It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in the roofing business for 30 days or 30 years, you're always looking to grow your business.
In order to do that, you have to find more people in need of roof repair or installation. Canvassing is a great resource for finding leads, but you can only reach a certain number of people at once. So aside from canvassing, how do you generate more roofing leads?
Consider this a crash course in how to find, target, and bring in potential customers in need of your roofing services. In this guide we’ll walk you through the steps you can take to garner not just more leads, but high-quality ones.
What Is a Roofing Lead?
First, let’s define what a roofing lead is. It’s a prospect showing interest in your services by submitting their contact information face-to-face or through an online form or phone call. Essentially, it’s a potentially interested customer.
Generating leads is crucial to any growing business, but you don’t just want any lead! You want someone who is truly interested in your services -- not bots, B2B professionals, or third parties, but roofing solutions-seeking people.
Growing a Roofing Business
In order to grow your business (or any business), you need to understand your audience. Because when you know your audience you can correctly and effectively direct your marketing efforts to them with powerful messaging that is relatable.
Your customer won’t pick you on a whim, on your rankings, or on a price point. Roofing customers want to compare options and make informed decisions because they’re invested in finding the perfect person for the job. And can you blame them? A roof is pretty important.
The moral of the story is that your customer isn’t going to choose your business without learning about it first. That’s why you need specific lead generation and growth strategies that are tailored to the roofing industry.
Tips on Roofing Lead Generation
There are lots of tips on how to generate roofing leads from advertising to web optimization. But in this article, we’ll focus on the top 10 that are crucial to you and the roofing industry in particular.
10 Methods For Generating Roofing Leads
1. Website Optimizations
If you don’t have a website, we’d recommend you stop everything you’re doing and make one—30% of people don’t trust businesses that don’t have a website. Once you do that you’ll want to optimize it.
“Optimize” is marketing lingo that means to make it better and easier for customers to find, use, or interact with. The first and easiest thing to do is to make sure there are clear calls-to-action (CTAs) scattered across your site. These could be “Contact Us” links that direct customers to your contact page. That way, they’ll find an email address or a simple form to fill out. Your site could even have a “Call Us” button that directly dials your office, making it especially easy for people to reach you from their phones, which is where most people do their online browsing.
In addition to CTAs, having helpful content on each page is crucial. Web-users don’t like scrolling or constantly searching for the information they need. So make their life easier, and provide them with the necessary information upfront. Instead of a few images on your service pages, you can:
- Detail your process
- List certifications
- Provide customer testimonials
But be sure there isn’t too much information in big blocks of text! People aren’t interested in reading large paragraphs on web pages, they just want quick hits of information.
More than just having detailed information, separating your services into different pages by category can aid customers in their search. Residential customers don’t want to read about your commercial offerings, so separate those into two pages. Even having Roof Repair services and Gutter services listed on different pages will lead to a better customer experience.
Now that your site is organized perfectly and you have impressive photography, you want to make sure you have a fast website load time. The ideal web page load time is under two seconds because, after that time, people tend to bounce off the site. There are lots of services that measure your site’s speed.
2. Local SEO
Before we get into local SEO, let’s quickly go over what SEO actually is. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of maximizing the number of visitors to your website by making sure it is highly ranked when potential customers enter keywords or queries into the search engine they are using. So when someone types “roofer” you can increase your SEO value to become a one of the top results.
But when someone types “roofer near me” that’s when local SEO comes into play. Local customers are preferred because they are easier to get to, and they’ll spread the good word about your business around the community.
To focus on your local SEO, you’ll need to optimize your website and your Google Business Profile listing. The site optimizations are simple: Add a location page with accurate phone numbers, addresses, and hours of operation so customers can see exactly where you are and when you’re open. Updating your GBP is just as crucial—if not a little more—as updating your site.
What is GBP? Great question. When you Google search “roofers near me” or “roofing help in Sacramento,” for example, you’ll see a widget appear. It’s a map with the local businesses pertaining to your search. This is crucial to businesses because 92% of customers will pick a business on the first page of local search results.
To optimize your GBP to make sure web users become your customers, we recommend:
- Encouraging customers to leave reviews
- Updating photos
- Adding current contact information
- Having accurate hours of operation
Don’t have a Google Business Profile? No worries, they're free and easy to set up.
3. Local Directory Listings
Another way to optimize your local SEO is to get listings in local directories. This is an online mention of the name, address, phone number, or website of your business. These listings can occur in local directories, on websites or blogs, on social media, or within apps.
Listing your business’s NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) on directories and citation sites can boost your visibility, which will improve your rankings on search engines. This is because within all those listings is information and links to your site that Google has deemed “trustworthy”, so it will push your site to the top of the results when someone searches for “roofers nearby”.
GBP is a type of local directory; however, there are a lot more with some that are specific to roofing. Here are a few:
A quick tip: Be sure all of your information is accurate and uniform across all of your local citations. If the information varies from listing to listing, Google will deem it “untrustworthy” and push your business further down the search results. So always keep things up to date.
4. Google Ads
Once your site is optimized and your GBP listing is running smoothly, Google Ads is an ad program that gets your name in front of searching customers. When customers are looking for anything, they turn to Google, and by bidding on certain keywords, your ad will appear in the search results.
Why do you have to bid on keywords? Because Google Ads runs an auction every single time it has ad space available. Each auction decides which ads will show at that moment in that space. Your bid puts you in the auction. And the more you bid the more your ad appears in the auction.
Placing bids on specific keywords like ‘roofing repair,’ ‘metal re-roofing,’ ‘tile repair,’ and ‘roof repitching’ and combining them with the specific geographic locations you serve, you’ll have a targeted ad for the exact lead you’ve been looking for—someone who wants help with their roof.
5. YouTube Advertising
Because YouTube is owned by Google, the ways of advertising are very similar. However, with Google, you’re creating a static ad and for YouTube, you have to create an eye-catching video ad. And the more engaging the better—users have the option to skip some ads after five seconds.
There are three main types of YouTube ads that could be useful to your roofing business:
-
TrueView In-Stream Ads (Skippable Ads): These are the ads that usually play before the user’s selected video begins. YouTube requires that skippable TrueView ads be between 12 seconds and 6 minutes in length.
-
Non-Skippable In-Stream Ads: These can play before, during, or after the main video content and can be 15-20 seconds long. Because these ads can’t be skipped, be sure to have a clear call-to-action that interested viewers can click on.
-
Overlay Ads: These are the banner ads that float at the bottom of the video. It’s a really great way to advertise your services in a non-intrusive way.
What’s exciting about YouTube ads, is that you can target audiences based on their search history. So, if a potential lead has been searching for roofers all day and decides to watch a new video from their favorite channel, your YouTube ad could be triggered to play beforehand.
6. Facebook Ads & Local Facebook Groups
Facebook is great for roofers because you can use paid or free/word-of-mouth lead generation strategies. When creating a paid Facebook ad you can choose specific audiences that will see the ad and how frequently it will appear. Because Facebook collects so much information from its users, you’re able to target your precise demographic—all the way down to their age range.
When creating an effective Facebook ad be sure it links back to your Contact Us page so customers can reach out to you. You could even include your phone number in the ad so all customers have to do is give you a call. Use effective images, like a before and after comparison, so your audience can see what incredible work you do.
If paid Facebook ads aren’t in your marketing budget, getting involved in local Facebook groups can be just as effective. Most towns have a “Town Helping Town” type of group where locals get in touch with one another to ask questions and search for advice or business recommendations. Get active in your town’s local help group or message board—people will love that you’re a part of the community!
7. Email Marketing
If you have leads that haven’t turned into happy customers yet, email marketing is a great way to get them engaged. Handy email marketing tools like MailChimp let you make a list of unengaged leads, create compelling emails, and send them right to their inboxes.
You can use email marketing to highlight exciting projects you’ve completed or announce new service offerings your customers might be interested in. Using customer testimonials in marketing emails can be effective, too—72% of consumers will wait until they read reviews before taking action.
To make your emails impactful, you want to tailor them to your audience and keep them brief. Most email marketing tools will give you statistics as to what is generating clicks and what isn’t. So you can tailor your email content to try and drive more opens and clicks to your website. Remember to always be optimizing to ensure you’re relevant to your audience.
Consistent and highly relevant email communication helps you build credibility and trust with leads. Additionally, it keeps your brand top-of-mind for when homeowners are ready to select a solution.
8. Partnerships
Business partnerships are an effective way to generate leads, and the more extensive your partnership network the better chance you have of capturing leads.
You can join forces with suppliers—including more prominent brands and smaller, regional suppliers— to get a leg up on competitors. Potential customers will find your business more trustworthy because you’ll come highly recommended by a supplier they already trust.
Working with real estate agents and developers can be equally beneficial. They have their ear to the ground on who needs a roof or a roof repair and can easily talk up your services. And similar to suppliers, customers will be inclined to trust your business because you come highly recommended by someone they’re already familiar with.
Plus, a partnership with a real estate agent can be mutually beneficial because if you work on someone’s roof before they sell the house, you can refer them to the agent.
9. Direct Mail
Snail mail isn’t just for birthday cards or thank you notes. It’s an effective marketing tool with a response rate of 4.4%—compared to 0.12% for email. Plus, people love getting mail and a majority of them trust ads they receive in their mailbox.
Email marketing still has a better return on investment (ROI) than direct mail—$28.50 compared to $7 for direct mail—but getting your name out there is helpful for lead generation. To get the most out of your investment, you can test response rates from different types of mailers. Oversized mailers have the best response rate, followed by postcards and unique, dimensional mail.
Similar to email marketing, people respond to dramatic images, testimonials, and creative content. And be sure to provide your business' website and a call-to-action to inspire the reader to go online and submit a contact request form.
10. 3D Model Technology
We’ve saved the best for last! Perhaps the most impactful lead generation and sales tactic for roofers is to leverage 3D model & visualization technology. HOVER helps exterior home improvement pros close more deals by bringing a prospect’s dream design to life.
By showcasing a 3D model while canvassing, in your display at home shows, in emails, and on your website, you’ll be able to generate more leads and close deals faster. With just a few photos of any home, HOVER will generate an interactive 3D model directly on your smartphone, iPad, or computer.
What homeowner wouldn’t enjoy being able to show friends and family what their home improvement project will look like, long before construction is underway? They can even edit their own version of the 3D modal with materials and colors from suppliers that you know and trust.
Get Out There & Start Generating Leads
With these 10 lead generation tips, you’ll be able to get your roofing business in front of the right people at the right time and gain proactive customers.
And with the help of HOVER’s technology, you can make your marketing efforts and sales pitches stand out. Chat with a rep today to learn more or create an account and get started for free! It's time to generate quality leads and cose more deals.
