Air duct cleaning companies tend to rely on word-of-mouth publicity since they offer local services. It’s not the best way to get more air duct cleaning leads coming into a business. It isn’t the only nor best option to bring more leads and close deals in 2021 and beyond.
Since you are here, that means that your air duct company falls, clearly, under the local business category, which is dependent on local advertising, and we get it; you believe it is all you need.
However, instead of continually relying on the traditional methods, you need to start focusing on the modern ones.
For example, Google gives local businesses new opportunities to be more visible online and rank higher in search results, which brings and generates more leads for your company.
Of course, this isn’t the only option you have, and to make sure you are able to continuously grow, we will introduce you to what you should be paying attention to and the strategies and methods you will have to include in your plan from now on.
Starting with SEO: Keywords
Keywords are the most important element of SEO (search engine optimization), and from here on, you will read lots about them from us, at least.
Before you begin your Local SEO, you must first consider your keywords. Your customers searching online for air duct cleaning companies will use specific words, and you should think like them in order to appear in their search results.
If you are not familiar with the term (in the first place), it is quite simple to understand. These phrases and keywords in your web content allow people to find your site through search engines.
To make this work, it means that you must know what people are searching for in order for your products, services, or information to be found. Otherwise, they will land on another page in the Google results.
This is why developing a list of keywords is one of the first and most important steps in any search engine optimization initiative.
Although SEO involves more than those words and phrases, keywords are the foundation of all the efforts in this strategy, and for it, it’s worth investing time and money to make sure your keywords are relevant to your audience.
Although it can be difficult to choose the right ones, the basics are simple: ask yourself how you would search for your services.
Google Keyword Planner can help you create an intelligent keyword list. It will show you how many people each of your keywords receive as you enter them in the field.
This data can be used to prioritize keywords when writing content or bid for them and let you know which ones you should replace and maintain in your list and SEO efforts.
When working around this method, keep in mind that keywords with buying intent are better than those with research intent.
Website Optimization Is Everything
When it comes to generating leads for your business, you will discover that every single detail is important. However, you are nothing without a website that is properly optimized.
Therefore, we suggest you even ignore the previous method if you haven’t designed your website yet. Once you are done, go back to it, and the next we have to mention.
Website optimization is not an easy task, and it sure takes time. You will need to do some research and put in some SEO efforts while optimizing your website at various levels, such as website analysis and keyword research and development, continuous testing, measuring, and content optimization.
The keywords we previously mentioned should be included in page titles and meta tags, and in all the content you include on your site.
Create new sitemaps to be used by search engines. This will allow the engines such as Google to index your website easily.
You can create an HTML version of your website and then add an XML copy so Google can crawl the most relevant pages on your site.
Submitting the URL of your website to major search engines will help index it quickly. Yahoo and Business.com are just a few examples of directories that may be available.
In addition, any air duct cleaner will need a mobile-optimized website in order to receive calls from mobile users and allow them to navigate and search anything they need without having to click on the web using a desktop or another device.
Everyone has access to the internet and a mobile device these days. It is now easier than ever to search for local air duct cleaning services via a mobile phone, and believe us when we say that most people will choose this method to do so.
Take Your Time with Google My Business
Google My Business accounts are the only way to claim ownership of your business profile on the internet, gain management rights, and unlock additional features that will help you increase your visibility on the search engine.
If you are not familiar with it, Google My Business is a tool that enables you to manage and optimize your Business Profile on Google so people can see you are legit and look easily for your website and information.
The creation of a Business Profile is similar to adding a location to Google Maps. This is something anyone can do, even a stranger or automated listing generator.
Google only needs the business name, address, and category and any additional details you want to add to provide more information to your future leads and clients.
After confirming that it isn’t a duplicate, Google will create the profile, which will then be open to consumers to leave reviews, add photos, ask questions, and even answer some from other users.
Regardless of whether your Business Profile was created or not, you do not have the ability to control the information displayed or the reviews that it collects since Google handles the process to maintain the information as transparent as possible.
Now, is it really worth your time? Absolutely since over 90% of users search with Google, they will usually hit your business if it is registered and properly optimized. Best of all, the service is completely free.
Google My Business gives you the ability to provide a general overview of your business. It is basically your website while helping you build credibility and make your business seem authentic.
It is easy to rank high on Google My Business since the key parts and to make sure that your website contains the same information as your website.
This information should not be changed, i.e., If you provide your address or phone number, be sure to give the correct address and number on your website.
When you also add the SEO efforts and the next strategies we will introduce you, this one will get easier.
Focus on Targeted PPC Ads
Usually, people get confused about PPC (pay-per-click), how it works, or why they should invest time and effort.
We want to make it simple to understand, so here’s what we can tell you (and you should know).
This is a model of internet marketing where advertisers pay a fee every time an ad is clicked. This ad will display the name of your website and company or the specific text you add with the keywords to attract more people and leads.
It’s basically a way to buy visits to your website, rather than trying to earn those visits organically (without paying anything and only using SEO and other free strategies).
Advertisers can bid to be placed in sponsored links on search engines when people search for keywords that are related to their business offerings.
In the case of your air duct cleaning business, if you bid on the keyword “air duct cleaning services,” your ad may appear at the top of the Google results page every time someone searches using those words or similar ones.
You will pay a small fee to the search engine for each click of your ad, which sends a visitor to your site.
If PPC works correctly, the fee will be negligible because each visit is more valuable than the amount you paid. Also, if no one clicks, you don’t have to invest anything in it, but this isn’t the best nor the outcome you should be looking for.
Building a successful PPC campaign takes a lot since it includes researching the keywords and organizing them into campaigns and ad groups.
Search engines reward advertisers who can create relevant, intelligently targeted pay-per-click campaigns by charging them less for ad clicks, so you also want to aim for this.
You can achieve it if your ads and landing pages provide value and satisfaction to users, so this means you need to provide valuable content and smart ideas, and this can lead to greater profits for your company.
It is important that you learn how to properly use PPC if your goal is to get started with it.
Google Ads is a great tool for PPC marketing because it’s the most used search engine and thus receives the most traffic. This means that Google Ads will deliver the highest number of clicks and impressions.
The keywords you choose and the match types that you use will determine how often your PPC ads show up. Although many factors determine the success of your PPC advertising campaign, these are some of the most important:
- Keyword Relevance: Create relevant PPC keyword lists and make sure most of them are added to the ad text.
- Quality of your Landing Page: Optimizing landing pages with relevant, persuasive content and a call-to-action that is specific to search queries will bring more opportunities.
- Qualitative Score: Google’s Quality Score measures the quality and relevancy of keywords, landing pages, and PPC campaigns. Advertisers who have higher scores receive more clicks for lower prices.
- Creativity: Ad copy must be compelling, and although learning this can take a while, you must remember that simple is usually best with internet marketing.
Don’t Forget About Call-Only Ads
While call-only ads look very similar to PPC ads in many ways, there are some important differences.
To begin with, you won’t be taken to a landing site if you click on them. Instead, an automated dialer will be displayed, and, with a click, a call to the advertiser will be directed.
Google introduced this new campaign type in April 2018 to make it easier to call businesses directly when customers have commercial intent or just want to close a deal in no time.
For businesses such as air duct cleaning, this is highly recommended since this ad type allows you to get calls as soon as the customer clicks the displayed number, and you won’t have to bet for him or her to stay when visiting your website.
This campaign can be set up for specific hours or times of the day. You don’t have to worry about not receiving calls at other times or when you aren’t available, which makes it ten times better.
You Can Use Google Analytics to Track Your Performance
Google Analytics allows you to track valid information about your business’s performance and the factors that affect it.
You can make smarter and more informed decisions about the future by analyzing the trends and patterns.
It also allows you to see how many people have found your website using search results (organic efforts), social media links (paid ads), and directly typing your website URL.
The data will open the opportunity for you to prioritize which marketing channels bring in the most visitors to your site and optimize your budget for better results.
In other words, you will have detailed information on what works and what doesn’t so you can adjust your plan and next actions to ensure your business is going in the right direction or starts to improve.
Consider User Experience All the Time
When creating a comprehensive content strategy for your website, think about how users will interact with each page in it. Not only to optimize it for mobiles but also to focus on how the pages should be organized so that they are intuitive for potential customers and they can find anything in no time.
Of course, other factors influence how well the information is provided and your tone for the content. However, overall, everything falls on the same plate.
So far, this sounds simple, but it is not. As people who have worked with many organizations and know how to deal with user experience, we guarantee you this is extremely challenging.
Sometimes, a department or person feels that something is very important should be prominently displayed on the homepage and in the main navigation. In other words, it is based on what they think and not what is actually better for the potential customer.
So, here’s our main advice: If it isn’t something meaningful to prospective customers, you should not prioritize it.
Going back to the tone, we also want to add that considering the language that your customers are familiar with is a plus quite required.
Avoid technical terminology and excessive jargon. You should make it easy for your buyers to understand the information and aim to give them the information they need, not try to sell your services right away.
Calls to Action Placed Correctly
We believe we have briefly mentioned them, but we are sure you have omitted the fact that we haven’t even explained them, and it was all because of reaching this moment.
Basically, they are buttons/links/forms asking visitors to take further actions. You can’t expect anyone to take any action, such as providing their email address, if you don’t give them the “order” to do so or let them know how they can do it and why they should as well.
Asking visitors to become leads more often can help you generate more of them, as weird as this can sound.
For it, this call-to-action should be prominently displayed on the page to encourage visitors to click them.
Make sure you are clear about what you want or what the user will receive in return for completing the action.
Be strategic with what you ask people to do on each page. You won’t have much luck, for example, asking visitors to call a sales rep on a page that is designed to assist them with initial information-gathering.
Instead, bet for a better strategy: include value in your calls to action
Sometimes visitors may need a little bit of convincing to give their contact information. How can you persuade them to give their contact information? You can give them something in return.
You can consider it a win-win situation since the valuable content you can give them will be worth it in exchange for their information.
Don’t know what you can give them? These are a few ideas:
- Case studies.
- White papers/industry reports.
- Webinars.
- Tutorials and how-tos.
- Demonstrations.
- Sneak peeks or previews.
- Guides and ebooks.
- Podcasts.
The key for this is to ask visitors to download high-value content by completing a form asking for their email addresses.
Set up your marketing automation to email the content to them. Then send a series of lead-nurturing emails following up at strategic intervals to keep them moving down the sales funnel.
Content Strategy = Success
Content marketing is usually overlooked, but if you have been paying attention to what we have told you so far, you would agree with us when we say that content is over 50% of your efforts and future leads.
This is why designing and creating a content marketing strategy is crucial, because you basically get most of your clients, thanks to how they found you with optimized content.
Now, it isn’t all about writing some content and working around it; it is also important to outline the role of your website is converting visitors into leads.
This is why you should ask yourself these questions:
Are different pages on my website appropriate for different stages in the buyer’s journey?
What pages should I direct traffic to move prospects on my funnel?
To help them make that move, what calls-to-action should I add to each page?
What pages are best for information and lead conversion?
A piece of advice we can give you here is to make sure you have consistent messaging across your website as well as your regularly published content.
Create an Email Marketing Strategy
Email marketing is, without a doubt, one of the best ways to generate more leads.
You should not only plan what and when you will send the emails but also how to get more people to sign up for them. After all, there’s no point in this strategy without an email list and people willing to receive your information.
You can grow your contacts list by using web pop-ups and gated content. You can then invest in marketing automation software that will allow you to send valuable and personalized emails to everyone who opts in.
Automation is a significant investment, both in upfront labor and cost, but it will almost always save you time as well as money over the long term.
Many prospects receive emails, and although the option looks dead, it is actually very alive since people continue to use their addresses to receive specific information.
Ask Your Customers for Recommendations
Because they have already bought from you or hired your services, they are familiar with how capable you are and what you offer in specific, making them your best source for sales. This explains why they should be an integral part of your strategy to attract air duct cleaning leads.
Many businesses neglect to follow up with customers after selling their products or providing a specific service, and the project is over.
They do not thank customers for their preference nor ask for referrals or assistance in generating new business.
If you are just the same, we just want to let you know that you’ve been missing great opportunities.
These strategies will help you turn your current customers into great leads, so you better pay attention since we don’t want to see you struggling with them anymore:
- Ask your account manager for suggestions on how to make sure customers are happy with your products and services. Ask them to help you improve the situation and reach out to those customers who aren’t satisfied or have a constructive comment.
- You can set up a time for a conversation with your customers to thank them for the business done. Make sure they know how much you value their choice and talk about how much you appreciate their support.
- Ask for names and contact information from business contacts who might be interested in your product or services. Also, ask why they are a good match.
- For each referral, thank your customer for sending a thoughtful gift. It should be personal and not related to the company’s products or services (most of the time).
Revisit Closed and Missed opportunities
Sometimes the “no” you receive from many potential customers or leads you thought finally meant a new deal can also mean “not right now.”
Most likely, you’ve reached out to several businesses that didn’t buy from you at the time or didn’t need your services. Well, reach out to them again.
They are already familiar with your business, and maybe they are waiting to know more about you since they need you right now. Although they didn’t purchase or hire you, that could change.
Revisit lost or closed opportunities every four to six months, so you reconnect with your prospect.
Ask the prospect if there have been many changes in their interests and needs and if they now require your services.
Qualified sales leads are those companies or people that have never bought from you before. Marketing to these prospects is a smart investment of time and money.
Also, remember that it isn’t necessary to go directly to the contact part like calls or email since you can keep in touch via blog posts and indirect content and messaging.
Just remember that because it seems lost doesn’t mean it is.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Air Duct Cleaning Business
All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?
The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).
Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:
The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.
Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”
You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.
The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.
The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.
Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.
To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.
By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.
An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor
You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.
HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.
They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.
If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.
HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.
Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).
Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?
They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.
However, you need to remember two facts:
- Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
- They don’t generate “natural” leads.
Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.
Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.
What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.
When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.
What Is Local SEO?
Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.
What does this mean?
Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.
To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.
If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.
Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.
“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.
Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.
Can My Air Duct Cleaning Business Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?
If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.
Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.
Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.
How Powerful Are Organic Air Duct Cleaning Leads from Google?
For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.
This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.
I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.
However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.
On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.
You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.
What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?
Here it goes: you can work from home.
The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.
We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.
You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.
Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.
So, let’s summarize this:
- You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
- You can bet on passive income.
- There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
- You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.
How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?
Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.
Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?
You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.
You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.