Is Effective Internet Marketing in Your Toolbox?

You are no fool. You know customers for your home contracting business are searching the web looking for companies like yours. The web has become the first place people look for service providers, and an incredible source of the best contractor leads for your business.

If customers are not finding your business on-line, then you are not working hard enough or smart enough to get their attention. Customers who should be planning their home renovation project with you are getting roped in by competitors with higher web profiles. Or stolen away by a lead-generation “magnet” that will happily turn around and sell contractors leads to you — and three other competitors at the same time!

Face it, your company’s simple website is not working to pull Internet contractor leads to your business. You need to bring additional resources to bear, including social media (like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), a website that is designed to actively attract customers, and search engine marketing that is focused on your local market.

But who has the time to do all the work necessary to make Internet marketing produce the contractors leads you want? You have a business to run and can’t spend all day blogging, sending Tweets and updating your company profile on dozens of web-based directories.

But we can. Surefire Social’s contractor lead marketing system can help you start generating a steady stream of your very own Internet contractor leads from customers in your market area who are motivated and ready to put you to work.

Instead of just buying contractor leads or traffic, business owners just like you are taking back control of their Internet marketing with Surefire Social. It’s fast, affordable and easy to put into motion. We do it every day, with all types of contractors, in every region of the country.

If you are serious about growing your business, you need to put Surefire Social’s best contractor leads generation system in your toolbox. Click here to get started.

Every contractor marketing blog should include a Call-to-Action to generate more contractor leads for your business.

Generating contractor leads is something any company aims to accomplish to succeed. Creating a blog is one tool that many local businesses have become intimately familiar with to make this happen. At the same time, I find that many fail to include a Call-to-Action (CTA) within their blogs, which means they’re losing out on lots of leads to their competition.

Create a Call to Action for Your Contractor Marketing Blog Now.

A CTA is not just for your contractor marketing website or Facebook page. Believe it or not, including a CTA on your blog can exponentially help you generate more contractor leads for your business. With a CTA, you can catch your readers’ attention, get useful information, and keep visitors coming back for more.

Every Blog Post Should Have a CTA to Generate More Contractor Leads.

A CTA should be placed at the end of every blog post you create. When you place CTAs, you want to make sure that they are designed correctly and placed appropriately, so test them on different platforms and web browsers to make sure they work and function correctly.
A strong CTA will be clearly visible on your blog page, and it will be clear what you’d like your visitors to do. You can ask visitors to download an eBook or free report, ask them to submit contact information, and much more. Make the CTA enticing so your readers will be curios enough to move forward with your request.

Be Patient, Because They WILL Come.

Even though you’ve followed instructions and implemented what’s outlined here, remember that generating contractor leads can take some time.

But to foster a quicker response and conversion rate, remember it’s important to get visitors to become more involved with your blog by encouraging them with information they continually want to read so they will hopefully subscribe to it. Subscriptions to your blog can be through email or RSS. Either way, having an easily understandable and clear CTA at the end of each blog post is very important. As visitors learn more about your site and like what they learn, they are more apt to return. As they continue to return, they will see you have information that’s relevant and important to them, as well as current every time they visit. This means they will be more likely to subscribe to your blog and eventually become another contractor lead for you and your company.

What types of CTAs have you found to be effective?

Site speed, mobile visibility, and recent, compelling content are all critical elements for local business success to boost contractor leads in 2012.

As a local business owner working with other businesses to help them boost their online exposure and contractor leads, I know first-hand how the Internet can bring tons of success with a well planned out and executed strategy. At the same time, I also understand how challenging it can be for businesses to create such a plan because the Internet is an ever changing platform (thus often changing the variables dictating success) that can be challenging for most business owners to keep up with. That’s why I’m sharing with you some of the biggest online trends of 2012 that are important for contractor marketing businesses to be aware of so they can keep up with the competition and maximize contractor leads for their business.

First, two of the biggest profit multipliers for your website are:

1. Currency of information.

2. Speed of implementation.

Keeping this in mind, make sure the following are taking into consideration to maximize your online marketing strategy for 2012.

1. Site speed is HUGE. You need to make sure your site speed tests well. For more information, read about site speed optimization here.

2. Mobile site capability is increasingly more important. More and more users are accessing the Internet via Smartphones and other mobile devices. A Mobile capable site is a nice addition to have now, but will be critical over the next year or so to keep up with the demands in the marketplace.

3. Currency of content is a necessity for contractor marketing companies. Content is inexpensive, but maybe one of the most important marketing strategies to boost contractor leads online. Create a content strategy and implement it with persistence.

What do you think some of the 2012 online trends are to help boost contractor leads for contractor marketing firms??

If you look back through the several blog posts posted here on Best Contractor Leads, you’ll see that several of them emphasize the importance of social media to help boost contractor leads. We work with clients to help them build and grow their social media marketing strategy because—in a nutshell—it’s been proven to work with the right implantation strategy; and with the recent 2012 stats provided by Professional Remodeler, 20% more remodelers compared to last year seem to be getting this concept as they’re starting to initiate their own social media campaign.

Per the chart below, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube are all forms of social media that home contractors and remodelers are using more and more each year to help market their businesses. And it’s no surprise given that it’s inexpensive, easy to use, and grants you access to millions of possible contractor leads. In addition, social media is a great tool to use to build expert status and provide tons of helpful information for your target audience, as well as creating content throughout the Internet to build search engine optimization and ranking to drive contractor leads back to a remodeler’s business website for more lead conversions.

In addition to social media, which is being used by 49% of contractors, compared to only 29% in 2011, company websites, job and truck signs, and in-person networking lead the way in terms of how remodelers market their business:

• Company websites are used by 74 percent of companies

• Job and truck signs are used by 70 percent of remodeling firms

• In-person networking is used by 62 percent of remodelers, up 13 percent from 2011

What do you find to be the most effective way to market your contractor marketing business?

The internet is full of business opportunities, and can be the source of a great deal of success – especially if you’re looking for solid contractor leads. There are countless people who search for contractor services every single day all over the world, so it can be something of an untapped resource for businesses who want to find good contractor leads. Using a viral marketing agency is all very well, but it’s going to produce hits rather than conversions. There are plenty of ways to capture some of this web traffic and get the chance of converting it into paying customers; you simply need to choose the right one for you. SEO, or search engine optimization, is probably the best technique for harnessing the power of ‘organic’ traffic – and could be your secret weapon in generating quality contractor leads. Best of all, SEO is completely free and requires only a bit of time and effort on your part. Let’s look at exactly how you can use SEO to generate quality contractor leads for your business.

Getting your on-page SEO right

The first step in optimizing your website for SEO is the text content. In fact, the words you use on your website are probably the most important factor in all search engine optimization techniques. Known as ‘on-page’ SEO, the way you use keywords and phrases is vital in how visible your website is to search engines like Google. This also directly affects how easy it is for your customers to find you, and create solid contractor leads for you. So how do you optimize the words on your site? Well, first make yourself a list of keywords. If you’re trying to generate contractor leads, it’s likely that these phrases will relate directly to your business sector. So if you are a plumber, your keywords could be ‘plumbing, plumber, plumbers in (place name)’ and so on. Try to get these keywords into your text as much as possible on every page of your website.

Off-page SEO can be helpful too

It’s not all about what’s happening on the pages of your website, you can also help yourself generate contractor leads by dealing with your ‘off-page’ SEO too. This refers to the actual code that your website is built from. If you’re not comfortable editing this code, try to find someone to help you. Basically, in the code are certain pieces of information – known as metadata – that are visible to a search engine, and that it uses to index your site. To maximize the chances of getting solid contractor leads, you need to ensure your metadata is accurate and describes your company perfectly. Again, the keywords you created earlier will be of great help here. You’ll find that you will need a description, keywords, and correct page titles to optimize your off-page efforts correctly. All companies with websites can benefit from good off-page optimization – from a golf store to a SEO agency.

Why good SEO will help you in the future

The great thing about search engine optimization is that it is not a quick-fix. In some ways this is a double-edged sword, because it can sometimes take a few weeks to see the results of your hard work. But this seeming downside is also one of the greatest strengths of SEO, because once you’ve successfully gained some position in the search rankings, you’ll find it much more easy to keep it. You will of course need to monitor your SEO to ensure that it’s producing the level of contractor leads that you’re after, but always bear in mind that it’s not a sure thing. If your SEO work doesn’t seem to be bearing fruit, be sure you give it plenty of time. There are occasions (especially in competitive industries like contractors) that your search rankings won’t improve for a few months.

There’s no doubt that using search engine optimization to generate quality contractor leads is a difficult process, especially if you’re trying to handle all of it on your own. There are lots of elements to it, and all of them need to be continuously tweaked and monitored; not many contractors have the time that it takes to do a ‘real’ job of it, which is exactly where Surefire Social for Contractors comes in handy. Simply call 703.896.7688 or visit www.surefiresocial.com/contractor-leads for more information on how simple, easy, and affordable generating contractor leads through SEO can be.

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Though we’re a ways from saying the housing market has stabilized, new stats bring hope and show the trends are moving in the right direction, which could mean more contractor leads in the future for contractor marketing businesses.

In the recent WSJ article, Housing Showing Signs Of Stabilization; Home Builders Benefit, it stated:

“With stocks aiming to claw back all of yesterday’s declines, it’s worth noting the biggest gainers in the S&P 500 are home-builder stocks such as Masco, PutleGroup, Lennar and DR Horton. All are benefiting after data Thursday showed pending home sales jumped to the highest level in 19 months.”

This news gives a glimmer of hope to home contractors who have been riding the downward wave of the housing market over the past four years, which also means having taken a hit with a decline in contractor leads for many. But thankfully, it appears the market is beginning to stabilize as we share some of the more positive statistics outlined below that Paul Tourbaf, VP of Corporate Sales at Hanley Wood, shared with us this past week.

• Pending Home sales: best in 19 months

• Mortgage rates at historic lows: 3.875% (30-year fixed)

• Unemployment rate: Best since March of 2009

• Consumer confidence: 64.5 (best since April)

• Housing starts: 685K, up 24% YoY, best in three years

• Permits: 681K, up 21%, best in three years

• New Home Sales: 315K, up 10% YoY

• Months’ supply of new homes: 6.0, lowest in several years

• Existing home sales: 4.42 MM, up 12% YoY; best since January

• Home Builder Index: 21, up 8 points since March

Contractor marketing companies should take this opportunity to focus on a strategy to generate online leads by targeting places where home builders and those in need of home contractor services hang out. Do a search in social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter, for example, and get involved with online forums where these folks hang out so they know who you are and can keep you in mind as the need for home contractors increases with the upward moving trend of the housing market!

Using a variety of social media accounts will allow you to generate more contractor leads for your business. At the same time, we help our clients and leads understand that you want to create a strong foundation with some key social media networks, and then layer some other networks on top of that which will benefit your local business to boost contractor leads. Begin the year by setting up complete and active profiles, if you haven’t already done so, on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google +.

After you ensure you have profiles set up on the four social media sites referenced above, be sure to include the following as part of your social media goals for 2012:

Update Your Current Profiles: You want to always make sure your social media profiles are up to date and current. With the social media accounts you have, include photos of your business, business logos, or even of yourself for a personal touch. Your business bio should be complete and clear and all of your business’ contact info should be visible and easy to access. Also include links back to your main website so people will have a way to reach it from your social media accounts; another surefire way to boost contractor leads.

Make a Commitment to be Faithful and Consistent with Content Communications: The more you put your business out there, the more people are likely to see what it is you have to offer to attract contractor leads. Allow people to learn more about you and your business by including content that explains exactly what it is you do or offer in addition to relevant and newsworthy content to show off your expertise in the industry. You should be blogging and microblogging at least 1 – 3 times a week.

Add at least 2 new Social Media Networks to Your Marketing Strategy (if it makes sense): Once you have a strong foundation with the 4 social media networks listed above (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+), do some research and identify at least 2 additional social media networks that could positively boost contractor leads for your business, and set up profiles on them. This might include Tumblr, Quora, etc.

Include these goals as part of your 2012 social media marketing campaign to stay up with and ahead of the competition and to boost contractor leads for your business.

Monitoring your social media presence is extremely important. Simply setting up social media profiles on pages such as Facebook and thinking they’ll take care of themselves is a big mistake, and not to mention a waste of time. We let our clients and prospects know that you need to be engaging and interact on your social media networks consistently, and while doing so, you want to be sure to monitor you social media presence and interactions.

It’s extremely important to keep track of and measure your social media results to ensure you’re reaching your goals, but maybe almost more important, doing so allows you to keep track of:

• What people are saying about you and your business; the good, bad and ugly (and if it’s the latter two, you can quickly respond to mitigate damages).
• What any competitors may or may not be doing, and what they are or aren’t doing well.
• When you need to respond or give feedback when questions are asked and comments are made on your sites, as well as your followers’ sites.
• Understand where you need to tweak or make improvements to generate better results and more contractor leads.

There are helpful tools such as HubSpot and Google Analytics, among others, that will educate you further about social media monitoring, or some will actually monitor how much traffic your site receives, your contractor lead conversions, as well as any customers that you’ve generated due to using social media channels for you. Whatever you decide to do, start yesterday and begin monitoring your social media presence to measure results and to learn more about your target market and competition.

As we approach 2012, this month is a great time to regroup and look at what we are doing that’s working and vice versa for our local business. It’s also a great time to strongly considering implementing a social media marketing strategy if you don’t already have one in place, and if you do, then it’s time to take a look at it to make sure it’s fully optimized for the best results.

Ask yourself the following questions as you review your social media marketing strategy, because you should be able to answer ‘yes’ to each one.

1. Do you have profiles set up on:

a. Twitter?

b. Facebook?

c. LinkedIn?

d. Google+

If not, get them set up now. These are some of the most widely used social media platforms. From here, you can expand to other social media networks that will add value to your business.

2. Are your profiles fully completed and include:

a. Business name?

b. Pertinent business information, such as industry and scope of services?

c. Contact information including any pertinent contact name(s), telephone number(s), email(s), and website?

d. A logo or image for you or your business?

Studies show that profiles that are fully completed get more interaction than those that aren’t. A profile page without complete information looks unprofessional.

3. Do you engage regularly on your website with posts, responding to comments, gathering feedback, etc.?

4. Are you regularly microblogging at least 3-4 times a week on each, and if you are, are you providing newsworthy content such as:

a. Links to industry news?

b. Links to other industry experts’ posts?

c. Links to your own business blog?

d. Information about promotions?

e. Press release news and links?

f. New about events, training and webinars?

5. Are you using keywords effectively, including in:

a. Posts?

b. Profile business information?

c. Your Facebook Vanity URL (if you don’t have one of these, create it now (it’s FREE!))?

The list could go on and on, but this is a great place to start to build a strong foundation for your social media campaign.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing more information and check lists to help you prepare for 2012 with a bang to bring in more contractor leads than you’ve seen in any other year.

Are you looking to boost your contracting leads? With all the social media and networking online today, it’s now easier than ever to do!

In 2010, social media has the most results as an emerging channel for lead generating. As provided in a recent HubSpot eBook, “100 Awesome Marketing Charts”, statistics show that Social Media was at the top with 74% of total lead generation; with virtual events at 39%, mobile at 34%, and other types of events at 10%. With that said, statistics also show that 61% of marketers within the United States use social media just to better their lead generation.

Many business to business sites are also increasingly using social media to get more contractor leads. Research was conducted in the middle of 2010 to figure out which social media options were used to get the most referrals for business to business sites. The results for the number of leads included LinkedIn coming in with the highest. The reason for this is because LinkedIn seems to bring in the most customers compared to other social media options.

Blogging can also be really affective for contracting leads. It has been shown that most people who are on the internet read blogs more than one time each day. Many read anywhere between 5 to 10 blogs per day. If other companies continue to use blogs for marketing purposes, it only comes to reason that they are having some kind of positive impact. Following are the statistics of what marketers say about the importance of blogging is for their company:

-Critical – 27%
-Important – 35%
-Useful – 23%
-Somewhat Useful – 10%
-Not Useful – 5%

From the results, approximately 2/3 of marketers who use a blog for their company say the blog is either critical or important when it comes to their business. The reason for this is because companies that do have a blog have had an increase of visitors of at least 50%, which means more contractor leads for local business. Those companies who are business to consumer companies and use a blog end up having over more than 80% of leads per month compared to those business to consumer companies who do not blog. Also, business to business companies who use a blog have approximately 67% more monthly leads compared to those who do not blog.

Overall, social media is important when trying to get contractor leads. Blogging and social networks help generate contractor leads. Give it a try and see if you and/or your business become more successful.

How have your social media strategies fared when it comes to boosting contractor leads??

The statistics provided here can be found in the HubSpot eBook “100 Awesome Marketing Charts”.

Landing pages area great way to build you contractor lead database, but the page needs to be clear, easy to follow, and draw in your readers.

“Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” Front page news is and always has been what catches the reader’s attention. With that said, it’s the headlines on the front page of a paper that entices the readers to actually read the article.

It’s all in the Heading.

The point is, when building a successful marketing lead landing page, the heading needs to catch the reader’s attention while at the same time being easy to understand what it is the page is about. If the person visiting your landing page is able to easily understand what your page is about and what it is you are offering just from the heading and is interested in reading more, than you have successfully created a great headline.

Formatting: The Body and Content should be enticing and clear.

Okay, so you have the person viewing your page interested in reading more. What’s next? It’s the body and the content within. Within the body of your landing page for contractor leads you need to continue to explain what it is you’re offering. You also need to inform them of why your product should be considered. Make it very clear why they should look into your product and what benefits they will receive. Remember, you’re trying to sell your product.

Also, make sure that the body of your page is easy to follow and easy to understand. When listing information, you may want to consider using bullet points. If giving step-by-step instructions, use numbering instead of bullet points. It makes the visual layout of the page less complicated to understand. It will also direct viewers to key points you’re trying to explain. Italicizing or bolding text is also a great way to show importance.

Visuals and Proofreading are essential.

One can’t forget about visuals. Pictures and charts are something that always catches the eyes of readers. Use relevant images on your landing page to help support what it is you’re offering. If they are able to better understand the information through pictures you’ve added, then you have once again successfully captivated your audience’s attention.

One last thing that you should do to make sure your landing page for contractor leads is appealing is proofread. How embarrassing would it be to lose customers because they think you can’t spell or punctuate correctly? Having an errorless landing page allows you to look professional.

Create powerful landing pages to boost contractor leads starting yesterday by using these tips a.s.a.p.! And you can find more landing page tips by reading last week’s post, Converting Contractor Leads with Successful Landing Pages.