Rich Contractor

Free Construction Leads For The Taking

I recently wrote about the importance of being willing to pay for leads, but if your budget simply won’t allow it at the moment you should know that there are ways to get free construction leads.  It all comes down to using your imagination and creating your own opportunities.  Really try to think outside the box and you will come up with some great ideas for getting no-cost leads.  Here are a few to get you started:

1.  Start a blog.  When you hear the word ‘blogger’ you might think of politics or entertainment but it’s a medium that has become increasingly useful for small business owners all over the world.  It’s easy to start up a free blog at blogger.com and you can be up and writing within minutes.  Call it something simple like “The Official Blog of XYZ Construction CO. in Denver, Colorado”, then start writing articles about residential construction and remodeling.  The more the better.  Write about how a remodeled bathroom can help you sell your house, about what you should look for in a qualified general contractor, about how experienced and knowledgeable your construction company is, etc.  I won’t get into a lengthy discussion here about search engine marketing but just know that the more web content you have out there the greater the chance of someone in your region finding your blog while searching for information on the internet.  And guess who they’re going to call for all their construction needs?  That would be you, the web-savvy remodeling CEO who’s blog they just stumbled across.

2.  Build a free site.  If you don’t have a website for your company yet then what the heck are you waiting for?  More and more people are using the internet to find local contractors and service professionals and it’s safe to say that the Yellow Pages will be dead within five to ten years.  You can easily build a free site with no html knowledge by using Google Sites.  You can then use your web address in all your free online profiles like the Google Business Center or Yahoo Local.  Also try to have a place on your site where people can give you their email address.  You can get a ton of these by promising to send out occasional discounts and deals to their inbox.  Then you’ve got a huge, free list of potential customers that you can bombard with sales emails whenever you need to.  If you find that you get a kick out of creating your site then offer to build free or low-cost sites for other non-competing contractors in your city and simply put a link on each one that points back to your site.  It could say something like “Website created by XYZ Construction of Nashville – home of the $1995 full bathroom remodel”.  Imagine how much traffic, exposure, and free construction project leads you’d get if you had a link like that on 25 or 50 other sites related to your region!

3.  Network on Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites.  These websites are no longer just the domain of teens and college students – they are free marketing platforms just waiting to be exploited for your benefit.  Set up accounts with as many of them as you can keep up with (using your company name as the title) and really try to spend some time on it.  Build up friend lists, post useful information pertaining to your business, and send out occasional reminders to your list.  You’ll find lots of other businesses in your city who are doing the same thing and would love to network with you and work on mutually beneficial relationships and lead swapping.

4.  Get free listings with online service recommendation sites like Angie’s List, Merchant Circle, and Super Pages.  Ask customers who were happy with your work to log onto these sites and put in a few good words about your company.  These kinds of online testimonials will go miles in sending you one free construction lead after another that is easy to convert into paying jobs.

5.  Create DIY or informational videos for YouTube and local cable access stations.  If you can make a short and funny business-related video and post it on YouTube you might just be surprised how much local exposure it can get you.  If you’re lucky it could go viral and within a week you could have your business name, number, and web address in front of literally tens of thousands of people (many of them local who could use your service).  You could also create some short and educational videos about home improvement and submit them to your local cable access station.  Often times they’ll put them on the air to fill the space, and it’s almost always free.

6.  Create and manage a local network of service professionals.  Set up a website called “Premier Service Professionals of (your city here) Club”.  All members of the club would agree to spread the word about all the other members’ services to their customers.  So Plumber Joe would only send painting leads to Painter Bob and vice versa.  It would be totally free for participants.  This is a great way to leverage each other’s growth for mutual benefit. 

7.  Call in to your local TV stations on snow days and ask them to include your business in the ticker list of closed businesses at the bottom of the TV screen, even if you don’t have employees or even if you plan on being open anyway.  Why?  Because you just got your business name in front of about half a million people for free, that’s why.  You can do the same thing for radio stations.  There's no telling how many free construction sales leads you can get out of this tactic.  This one’s borderline ethical but I leave it up to you whether you’d like to add it to your bag of tricks.

8.  Write an article for or ask to be interviewed by your local community newspaper.  Community newspaper editors are usually pretty desperate for interesting stories and content, and they’d probably be receptive to publishing the article you just wrote about remodeling and the importance of keeping your home up-to-date.  Of course at the end of the article would be your name, number, and web address for all in the community to see (for free, of course).  Or if you have an interesting story to tell or your business is about to achieve some sort of milestone try to get them to send out a reporter and photographer.  Who knows, if you’re lucky you might just hit the front page in the following week’s edition! 

9.  Have a twist in how you operate your business that will draw local media attention.  For example, you could start a remodeling business that is owned and operated exclusively by women.  Or you could work out a barter system where you build new additions in exchange for cars, boats, or other vehicles instead of cash.  Or you could become known as the construction company in town that only hires military veterans.  You get the point.  Have a hook.  Have a story.  Be original. Soon enough a TV or newspaper reporter will catch wind of it and decide to use you story on a slow news day.  Just one mention on the tube or in the paper and you'll probably be swimming in free construction job leads.

10.  Give free DIY classes and seminars at your place of business once a week.  You’ve probably noticed that Home Depot offers free DIY classes all the time, but they’re not just doing it out of the kindness of their hearts.  They know that most of the people in those classes will then take a stroll through the store and purchase all the required materials on the spot.  The same idea could work for your service business.  If you have a residential construction company you could offer Saturday classes on everything from painting to tiling to drywall, the idea being that most of them would quickly realize that they have neither the aptitude nor the desire to take on their home remodeling projects.  Of course there you’d be, just waiting in the wings to offer your services for hire.

11.  Contribute your skills to charitable causes and watch the free construction bid leads roll in.  There are always opportunities available to give your time to worthy causes.  You could help build a house for Habitat for Humanity, you could offer a few hours a week of free labor to seniors at your church, or you could help build the set for your local community theater.  These kinds of things always offer you the chance to promote your business and get your name out there, whether it be in a printed bulletin or simply via word of mouth.  People will remember you and your good works the next time they need their basement remodeled or deck re-built. 

Do I really need to keep going?  Surely you can see by now that there are endless ways to get leads for your business without spending a dime.  They are there for the taking if you can open your mind enough to see them.  Granted, most of these ideas involve spending time instead of money, but for many contractors who are just getting started they tend to have more time than money anyway.  Might as well put that time to good use and start generating your own free construction leads.

Contractor Leads 101 (The Best And The Cheapest)

If you're like most home improvement professionals these days then you're constantly trying to hunt down new work, and this means getting involved in some sort of system for generating contractor leads.  Now there may be some among you who take great pride in your marketing skills and think that resorting to paying for leads is somehow a demonstration of failure, but this simply isn't true.  No matter how skilled you are with advertising or how much you spend on flyers or newspaper ads, the truth of the matter is that there is a good chunk of the public that you simply will never reach with traditional advertising, and this is where paying for good leads comes into play.  Let's take a look at some different methods of getting new business and how they compare.

The Best Leads For Contractors Come From Previous Customers

In my experience the leads that cost me the least and convert the most often are those that come from previous customers.  Now you might say that this is technically a "referral" and not a "lead", but instead of arguing semantics with you I'll just say that this method for getting new business kicks butt.  Why? Because of trust.  People trust their neighbors, friends, and family members and will take their advice when it comes to contractor referrals, often times without so much as getting a second or third price estimate.  Do good work for someone and you have an "in" with their whole network of people for years to come.  If you're smart you'll make it worth their while, too.  You could set up a formal referral plan where you pay a certain amount per referral or you could just have a general understanding with someone that for every lead or job they send you you'll mail them a gift card to their favorite store or restaurant.  You might be surprised how much more people will talk up your business for a measly $25 gift card to Chili's.

The Next Best Contractor Leads Come From Other Contractors

I can't tell you how many times I've been finishing up a job at someone's home and they approach me to ask if I can recommend any contractors for other projects they have around the house.  I'll almost always have a name or two to give them for their particular need, and for whatever reason these recommendations tend to be given great weight by homeowners.  I guess people think that since I'm a contractor I'll have the "inside scoop" on who the qualified players are in my city for other industries, and they probably also know that I'm not going to recommend someone who does poor work because it would reflect poorly on me.

How does this apply to you?  Simple.  Network with as many other contractors and service providers as possible and let them know that you will pay for leads.  Imagine how much work you would have if you told every painting contractor in your city (most big cities have hundreds if not thousands of them) that you'd pay them $200 for every roofing lead they sent your way that resulted in a new roof. You would literally be inundated with new jobs.  And the beauty of this system is that you only pay when actual work results, unlike traditional advertising where there's no guarantee that $1000 spent on mailers will result in even one new job.

You could even take this a step further and create a formal city-wide network of contractors who pay a yearly fee for membership.  Each member would understand that they are only to recommend contractors who are paying members of the group.  Your network would include the city's best painter, the city's best plumber, the city's best electrician, the city's best remodeling company, etc.  You could call it the "Elite Home Services Network of (enter city name here)" or something similar.  The point is that if you're not working out lead generating relationships with the thousands of other contractors in your region then you're missing out on a HUGE untapped reservoir of new business.

Internet Contractor Leads Can Pay Off Huge If Done Correctly

If you've spent any amount of time on this site then you know how much I like using the web to expose my business to consumers.  There are as many ways to spread the word on the internet as there are grains of sand in the Sahara, and you should be aware that some of them will be amazingly successful while others will be an utter waste of time and money.  Ultimately, a lot of it will come down to trial and error (create a spreadsheet to track how much each converting lead is costing you on average per service and slowly weed out the non-performers), but I can give you a general break-down of my own personal views.

• Get to know Google.  They currently have total domination in the search space (I think something like every 7 or 8 out of 10 searches done on the net is done with Google).  Make sure you've created a listing in their Local Business Center (free) so that your business comes up in the maps section for local search results.  Also get a professionally designed website and either hire someone to get it optimized for the search engines or teach yourself how to do this.  If you can achieve a #1 ranking in Google's organic listing for your local keywords then you can generate a TON of business.  These rankings are great because once you've got them you're set to get unlimited free construction leads in the future (unless some other SEO-savvy business owner comes along and knocks you off your perch).  Also consider using Google Adwords to advertise your business in the ad sections of search results (these are the ads you see along the top and in the sidebar when you do a search).  This will cost you some dough but in my experience is definitely worth every penny.
• Get listed with Angie's List and other free contractor review sites.  Okay, so you can't list yourself on Angie's List but if you do good work it's just a matter of time before one of your happy customers posts a positive review on their site.  Once you're in you should see a remarkable uptick in calls as a result.  These leads are so effective and convert so often because they're based on that magic word that we talked about before: TRUST.  Best of all, they're totally free!
• Finally, there are loads of lead generation services on the internet for contractors that will promise you everything under the sun.  Many of them are worthwhile while others could be a disappointment, but again just keep track of your cost-per-lead and weed out the duds.  I've heard good things about ServiceMagic, for example, but the results will differ for different industries and regions.  You'll find that some of these services attract homeowners that are merely "tire-kickers" while others will find you more serious prospects, and it really just comes down to trying a few out and seeing what works.  If you've shelled out $500 to one service for leads and only landed one or two small projects then dump it and move on to the next one.  I think it would be a mistake to completely right these services off, however.

Swallow Your Pride And Shell Out The Money For Leads

I hate to harp on this but some guys (and gals) have a hard time paying for leads because they think it somehow reflects badly on either their marketing abilities or their trade skills.  If you're one of these people then you need to get over it.  I don't care how good a painter you are or how perfect a tilesetter you've become, your talents as a contractor will only take your business so far.  At some point you just need to take the plunge and open yourself up to the idea of dropping a little bit of cash in exchange for a lot more projects.