You know that deck and patio contractors are in high-competitive markets. Which is why generating new deck building leads for your lead flow is key to success. Which is why leads are like the oxygen to your business… unless you want to use outdated marketing methods and end up on the ugly side of a business: bankrupt and in debt.
Cold leads are vital to your pipeline. What are they? These are potential customers who may not know you or the solution you offer, but they could be interested and convinced in them.
Potential customers have many choices and alternatives, which is why you must focus on becoming one of those and then aim to be the best choice they can ever make.
You must be wondering how you can achieve this, especially considering how many competitors surround you and the difficulties when it comes to money, time, and hard work.
There are many ways to approach and achieve the desired results of generating deck building leads, and we will share the most crucial ones today. So, make sure you don’t only practice one or two but rather all of them if you want to maximize your lead generation.
Learn How to Find the Right Cold Leads
Going back to what we were mentioning about cold leads and your pipeline, we want to make sure it isn’t only clear but also that you have the answer of how you can reach as many potential customers as possible in your target market.
Cold leads and a strategy focusing on it are crucial because it allows you to have a catalog of potential leads and customers constantly. In other words, you won’t have to sweat it or worry much about this aspect of your business.
But what does a cold leads strategy involve? Usually, show leads how you can help them with your solutions for their decks and projects to them collect their contact information for follow-up.
To do this, you will have to know how to target your audience correctly to then use Facebook or Instagram ads in order to attract it. Otherwise, your efforts and investment will go to waste.
You must choose the right targeting criteria before you post an advertisement on social media. This step is crucial and cannot be underestimated.
Ask yourself who is your target demographic, what their interests are, what is important to them. Make sure to follow this with research around your business and target as well.
Search Engine Marketing Is a Must
Your ad should appear above the unpaid, organic search results when customers use Google to locate a deck contractor or business. What does this have to do with the headline? That this is search engine marketing and the entire concept of how you generate leads with it since it includes Google Ads.
Google Ads are a great way to generate your deck building leads, but they can also prove to be costly. Also, doing it incorrectly can lead to the inevitable: waste your money.
To create an effective Google Ad campaign, you need to have the right expertise and educate yourself before giving it a try (even if it is with $1).
To help you, this is what you must determine and keep in mind.
First, your deck building services are clearly aimed at a city, town, or region in specific. This means that ranking on Google Maps can bring you many more deals to close, and thus, you need to rank yourself adequately based on location.
To do this, you have to use the right keywords on your website and content or in the Google Ads you will open. For example, let’s suppose you are in Miami, Florida. Then, focus on “deck building in Miami” or maybe change the city’s name with “near me.”
Potential clients will search like this, and you want to attract their attention by following what they use and, finally, be listed under the map in search results and the ads included in the pages.
Just keep in mind that for Google Maps, you need a Google My Business listing and enough positive Google reviews from past customers to rank your name at the top.
Videos Allow You to Tell Stories
Have you ever imagined a situation in which your lead is able to watch a short video showing you building a deck? Then the final result impresses them so much that it makes them want to start a new project or finally feel like they found the right deck building contractor for it? Well, you can just picture this right now.
Videos are great tools to show your worth, and how valuable your services are as the solutions the leads you are generating are looking for.
Your leads don’t have to imagine what your work looks like. They can actually see it with their own eyes when you use this strategy.
When videos are done well, people will pay more attention to them and make contact.
For it, your videos should be easy to understand and visually appealing so you can reach more people on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
How do you connect or turn viewers into leads? You follow the same process of sending people who interact with your video to landing pages that could convert them.
Blogging = Problem Solving
Blogs about business topics are a great way to generate leads, and it is because potential customers are more likely to ask questions through your blog than thinking about contacting you directly. Of course, this is as long as you’re answering questions in your blog posts and open to reply to their comments.
However, how does this benefit you? We can mention three main results: your website will be found more easily, people will trust you as an expert that provides valuable information, and they will find you trustworthy and reliable to the point of leaving their projects to you. Global result? More deals.
If it is hard to picture, just think about this.
Your potential customer goes to Google and searches about building a new deck because a storm entirely destroyed the old one.
Instead of a website that is about services, Google is most likely to top results and pages that offer solutions and answers to the problem, which is when your blog is key. Imagine you coincidentally have a post that answers the question by mentioning a few steps, and in the end, you can add information about your deck building company.
So far, it probably sounds easy, but you’re probably struggling by thinking about what you will write about already. Well, just think about questions your potential customers would ask, or your current clients have asked. Then, focus your posts on them and answer them to generate leads.
Make Connections with LinkedIn
Want to work your networking and find professionals and more clients?LinkedIn gives you invaluable opportunities for this.
You could generate more leads by reaching out and contacting other building-oriented or renovation-oriented businesses.
This doesn’t mean you will be connecting with your competitors but rather with people involved in the field or connected in so way. For example, real estate investors or sellers would usually recommend people build a new deck to increase the property’s value. They could recommend you for the job if you are in contact and have built certain relation.
Your LinkedIn account allows you to join industry discussions and make valuable connections.
You can also market research on LinkedIn, and it allows you to see what information or content is more popular in your industry.
One of the best parts about the platform is that you can use the previous strategy since it has a blog design and alternative that helps answer questions and create content for potential customers.
Offer Something Value for Free
Let’s face it; people are always looking for something free since no money is equal to happiness for many of them (in terms of expenses). And for them, it is even better when the resource is truly valuable.
But what type of item valuable can you provide for everyone on the Internet? Maybe a short guide with content and information can help paint decks handle some small repairs and provide tips around the space.
This is a chance for you to help your customer before they spend even a dollar. This creates trust and allows you to show your expertise.
What kind of guide can you offer as a deck builder? Think about what your ideal customers want and how you can help them.
If homeowners are looking to build a new deck or maybe renovate one, then how about creating a step-by-step guide for planning this project?
If you are smart enough, you shouldn’t add it for free download on your website. Instead, make them sign with their email to receive the guide or free content so you can create an email list for your marketing strategy.
Giveaways Always Boom
Following the previous option, we have another one that is very similar: giveaways.
People love getting something they didn’t pay, but you can continue to take advantage of this by offering something that doesn’t cost much or considering it an exchange of results and value.
For example, you could offer a free deck building service based on the steps to follow, like following the account, sharing your content, tagging more people. You know, the popular Facebook and Instagram contests that are easy for everyone to follow and take part in.
You just need to come up with a good prize that will make more people follow the steps you include and ensure you are actually winning something from it.
Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
It doesn’t matter who you ask; everyone will agree that Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is one of the best methods if you want to generate valuable and qualified leads for your deck-building business.
These paid advertisements appear at the top search results page when users perform searches. These ads are marked with the word “Ad,” which indicates that they contain paid content.
PPC ads are triggered by keywords that cause them to appear in search results. If you don’t choose the correct keywords, they won’t show despite your investing efforts.
This takes us to a part that is strongly related to search engine optimization (SEO), which we mentioned earlier: you’ll need to conduct keyword research to figure out the right keywords for your campaign.
You can use a number of keyword research tools such as Buzzsumo and KeywordsFX to find the keywords for your campaign, but some manual research might be necessary to guarantee you are aiming for the right ones as well.
As you look at your options, it’s important to focus on long-tail keywords. These keywords contain three or more words. An example? “Deck building services in Florida.”
Because they generate more leads, long-tail keywords work better for your campaign. A person searching for “decks” might not be a good lead for your company since it is too generic. You don’t know if the person is trying to find some additional information or actually searching for a service (the first is most likely to be the case).
Short-tail keywords are also more competitive. Because they have the funds to do so, larger corporations will bid on short-tail keywords. This increases the cost-per-click (CPC), which makes it more difficult to rank for these keywords.
Simply put, long-tail keywords are the best way to get leads for your deck building business. More clicks will mean more money from your budget, but if you are doing a great job optimizing the ads, there’s no way you won’t have a return of the money plus revenue.
After you have chosen your keywords, you will bid for your ad placement. Your maximum bid is the price you will pay for each click on your ad.
You can get an idea of the keyword value and determine the correct amount by conducting keyword research again or during the first process.
Your maximum bid and quality score will determine your ad’s placement. You can launch your campaign once this is done.
PPC can be a great way to save money because, despite other advertising options, you only pay for people clicking on your ads.
This makes it one of the most cost-effective options. It doesn’t cost impressions, and you only pay to reach people interested in your business.
This allows you to create a budget that suits your deck-building business. You can start with $50 or $100 and then increase this range based on your income and how many leads you’re generating thanks to it.
Something Important to remember is that your campaign’s success will be affected by how much you spend. So, there’s no need to spend a fortune, but your results will change depending on your budget.
Don’t Forget to Nurture
Are you getting the best return on your marketing programs?
A well-designed lead nurture program can triple your B2B or B2C sales related to lead generation and ROI.
Lead nurturing, which is often underutilized, can boost your lead rate by 5% to 15% through a combination of outbound and inbound marketing campaigns.
You should have one “pipeline” to generate leads, which is possible with effective content marketing and other activities.
A pipeline is a prospect who is only one to two steps away from becoming a lead. A pipeline usually has a qualified lead about 20% of the time. You will also need to identify “nurtures,” which are the right company, the right contact, but not yet at the right time.
Solving Problems Is Key (& Not Only with Videos)
The first step in a customer-focused sales presentation is to explain how your company understands the needs of its prospects. This should not be done while introducing your product solution.
You can help your clients understand their journey to solution implementation by beginning with the problem. Talking about the challenges that led to the product solution is a great way to do this.
Selling value is critical. It is important to understand your buyers so that you can adapt their journey to fit what you have to offer. Every prospect should receive a specific proposal that reflects their value.
Your story should be about change and not the problem.
Changes in industry, company, or technology can be an example of a change that will improve the prospects’ ability to do business.
Do not distract from the essential elements of your offer if they aren’t pertinent. This will keep prospects interested and help to build their story as users.
They will easily turn from simple visitors to leads and potential clients in the future that is just right at the corner.
Sales Presentation & Storytelling
Storytelling is used all the time as a sales and marketing technique. If you don’t get it, it can be described as telling stories in a structured manner to engage a particular audience with specific business objectives.
Storytelling creates a robust identification between the prospect problems and your product solution, accelerating the buying journey and increasing conversion rates by at least 25%.
It also makes it over ten times easier for people to understand and remember what you are trying to offer than a typical presentation of data that usually bores them and make them think, “I want to leave.”
Storytelling is also about connecting the buyer’s rational and emotional side. People enjoy hearing compelling stories and will identify with its elements.
You can add storytelling to your sales pitch with a case study from a previous client in a comparable industry.
As with all sales techniques, storytelling should be told in a clear, measured, and planned. Otherwise, you will obtain the opposite result.
But where can you include this? In your blog and by providing examples on your website whenever you introduce a specific and different service.
You must be smart with this strategy since stuffing your blog or website with storytelling can lead people to believe you’re always lying and making up a story to catch their attention.
Of course, you will at certain times, but it shouldn’t be obvious nor something typical. If you don’t remember this, forget about the possible leads you can generate with this option.
Send out a newsletter
Newsletters have been a standard strategy for generating leads and getting them into the sales funnel for years now.
E-books and blogs are essential components of any content marketing strategy. However, newsletters catch people in an area they are more likely to visit: their inbox.
People who sign up for your newsletter to get helpful content are more likely to check it out when you inform them about the new product or service.
There is no single way to generate leads online, and you will be overwhelmed with the ones we have included so far, and it is completely normal. Just take your time to understand everything and work towards each part to add to your strategy.
That being said, each marketing team has its own target audience and communication style.
While some marketers prefer to use Facebook, social media, or some of the previous alternatives for their marketing campaigns, others prefer to host webinars and focus on newsletters as well.
However, it doesn’t mean you cannot include all of them. It may just take some extra work and time due to all the platforms and channels you have to use.
Keep in mind you can either use modern lead generation tools or combine outbound lead generator methods with your demand generation strategies.
No matter what tool you decide to try next, keep testing. This will allow you to understand how to efficiently strategize, implement, and monitor digital marketing campaigns to improve your bottom line.
We went a bit out of topic regarding newsletters, but we wanted to make this clear to guarantee you are not worried about which one you should use since some can be considered outdated while others are more modern.
Old doesn’t mean it is bad, and if people are using it, that’s for a reason, and you should always focus on finding it and analyzing if it could work for you as well. Thus, our recommendation for this one.
Building Deck Leads Doesn’t Have to Be Tricky
If you follow these strategies and options, do you think it will be hell to finally generate leads? We don’t think so.
Nothing is easy in the beginning, but the more used you get to something, it will turn easy eventually or, at least, manageable.
Keep going and build the leads you need with what we shared and by including other strategies that can work for your business.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Deck Building 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 Deck Building 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 Deck Building 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.