If you want your construction business to thrive, you need to have a steady stream of new clients. In some cases, you can coast on your reputation and regular referrals, but it’s also a good idea to have a formal lead generation process in place. How can construction businesses generate more leads?
Evaluate Your Lead Generation Pipeline
First, take a moment to evaluate your lead pipeline. Where do you get your business, even if you don’t have an official lead generation strategy in place? This is a great opportunity to outline your lead generation process, even if you don’t think you have one. What are your business’s strengths when it comes to generating new leads, and where have you fallen short?
If you don’t have comprehensive answers to these questions, that’s fine. But starting with the context of your past performance will make it easier to build a construction lead generation process that works.
Consider Your Options
There are many different options when it comes to lead generation in the construction industry. Many modern construction businesses focus on inbound marketing, naturally attracting people who might be interested in the types of projects you handle.
These are some of the best channels in inbound:
- Social media marketing. Social media remains one of the most popular channels for lead generation across industries. It’s free to get started, it’s practically unlimited reach, and it offers countless tools for promoting your content and reaching the right people. There’s a lot to learn when it comes to social media lead generation, but it should be on your radar no matter what.
- Content marketing. Content marketing establishes you as a thought leader, demonstrates your expertise, and gives you an opportunity to provide value to prospects before they even engage with your brand. It’s also a great way to nurture your SEO campaign.
- Search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is focused on increasing your rankings in search engines, increasing your brand visibility, and attracting more traffic to your website. If you can rank highly for top terms in your industry, you’ll generate far more leads and convert them into customers more easily.
- Public speaking. You can also pursue public speaking, talking about important topics in the construction business and appealing to people who might be in need of your services.
- Webinars and seminars. Similarly, you can use webinars and seminars to generate interest in your brand and showcase your expertise.
It’s also worth considering outbound lead generation strategies, which require more direct outreach. These include:
- Email outreach. If you have a list of email addresses, you can use an automated drip e-mail campaign to keep your brand top of mind – or even introduce your brand to people for the first time.
- Cold calling. You can also try cold calling. It’s not as effective as it used to be, but it’s also very inexpensive and easy to implement.
- Networking and social selling. Consider networking and social selling as secondary strategies to add to your arsenal.
Keys to Successful Lead Generation™ in Construction
These are some of the most important principles for lead generation in the construction industry:
- Consider working with the pros. If you aren’t experienced with lead generation or marketing in general, consider working with professionals. Experts in lead generation can help you better understand what you’re doing wrong and implement the best possible solutions.
- Know your audience. Lead generation is only effective if you truly know your audience and are able to appeal to them. Focus on relevance and value in your messaging.
- Differentiate your brand. There are many construction companies in your area going to generate leads, so find a way to differentiate your brand and stand out. What do you offer that no one else does?
- Prioritize quality over quantity. Too often, lead generators focus on producing as many leads as possible. It’s typically more effective to focus on quality. One good lead is worth far more than many poor ones.
- Create an efficient lead nurturing process. Generating leads is a great start, but you need to nurture them to reap their full value. How can you stay top of mind with these prospects?
- Measure your results. Commit to measuring results from all your lead generation strategies so you can objectively determine what’s working and what isn’t. Don’t simply follow your instincts.
- Optimize for ROI. Your ultimate goal should be optimizing for return on investment (ROI) since it’s the most efficient measure of your success compared to your investment. Measure all your results in terms of ROI so you know which tactics to cut and which ones to double down on.
With a better, more refined lead generation strategy in place, your construction business will generate more leads – and better leads. Ultimately, that means more customers and greater profitability for your organization.
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
