Construction Lead Generation: Strategies for Contractors

As a contractor, you know your business depends on lead generation, so understanding how to get leads can help you sustain and grow your business as a builder.

Developing a construction lead-generation strategy means three things:

1. You need to take a high-level view of your potential clients and resources.
2. You need to determine how much time and money you can dedicate to your lead-generation efforts.
3. You need to decide whether you’ll do the lead generation yourself — or seek the assistance of a local marketing agency.

If you decide that you’d like to perform the lead generation yourself, understanding how to create a proper lead-generation strategy will help you build a list of previous, current and future clients and establish long-term success.

Lead Types in Construction Lead Generation

There are two types of construction leads, and distinguishing between the two main types of leads can help you determine where you want to spend your time, energy and money.

Information Qualified Leads

Information Qualified Leads (IQL) are leads who are still at the top of the sales funnel. They’re interested in learning about services for a project but probably aren’t yet ready to hire your services. To generate these leads, you need to position yourself as experts in your field and build trust with your potential clients.

Gaining trust can be achieved by building a strong online presence with a professional website and active social media profiles, and by engaging in community events. Showcase your expertise through content creation, videos and behind-the-scenes features, and consistently collect and display customer testimonials.

Marketing Qualified Lead

A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is generated as a result of your marketing efforts, such as ads or contact forms on your website. These leads are closer to hiring you as a contractor and likely have a specific project in mind. They are in the action phase of the funnel, which means they’re readier to convert, as opposed to IQLs who are still in the information and research phase. Following up and nurturing these leads through automated email and text messages will allow you to answer any questions that are holding them back, and bring them closer to becoming a customer.

Construction Lead Generation: How to Get Construction Leads as a Contractor

Construction lead generation can seem overwhelming, and there are a lot of different avenues to explore.

The key is to look at your individual goals and choose the strategies that will reach the right people at the right time. (You should also consider the tactical logistics entailed in each strategy.)

For instance, if you’re going to use a blog to reach potential leads, you need to ask yourself: Who will be responsible for writing the blog posts? Will the content be created in-house, or will you hire a writer or agency?

Find a Niche

Finding your niche in residential construction means identifying the types of projects you’re willing to work on, but you want to be as specific as possible. For example, you can enumerate your expertise in a number of backyard projects, including deck construction, deck board replacement, and pergola deck construction. By identifying what you’re most interested in building, you can become more trustworthy within that niche as you grow your list of successful projects.

Marketing Niche

In addition to your construction niche, you should also identify a marketing niche. For example, do you want to create blogs, email campaigns, newsletters, social media posts or Google Ads?

Once you decide on your main marketing channels, the information you provide to your audience can be tailored to your construction niche.

For example, you may offer tips and tricks or how-to posts for homeowners who are looking for guidance on specific projects. If you provide helpful information, you appear more knowledgeable to others and they are more likely to contact you for projects.

Just remember: Your construction niche and content marketing niche should complement each other.

Identify Audience Personas

After you’ve chosen a niche, take some time to identify your audience personas. If you specialize in high-end residential backyard projects, your target audience may be middle-aged, upper-middle-class clients.

If you specialize in providing construction services for small suburban homes, your audience persona may be project managers and developers.

Understanding your audience can help you gear your resources to their interests and needs.

Offer Free Resources

Free resources (e.g., guides on how to complete a task) can contribute to building trust between you and your current and future leads. Clear and relevant resources can make potential clients keep coming back because you’re offering them something in addition to your services, which helps them keep you in mind when they have an upcoming project.

Plus, maybe one of your previous clients will pass the resources to someone else with a similar project who is in turn inspired to contact the contractor listed on the resource.

Use Email Marketing

Email marketing, whether you’re marketing your services or providing a newsletter, can get your business into people’s inboxes. You can set up email marketing in a variety of ways depending on your niche, content, and resources.

If you can write a weekly or monthly newsletter, it gives you a way to engage with your potential leads on a continual basis. If you don’t have the time to do this, you could still look for a freelance copywriter to help create a few brief email campaigns.

Implement Effective SEO

Effective SEO, or search engine optimization, simply means ensuring your content uses words relevant to potential clients’ backgrounds and interests.

For instance, if you specialize in deck remodeling, you should make sure you’re targeting “deck remodeling”–related keywords in your blog posts. Researching effective SEO strategies and implementing them on your website can go a long way toward getting your site to reach potential leads.

Write a Blog

Blog posts fall under the IQL category.

Potential clients are often looking for information that can help them solve a problem, whether it’s finding the best decking materials or identifying the best hardwood deck flooring for patios.

Because you’ve chosen a niche and identified audience personas, providing information for your ideal client (e.g., first-time homebuyers looking to renovate their back porches) can help them find you when a problem arises.

Within these blog posts, you can encourage readers to contact you or ask for a quote by including call-to-action buttons or links.

Implement Paid Advertising

Paid advertising falls under the MQL category as you’ll be paying to run the ads. Google Ads and social media ads can be targeted to your specific type of client, which is why understanding your audience persona is very important.

For instance, if you offer home remodeling services, you can tailor your ads to attract and engage homeowners searching for home remodeling tips.

Create a User-Friendly Website

Creating a visually appealing, user-friendly website is a powerful way to generate leads for construction. Anyone who goes to your website should be able to navigate it easily and find exactly what they need, whether it’s products, services, blog posts, contact information, or information about you as a contractor.

You can also include pop-up forms on the most visited pages that invite website visitors to enter their information to receive a free resource or a quote or to subscribe to your newsletter.

Boost Social Media Presence

Boosting social media presence can also get you in front of more homeowners looking to complete projects. More and more, people looking to complete projects conduct searches on both Google and social media platforms. Posting engaging content can show your craftsmanship in construction and, as a result, make others trust your ability to complete large, professional projects.

However, this doesn’t just mean posting pictures and stories. It also means engaging with people in the comments section and possibly liking and commenting on other people’s content, even if the people you’re engaging with don’t always end up becoming leads.

Leverage Customer Reviews

With the number of reviews on Google, Yelp and other review sites, it’s easier than ever for clients and customers to vet companies before contacting them. This means that you should be leveraging customer reviews. For each project you complete, ask the client for a review and encourage them to leave the review on multiple sites.

Grow Your Network

You can grow your network using the internet, but you can also grow your network by attending in-person events. Tradeshows in your area can be a place to network among other people in your industry. You can also grow your network by leveraging word-of-mouth referrals and encouraging clients to pass your name along to anyone they know who is looking for a contractor.

Choose Data-Driven Decision-Making

When you use data to make your decisions, you’ll actually be looking at what has generated the most leads so you can lean into those areas. For instance, if you’re putting a lot of time and energy into your social media presence but are getting all of your leads from your website, you may be better off directing your efforts into keeping your website as fresh and relevant as possible.

How Contractors Can Get Leads by Networking

Networking can be a great way to generate leads organically (and often for free). There are various ways to network, so finding one that plays to your strengths can help make your efforts more effective.

Contact General Contractors

If you’re a subcontractor, contacting general contractors to establish a connection and make your services and availability known may mean they’ll reach out when they have a project that’s right for you.

Collaborate with Designers

Architects and structural engineers are always on the lookout for contractors who can bring their vision to life. Reaching out to designers or meeting them in person can form a connection that may result in leads down the road.

Meet with HOAs

HOAs, or homeowners associations, often lay out requirements for the type of work that can be done in their neighborhoods. Meeting with the head of an HOA and describing your services can mean you’re the go-to person when members have a project.

Lead-Generation Websites for Contractors

MQLs can also come directly from lead-generation websites for contractors, and you may choose to use these websites for a variety of reasons.

If you’re just starting out and unsure of how to get leads for construction, these websites can prove to be a valuable resource. You can even continue to use them as you scale your business.

Some are a pay-per-lead service while others are free, so it’s important to assess your needs and budget before deciding on the right lead-generation website. They can also act as a supplement to other lead-generation strategies and allow you to find or buy construction leads at the same time as you’re generating them organically.

Should I Buy Construction Leads?

Buying construction leads through paid ads can be beneficial to your business, but only if you’re able to tailor those ads to your target client. If your target client is a retiree looking to repair the flooring of a large, multi-level deck, you want to make sure it shows up for them instead of for busy parents with young children, a small budget and a small patio that needs just needs a few repairs.

Build a Construction Lead-Generation Strategy

Determining how to generate leads for construction and building a lead-generation strategy will depend on a number of factors, including your target clientele, your services, your location and your resources. Deciding on a strategy can allow you to focus your efforts where they will be most effective and, ultimately, bring you more clients.

At Simpson Strong-Tie, we aim to set our customers and all those in the industry up for success. To get more information on how to stay ahead in the market, become a StrongPro where you can read up on more topics related to industry trends, installation and helpful resources.