Everyone has to be smart about generating leads. Marketing is more important than ever and many of us are finding that we have to spend much more to generate enough leads for our business. Below are ten tactics that you should have in place in your business before you do anything else.  If you don’t have them in place yet, you know what to do.

Excerpt from Business Straight to the Heart: The Remodelers Guide to Leadership, Management and Success–the newest book from industry guru, Linda Case.

Ten Marketing Tactics That Work

Every smart remodeler is covered by insurance against catastrophe. But there is one type of coverage many lack. That’s the coverage that assures that the intake pipeline for work stays full. Many, many remodelers give marketing— the insurance that fills that pipeline—short shrift.

We’ve explored planning and tracking your marketing. Today, I want to cover the top 10 marketing outreaches that work. They aren’t the most sophisticat­ed but they work, year after year. I’ll start at the bottom, Letterman-style.

10. Developing an e-mail database and sending to it six times during the year. A small company should have 200 to 300 names, addresses, and e-mail addresses in its database, so be sure to capture e-mails of all prospects, all clients, and all friends of the company who are likely to refer to you. Since e-mail is so inexpensive, you don’t have to cull your e-mail the way you used to when you were using your database to “snail” mail.

9. Association membership. I wouldn’t have thought of this until I heard Steve Dormann of S & D Renovations Inc., a $2.5 million remodeler in Emmaus, Pa., recently tell how his remodeling association membership has brought him 12% of his volume. He listed links to the website, awards, referrals, and more. He obviously uses every opportunity to mine his membership for marketing angles.

8. Home tours. Often, tours are the result of an association’s efforts and they are soft sell and very effective. One remodeler, who had three proj­ects in the same neighborhood, ran his own tour. If you use this tactic, don’t forget security, dust protection, food, and more.

7. Publicity. When you talk about your company, it’s advertising. When your newspaper or your radio or your TV talks about you, it’s powerful third-party testimonial. It’s often inexpensive to engage a local freelance public relations professional to design and implement six stories about you, your company, or your projects over the next year. Don’t forget entering projects for awards and then publicizing the wins.

6. High community profile. Here’s a chance to take what you enjoy—golf, sailing, biking, charitable outreach—and turn it to your company’s advantage. Don’t be bashful and don’t be brash, but let folks know what you do. They’ll put that together with the fact they like and admire you and will call you for their next remodeling project. Also consider semi­nars for the public here. Take every opportunity to meet and greet and to position yourself as “the remodeling expert.”

5. Jobsite presence. Do you have a distinctive sign that shows your crafts­manship and is readable from the street? You might want to include a brochure box—like real estate pros do—on the post. You could also do one, two, or three letters to the 50 to 100 neighbors near the jobsite. After all, you have a “showroom” in their neighborhood. You also have a built-in testimonial.

4. Your website. This used to be an option, but no more. Yes, it is a new kind of brochure for your company with great photos, but it should be informative, should stress your uniqueness when compared with your competition, and should encourage new prospects to contact you.

3. A great image. This becomes particularly important for design/build companies. It starts with a logo and a look—colors and fonts. This includes your signage, your stationary, and your website. It should all be consistent and great looking. Don’t skimp here.

2. Sterling customer service. No remodeler can afford to constantly market for new clients. By pleasing your current buyers, you create friends of the company. Because happy clients tell 3 to 5 of their friends and unhappy ones tell 10 or more (unless they give you a scathing review online, in which case thousands), you are playing an important mathematical game of keeping good words out on the street about your company. Consider everything you do to delight your buyers as part of your marketing.

and, drum roll, please…

1. Past customers and friends of the company program. This is the always­was-and-always-will-be number one marketing outreach. Staying in touch with your past clients and referrers four to six times a year keeps their loyalty strong and keeps them referring you year after year. Vary your contacts from newsletters to invitations to special events. And don’t forget a written thank-you for every referral. Companies have summer picnics, get-togethers, and special perks like Christmas tree cuttings for this expanded sales force.

It’s a tremendous responsibility to run a business on which your family and your employees, your trade contractors and vendors and their families depend. Don’t forget that intake pipeline insurance—your marketing!

If you need business development help, then it’s time to join the Remodelers Advantage Learning Community, a group of motivated remodeling company owners who work together so that all can succeed. Over 300 remodelers are now members. You can be too. Just give us a call at 301-490-5620 x106 to talk about how we can help you reach your business and professional goals. RemodelersAdvantage.com

Face-to-face marketing is what’s working best today. But getting face-to-face with enough people can be daunting. Instead of focusing on individuals, think about how you can get in front of groups of people who can send business your way. That’s exactly what one of our longtime Roundtables members did and he’s reaping the rewards. Read more below.

Want more referrals? Consider reaching out to the Realtors in your area like John McCloskey does. In 2008, the remodeler, who’s president of Pittsburgh, Pa.-based J. Francis Company, LLC, started giving presentations about various remodeling-centric topics at local real estate agents’ monthly ongoing education programs. He got himself in the door by contacting the office manager of each agency and offering to bring the agents lunch.

These days, McCloskey still brings real estate agents lunch—several large sandwich trays he picks up at Costco—and gives presentations to about 40 to 60 real estate professionals at each lunch-and-learn session. In the past two years, he’s been in front of approximately 1,000 Realtors. “We do not promote our company,” says McCloskey. “We educate the agents about construction practices; the cost vs. value of the most popular remodeling projects; lead renovation, repair, and painting; changes and trends we’re seeing in the remodeling and housing industries; and how to hire a contractor.” The remodeler supplements his presentations with handouts on each topic he discusses.

The monthly presentations are symbiosis at its best. “People expect real estate agents to know everything,” McCloskey points out, “so it’s very helpful to the agents to have us in their back pocket. This is stuff they can pass on to their clients.” The Realtors, in turn, pass on referrals to J. Francis Company, which has gotten several projects from those referrals. To help keep the company front and center in the real estate agents’ minds, McCloskey concludes each session by telling the agents he’ll give their clients free ballpark estimates on remodeling work they’re considering having done.

This year, we instituted a lead capture system on our web site to identify prospects who come to our web site via Social Media, Search Engines, or referrals. I strongly recommend this marketing tactic to every remodeling company which has a web site – and that should be everyone!

Our lead capture system uses what some marketers call the Law of Reciprocity to work.

The Law of Reciprocity means: to give and take mutually; to return in kind or even in another kind or degree.

The law of reciprocity, simply explains that that when someone gives you something you feel an obligation to give back — and visa versa.

I’ll share how it works for us and then help you see how to make it work for you.

Visitors to our web site see an offer for a free, value-packed informational report. The title and content of the report was written to specifically appeal the kinds of people who would be strong members of our Remodelers Advantage Community – motivated, improvement-oriented, remodeling company owners.

When interested visitors click on the link to receive the report, we ask them for information on themselves and their company as a condition for downloading. We don’t ask them for much, because asking for too much adds what ecommerce marketers call “friction” which can be a turn off – but enough to tell us if they are a good prospect for our services. Web site visitors don’t mind providing this limited information because they are receiving valuable information from us. The Law of Reciprocity in action.

If we find that the visitor is a good prospect, he/she is invited to join our community. Now, we all know that not everyone is ready to buy the first time they contact a company. So if they don’t choose to join immediately, we don’t give up. Instead we nurture this prospect so that, when he or she is ready, we are the first company that comes to mind for strategic business improvement help.

We nurture these prospects with a series of informational, personal emails—each one building on the next as we provide more information on the benefits of membership. Our nurturing program lasts about 18 months.

Let’s translate this to your company. What do visitors see when they visit your web site? Most web sites have no way to capture information and those that do are often an anemic link to “Sign up for our newsletter.” Boy, that’s exciting! (sarcasm)
Come on, you can do better than that!

Instead, create a 1-3 page special report that will capture their interest and compel them to take action to receive it. Think about what kinds of projects you want to attract. If you want to attract people who value sophisticated design, you might create a report titled Exciting Home Design Trends. To attract homeowners considering a new kitchen, the report might be titled Maximizing Your Kitchen Remodeling Investment. A report on additions might be Five Great Tips for Creating a Fantastic Addition.
Before they are allowed to download, ask them to return the favor by telling you something about themselves. The most essential information is email address so you can reach out to them again. Other information you may want to know: Are they planning a remodeling project and for what time frame? What is their zip code? How did they hear about your company?

Now, reach out to nurture this valuable prospect and make sure they remember you when their ready to take the next step: Hiring a remodeling company.