Thanks to our efforts our clients are killing it. That’s the technical term.
They went from getting 6 calls a month to 410 thanks to our marketing efforts.
Here are the 9 proven tactics we use to get more water damage leads.
1. Reputation Management
If you’re looking for a service that involves your home, where do you turn to first? You’re probably going to ask a friend or family member which plumber or gardener they use, aren’t you?
This is called Word of Mouth Marketing: Where people hear about a business from someone close to them.
Thanks to online review sites, however, Word of Mouth marketing can happen between strangers from across the country. In a matter of seconds, you can see how much Joe from Carrollton liked working with Regent Restoration.
And you can also see how much he didn’t like it.
The thing about Word of Mouth marketing or reputation management is that you have to have a decent reputation to manage. Make sure you’re crossing your Ts and dotting your Is. In other words:
- Provide your staff with sensitivity training
Your customers are undergoing a large amount of stress. Not only do they need you to help rebuild and support their home, but they also need your emotional support. - Provide excellent customer service
Wanna know what’s worse than having to get your home repaired after a disaster? Dealing with a rude secretary or technician in order to do that. A few pleases and thank-yous go a long way. - Don’t make promises you can’t keep
If it says on your website that you have a 60-minute response time, make sure you can stay true to your word. If your customer has to wait a few hours to receive service, they’re probably gonna kill that time by leaving you a bad review.
2. PPC Advertising
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising is a gold mine of lead opportunities. The cost to pay for clicks is minuscule compared to how much you’ll make from legitimate leads.
Google Adwords, the tool used to manage PPC ads, is a complicated animal though. It would definitely be wise to study up on Adwords through Udemy or PPC University to familiarize yourself with the software. Then you’ll want to take the Google Adwords Certification exams before proceeding.
Technically, you can do your own PPC advertising, but we definitely recommend finding a provider to do the service for you (Hi there!).
3. Web Copy SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is sort of similar to PPC in that customers find your content by searching things on Google, Bing or Yahoo (I know, right? Yahoo).
But the difference is that you don’t have to pay anything to have people find you if you’re doing SEO on your website.
All you have to do is apply the keywords that you’re using in your PPC ads to various pages on your website – your services page, service area page, etc.
But you can’t just throw some keywords on a page and hope for the best.
4. Blogging
Blogging is kind of like SEO’s cool cousin: It’s got the same DNA, but it presents itself in a way that people tend to like a little better.
Nobody wants to read your website copy, but most everyone’s down to read a blog.
See, blogging is meant to do one of three things:
- Educate the reader
You’re offering the reader knowledge that they didn’t have before – knowledge that they were looking to gain. By including keywords in your blogs, you can attract people who are already looking for the kind of content you’re writing. - Entertain the reader
These are the most popular kind of blogs. These are blogs that can make people laugh or go, “Hmm, that’s really interesting.” - Inspire the reader
This type of blog is more for DIY or self-help purposes. The goal here is to get the reader to do something specific after they’re doing reading your blog.
For restoration companies, your blog will most likely be filled with content that caters to the first purpose – unless you’re just getting really creative and out there, in which case, hook us up with that knowledge. I scratch your back, you scratch mine, you know?
5. Conversion Optimization
Just like you can use words to make people convert, you can also alter the layout of your website to make it that much more likely that people will say “yes” to your business.
Here are some conversion optimization tips:
- Change the color of your call-to-action button (the one that says “Get A Quote” or “Free Estimate”) so that it stands out against its surroundings.
- Bring the call-to-action above the fold of your webpage (the fold is the bottom of the webpage when you first open it up)
- Reduce distractions around your call-to-action. If it’s too cluttered, then people won’t be able to see it and they won’t know how to convert.
You can learn more ways to optimize your website layout by A/B testing different layouts. You can also use mouse movement-tracking software, like Mouseflow, to see what things on your website are attracting your viewers’ attention.
6. Social Media Marketing
We cannot stress enough just how important social media marketing is for your business. You’ll still gain leads via phone or through a form-fill on your website, but social media starts a conversation with your customers.
By promoting your brand online, you make it that much more likely for people to come into contact with your business name. If they’re familiar with your business name, then you’ll be the business they call when things go down.
Here’s the thing though: You have to choose your social media platforms based on your target demographic.
And then you have to curate your content according to which platform you’re communicating on.
In other words, you’re not going to be posting the same thing on Facebook as you will on Twitter. In fact, you may find that Twitter isn’t for your business at all.
Check out this article about social media demographics and this other one about how to communicate to people on social media.
7. Local Citation Development
Online directories, online directories, online directories.
If you say that three times and click your heels, you’ll get exactly one gazillion new customers.
True story.
Directories to get your name on are:
- BBB Accredited Business
- Best of the Web
- Home Advisor
- Angi
- Yelp
- Google My Business
- Yellow Pages
- Express Update
- Factual
- Neustar Localeze
- Maps Connect
The moral of the article is to take up as much space on the internet as you can. The more real estate you occupy, the more likely it is for people to come into contact with your business and buy your service.
8. Answering Service
So, OK, if you do all the things we just told you to do, that’s great. You set up Google ads, wrote award-winning content for your website and blog, and are targeting the right people on the right social media platforms. Cool.
None of that matters if no one’s answering the phone when a lead comes in.
And you’re not always going to be available to answer the phone. It’s just not possible. You’ve gotta sleep sometime.
That’s why you should hire an answering service. There’s always going to be someone available to take your call and transfer the lead to you.
Dependability is worth the extra cost.
9. Call Best of the Web
Once you’ve got calls rolling in – and people who are always available to answer those calls – you can record them, listen to them and see if these leads are legitimate.
Our software allows you to track where your leads are coming from, so you can see which tactics are more valuable.
Another huge perk of working with us is that you don’t have to write the ads, blogs or web copy yourself. These are all services that we provide.
You can just sit back and watch the leads roll in on our dashboard. Pretty cool, huh?
