It takes time to generate septic tank cleaning leads, but no one would decide to take on the task or even start a business in this niche if it was impossible. In our experience, it can be easier than it seems.
First, you must remember how important it is to plan your marketing strategy and how your company approaches the sales pipeline. Before you even consider starting your business, you must have a business plan.
It is normal to have difficulty bringing in more qualified leads to increase your clientele if the organization and creation of the business were not done correctly.
This doesn’t mean that you will lose to your competition. This only means that you need to be more active on social media and that your sales team is well-established in order to ensure that your business is moving in the right direction.
There’s a lot involved, and we know you will be quite overwhelmed with the entire lead generation process and how you can make your business grow.
Luckily for you, we are able to share the best tips that all your competitors are following to generate their leads. However, they need customization based on your brand and business.
Thus, consider the latter while we share the secrets behind lead generation:
You Need to Build a Website
Your website should be your first point for contact and investment, as over 75% of your leads are generated there. Regardless of what others say, this is the main place to get your high-quality leads.
However, remember that your website serves two purposes:
- To attract potential customers.
- Convert website visitors into qualified leads that you and your sales teams can use.
You need to create a website that covers everything. It is not the same as having a random site without optimization, so in this step, we want to mention its creation but the most crucial part: optimize it.
Optimizing the design and building will be essential even when your design is simple, as this is what will bring most of your leads.
SEO (search engine optimization), although it’s a confusing term many don’t know, is very closely associated with your website.
Don’t worry; it’s easy to set up online lead generation strategies that will improve your website’s rank in search engines for hundreds of keywords consumers are searching for or for the right parameters when just reading a bit.
Traffic is essential, but it is equally important that at least 1-3% of website visitors are converted into qualified leads, and for it, finding your septic tank cleaning website is the key.
SEO is a solution to more than 65% of this problem since it guarantees your marketability.
It might surprise you to learn that conversions aren’t as common as you thought if you think about the previous percentage and range.
But if you are making less than that or barely hitting the mark every month, you could signal serious issues in your user experience, images, and copywriting.
These elements should be prominent on your web pages. This is where you want to pay attention when building and optimizing your website.
To ensure you are moving in the right direction, take notes of these tips:
- When building a website, it is important to take your time and ensure everything operates properly, including speed and user-friendliness.
- You can rank for hundreds of search terms if you have a blog that provides useful, long-form content.
- Google My Business makes it easy to create online directories as well as social media profiles. It is crucial to maintain consistency in your company name and address and your phone number and website.
- Use high-quality, professionally-created visual and written content. You are a septic cleaning expert who must teach others the basics, or, at least, you can bet on this to add value to your business.
- Your website should have pages that encourage visitors to take action.
- Always test your lead generation strategy (all of them) to ensure they are providing the best results or even working in the first place.
Your Landing Pages Have Priority
For website lead generation, landing pages are essential. You can use them to attract more customers by skipping the lead section or just making sure they are qualified for you.
Each landing page can be used for a different purpose by considering the needs of your prospects and setting them accordingly.
They will be the perfect complement for the information you add to your site, including the blog we mentioned has to value for your business.
Your landing pages should “push” visitors to make a decision about whether or not to use your services.
This can be achieved by creating a landing page that converts. It is important to optimize the landing page for a better user experience and to include conversion-focused elements.
These are our top tips for helping you achieve your goals with these elements or pages:
- To avoid your visitors leaving, you should remove any content that doesn’t help you convert web traffic to leads. They will feel the same way about the rest.
- Please explain in detail the service you provide and why it is so valuable for your clients.
- You can reduce clicks. You can limit their clicks to three times per destination to ensure they don’t get bored.
Email Marketing Is Alive & Incredibly Works
You’ve done an excellent job collecting emails from customers and prospects over the years, or, at least, this is what you’re destined to do whether you are starting your company or have some time in it.
Well, those emails are valuable, and you can get a lot when you decide to utilize them for this next lead generation strategy: email marketing or, more like sending emails every now and then.
You should have enough email addresses in order to keep your leads happy or bring them to you with attractive messages that convert prospects into readers.
Offering tips about how to avoid often cleaning or work with a better septic tank is valuable by most people. Also, when doing this, customers who have canceled services can be reengaged, or those who are still undecided can be added to your sales.
Email marketing is a great way to meet new people and reconnect with old prospects.
People make many mistakes when it comes to lead generation strategies. Here are some tips to make sure this one goes well:
- It’s enough to send 2-5 emails per month.
- Create short, engaging subject lines.
- Use great images and keep your emails brief.
- Be helpful.
Always Add Contact Forms
Your landing page should be clean and well-optimized, but without a contact form, there’s no way visitors will give you their info because where would they add the info and send it?
On the other hand, while you create those forms, if you don’t want your visitors to avoid signing up, don’t ask for too many details since they run from all the details you request. Instead, keep it simple with a name, phone, and email. Even email and name only.
Use the right contact form on landing pages to convert prospects into sales leads as well.
Converting a lead into a customer can take several weeks or even months. Conversion and lead nurturing are easier when there is more information.
Contact forms are extremely important and should be readily available when they are most needed.
Every page on most of your competitors’ websites will have one. This strategy is not always the best. Sometimes, you just need one or reduce it to a button that converts.
SEO Will Be Your Second Name
We mentioned SEO earlier during optimization, and as tiring as this will sound, it is important to go over it once more.
First, always remember that it is still the most important type of digital marketing. It will help your septic tank cleaning business rise to the top of Google and keep it there for all the leads.
SEO can suffice to generate the most leads if your campaign is executed well.
A Google My Business account is a great place to start your SEO campaign. Despite what we have said before about the other ideas, this would be where we would begin as GMB has been sufficient for some companies.
Next, you will need to start backlinking (linking other septic sites with high authority) as well as content marketing.
You can either hire an SEO expert to help you start your campaign or go slow and learn by yourself, and we would highly recommend the latter even if you decide to get an expert for your business.
The first thing to remember is that SEO goes beyond keywords.
People tend to get too caught up in keywords and forget that Google doesn’t prize you as much as before without proper context and instead punishes you for keyword stuffing.
Just take the time to learn properly.
Going Back to Blogging: You Need Content
Since we have been talking about content for some time, this is the option that brings it to life a little more.
Blogs can be a great tool for marketing leads to your business. High-quality content is essential to get the best results as you will notice that companies like yours that have one are greatly preferred among customers.
If you want to get the best results from content marketing, it should take as much time as other strategies. However, it will get better over time.
We recommend following our advice: Before you begin, think about the primary purpose of your content.
Relationships are the foundation of blog content. These people will convert to leads and customers if you are thoughtful about the purpose of your blog content.
Before you begin writing content for your blog, think about why this investment is being made as lead generation ideas. It will impact your business. Answer crucial questions like:
- What can you do to solve the problems of your target audience?
- Which do customers visit the most popular websites in our target market?
- Do you have the core competencies to create high-quality content? Do you need to hire someone, or do you have to create high-quality content yourself?
It is important to think about this carefully as it can be difficult to correct your content once you have started.
Your Business Image Matters
Did you know that over 60% of internet users use the internet to find local septic tank cleaning specialists quickly? We dare say it’s more than 80%.
They will also examine your reputation, customer opinions, and pricing.
Are you able to show up on time and complete the task you promised? You probably don’t need to be worried if you are. If you are aware that you have many things to improve on, it is important to pay attention to your reputation.
Word of mouth can be used offline as well to your advantage. This is why it is important to have a good reputation online and offline.
Ask satisfied customers to recommend you to family, friends, neighbors, or anyone else who might be interested in your services.
After you’ve completed your service, give them some business cards and ask if they would mind leaving a review of your site or directory.
Review sites are a great way for customers to review your business. This will increase your chances of bringing in more leads.
Investing in Google Ads
These ads can help increase traffic to your website and generate leads, but never consider them above SEO in terms of your main lead generation strategy.
It can be a poor investment if you don’t know how to approach Google Ads (also known as Pay-Per-Click). This strategy is best for services such as septic cleaning businesses that have a short sales cycle and high urgency or as integration for most companies that want to cover several areas.
We highly recommend it for everyone whatsoever since you can get the best out of your money.
With this in mind, this is what we would keep in mind most of the time:
- Google allows you to set a budget of up to $1.500 each month. Your ads will not appear as often per day if you don’t do your best, but you can target great keywords that will be worth your investment.
- If money is tight, however, don’t force it. You can only reach it if it is profitable and you have the money.
- You can test different ad copies and choose the one that works for you.
Sending Postcards Is Still Useful
Although postcards might seem a bit old-fashioned, they still work well for local businesses. Why? Because they are simple to send and can be targeted at a wide range of customers who need to deal with septic tank issues.
First, organize your mailing list. A mailing list is a great idea if you don’t have one already or have just started to build one.
It is crucial to only send addresses and names to commercial or homeowner owners who have septic tanks on their property. This will be more efficient, and you won’t be criticized for sending so many postcards to random people who aren’t part of your target audience.
When done, move on with the process.
You need to start sending your postcards, and for it, you must design them and come up with the right ideas.
Your headline should be strong. People will be interested in your ability to grab their attention and wonder why you were chosen to clean other people’s tanks. What are your advantages over your competition?
Highlight your services and offers. Your postcard, regardless of its message, should not be lost. It should feel like something that they can use at any time.
Maximize Your Online Presence
Leads are always looking for solutions and are online all the time. Your job is to help them.
High-quality leads are what you want, so ensure that your online presence is strong.
Google Places is your first step. This is an online directory listing local businesses. You can also add your business to Google Places, which will allow you to appear in local searches.
A customer might search Google for “septic tank cleaning [CITY]” and find you thanks to this.
The platform allows you to list for free, which means that there are many other potential customers. Make sure that your listing is appealing if you want to get the best of it, though.
It is important to take the time necessary to create quality content. The site can be updated with photos, videos, and information about your company just like you would for your website.
Clients will feel more at ease using your service if there is more information.
Reviews are an important part of generating leads, as we have discussed in previous lead generation strategies.
Positive reviews will increase your ranking. This will increase your chances of getting a client to call you.
Encourage customers to leave reviews for the business on their website. Don’t be afraid to offer discounts, as more reviews equal more qualified leads.
Social media is essential in this process as well. To promote your business, it’s smart to use Instagram or Facebook. Post new content every day and receive reviews in the comments.
Contrary to popular belief, clients seldom buy based on logic. Clients make their decisions based on facts and what they see with their eyes.
Work on Having 5-Star Reviews
You will eventually get bored of hearing us talk about reviews. However, there are many things to discuss when it comes to them, as they have proven to be crucial in the decision-making process of your prospects.
However, one thing is to get reviews, and another is whether or not they are good.
Over 80% of customers use online reviews to evaluate the quality of local businesses.
Companies invest a lot of time and effort in them for this reason as they can be a decisive point for their clients. These statistics will explain why:
- Respondents trust online reviews better than referrals from family and friends.
- 70% of respondents think positive reviews increase trust in local businesses.
- 83% believe that companies with fewer than ten positive reviews are more trustworthy.
This is why you must work on any negative reviews you have or make sure to avoid them as much as possible.
Negative reviews can lead to customers leaving and ruining your business. But how do you fix them?
You can find reasons to report them, such as a comment made by someone not from your state, or identify if the person who left it is someone who was your actual client.
If you’re not getting the fruits from this, you can fix them by getting many positive reviews.
Respond as fast as possible to negative and positive reviews as part of improving your reputation.
Highlight any information or services your leads might be interested in if the review is positive.
Even if you receive negative feedback, it is possible to be positive. To continue the offline conversation, ask for more information, empathize, and contact them directly.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Septic Tank 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 Septic Tank 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 Septic Tank 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.