Of all of the businesses that I’ve worked with, the industry that seems the least aware of the power of an online presence are those in the contracting industries.  Several of the contractors I’ve met up with in the past few years didn’t even have a website!

It should go without saying that if you want to generate leads online, you need a website.

But before you dive into building a website, take a look at our free Ebook “Website Redesign 101” to see exactly what you’ll need so that you can optimize and get the most leads from your website.

Optimize Everything

The first thing that you’ll want to do is focus on “search engine optimization”.  Without having a website that’s optimized for the search engines, you may never be found by your potential leads (or, at least, not found easily).  In order to have an optimized website, you’ll have to know a bit about keywords and keyword phrases, how to choose them, and then how to incorporate them into your website and into other content that you post to your site (i.e. your blog).

There are a number of tools online that will help you find and select the right keywords and keyword phrases for your website, most of which are free to use.

Begin Writing a Blog

Blogs are essential for anyone who wants to generate leads online.  Why?  Here are just some of the benefits of having a blog:

  • Most are absolutely free to use and incorporate into your website (and who doesn’t like free?)
  • Having a blog will give your website that personal “touch”.  People like hiring on people who they feel they know or can relate to, and they like hiring on people they can trust
  • Blogs allow you to talk about your experiences and show off your expertise
  • Nothing will help you rank higher in the search engines than having a blog that’s regularly updated with quality content

Here’s the bottom line:  If you want to get leads, then you need to have a blog.

For more on creating a successful blog, be sure to check out our FREE Ebook, “How to Start a Business Blog.”

Start a Social Media Campaign

More and more businesses and companies are using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to generate more leads.  This is working particularly well since more and more people are using social media like Facebook and  Twitter to find businesses and companies that may be of interest to them.

Having a social media account will help you connect with  people who may not have otherwise been able to find you, or even been looking for you, online.  You can contribute to conversations and offer your expert opinion.  You can take compliments and complaints immediately and respond to them in kind.  You can post information about new product launches or services that you’re offering, your availability, or new and exciting things that are happening in your niche.

Social media, much like having a blog, will give you more of a human touch too.  Maintaining a social media account on all of the major social media sites will act as a platform for people to find you.  Once they’re able to find you through social media, you can then direct them to your blog or website.   Once they land on your website, you can then work on turning them into a potential lead.

Looking to maximize your social media success? Check out our FREE Ebook, “The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.”

Get their Email Address

If you want to nurture a lead, then you’ve got to find a way to get their email address.  Once you have a potential lead’s email address, you can then continuously nurture that lead until they (hopefully) become a customer.

So how can you get an email address?  Through a number of different ways:

  • Offer a free newsletter that they will need to provide their email for to receive
  • Have a “Contact Us” form on your website where they’ll need to enter in their email address for a response back from you
  • Have a contest or draw featured on your website
  • Offer a free product or service giveaway

The easier and more enticing you make it for them to give you an email address, the better, so try to be creative and come up with at least 3 different ways to try and get different types of leads to provide you with their email address.

Key Takeaways:

Generating leads is easier than you thought, with your main tool being your website.  From there you can utilize things like blogs, social media ,email, and landing pages to help generate leads.  It will take some planning and perhaps a bit of fine tuning of your website, but in a short period of time your efforts will pay off.

Need Help?

If you’re a contractor interested in generating more leads online, contact us today to schedule your free marketing analysis.