One Funnel That Does Everything
There are many branches of this funnel: Lead generation, appt setting, lead nurturing, and many others geared to close estimates and bring in revenue.
The secret to generating contractor leads...
If you’re a home service business, and you’re dependent on emergency calls, then you’ll never be able to break away from inbound marketing (SEO, Google Ads, etc). If you’re a home improvement company and you’re not able to add urgency to your offers, then you’ll be spinning your wheels with dead leads. Here’s the solution we came up with.
Home Services vs Home Improvement
How do you know which is which? Well, a good gauge is to ask yourself this:
Do you sell services homeowners need? You’re a home service: Roofing, electrical, HVAC, plumbing, etc.
Offer things homeowners want? You’re in home improvement: Bathroom remodels, new kitchens, cabinetry, flooring, etc.
Here's the answer
If you’re a home service business, act like a home improvement company. Get people into the buying mood. How can you POSSIBLY do that as a plumber? Show people the sexiest tankless water heater the world has ever seen. Show them the coolest leak detection device on the market.
HVAC? Let’s see that Daikin Fit model next to a new home. So sleek. Who wouldn’t want one of those? We have some proven ads that show this in action.
On the flipside, if you’re a home improvement company, you must make people NEED that new bathroom.
The essence is this: make people WANT what they NEED and NEED what they want. If you can figure this out, you’ve won. If not, keep brainstorming, but that is the answer.
Results that matter
Sorry, SEO and PPC campaigns just won’t cut it – your Home Services business needs aggressive marketing strategies in order to grow. Cut through the clutter and be everywhere, because otherwise, you’re nowhere.
You want:
- More customers…
- That stay for longer…
- Who spend more money…
- And don’t stray…
- Who leave good reviews…
- And passes along the good word to their friends
The million-dollar (or more) question is: how do you get there?
You’re gonna need these funnels to start:
- Lead Generation Funnel
- Appointment Setting Funnel
- Lead Nurturing Funnel
Right? You need to get the leads, book the leads, then nurture the leads. That’s marketing. But the first thing you need before ANY of that…
Before you create ONE ad or build ONE landing page, you need the most important part of your campaign:
An offer.
But not just any offer…
Five offers.
Not just any five offers…
Five loss leaders, then five high-ticket offers…
But not just any loss leader or a high-ticket offers… No no no. You can’t be like everyone else. The offers that we know work are SO juicy that nobody can resist. If you’d like more info, book an appt.
The Benefits of a Fully-Managed Funnel
Most companies and most digital marketing agencies do one of two things:
They generate leads
Or they focus on SEO and search marketing.
Boooorrrriiinnnnnggggggg.
That shit doesn’t work, and you know it. Dead leads don’t turn into live customers. So how do you attract live customers? Through lively offers. But that’s not enough. There’s another main ingredient needed: consistency. Lead acquisition is pricey, but rather than reducing your cost per lead, we think it’s better to increase the value of each lead.
How do you do that?
Not only by offering insanely juicy deals throughout the year, but also elongating the communication process with each prospect. That doesn’t mean creating a longer funnel, it means creating a longer funnel WITH better communication. That is the key.
Customer Acquisition
This is one of the main sectors of growth, but it’s not the only one. Increasing customer value and the frequency of purchases is even more important.
Customer Retention
Implement a system that will bring customers more value than what they paid you to keep them coming back for more info, more services & more advice.
Customer Value Increase
Get your AC installs to replace their water heaters, and repair their furnaces & air filtration systems too. Every customer should use YOU for every Home-related need they have.
Customer Loyalty
A one-off customer should never walk through the door. Once a job is complete, every other job that customer ever needs should come straight to you.
Customer Reviews
A one-off customer should never walk through the door. Once a job is complete, every other job that customer ever needs should come straight to you.
Brand Authority
Who cares about the competition if you’re the neighborhood expert? Nobody should come close to touching your expertise, and if there’s no brand authority, customers will simply shop around every time a repair is needed.
Customer
Acquisition
60% of digital marketing revenue is up for grabs. Yeah, it’s true.
Your competition focuses on SEO, which leaves your company with massive opportunities for growth. 57% of marketers say customer acquisition is their top priority and nearly 40% say their owned channels (website, funnel, etc.) are the No. 1 source of success.
You can heavily influence someone’s decision to hire you simply based on how you appear; 70% of consumers research a company before they visit or buy, which makes your funnel touchpoints even more crucial.
84% of Home Improvement customers have no company in mind when they start their search. This is our opportunity: to gobble up that 84% with brand loyalty and positioning, and earn some serious revenue.
Customer
Retention
Here’s one thing about acquisition: it’s expensive.
It costs roughly five (5) times more to acquire a new customer than to sell to those you already have. So many companies are leaving millions on the table because they don’t have a sound re-engagement strategy for existing customers. After all, bettering your home is an ongoing process – it’s not one-and-done.
Customer loyalty and retention was a $4 billion business in 2022 and it’s only getting bigger. Customers buy from businesses they know, and businesses they trust. Studies have shown that the likelihood of selling to a new customer hovers between 5-20%, while selling to an existing customer is between 60-70%.
This is why you need an education-based, data-driven Home Services Business marketing funnel. You can activate existing customers into raging fans and build relationships for life. The Pareto Principle states that 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your customers, which means 10% of your customers are willing to spend 10 times (!) more than they already have.
Customer
Value
Home Improvement customers are both lucrative and loyal; the average job costs $600 and the average customer sticks around for seven years. But, how do you get them to hire you more often?
Home improvements weren’t just a fad during COVID. From 2019-2021, industry estimates show that $624 billion was spent in this category – the majority of that money dedicated to Contractors (bathroom/kitchen remodels, furnaces, heat pumps, new ventilation systems, and more).
The majority of Trades Businesses leave (and don’t come back) because the business isn’t responsive or doesn’t turn one-time customers into loyal customers. This must be fixed; any job the customer needs should be booked with YOU – and if you don’t have systems in place for loyalty, retention, and value, they’ll simply go to your competitors.
Customer
Loyalty
Did you know that 88% of consumers say it takes up to three purchases to develop a sense of loyalty? Those same customers say they’re loyal to at least one company, and up to five. This is an enormous opportunity for your Home Services Business because nothing is more important to someone than their home.
Every customer on your books should know when tune-ups are scheduled AND any other services needed to enhance their homes. If you offer plumbing services, don’t fix the water spigot without asking when they’d like their water filtration system installed.
At least let them see how clean or dirty the water they drink every day is.
Friends don’t let friends intake dirty water. Implement a loyalty program to let your customers know you are looking out for their best interest; this is important because 59% of American consumers say that once they’re loyal to a business, they’re loyal for life. Think about how many opportunities for service (and revenue) this represents. Hint: it’s a lot.
They don’t know if you can offer a touchless bathroom faucet or why one might make such an improvement to their lives. All those drips that splash behind the handle and leave water marks on the marble? All those can be gone with one install. Make sure your technicians offer these services at every visit and make sure your automation system (email, SMS) suggests add-ons every few months based on their last appointment, repair, install, or replacement.
This is how you keep consistent: systemize it all.
Customer
Reviews
The key to customer reviews is proactivity. Jump on those 1, 2, and 3-star reviews before they’re even posted. Soliciting feedback and acting on it will not only build loyalty, but it builds trust. It’s paramount to have a system in place that addresses negative reviews BEFORE they happen.
97% of consumers read reviews before they make a decision on who they do business with. 68% of those people will only deal with a company if it has positive reviews, and 40% will avoid you altogether if you have negative reviews. Listen, we all make mistakes (we’re only human), and sometimes there’s nothing you can do if John or Sally is having a bad day. We get that.
But, there’s a process you can add to your automation that asks every happy customer for a review, AND takes care of negative reviews before they show up on the Internet. Whew.
As a Home Services business, customer reviews and satisfaction are critical to long-term success. You can ask for a review once a job is complete, but what if something went wrong? Are you able to get this information and act on it before someone posts a review? An automated review system filters negative reviews (and angry people) out until you’ve addressed the problem.
Brand
Authority
The difference between “good” and “great” lies in how your customers think about you. Example: are you a Google search, or is your number saved in a customer’s phone? The latter means you have loyalty, trust, and authority – which not even the greatest SEO campaign in the world can replace. If your brand authority is strong, knowing who to call is reactive.
73% of consumers are loyal to a company because it’s helpful. With the correct customer service processes in place, you’re in a position to not only win customers but win them over and over again. All of a sudden, you’re the go-to option. There’s no need to look elsewhere.
So many Home Improvement fail with their marketing because they’re focused on a quick sale. Why audition for the part when you can be the lead actor that everyone knows and trusts? The path to success is to educate customers, become a known entity, and prove yourself in the community. Only then will you be the go-to source for a customer’s Home Improvement needs – and not just a one-off job here and there.
It becomes “Hey Siri, call the furnace guy” rather than a Google search for “furnace repair near me.” That makes a world of difference because you’re the trusted and valued company, giving you the brand authority no one else in your market has.
To begin, your advertising should be 100% direct response, meaning money in and money out (in the short term, this helps make the most of your marketing spend). This changes over time; a year later, advertising should be 70% direct response and 30% branding, moving to a 50-50 split. At that point, you strengthen your brand and use specific offers to acquire new customers – along with more market share.
