Consider creating a partnership blog to develop a referral generating machine. It could be a perfect tool to boost contractor leads for your business.

If you don’t have a blog for your contractor marketing or local business, then you should begin working on one as of yesterday. A blog is a great way to entice your target audience with newsworthy information and content to keep them coming back for more and to drive traffic to your website for contractor lead conversions.

At the same time, a blog can be a great way to generate referrals for your business by creating a multi-business blog by building a team of experts that complement each other to support your target market. For example, if you’re a roofing contractor, then you might consider partnering with a local home builder, Realtor, home store, landscape business, and so on. All of these providers would support your target market and could provide referrals back to you, as well.

To create a referral-generating blog:

1. Identify the team of individuals (referral partnerships) who will support and post to the blog.
2. Identify the blog platform you’ll use (WordPress, Blogger, etc.) and create the blog.
3. Create an Editorial Calendar to support when and what topics will be posted by each blogger.
4. Begin posting!

You may also want to consider setting up a regular (maybe monthly) meeting for all who support the blog to ensure all’s on the same page, discuss new strategies, etc.

In the end, you want all who are a part of the group to actively participate in the blog by providing newsworthy and relevant content. It’s the only way to work collaboratively together to generate contractor leads for each other to keep the relationship moving forward as a mutually beneficial one.

Every contractor marketing firm and local business should have a Twitter and Facebook account to boost contractor leads. For efficiency and more online activity, you can easily link the two.

First, if you don’t already have a Twitter or Facebook account, you need to get one yesterday to increase your social bookmark on the web. These social networking platforms help create exposure, build brand loyalty and credibility, boost expert status, and provide a great resource to generate contractor leads for your business.

After ensuring you have fully completed profiles on both, use the following steps to link your Facebook and Twitter accounts so your Tweets automatically post to your Facebook account!

#1. Log in to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

#2. Go to: facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2231777543

#3. On the Facebook page, click the “Go to Your Twitter Profile Settings to Start” button.

#4. You’ll be taken to your Twitter Profile page. Click on the ‘Connect to Facebook’ button close to the bottom of the page.

#5. Click ‘Skip’ or ‘Allow’ when the Facebook pop-up screen comes up, depending on whether or not you want to link to your other Facebook pages.

#6. Make sure the ‘Allow Twitter to post to the wall of my Facebook profile’ is checked on your Twitter profile.

And that’s it! Your Tweets will now post to your Facebook page automatically. Per Twitter, Tweets that are @replies and direct messages will never be posted.

Tweet and microblog away to boost contractor leads for your business!

For microblogging tips, check out the following post: Creating Powerful Microblogs to Boost Contractor Leads.

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To boost contractor leads, you should be offering all of your products and services online. Consider using a shopping cart and scheduling assistant to provide as much convenience as possible for your target market.

Looking to gain contractor leads? If you’re reading this blog, then chances are the answer is “yes”.

Here’s what you need to consider. Today, technology has become so much more advanced compared to 10 years ago. If you own a contractor marketing company, you already know this. In today’s world, several people surf the net and purchase products and services online, and many prefer doing this compared to going to a store or meeting a service provider outside of their home or office. By going online, they can type in what it is they are looking for, and purchase it with the click of a button.

So my question, are ALL of you services and products available for purchase online?

People prefer to sit in the convenience of their home or office to search for items and services they need, and if you’re not on board by offering this service to your target audience, then you’re losing contractor leads to your competition! Many businesses have come to realize this, and you want to make sure you’re one of them.

Point being, if your company is looking to generate contractor leads, it’s time to start offering everything you have to offer online, whether it’s a service, such as health care or home repairs, or a product, such as car parts or an eBook. Now of course, with services, this can be a bit more challenging, as often an individual pays for a service after the services are rendered, such as a health care visit or roofing repair, BUT, you can still offer online ‘conveniences’, such as offer scheduling assistance online so an individual doesn’t need to pick up the phone and be put on hold to schedule an appointment. Many providers are moving to this type of model. And if it’s a service that requires an initial consultation, you can still offer some type of online assistance to make the process more convenient for the consumer, such as scheduling, making a deposit, or receiving more information via email or a Q&A database.

You can find a long list of shopping cart solutions and scheduling solutions per the links below:

• 35+ Online Shopping Cart Solutions for Your Business
• Online Scheduling Solutions

Bottom line, we all know that we should be promoting our businesses online, but take it a step further and make sure you’re offering all of your products and services to be purchased online, and for those services that can’t necessarily be purchased online, at least provide online ‘conveniences’ when possible to make the purchase process easier for your target market to boost contractor leads.

Facebook is a great tool to generate contractor leads, but you must use it wisely as a contractor marketing company. Your Facebook Newsfeed should be updated frequently and consistently.

Friends. Everyone enjoys having them. And making new friends is even better, because you often feel a sense of success surrounded by friends (and often, the more the merrier).

Leads are similar to friends. Contractor leads are something every business enjoys having (and needs for survival!). Generating new contractor leads is even better, because you feel your business or company is in success mode by continually generating those new contractor leads (and indeed, the more the merrier).

So how can a business keep generating those leads that are the heartbeat of their business? There are many ways to do so, with a popular marketing tool as of late being Facebook. Facebook is a great place for people to find friends and make new ones, so why wouldn’t is be a good way for businesses to generate new contractor leads as well?

But you must use it faithfully and wisely, and part of that is posting to your Facebook Newsfeed on a consistent basis.

The Facebook Newsfeed is the portal where all things get posted. It can be videos, comments, pictures, links, or whatever else is shared on Facebook by users. The newsfeed is also something where everyone can see what you post if they have chosen to “like” you or are subscribed to your business Facebook page as a “fan” or your personal page as a “friend”. You want to use the newsfeed by posting newsworthy content consistently and frequently to be seen and exposed as much as possible. You don’t want to be one of those local businesses that creates a page on Facebook and never uses it. If you are, then you wasted your time even setting up the page.

Respond to other people’s posts, and ask your own questions to generate engagement on Facebook.

When looking to generate new contractor leads, then consider responding to other people’s posts that show up that may be relevant to your business, as well. You can also choose to answer questions you know the answer to, or leave questions so others can put there two cents in. If people like what they see, you may just attract them to your business website, which means they become potential contractor leads.

With so many users on Facebook (closing in on a billion!), it’s a great place to be seen and generate new contractor leads. The Facebook Newsfeed is just one component of a Facebook page that should be used to boost your exposure and attract contractor leads.

Would you like to learn more about how Facebook could boost your business to the next level? Leave a comment below!

Every contractor marketing firm should be working to boost contractor leads via Facebook. And Facebook partnerships are one way to make it happen.

Social media platforms have become an important element of marketing campaigns of big and small businesses alike. To really give your Facebook business page a boost, consider partnering with others to boost your fan and friend network to generate more contractor leads and boost brand awareness.

Ways you can cultivate partnerships via Facebook include:

• Networking with other bloggers.

• Working with complementary businesses.

• Becoming friends with your customers.

Networking with Other Bloggers

Networking with other bloggers has several advantages:

• Having a variety of newsworthy information to share with a different vantage point.

• Networking with other industry experts.

• Creating synergy with their fans and followers, as well.

Working with Complementary Businesses

Partnering with other businesses that complement yours is a great way to get referrals and build your fan base on Facebook. You’ll have access to their fans and friends, and vice versa.

Becoming Friends with Your Customers

If your customers have a Facebook page, then you should friend them. You already have a relationship with them. Friending them on Facebook helps to solidify the relationship and keeps you in front of them with promotions, news, and more.

For more information on the importance of Facebook and how to use it to generate contractor leads for your business, consider the following FREE webinar: Webinar Event: 7 Facebook Strategies to Accelerate Sales in 2012.

It’s incredible for us to see the clients we work with get results. Seeing them generate more leads via online marketing, move to the first page of Google and other search engine page results, build brand visibility and so much more are all aspects of the results we help our clients achieve, and it’s a thrilling ride. At the same time, we find that those who are willing to do the work in partnership with us are the ones who achieve the best results. You see, when you hire an Internet Marketer to help you build and grow your business, you’ve made a wise choice (assuming you’ve hired the right company to meet your needs), but to get the most bang for your investment, your involvement and partnership is essential.

If you’re asked to comment on your own blog posts, or forward those posts to your clients and leads, for example, then it’s beneficial for you to do it. Or to be seen as the expert in your industry, you might be asked to get involved on your contractor marketing firms Facebook page or Twitter account by responding and engaging to comments for your posts, or the posts of others, so go for it! And it might be decided that it would be very beneficial for you to post photos on Panoramio depending on the type of business you’re in, so get involved when asked.

In a nutshell, you won’t be asked to do something if the experts you’ve hired don’t think it will work or help boost contractor leads for your business, so take full advantage of the money you’re investing to build your business with Internet Marketing and get involved when asked to do so.

To get the most out of the services provided by an Internet Marketing company to really boost contractor leads, be sure to:

1. Trust the experts. If you’ve invested the money in your contractor marketing business by hiring an Internet Marketing firm, then trust them and their expertise to get you to where you want to go, and listen to their guidance and take it to heart.

2. Set time aside to make it happen. For optimal results, set some time aside in your schedule to participate in the online marketing efforts you’re being guided to do by the experts you’re working with.

3. Do the work. And finally, do the work requested of you to get the most out of online marketing.

It’s true that we can take our clients a long ways when it comes to online marketing success; but in the end, there’s a direct correlation with the time our clients invest in their own online marketing efforts by partnering with us, and the results they achieve.

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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