As a contractor, in order for your business to be a success, you need a constant, steady flow of leads. And today, one of the top sources of lead generation for contractors is through online sources.
Whether it’s a potential customer messaging you for a quote on a project or a return customer filling out a website form to schedule an upcoming service, online lead generation can become a powerful tool for contractors looking to outpace their competition.
But beyond just receiving leads through online sources, it’s also imperative that you close those leads. Today, we’ll take a look at four practical ways you can improve your closing rate from online leads helping you to create a higher return on your digital marketing investment.
Here are 4 Ways to Improve Your Closing Rate From Online Leads
1. Make Sure You Are Being Found by Qualified Leads
Too often, in the game of digital marketing, the focus is on the quantity of leads pouring in, rather than the quality of leads. And, while boosting numbers is an important part of lead generation for contractors, it is far better to ensure that the leads you are currently receiving are the right ones.
How do you make sure that qualified leads find your website and become valuable customers?
- Make sure you are ranking for keywords that are relevant to your business and location. This is where local SEO for contractors comes in. For example, if you offer renovation and remodeling services, but you do not offer new build work, you want to ensure that your website and Google business listing are ranking for only relevant keywords. Additionally, if you are spending money on Google ad campaigns or social media marketing, you will want to ensure that you are targeting the right keywords and the right demographic. This can help cut down on the number of unqualified leads that wind up in your funnel.
- Ensure that your website is clear. When someone lands on your website, do they understand the services you offer? Website design is very important. When your website is difficult to navigate and hard to understand, you can wind up with a large number of leads reaching out that are not the right fit for your business.
- Put your ideal customer at the center of all marketing strategies. Whether you are building your listing on Angie’s List, Houzz, or Google, make sure that you are featuring information that will catch the eye of your ideal customer.
2. Make Sure You Are Showcasing Social Proof
Social proof has long been a cue for humans. We intrinsically trust a business more if we see other people trust that business as well. Think back over your own experience. How often have you decided to eat at a restaurant because of a friend’s recommendation?
In the online world, social proof still matters. When someone is debating which contracting company to hire, they will undoubtedly spend time researching each contractor’s online reputation.
This is where social proof can help you close more online leads. Make sure that you use positive customer reviews to your advantage. Showcase your portfolio in a meaningful way. And reinforce your company’s trustworthiness through online reviews.
3. Provide Timely Follow Up
When a potential customer fills out a form on your website, what happens next? How about if a customer reaches out to your team via social media? When does that message get responded to?
In an audit by Harvard Business Review, they found that an astonishing 24% of businesses took more than 24 hours to respond to a web-generated lead. Even worse, 23% of the businesses never responded to the lead at all.
This is a significant problem. A further study by Harvard Business Review found that if a company reached out to an online lead within an hour of receiving the lead, they were nearly seven times more likely to qualify that lead than those who contacted the lead over an hour later. And they were 60 times more likely to qualify that lead than companies that waited more than 24 hours to reach back out.
If you are receiving leads through your website, your social media accounts, or other online sources, make sure you have a clear follow-up strategy in place. Never let leads sit cold for days on end. The sooner you can follow up with a lead, the better your closing rate will be.
4. Give Your Customers Options
As the options for online communication have increased, customer expectations have increased as well. Today, people want to be able to reach out to your business in numerous ways across various channels.
Make sure your customers can reach you in the way they prefer. Build your lead generation funnels to include all of the following communication channels:
- Website forms
- Social media chat
- Google My Business messaging
- Website chat
- Phone call
- Text
The more methods available to potential customers, the greater number of qualified leads you will receive.
Free Up Time While Improving Closing Rates
When you are busy running your contracting business, you don’t have a lot of extra hours in the day to focus on your online lead generation process. This can make it difficult to optimize your online presence, causing you to lose out on important online leads.
At Core6.Marketing, our team can help. We have years of experience helping contractors improve their online lead generation strategy.
We provide online lead generation for contractors by offering:
- Website design for contractors
- Local SEO for contractors
- Google paid advertising
- Social media marketing and advertising
Whether you are just beginning the process of building your presence online, or you are hoping to improve your closing rates from online lead generation, we are here to help. Our goal is to help you create an efficient online presence that provides you with a steady flow of qualified leads. Reach out today for a free consultation.
