Predicting the economy for 2022 is hard to do. Many indicators point to good things, but political tensions, pandemic variants, and global supply chain issues are complicating matters. If you want your roofing business to survive and thrive, then you need to generate more leads than ever before.
Why not go after some high-ticket commercial work?
Commercial roofing leads are something specific you should look into when it’s time to scale up. Clients needing commercial roofing work have bigger projects, so there is a lot more profit potential. Your roofing business might also have less competition since many roofers can only handle residential-scale work. Then again, generating sales leads can be a lot more complicated, but not if you deliberately generate commercial roofing leads for 2022 using these 12 methods.
1. Google Ads
If you have no marketing efforts going on at all yet, then Google Ads is a great place to start. SEO, mentioned next, might have the most power, but it will also take time. Placing Google Ads has many benefits:
- Your ads go up right away.
- You can target the specific ZIP codes in your service area.
- Results start happening immediately.
- Your ads are seen above the search result links on Google pages.
- You can stop the ad campaign whenever you need.
- Measurements and tracking help you see how effective certain ads are which can help you with other marketing methodologies.
- You can choose the keywords and search phrases your ads show up for.
2. SEO
SEO, or search engine optimization, is likely to give you the most cost-effective returns for your marketing resources over time. That said, we don’t list it as number one because it can take anywhere from six weeks up to six months before you start seeing that traffic. The good news is that SEO efforts keep paying off for a long time. Unlike a Google Ads campaign, you’ll keep reaping the benefits after you stop putting in the effort.
We don’t recommend that, however. SEO done properly will move your website onto the first page, above the fold, and hopefully into the top three to five links. The higher you are, the more traffic you get.
3. Email
Email marketing is as old as the Internet itself, and it’s also still around. That’s because it’s still useful and effective. Anyone you target in B2B commerce is going to have an email address you can send messages to. Consider the four popular kinds of email marketing you might do for your roofing business:
- Newsletters: Getting subscriptions to a newsletter you do is a chance to offer readers information about the roofing industry and how they can care for the roof over their business. Make it useful to them as-is so they stay signed up and keep reading your installments.
- Acquisition Messages: These are emails for business leaders who are subscribers but not yet customers. Informative content and attractive offers can help convince them that their business would benefit from being a client of your roofing business.
- Retention Messages: Ask for feedback or make offers to any subscribers that haven’t actually used your business lately. Just keeping the lines of communication open can mean money down the line.
- Promotional Content: Reward your active subscribers with exclusive offers so you keep your clients away from the competition.
4. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a powerful platform to find B2B roofing leads. Your residential leads might come strongly through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, but this is where to connect with the profiles of business owners and leaders who might need roofing work done.
This is a two-step process. For starters, your profile has to work as a sales page. You have to list your services and your strengths.
Secondly, you have project yourself as an answer to business problems. Make it known that you can:
- Save them money
- Prevent issues that disrupt their business
- Work on their roof without interrupting their own employees or customers
- Get done quickly
5. Multichannel Marketing
Your competitors are going to be trying out some of these marketing methodologies on a case-by-case basis. To get ahead of them, why not mix and match some of them into a one-two punch? For instance, we offer automated LinkedIn campaigns that blend in email outreach for effective multichannel outreach.
LinkedIn is the best place to get email addresses for company leaders and owners in your target service area, and email marketing content can work just as well via email or through LinkedIn.
Many marketing messages won’t register with prospects until it is sent two or three times. The first time they might just not even see it or just scroll by it. By using multichannel marketing services, you automatically double your exposure, and since it’s using two different mediums, prospects don’t feel like they’re getting repetitively hammered with the same thing over and over. In fact, the value is brand reinforcement.
6. Facebook Advertising
Companies use Facebook, too. They might not use it as private citizens, but they will follow other pages. Be sure yours is represented on the platform. Getting likes and follows from other businesses in your surrounding community builds up your reputation in an industry where that is everything. Build a narrative, and tell your company story.
7. Direct Mail
Postal snail mail still matters. In fact, direct mail has a response rate of almost 4 percent in many campaigns. When business leaders open their mail, they spend more time reading it than they do social media posts or emails. You’ll have an extra second or two to grab their attention. Use it wisely.
8. Trade Shows
Trade shows are an opportunity to:
- Check out your competition
- Manifest new business relationships
- Generate awareness about your business
- Create leads you can convert into actual sales
If you’re new to the B2B sector, then you should know that companies who are purely B2B spend over one-third of their marketing budget on trade shows. They’re that important.
9. Talk to the No’s
No marketing channel you choose will bat a thousand. You’ll have businesses that say no to your offers.
If you ever have the chance, find out why. If someone unsubscribes from your email newsletter, call them to ask why. Chat them up after a local chamber of commerce meeting.
Sometimes, they just don’t think they can afford your services. Other times, it might be a simple misconception you can clear up. Even if they have legitimate reasons why they turned you down, you might find things about your business you can improve upon in the future.
10. Telemarketing
You can buy telemarketing leads and call them yourself, or you can have a professional phone bank dial up clients for you.
- The Upside: This is still a means of generating leads quickly when you want to spike your business growth a bit.
- The Downside: Your competitors might buy the same leads from another vendor, and modern technology makes it easy for people to block telemarketers without ever picking up.
11. Canvas Your Community
Nothing beats face-to-face conversations. Knocking on doors and going from business to business can work just as well for companies as it does in residential neighborhoods. Do this after storms when property owners or managers might be on-site ascertaining the damage to their business, or just do it on a normal day to make a few acquaintances.
12. Referrals
Even in an always-online and digital age, word-of-mouth advertising still dominates the roofing industry. Part of that happens in online reviews that you hopefully get from highly satisfied clients, but you can also encourage referrals without actually asking for them.
Send birthday or holiday cards to clients you’ve worked with in the past or still do regular maintenance for. Frequent their business, if it’s applicable. Make sure you stop by and say hi if you see them at festivals, fairs, or events.
Treat them like people instead of contracts, and they’ll remember the human touch. That’s all it takes for them to mention your name or business when they hear another business leader talking about needing commercial roofing work.
Is Your Website Ready?
Every one of these dozen ways to get more commercial roofing leads in 2022 is either likely or outright bound to lead prospects to your website at some point. You need to make sure it’s in tip-top shape to capture and convert those leads. Sign up for our free website audit so we can look it over for you.
Finding potential weak points in your website is something you can enjoy free of charge or commitment, and we’ll even point out ways to address any issues or problems that we find.
