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List Building

Why You Should Be Marketing Online: It’s In the List Silly!

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Advertising online is a must these days when trying to build a database of current or future customers for your contracting business. Advertising online allows you to find your target audience and determine what they want, quickly and cheaply. Then, when you can give your clients or customers what they want over and over, you will be able to develop a referral-based business that many long-established contractors have come to depend on. But it’s going to take work and that’s why your efforts to market your business online are even more important!

Establishing an email marketing list

In most cases, consumers give their email addresses to you when you are providing them with something that they want, such as free report or a useful product in exchange for their email address. This allows you to set up your list in a credible way.

In order to help your online advertising efforts, there are a couple of things that you can do to increase your chances of success. First, you should develop a tracking system to determine how successful your various methods of advertising online are.

When you see what is working for you, you can modify your system to make it the most effective it can be. Second, you should use repetition with your customers when you have established a mailing list. Studies show that the majority of clients or customers will not buy the first time they hear about your company or see your products. It may take them seven, ten or fifteen times before they decide that what you do is worthwhile to them.

That’s why you need a full-throated email marketing campaign with consistent follow-up messages every 10-14 days once you have a prospect on your mailing list. You will be interacting with people who are ready to make a buying decision, and your costs to manage an email marketing campaign are minimal. So start building a list of prospects today and reap the benefits of increased sales tomorrow…and the next day…and the next day…you get the idea!

Developing Referrals Before Finishing the Job

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There’s an old expression in sales – A,B,C.  It means “Always Be Closing.”  Years ago, pushy sales tactics ruled the day, the mantra for sales people was to focus on closing the deal no matter what.  There’s actually some benefit to this line of thinking that works well for contractors and construction marketing in general.

Most contractors are excited when the phone rings with a prospect and are more than happy to give answers to the basic, generic questions from home owners; type of work performed, estimated time frame to start and cost normally make up most of the conversation.  Rather than talking only about the work, you need to take control of the conversation with a “How did you hear about us?” This usually leads to a conversation about a mutual contact or advertising source.

Regardless of the answer, talking about the source of the lead first and finding out what made this person call YOU will let you not only control the flow of the conversation but provide you with much-needed intelligence. If you find your prospect particularly chatty, asking them if they used other source to find out about you such as your website or Yellow Pages ad can be helpful too because most people use multiple methods of research before picking up the phone.

Why such an emphasis on tracking?

Because you can’t manage what you don’t track. And it doesn’t matter if the home owner in question becomes a client or not – you need to know how they found you so you can make a mental note of the source for future reference. If it was a referral, then you want to make sure you say thank you in some way. If it was your advertising, then you want to make sure to remember what medium it was that got you the response. Then, after you have won the job, mention the referral source again.  This lets them know that you paid attention and you are considerate of their opinion.

After the job is complete, following up with two seemingly minor details will increase your chances of referral business dramatically and will help you stand out from your competition every time.

1. Send a thank you card and mail it the day you wrap up the job. Make sure to personally sign it and mail it, don’t hand it to your client. It’s old-school and it works!

2. Call the customer about two weeks after the job is finished.  Ask them if they are satisfied with the results.  Then ask them if anyone else they know anyone might be interested in your service. The two weeks has given them time to show off your work and by asking them this question you could very easily find yourself with a prospective name and number or a promise to pass along your information to the interested party.  Either way, you have them thinking about you, which means good things for your contracting company!

10 Ways to Build Your Email List and 5 Ways Not To!

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Build The Perfect List Slowly Over Time

If you have read this blog for any length of time you will notice one trend that stands out above many others; stay in touch with past customers or clients. One of the best ways to do that is through email marketing and list building.

But how do you build a list?

Well, before I get into ways for you to develop your email list, I am going to give you a few tips on what not to do.

  1. Don’t buy your email list no matter what price someone offers you.
  2. Don’t use someone else’s list.
  3. Don’t just add people to your list without them knowing about it.
  4. Just because someone gave you their email, doesn’t mean they want you to blast them with offers. In other words, let them know they will be getting information in exchange for their email.
  5. Don’t use in-house software to manage your list. There are too many services online (many are free) that will perform the task better.

So, how do you build your email list?

  1. Include an opt-in form on the sidebar of your website. That way it is on every page your visitors see.
  2. Collect cards at trade shows. Again, make sure you let people know you will be following up with them.
  3. Offer specials or promotions that only the “exclusive email only” subscribers will get.
  4. Ask everyone, everywhere that you talk to about your business for their email address.
  5. Send a mailer to your past clients or customers directing them to a special page on your site of register for a prize or drawing. Make sure they know that by entering, you will also send them great offers via email. Now you can cut your direct mail costs by doing email blasts.
  6. Make sure all of your employees are asking for email addresses too.
  7. Offer a discount for client/customer emails.
  8. Host your own “How-To” or “DIY” event and ask for email addresses from the attendees. Also ask them to send you before/after pics to promote on your website. This will create stickiness and give people a reason to come back to your site many times.
  9. If you don’t already have it, change all your forms to include the email address from your clients or customers.
  10. Ask. You don’t get 100% of the emails you don’t ask for.

Email Marketing for Contractors – It’s All in the List!

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email marketing for contractorsIf you are a contractor today you need to have a serious advertising budget…or do you? I talk a lot about being online engaging prospects on services like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to answer pre-sales questions, managing branding opportunities and generally get the message out about you and your business.

But you’ve engaged, now what?

Well, one of the easiest ways to stay in touch with clients and prospects is a simple email marketing campaign. Email marketing is often over-looked because a busy contractor has about 25 other things to do with his or her day, but think about it, setting up a newsletter on your site for people is a set it and forget it proposition. And no one joins a mailing list unless they are ultra-interested in the topic, and if they are interested in the topic, then they are more willing to join your mailing list or newsletter so that you can stay in touch with them.More

Five More Ways to Build a Mailing List for Contractors

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Customer lists are a gold mine to any contracting business. Play your cards right by serving your customers well and in a few years you will be making a solid living off of your referrals. But why wait years when you can start building a solid list of people to market to right now! Here are 5 ways plus a bonus to start creating a mailing list starting tomorrow.

  • Whenever you or your salespeople speak to someone who has called your business, make it a point to capture their contact information. Name, address, phone number and e-mail address are all common data points of information that people frequently provide without too much hesitation.
  • Run continuous contests or sweepstakes. Many states have laws regarding sweepstakes and “enter to win” drawings but this is a valuable tool to capture prospective clients while building a massive mailing list.
  • Use a suggestion box to collect customer information. This helps you two-fold; you capture information from someone who has taken their time to leave a comment about your business, and secondly, they left you valuable insight into what the general public thinks of your business. Use this information (good and bad) to make subtle yet long-term changes to your business and watch your profits grow!
  • Create a newsletter. Offering a newsletter is a great way to keep people up to date on new products and services that you may roll out.
  • If you offer a warranty on your workmanship then make sure you get all the pertinent information you need to service that customer in the future and let them know they may receive periodic updates or offers from you.

Bonus tip!

The fishbowl! That’s right, the good old-fashioned fishbowl. Put one on your counter and invite your customers to drop in their business cards to win something of value from your company. It may seem hokey or out-dated, but 50 or 100 potential customers that cost you nothing sure go a long way to filling the piggy bank!

Contractor Marketing-Lead Generation & List Building Part 4, Social Media

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Social networking using sites like Twitter and Facebook are an AMAZING way to build relationships, connect with others, and yes, even generate leads. Here are 5 simple ways to make lead generation “easy peasy” by combining social media marketing with things you’re already doing.

  1. Link your Twitter and Facebook accounts so whenever you post to Twitter, Facebook is updated.
  2. Link your blog to Twitter, Linked In and Facebook so whenever you post a new item, the 3 separate sites will share the title and a link back to it automatically.
  3. Link your EzineArticles account to Twitter so whenever a new article is accepted, it will update Twitter (and therefore Facebook) with the title and a link back to it automatically.
  4. Schedule “tweets” to go out offering great daily tips.
  5. Create a “tweet ring” with those who you admire and complement your business.

Just imagine the amount of people your articles and posts are now reaching! Your friends, friends of friends, complete strangers – all are now exposed to your information AND given a link where they can learn more and sign up for your email marketing list. It’s also important to note that the above process is a supplement to participating in actual conversations and chatting with others and is not meant to be a substitute for the “social” aspect of “social networking”. Think of it as a big party with a ton of great people and interesting conversations that you can pop in and out of based on your schedule – and you don’t even have to dress up!More