When it comes to construction, you are second to none. Your craftsmanship is unmatched, and your passion for building shines through in every project.
But when it comes to generating leads for your business? Maybe not so much.
That’s where we come in.
The construction industry is super competitive and generating leads is no small task. You need to have a firm plan in place for how you’re going to grow your business.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through some proven ways you can generate leads for your construction company.
There are a few reasons why it’s crucial to generate construction leads.
First, without leads, your construction business is going to dry up. Gone. Finito. Done. You won’t have any work, revenue, etc. You’ll go out of business. If that’s not enough reason to want to learn how to generate construction leads then I don’t know what to tell you.
Second, quality leads don’t just come along. You need to have a strategic plan in place to attract and capture quality leads. Without a plan in place, don’t expect any growth.
Third, if you know how to generate leads, you’ll have a much better customer base. You’ll be able to pick and choose who you want to work with. You won’t have to take every project that comes your way, no matter how lousy it is. Lead generation puts you in control of your customer base.
There are two types of leads that can turn into sales.
First, there’s Information Qualified Leads. These are construction leads at the top of your sales funnel. They’ve engaged with information your business has put out and can be nurtured to the point where they become actual construction projects. When they’re ready to build, they’ll come to you because you’ve led them through your sales funnel.
Second, there are Marketing Qualified Leads. These leads are at the bottom of your sales funnel and are close to wanting to work with you. All they need is a little nudge in the right direction to get them moving.
Ideally, you want to have a mix of construction leads. If you have only IQLs, you don’t have any work to do, so that won’t work. If you have too many MQLs then you’ve got a massive backlog of work, which is its own problem.
Before you start generating quality leads, you need to know your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). This represents the best customers out there and is who you want to work with. You want to generate as many of these construction leads as possible.
To identify your ICP, you need to answer a few questions. Specifically:
So, maybe you want to work with retail stores that generate more than $10 million in revenue every year. Or maybe you’re more interested in working with mom-and-pop shops that generate much less revenue. Regardless, figure out your Ideal Customer Profile and then start generating construction leads from there.
The starting place for your marketing efforts is to identify your target personas. Within your ideal customer, you may have several different personas you want to target. For example, you may want to target restaurants. Or maybe you’re after you’re targeting sports companies. Or maybe you’re going after residential construction leads. Or maybe you’re targeting all three.
The point is, you need to know exactly who you want to work with. You need to get more granular than with your Ideal Customer Profile. You need to get down to the specifics of exactly what type of construction projects you want to take on.
Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing your website so that it shows up in as many searches as possible. If you’re a roofing contractor in Houston, you want to show up in searches like “roofing companies Houston” or “roofing contractor near me”.
There are a number of things you need to do to optimize your site, including things like:
SEO is a huge subject with many facets. It’s not something you can do overnight. However, if you focus on SEO, you’ll see long-term rewards like lots of organic search traffic and an increase in construction leads.
To help you better understand the subject, here are two helpful resources:
Social media marketing is a great way to generate construction leads. The key to succeeding on with social media marketing is to consistently give your audience value. Help your customers solve their problems and achieve their goals.
For example, if you’re a roofing company, talk about what to do when there is storm damage. Help your audience figure out what to do with the sticky problems that keep them up at night. Provide tricks, tips, and strategies they can put into action.
Another way to use social media is to display the work you’ve done or are doing. Show people the beautiful work you do or take them behind the scenes of an ongoing project. Just make sure that you don’t get overly promotional with your posts. If you do that, people will start to tune out.
You can’t market effectively if you don’t have a strategy in place to attract potential clients. You need to decide which marketing channels you’ll use. Will you focus on social media? Search engines (SEO)? Paid advertising? Email marketing?
Pick the channels where your audience spends the majority of their time and give your time and efforts to them. As you progress, carefully analyze the results of your marketing efforts. Double down what’s working and stop doing the things that aren’t.
Just make sure that you give each channel enough time to produce results. For example, SEO is a long-term game. If you look for results too quickly you’ll be disappointed. Paid advertising, on the other hand, should produce more leads much quicker.
Once you’ve decided on which marketing channels you’re going to use, you need to allocate your budget across those channels. This will ensure that you are effectively utilizing your resources and maximizing results.
As you allocate your budget, consider both the immediate ROI and the long-term benefits. As we noted, SEO won’t start working for you immediately. You need to give it enough time and effort. However, the long-term ROI can be massive if you do SEO right. Paid advertising generates immediate results but stops working as soon you turn it off.
Allocate your budget so that you’re targeting both long-term and short-term benefits.
Paid search advertising and social media advertising are powerful lead-generation strategies. With paid search, you can target people who are specifically looking for what you offer. For example, you can ensure your business shows up when a person searches for “residential construction companies near me”.
Social media advertising can get you in front of a huge audience that you wouldn’t have access to otherwise. Or you can get extremely granular with your advertising, showing your ads only to the exact people you want.
Once someone interacts with one of your ads, you can retarget them with other relevant ads and content. This keeps your construction business top of mind and enables you to target potential clients at various stages in the marketing funnel.
As your construction business grows, you’re going to need to ensure that your sales and marketing teams are streamlined and in sync. If a sales rep engages with a potential client who isn’t quite ready to buy, that lead needs to be passed to the marketing department and effectively nurtured down the funnel. The SDR knows exactly what type of construction they’re interested in and should ensure they get placed into the proper sales funnel.
On the flip side, if a potential client engages with marketing content and shows an interest in learning more, they should be passed along to the sales team.
This process needs to be seamless and requires your sales and marketing teams to be in consistent communication with each other.
As your business grows, you’ll have an increasing number of satisfied customers. These customers are a gold mine of potential referral clients. By creating a formalized referral program, you incentivize your customers to spread the word about your business.
Your rewards could include anything from straight-up money to gift cards to free services. The reward needs to be significant enough that people want to take advantage of your referral program.
Free estimates are another fantastic way to generate leads for your construction company. They provide a no-risk way for a person to engage with your company. They also help you build trust with potential customers. In the construction industry, trust is hugely important.
Free estimates also allow you to show off your knowledge and expertise. As the potential customer interacts with you, they’ll see that you really do know what you’re talking about and can provide them with excellent construction services.
Your network is another goldmine for potential clients. As you go about your business, you’ll work with plumbers, electricians, drywallers, and more. These people are likely to interact with people who need construction services and they can send the potential customers your way.
Also, try to connect with other businesses that aren’t direct competitors of yours. For example, if you focus on commercial construction you could engage with businesses who have a different ideal customer profile than you. If you have a strong relationship with these businesses, they can send relevant leads your way and vice versa.
To grow your network, attend conferences, workshops, local Chamber of Commerce meetings, etc. Put yourself in a position to meet construction businesses in different verticals than you.
Having a niche can help you stand out from the competition. For example, maybe you target Millennials who make more than $150,000 per year and want to build their houses from the ground up. Or maybe you target older individuals who are looking to downsize into smaller, more manageable homes.
Choosing a niche allows you to customize your marketing efforts specifically to your audience. Your wording, imagery, and offers can all be tailored so that they resonate with your niche.
If someone wants to do a construction project, they’re likely to do a lot of research online first. They want to find a trusted contractor who has done similar projects in the past and has produced great work. Lead generation websites can position your company as the best match, which in turn can lead to an influx of quality leads.
Some of the best construction lead generation websites include:
Make sure that your profile on each of these websites is totally completed and optimized with the right keywords. For example, if you’re a roofing and siding contractor, make sure those keywords are included in your profile, as well as any relevant project photos. If you specialize in anything, be sure to mention that in your profile as well.
If you have trusted construction partners who do great work, consider partnering with them. Doing this immediately expands your audience and exposes you to potential leads who might be interested in what you offer. Partnering with other construction companies can also strengthen your reputation and credibility.
If you have a limited marketing budget, this strategy should be high up on your list. It’s perfect for smaller businesses who are trying to grow.
Lead generation usually takes at least several months before you start to see results. However, the exact length of time will depend on the specific marketing strategies you choose. SEO can take between six months to a year to start to get traction. Paid advertising can start generating leads relatively quickly, and email marketing sits somewhere between the two.
To get the best results, use a mix of marketing strategies – some with a long-term ROI and some with a much shorter time to results.
If you want your construction business to grow, you need a well-crafted marketing strategy. Don’t just hop from one tactic to the next. Rather, start by focusing on one or two strategies that you’re comfortable with and go hard at those. Maybe it’s social media. Maybe you’re going to work hard to partner with other construction businesses.
Whichever you choose, what matters most is that you take action. Soon. You can be sure that your competitors are. They’re working hard on lead generation. Don’t fall behind them. Start growing your business with lead generation today.
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