linked to that directory so you can use Google Analytics goals to measure how many clicks and leads you received to that specific page.

Finally, consider using a CRM software for keeping your leads in one place. This would allow you to connect the forms on your website to your CRM.

When someone fills out a form on your “home advisor web page” that lead could be tagged as “home advisor lead.”

Then at the end of the year, you could filter out all your leads that were tagged as home advisor leads and go back through your books to generate a sales report that would help you see exactly what revenue was generated from that directory. 

2. Perform a Market Assessment

Did you know that Google offers a tool that tells you how many people search a given keyword per month in your market?

This can be narrowed down by city, county, state, or even designated metropolitan area.

This is called Google Keyword Planner

To do this, simply put in terms like “plumber near me” or “best plumber in [CITY]” and get the volume for similar search terms.

Once you know which terms are searched the most- simply Google them and find out which directories show up first.

This will tell you which directories are receiving the most search volume.

That will likely be the directory you can expect to get the most bang-for-your-buck.

*Hint: most contractor searches on Google will show ads, then map, then directories, then organic results. For this reason, I suggest focusing heavily on Google MyBusiness as your first directory

3. Audit Your Directory Listing

Once you’ve settled on a directory to pursue it is important to keep that listing updated.

Make sure after every job (that goes well)- you are pushing for clients to give a positive review. 

Your thumbnail image is probably the most overlooked aspect of a directory image.

Perform some competitive research on your directory and see if you can find what kind of images really pop out on the page above the rest.

I typically recommend a person AND a logo on the image. This tends to receive the most attention on directories. But you can do your own research and come to a conclusion you think would work best.

When writing the content in your listing try to focus more on the “YOU” instead of the “ME.”

So many companies drone on and on about THEMSELVES and the truth is- the clients don’t really care that much.

Keep it short and sweet.

And keep the focus directed to your clients and not on yourself.

Finally, make your main goal to get people off the directory and onto your website.

This will help increase your chance of sales as they are not simply messaging you, click back to the main page, and messaging the next guy (and so on).

IV. Advertise On Google.

This one is pretty straight forward but I feel it needs to be covered.

Do you know what keywords your website is ranking for?

If so, do you know what their average position is?

(If not, you can message me here and I can generate a quick report for you for free)

Most businesses have pretty lackluster rankings on the organic-traffic side of things.

And SEO is a long process that can take a while to yield results.

Thankfully, Google has implemented a “pay-to-play” format in Google Ads.

Meaning- to show up as the #1 spot of Google, you’re going to need to advertise.

This is great because if you’re an electrician, and somebody loses power in their house- they are likely:

-Googling “Electrician near me”

-Clicking on the first guy

-Calling to get someone out there right away

In the case of emergency services, people aren’t really researching that much and going with the first guy they see.

In the case of big-ticket items (roofing, landscaping, remodel) they are getting multiple quotes.

So being first on Google almost guarantees you’ll get a shot to quote that job.

If you are unfamiliar with Google Ads- it is a pay-per-click service.

Meaning your ad could show 100 times but if it is only clicked once, you only pay for that single click.

To get the most out of those clicks we recommend dedicated campaigns, and landing pages for each service you provide.

If someone searches “roofer near me”- have a dedicated web page for that instead of sending them to your homepage (you only have about 60 seconds of their attention).

If someone searches “roof repair near me” have a page for that..

If someone searches “ice dam removal near me” have a dedicated page for that.

You get the point.

Don’t leave them to find what they are looking for. You need to show it to them right away.

V. Create Content To Increase Organic Traffic

Once you get your ads running- it’s time to focus on the long-term plan to get more traffic to your website.

The best way to get traffic is to rank for more keywords.

The best way to rank for more keywords is to add new pages to your site.

The best way to add pages to your site is to create blogs that educate your potential customers.

SEO agencies always talk about titles, descriptions, meta-titles, structured data, site health, blah blah blah.

These can be useful, but the simplest way I describe SEO is this:

One search term = One page.

Use the keyword planner I linked to above to find a search term your clients might search.

A good example would be: “how much does a roof cost in [state]”

Let’s say this search term gets 700 searches per month.

You could write a blog titled “How Much Does A Roof Cost In [State]?- Everything You Need To Know”

Now you have an article that specifically attacks a single keyword that you know could put you in front of 700 potential clients. And very few of your competitors are doing this.

Another example could be “Best Landscaping Companies In [CITY]”

Let’s say this gets 1,000 searches per month.

Instead of writing a blog about how great you are or creating a list where you put yourself as number 1- try categorizing landscaping companies and feature yourself for the work you are best at.

This could be something like:

1. Best For Retaining Walls
2. Best For Irrigation Systems
3. Best For General Maintenance
4. Best For Snow Removal
5. Best For Lawn Care

Now you can feature yourself without ruining the trust of your readers AND you now have a page on your website that can put you in front of 1,000 potential customers.

***BONUS TIPS***

The best blog types are: Lists, Reviews, Comparisons, and Directly Answering Questions. Try to keep your blogs in these categories.

News outlets use SEO blogs to create content that brings in regular visitors. They then sell advertising space to businesses to get in front of those visitors.

On a micro-scale, think of your blog the same way.

Your blog to get visitors to your site. Then you advertise to that traffic to get new business.

V. In Conclusion

In conclusion, there is no perfect strategy for increasing contractor leads and sales.

Each business must find what works best in their industry or niche market.

There are a few general steps that might help you get started though!

1. Optimize Your Website For Conversion
2. Have A Strong Call-To-Action On Your Site
3. Utilize Directories and Google MyBusiness
4. Advertise On Google
5. Create Regular Content
6. Figure Out What’s Working And Optimize Your Strategy

If you feel like getting a custom contractor marketing strategy for your business, I offer free 30-min consultations to business owners in need of some advice.

You are welcome to schedule one at johnsonjonesgroup.com/assessment