Winter comes every year. And in most states with snow, people need help removing snow. How do you plan to generate snow removal leads during this time as a new or existing business? Most people know that they can hire someone to remove snow and ice. However, do potential customers know that one of those people they can hire is your company? Can they find you?
Your success depends on your ability to market your business effectively and put yourself in front of prospects.
No matter how long you have been in the industry, whether you are a newbie or an established professional, you need to work around your brand and be out there to generate leads and close deals to, naturally, grow your business.
Start by asking yourself: what are you doing to reach the right people at the right time and in the right way? What are your competitors doing to get the leads you’re missing?
We know you won’t find the answers at once, or even if you do, many more questions will come.
Thus, we have a solution that will be either a good starting point or option to solve your main issues: continue reading about our tips and what we know about generating leads.
Marketing to snow removal customers is not as hard as you may be thinking. No, it isn’t rocket science.
Just make sure you go through the strategies we have for sharing and take notes of everything, so you don’t miss your chance for more clients.
Create a Compelling Website
Even though this may seem obvious, you should not start your snow removal business without creating a website or, at least, do it while you work on one.
Why? Because for every company, a site is a primary tool you’ll need to enhance your lead generation process as it will work as the main place for your prospects to reach you and actually convert into leads.
Now, when you’re working in this process, you must know there are several differences between winning and good-looking websites, and your objective is the first one.
When aiming for it, you need to put first to work around the best customer experience, which will require more than a good template or style.
You want to make the website as simple yet attractive as possible while guaranteeing that visitors and users can quickly find the information and connect with you with as few clicks as possible.
Thus, ask yourself: are they forced to scroll and click to see your contact information and list of services? Do you have too much information that makes them feel overwhelmed?
Simplify the process for any questions you come up with and you know isn’t a good factor for your website.
Many online website performance audit tools help you view how your website performs. The good news is that you will get some of these tools for free.
While contact information is essential (such as your address and phone number), make sure that most of your website is about your service—in this case.
Here are some search engine optimization tricks and tips to help your website attract high-quality leads.
- Your contact information should not be at the bottom of each page.
- Make navigation simple by adding elements that lead to other pages besides the ‘Home Page’ visible and accessible with one click.
- Use a simple URL that is easy for users to remember and find.
- Your site should be easy to read.
- Use bullets, bold words, and many whitespaces, but don’t overdo it.
- Use the right keywords and phrases to rank well in Google.
Create a Lead Magnet
A lead magnet can be an incentive that encourages someone to provide their contact information, which is all you want to generate leads. Therefore, this is the primary tool for collecting their email addresses, names and work around getting in touch with them after they allow it.
For instance, you could offer a free eBook or a downloadable resource they find valuable and usually solves a common problem among your target audience. Or, you could make a video.
The idea is to offer a valuable lead magnet, not as much as paid content, but make it worth it considering people know you will use their information for your business.
You can work around tips and tricks or write about related topics to your niche.
We know snow removal isn’t something that wide when it comes to content, but you can use tools like AnswerThePublic or even Google Trends to find keywords and questions people are asking.
Compile a good list and create your lead magnet around it.
Get Referrals & Use Review Incentives
When you get referred to people who are close to your clients, like family, friends, neighbors, or even strangers, via the internet or face-to-face is a great boost to your business as they are bound to rely on the recommendation. This is known as referral marketing.
It is an inexpensive and effective way to grow your business by actively using your existing leads and previous businesses as long as you have provided the expected services.
Happy customers are more likely to be satisfied customers. Therefore, you have to be extremely careful about treating your existing customers and, of course, delivering the best results. Here are some practical ideas to allow you to get started.
- Incentives: Give your customers discounts and gifts for each person they refer you to. You can even offer the same reward to your new customers as a thank you for their business!
- Ask for reviews: These “word-of-mouth” recommendations are much more important than you realize. When vetting service providers, online reviews play a significant role in people’s decision-making process.
You should ask every satisfied customer to share their experiences with the world.
- You’re missing a fantastic opportunity to reach a large audience if you’re not on Yelp or Angie’s List, Thumbtack, Home Advisor, Thumbtack, and Facebook.
- Referral Partners: Are you a member of the Chamber of Commerce or BNI? You can find other business owners connected to the community and form a referral partnership if so.
Referral leads are high quality because they trust you and they are already “sold” to you before answering the phone.
Although your customer may be open to referring you to friends and family, they will not be thrilled if you don’t offer something when asking, unless it happens naturally on their end.
Let the customer get a bonus for each friend or neighbor they refer to get more qualified leads and motivated.
Advertise on Social Media
Advertising on social media is another way to market qualified leads. Most people spend at least an hour on social platforms every day, and this is where you should be in order to connect with them, and well, it’s only basic to be where they are.
You’re missing out on many potential clients if you aren’t on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. You can use social media networks to promote your business in an easy, non-intrusive way, and that’s the best part of this strategy.
There are multiple approaches to social media advertisement. You have to pay for some of them while others are free, depending on how you build your presence.
You have to choose the lead generation strategies with a high investment return or ROI (return of investment).
For instance, digital ads are very cost-effective because you control how much you spend and who sees them. On the other hand, Google and Facebook ads are the most user-friendly and popular ones.
Depending on your residence, you can get clicks on terms like “snow Removal Company.” It costs as little as $2.50, but this price can be a problem when you get many more.
Thus, you should also aim for cheap ones that prices range from $0.50 to less than a dollar. If you’re still worried about the price, do your research properly and work around the free options for social media.
Send Out Mails
Direct mail marketing isn’t dead, at least when it comes to local business if you want to reach and attract potential customers.
This strategy is often ignored and regarded as a dying form of advertising, considering everything is digital today. But it’s important to remember that coupons and direct mail are still very popular with older people.
It can be a great way to boost your snow removal business if used properly. You might, for example, send a letter by direct mail to multi-family homeowners in your area.
Recent research reveals that direct mail is five times more effective at generating leads than email when you target a specific audience who doesn’t really check their inboxes every day or isn’t too savvy when it comes to technology. This is because those clients are more likely to read their mail than their emails.
However, your mails should look professional to succeed with this lead generation strategy. You can look at some examples online or even the ones you receive once in a while.
What fonts do they use? Are they talking about the business or promotions? Pay attention to all details on the flyer.
While you don’t want to duplicate their design, it is an excellent way to get inspired.
Local Media & Newspapers
Advertising in local media is another excellent idea. If you live in a large city of over 200,000 people, would you believe everyone has access to at least one of these media?
Advertise in your local newspaper can be even a better idea when it comes to smaller cities since people like to read their local newspapers and follow the usual news channels.
Many local newspapers are having difficulty finding advertisers due to the popularity of online news sites. Therefore, advertisements can be purchased at an affordable price, and you get great ROI.
Your target audience will read the newspaper because only local prospects who tend to look for services will go to the actual section with your ad.
But We’re Not Forgetting About Email Marketing
We mentioned the traditional option, but there’s no way we can leave the digital one out of all the lead generation strategies we can share.
This technique allows you to send messages directly to your potential and current customers in seconds, just if you are wondering why it shouldn’t be ignored.
Email marketing is generally 1,000 times more efficient than regular direct mail when used right.
It is also 100 times cheaper for anyone who wants to generate exclusive leads. An autoresponder allows you to gather customer information, create a compelling offer and nurture them until they buy from you.
Even if you don’t have an autoresponder, this information can still be obtained by asking in your sales pitches “bribes” section.
You might ask, “Please take a minute to fill out this form and tell me when you need us to remove your snow.”
The idea with email marketing follows the same principle as mailing directly; thus, create a digital flyer with your contact information and any current promotions, but offer value in your emails as well.
It is easier to grab consumers’ attention by sending a flyer than an email with just text and providing relevant info.
In this process, segmentation allows you to target different types of customers based on demographics.
The demographic includes location, which is very important for snow removal businesses. It is not the best idea to waste your time sending emails to prospects in different areas as they may not hire your snow removal business.
Claim Your Google Business Listing
Claiming your Google Business is basic science and very needed if you want to build your brand.
The idea is to make sure your business will be displayed in search results when snow removal prospects search in your area.
Verify that your contact info is correct if your business has been listed. You don’t want your website visitors calling the wrong number and asking for a sale. Ensure your email address, website, and physical location are ready to go, as consistency in your information is also crucial.
Prospects should contact you quickly, but your business must also look professional. It seems amateurish if your Google business listing links to a different website or landing pages.
It is crucial because prospects won’t be inclined to do business with unprofessional companies. Put your website to benefit from this lead generation initiative.
Be Clear in Describing Your Services
It doesn’t matter what type of snow removal marketing collateral it is; it is crucial to be concise and clear. Here is how you should think about it:
A person in dire need of snow removal doesn’t have the time or patience to wait for days. What do you do?
First, consider the fact they are likely feeling stressed and looking for reassuring, reliable service. In this case, it will be easier for clients to reach you if your message is explicit in your explanation.
You can include the following information in your snow removal flyer or door hanger, or just any place you have your services listed:
- Your snow removal services are clearly stated in a prominent headline.
- Contact information and make it easy to read: phone number, email address, URL of your website.
- A value proposition or an attractive offer.
Give Out Business Cards
A business card is a fantastic way of marketing any business, including a snow removal company, as it will introduce you to prospects, other experts, and businesses in the area that can be interested in your service.
Business cards encourage word-of-mouth advertisement, so prospects can easily find your business. Therefore, make sure to include all your contact information and design a good-looking one.
A simple template for snow removal business cards can make this strategy affordable. This isn’t a traditional snow removal advertisement, but snow plowing business cards are still a great way to advertise your snowplow.
You can easily connect with other professionals and prospects in the snow removal industry by using snow removal business cards.
Ask local businesses for permission to place your business card inside their stores once it has stopped snowing. It is a great way to reach new prospects.
You can also leave them at local community centers, a non-profit organization. It is common for non-profits to allow you to leave behind your business cards there. T
It’s possible to meet new people every day, so keep one or two in your pocket as well!
Highlight What Makes Your Company Different
While you may not be the only snow removal company in your area, there is something that sets you apart. Communicate that difference to potential clients!
Ask yourself questions such as:
- Are you able to offer guaranteed free quotes?
- Are you using state-of-the-art equipment that is quieter, quicker, and more environmentally friendly?
- Are you available 24/7?
- Can you promise same-day service and “every job will get completed within a given number of hours?”
- Are you able to offer a more comprehensive coverage area than other local companies?
- Can you offer easy online bookings?
- Are you more experienced or have better customer reviews than other companies?
Your unique selling point should be highlighted on your snow removal flyer.
Be Early, Not Only on Time
The winter snows can sneak up on you, especially when you’re busy planning for the holiday season. Your customers and prospects should remind you to think about snow removal before the snowstorms and ice hit.
It could be an educational mailer that is sent before winter arrives. Or it could be more local and urgent.
Keep a close eye on the weather forecast every two weeks and plan your door-hanging or mailer campaigns accordingly. You’ll always be able to help the weatherman, even if he’s wrong.
The idea for this is to be prepared and ready to work even when people haven’t called you yet, but you are over 50% sure they will, based on the conditions.
Offer Helpful Tips
Consider providing educational information to potential clients in addition to your marketing messages. These could include:
- Tips for safe snow shoveling.
- Mistakes to avoid when they do DIY snow removal.
- When to call the pros vs. when you can DIY.
- What to do after a snowstorm?
- How to prepare yourself for snow removal services.
- Common mistakes when dealing with snow and/or ice.
- How to protect your landscaping and flowers from a storm.
This helpful content will make you a trusted resource in your area and build goodwill.
Encourage Repeat Businesses
Growing a business requires that you get more from your customers.
Customer retention is the quickest and easiest way to grow your brand. You can do this by selling your snow removal services in packages with increasing discounts as the prices rise.
You could, for example, offer an on-demand snow removal package at three frequency levels: once per month, twice per month, and weekly.
Another option is to create a yearly membership program that includes snow removal. It would complement traditional lawn care and landscaping in the spring, fall, and summer.
Expand your Market
Homeowners and their families need snow removal services, but they’re not the only ones. They also don’t usually have the highest-value clients.
You might consider marketing your snow removal services in more extensive areas to those who have the resources for them:
- Municipal services.
- Local government agencies.
- Districts of public schools.
- Homeowners Associations (HOAs).
We hope that you found this list helpful and took enough notes so you will use it to help improve your marketing strategy for the next few years.
But before leaving, we want to emphasize one crucial point: ALWAYS keep track of your lead information and source.
You won’t know the effectiveness of each advertising campaign if you don’t keep track of how each customer came to you. It’s easy to ask each customer, “How did you learn about our company?” or just follow the usual automation tools for your digital efforts.
Get to understand each potential customer regardless of their position in the sales funnel. Using these tips alongside search engine marketing will help you increase your lead capture, and snow removal leads.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Snow Removal 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 Snow Removal 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 Snow Removal 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.