How to Get Home Improvement Sales Leads [10 Ways]

23 Mar How to Get Home Improvement Sales Leads [10 Ways]

Chances are that in your area, right now, there are potential customers who are ready for a home improvement and are actively searching for a provider. But do you know how to get these home improvement leads into your sales funnel and keep them there when competitors offer services similar to yours?

The techniques below will help you connect with more prospects who are already interested in your services. As you read this, they might be entering an internet search about “updating my kitchen” or “installing new windows.” You can learn how to capture those home improvement sales leads and turn them into customers.

1. Connect With Ideal Customers on Social Media

Find the platform where your best potential customers spend time online and interact with them there, particularly when they’re searching for home improvement ideas or answers. This may be a general platform like Facebook, but it might be an online community like Houzz on which you can give helpful answers to current questions posted by community members.

2. Use Door Hangers

While you are at a job site, distribute door hangers at all nearby residences. Because you have already worked in that neighborhood—and parked your vehicle with your logo on the side there—your credibility should be higher than elsewhere. Include a special deal on each door hanger and a unique code that lets you track the area where you placed it.

3. Send Postcards Offering Free Appointments

When a prospect does not yet know or trust you, you need a way to make the initial introduction and get them to commit to small actions. A free consultation helps you bring prospects in, discover their needs, offer additional services, and put their information into your system. Send postcards to your ideal neighborhoods with your offer.

4. Stand Out on Bargain Sites

Bargain websites, such as Groupon or LivingSocial, connect customers with businesses that offer special deals in their area. Use them to connect with customers who are actively searching because they want to make a purchase. Get ahead of your competition by offering deals on such a site, choosing one that has the right look and tone for your business and customers.

5. Improve Your Pay-Per-Click Advertising

With pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, you can display small ads when prospects perform online searches on certain keywords or phrases. If you use PPC, write down every possible term that prospects might be searching, including searches not directly about your service. For example, if you install new windows, look into using “new window price” as a keyword. Also, update the region for your PPC campaigns to display only in your immediate area.

6. Send Email Newsletters

Start sending a free, regularly-scheduled email newsletter and mention it everywhere you can—in your advertisements, on your website, and so on. Send it only to those who sign up for it. In newsletters, you can include pictures of recent projects with testimonials. You can also answer frequent questions, mention projects for each season, and include any other useful information you can.

7. Ask Your Customers for Referrals

Complete quality work, then ask your satisfied customers if they can give you a reference to someone who needs your services. Prospects want to work with a small business they can trust, which makes your positive, happy customers some of your best home improvement lead sources. If you haven’t been asking for referrals all along, you can still contact past customers and request them. 

8. Build Your Reputation Through Online Reviews

When a job is completed well, tell your customer about an important, relevant third-party review site, and request a short review there. In addition, build your credibility by showing off your positive online reviews on your advertisements, social media, and web pages. And inform customers early on that reviews are vital to your business so that they might be more likely to write you one later.

9. Advertise Your Financing Alternatives

If you can offer your prospects financing, such as low-interest loans or payment plans, many will be more likely to purchase larger projects—or any project at all. Even prospects that appear to be wealthy may need these options, so prominently display and explain them on your website. Mention financing on flyers, business cards, social media posts, and elsewhere.

10. Pay for Leads

It’s possible to pay a third-party provider for home improvement leads. But be vigilant, reviewing the quality of every lead. Find out if your lead provider is sending the same leads to your competitors. Also, when you can’t handle any additional work, pause your lead service to conserve your marketing dollars.

Successful small businesses research how to get home improvement leads and then practice just a few techniques that seem well-suited to their business. Find out which of the above performs best for you. You might need only one to three methods to bring you all the business you can handle. So, find the ones that work for you, and commit to mastering them.

As you start enticing more leads to contact you, consider taking advantage of technology to respond to and qualify those leads, like Aktify’s AI-powered small business services. Your firm can deploy AI agents that immediately answer your prospects’ questions. These conversations sort the very interested from the merely curious, follow up with prospects, re-active old leads, and can even make appointments. When the system transfers a lead to a live agent, that prospect will be pre-qualified to be converted to a home improvement customer.