5 Strategies To Generate Quality Home Improvement Leads In 2020

The deeper I dive into the home improvement industry, the more I see the same pattern repeating itself...

I am truly blessed, my path was made clear for me. My dad has been in home improvement for a while. He's the GM at a local window manufacturer called California Deluxe Windows. I also have family who have been in the trades/home improvement, so I got a good taste of the home improvement world before starting my job as an in-home window & exterior coating salesman. Watching the company pay high prices for hit or miss leads was tough to see when I knew there was a better way. This opened my eyes to how much room for growth the home improvement industry in general has to benefit from.

The big boys in each individual industry are dominating their marketing strategy. For example, Renewal by Anderson is all over YouTube ads, Facebook, on top of many print/digital ad platforms. Almost anyone who is shopping for windows knows they can call and TRUST Renewal by Anderson. On the other hand, whose heard of 99% of small to mid-sized window companies?

The Bay Area Window Pros of the world need some love too! The problem is two-fold:

Problem #1: no matter what industry we look at; windows, solar, HVAC, even home remodel companies, the small-mid sized companies are relying on old school lead sources. Word of mouth referrals, print ads, door-to-door knocking, and buying leads from round robin recycled lead distributors like HomeAdvisor.com or QuinStreet just isn't giving companies the true edge they need to get ahead (qualified leads who already know & trust your brand)... Problem is, they're comfortable getting by for now because they're scared of problem #2.

Problem #2: they get hit up by marketers who have no clue about their industry, pain points, or even best marketing practices in general... This convinces the business owner/internal marketing team that "Facebook doesn't solve my needs" or "My customer isn't on Instagram" which couldn't be further from the truth. These failed marketing campaigns that promise the world and don't deliver shit spoil it for the good marketers who know how to drive growth. But I urge you- if this article is speaking directly to you, PLEASE don't give up.

I'm here to put a stop to this nonsense with this article. I want to empower home improvement businesses to take action to grow their marketing 2020 style. The small-mid sized home improvement companies have MASSIVE room for scale if they choose to take investing into their social marketing strategy seriously. Here's 5 ways to take action TODAY and start generating consistent leads:

#1. Develop high quality content.

Marketing without engaging and well-done content makes the marketers job pretty tough. Here are some examples of content that will help your marketing team thrive:

• Reference home photos/videos/drone flyovers
• Customer testimonials from different ethnic backgrounds & locations (on the map) you serve
• Company branding videos noting company culture, highlights of work, show your secret sauce and make the content fun to interact with for viewers (whether they have an immediate need for your service or not). Great content should entertain almost all, and be a solution to some. What's great is when those who weren't a direct customer give you a referral because your content hooked them in so well.... :)
• Before/after shots
• Problem/solution videos
• Promotional videos/images

#2. Start marketing to your target demographic on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Here's a breakdown of ways you can use hyper-targeting to find awesome leads:

There's also tons of specific targeting these platforms allow. Below are a couple examples that will help out most home improvement businesses a ton ??

This doesn't even scratch the surface of what you can do with the right targeting. It goes much deeper into things like:

• Do they watch home improvement TV a lot?
• Do they show signals that they would be a buyer of home improvement goods/services?

You can actually search by people who are likely (based off of buying habits) to invest in home renovation OR home improvement. That's crazy..... right?

#3. Show love to your existing customers.

Cultivating business by leveraging your existing customer base is awesome, because it's free. And what's more closable than a referral lead? Here are a few ways to implement effective referral programs:

• Run an email campaign to your email list of existing customers. Make it into a fun game they can play along with. For example, you can send a mass email to all of your existing customers stating that for the person who send in the most referrals, we will pay $1,000, or send them on a fun trip, or give them something desirable of value to incentivize the referrals. Of course, the messaging will have to make it fun and inviting as well, but it's the point of it that counts for now.
• Create a "referral promo" where if a new customer refers 'x' amount of people who book appointments with you, they get 'X' amount of money or a trip etc.
• Create a 'family and friends program' that says if anyone refers a family member or friend, they each get 'X%' extra off of their project.
• Get client testimonials on video from clients. Create a 'Model Home Promotion' in which you use their home for advertising. Take before & after photos & video, then run an ad to their neighbors about how much they loved the project and suggest 'XYZ company'. This will throw in some of the keeping up with the Joneses as well and build a ton of trust and credibility for your brand.

#4. Create referral alliances with synergistic local companies.

• LinkedIn is a great place to develop power partnerships. For example, a window & door company can partner with a window blind/shutter company to create a referral relationship. Or a solar company can partner with an HVAC or roofing company.

#5. Tend to your leads in the first 1-2 minutes that you receive them.

• Leads begin to go from hot to lukewarm after the 1-2 minute mark. The consumer is interested/excited about what you do when they sign up, but the longer it takes for you to reach them, the less interested they become.
• We've seen staggering results showing a 70%+ response rate when leads are followed up with in the first 10 minutes. They almost always share how impressed they are with your quick follow-up.

Bottom line, there is a ton of ways home improvement companies can step their marketing game into 2020. Not only will these systems bring you more leads, but they'll deliver QUALITY leads who trust your brand, have opted to see you (as opposed to buying leads which are many times cold and don't even know who your company is), and have been nurtured by you along the way.

Thanks for reading, I hope you apply even just one of these strategies to your business and see the results. Shoot an email over to me, matt@hi-impactmarketing if you have any questions or to tell us how well these are working for you :)