By Prue Lotharius, Owner, Opal & Oak Marketing
When the schedule is full, marketing can slide down the priority list. There are crews to manage, materials to order, and customers waiting for answers. Finding the next project feels less urgent when you’re busy delivering the current one.
Then a start date moves. A longtime customer puts a project on hold. Work you expected to win goes somewhere else. That’s when “we should do more marketing” makes its way back into the conversation.
During my recent ABC Wisconsin presentation, “Beyond Word-of-Mouth: Modern Lead Generation for Contractors,” we talked about giving business development consistent attention before those gaps appear. For construction owners and leaders, that starts with deciding what kind of work you want and making it easier for those customers to find and choose you.
What Would a Good Lead Look Like?
Think about the last few inquiries your company received. Were they projects you wanted? In your service area? A good match for your team?
More inquiries can mean more time spent estimating work you’re unlikely to win or cannot profitably deliver. Before investing in marketing, get specific. Perhaps you want more commercial renovation projects, larger residential jobs, or work that keeps a particular crew productive.
That decision gives your marketing direction. It helps determine who you should approach, which services you promote, and where you spend resources.
Give People a Reason to Contact You
Consider a homeowner planning an addition and a property manager preparing to renovate an occupied building. Their projects are different, but both need confidence in the contractor they hire.
Your website should help each recognize that you understand their needs. Show relevant projects, explain your capabilities, and make the next step clear.
A commercial buyer may look for experience coordinating work around tenants or business operations. A homeowner may want to understand the schedule and how construction will affect daily life.
Useful details help turn an unfamiliar company into one worth contacting.
Help Customers Find You When They’re Looking
Search marketing matters for residential and commercial businesses because both serve people who research potential contractors online.
Search engine optimization, or SEO, helps connect your website with relevant searches. Pages that explain your services and where you work give search engines and prospective customers clearer information about your business.
Pay-per-click advertising, or PPC, offers another way to reach people actively looking for those services. Someone searching for a commercial electrical contractor has a different need than someone seeking a residential panel upgrade. Your advertising should reflect that difference.
Track whether each inquiry becomes a qualified conversation, an estimate, and eventually a job. That is how you learn which efforts deserve continued investment.
Decide What’s Next With KEEP, FIX, ADD, STOP
You don’t need to overhaul everything at once. Start by evaluating your current efforts using four questions:
- KEEP: What is producing the opportunities you want? Protect those efforts, whether they involve search advertising, repeat customers, or referral partnerships.
- FIX: Where are opportunities falling through? Your website may attract visitors without generating calls, or estimates may sit without follow-up.
- ADD: What would support your growth goal? Perhaps you need a commercial services page, outreach to property managers, or a process for reconnecting with past customers.
- STOP: What are you funding out of habit? Review advertising, sponsorships, and subscriptions that have no clear purpose or evidence of results.
Use your answers to choose a few priorities for the next 30 to 90 days. Assign responsibility and establish how you’ll measure progress.
Make It Part of Running the Business
A lead generation plan needs an owner, regular follow-up, and a way to measure results. Schedule time to review what is generating qualified opportunities and where adjustments are needed.
You already plan for the people and resources needed to complete a project. Planning how you’ll secure the next one deserves a place in that same conversation.
Have questions about lead generation for your company? Reach out! Prue@OpalAndOakMarketing.com or visit OpalAndOakMarketing.com.
