Generate and Manage Leads for Your Home Improvement Business

Collecting and Utilizing Potential Customer Data for Increased Business

Every homeowner will need something done to their home at some point, and you want to be the home improvement business they call. Ideally, yours isn’t just one in a long list of businesses they’re getting quotes from only to go with the lowest bidder. No, the ideal customer for your business is someone that you’ve lured in with your stellar digital presence and nurtured, so that when they’re ready to proceed with a home improvement project, no other company but yours will do. Here’s how to generate and manage leads for your home improvement business.

Digital Presence for Data Collection

Generating leads really comes down to collecting data on potential customers. This is done effectively through a series of strategic approaches, putting your home improvement business in front of homeowners in a variety of ways. A multi-faceted approach means that you’re bound to get seen. In order to cultivate a relationship with potential customers, you need to get their information, so every effort to connect with them must point to data collection of some kind. 

SEO and Web 

Having a basic website with minimal information won’t generate leads. You need a strategic approach to not only your website, but how homeowners find it. This starts with curating a wealth of information that will benefit homeowners. Blog posts and web pages should be informative. Set yourself up as the authority. Give away free home improvement knowledge just to help them out, such as “How to Replace the Fill Valve in Your Toilet” or “How do I know if my roof has damage?” or “When is putting an addition on the home better than moving for more space?” Consistent and informative content will generate better search engine rankings for your website, thus increasing web traffic. (Struggling with producing quality content consistently? The Get Smart Group has a team of skilled writers who can knock that out for you!)

How does giving away information help to generate leads? It’s as simple as adding a pop-up prompt to your highest-ranking content pages asking web visitors to join your email list for more home improvement tips to hit their inbox. Data collection is imperative (we’ll get to why shortly). 

In addition to content development, creating Google Business and Bing Places for Business profiles are essential to generating leads. Don’t just set them up and call it a day, though. Add photos, posts, special offers, and get current customers to leave reviews on these profiles. The more your profile has on it, the more likely a homeowner is to click on yours when they’re using a web browser to search for a home improvement company in their area. Have the link to your website go directly to a data collection page (“Sign up for our newsletter for helpful home improvement tips each month”, download an amazing eBook with email registration, or have a form that tells you what home improvement project they’re interested in). Do what it takes to generate lead information upon first interaction with your website. 

Social Media

It’s an inevitable part of running a successful home improvement business: you have to have a social media presence. While you may have read somewhere to pick a platform and stick with it, the reality for your industry is that your target market is really everyone, and each demographic prefers a different platform. Those 20-somethings looking to buy a fixer upper and make it their own are on TikTok and Instagram, while the middle-aged crowd typically leans toward Facebook, but can also be heavy into Instagram and TikTok, too. And the boomers, if they’re connected, will be on Facebook. 

You can’t avoid these lead generating avenues. To get potential customers to even find you there, you have to produce consistent content with a planned social media strategy (yes, even with TikTok, though it does benefit from a more day-in-the-life-of-a-home-improvement-guy/gal vibe). For Facebook and Instagram especially, you need to have a plan. That plan should also include Facebook advertising, including boosted posts with a “learn more” button that links to — you guessed it — a data collection page on your website. 

Home Service Sites

It’s also becoming increasingly popular for homeowners to utilize websites specifically focused on home service needs to find the professional they’re looking for — two of the most popular being Houzz and Angi^TM. These websites offer third-party management of a customer’s interactions with home improvement businesses in order to provide an extra layer of protection. Home improvement businesses can obtain certifications after meeting certain criteria so that homeowners know they are legit. These sites also tend to be where customers go to find reviews for companies they are considering. It’s an important part of your lead generation process, since homeowners are flocking to them for trustworthy feedback. Additionally, in most cases, you can export leads from these sites to your own database. 

The Old-Fashioned Way

Tried and true, networking face to face within your own community is also an effective way to generate leads. Join your local Chamber of Commerce (other business owners still need work on their houses too!) and local networking groups (referral-based networking groups are specifically designed for lead generation). As a home improvement company, you should definitely join your local Home Builders Association (HBA) and invest in a booth at local home shows. Homeowners flock to these events to find legitimate businesses they can trust for their home improvement needs. A giveaway of some kind is a solid way to generate leads at these events. Attendees fill out a slip of paper with contact information and, voilà, you’ve got them in your system.

Data Collected – Now What?

Now that your home improvement business is generating leads, it’s important that you find a way to manage and utilize those leads for continued business growth. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is the best way to keep track of all of your leads from so many different sources. Otherwise, you’re likely to find yourself overwhelmed trying to keep track of who talked to what lead on what platform and what was last discussed. 

Utilizing a CRM system also gives you the opportunity to effectively create and target email marketing campaigns (also known as drip campaigns) and nurture the relationship with potential customers. You can create a multitude of campaigns for each point of interest homeowners indicate, such as home additions, kitchen renovations, floor replacement, home repairs, bathroom remodels and more. That way, potential leads are getting information pertinent to the task they are considering (you don’t want someone thinking about a bathroom reno to continue receiving emails about building a back deck). Targeted email marketing helps to prevent the dreaded unsubscribe. It keeps potential customers engaged and your home improvement business at the forefront of their minds. 

You also want to utilize your lead management system to personalize follow-up. At some point, a member of your sales team will be in direct contact with the homeowner. They need to be able to pull up that lead on your CRM system, look at what information has been sent to them so far, and reference any notes from previous conversations. For example, say Mr. Smith spoke with your saleswoman Sarah on the phone six months ago and decided he was going to wait to renovate the kitchen until after his wife recovered from an unexpected surgery. When Mr. Smith calls to inquire further and Joe answers this time, he can use the notes Sarah left in the CRM and immediately ask how Mr. Smith’s wife is doing. The conversation then connects on a personal level, and Mr. Smith feels like your team actually cares about them as people, not just another sale. 

The Get Smart Group can assist your home improvement business on this entire process. From setting up your website to creating quality, SEO-optimized content to post there regularly, from developing a content marketing strategy for multiple platforms to creating engaging posts and ads, from providing a quality CRM software for your business to crafting an email drip campaign — we can do it all, so you don’t have to!

Make us a part of your team and you can see stellar results in generating and managing leads for the betterment of your home improvement business. Schedule your free 30-minute consultation today. We can’t wait to meet you.