11 Strategies for Generating Quality Leads Through Your Home Builder Website
So you know you need a strong website for your company –– but what about after the site’s up? Does it just … sit there?
Many people think of their websites as a “set and forget” kind of thing, but this is a huge waste of resources. Why would you pay thousands of dollars for essentially a digital business card?
As a strategy first website designer, I always make a point to talk to my clients about other ways they can use their website. My job is to create a website that makes you more money and works hard to achieve your business objectives - not just sit there and look good. Your website is an investment and you should know how to get the greatest return out of it.
Your general contractor website can be so much more than just the online face of your business. In fact, it can be one of your best sources of lead generation — if you know how to use it.
The Power of Your Remodeling Company Website: A Guide to Lead Generation
Let’s start with the basics…
1. Make sure your website is set up for SEO.
Of course I’m going to start here, because it’s a huge part of what I do in making websites for custom home builders and construction companies … but it really does make a difference.
Your SEO ranking determines how close to the top of the pile you show up when one of your potential customers googles “remodeling company”, “custom home builders near me”, or “general contractor”. So it matters that you (1) know what your keywords are and (2) have your site set up to emphasize those keywords so your website populates in search results.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Beginner’s Guide to Keywords: How to Get Your Construction Business Found on Google
2. Consistently post high-quality blog posts and content that people want to reference or share.
Building trust with your online audience is important, as well as referrals who come to you by word-of-mouth.
I would argue it’s even more crucial for the construction industry to build trust than other industries. People spend hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars, for new custom homes, kitchen remodels, and other renovations. They aren’t dropping that cash unless they have built trust with your business.
So what are you doing to actively build that trust?
If you can put out at least one informative, useful blog post on your site a month (ideally based around SEO keywords and questions people are asking online) people who come to your website will feel more comfortable hiring you because they can see your expertise, and they’ll be more likely to share the article with friends who have the same kinds of questions. It takes a little work, but the payoff can be exponential.
3. Have a strong, clear contact page.
It sounds dumb, but people need the way to contact you to be simple. If it’s not easy to get in touch, they won’t even bother. If they have to fill out a long form, if it’s hard to find your contact page, or even if you only give them one way to contact you, you’re going to lose customers. Make it very clear how to contact you, and give people multiple options — phone, email, messaging — so they can get in touch in a way that works for them.
4. Make it clear what your offers are, and pay attention to user experience (UX).
You know what you do and how important it is — but do your potential customers? People might not know what certain terms mean, or how to ask for what they need, so make sure your site speaks to people in their language, so to speak, instead of in industry jargon.
Along those lines, you also need to pay attention to UX, or user experience. This is how easy it is to navigate your website and actually get something done. You need to make sure your site loads quickly, that the navigation menus make sense and are intuitive to the way people would naturally search for information on your site, and that your site works just as well on cell phones as it does on desktop or laptop computers.
Start building doors (and lots of them)
In other words, create ways for people to give you their information.
5. Set up a compelling email list invite.
The hardest part of lead gen is getting people to raise their hand and say they’re interested in your services. But once they’ve done that, you’re already halfway to the handshake!
Email marketing is a great way to start this process and something I highly recommend builders and remodeling companies to start implementing on their website right away. Once you start collecting emails from prospects, you can begin nurturing those relationships, building trust, and ultimately land more projects.
Email marketing is the most effective marketing strategy today — beating out social media, SEO, and affiliate marketing.
You want this marketing strategy in your tool box.
Make sure you have a sign-up on your site — but you have to actually make it worth their while. (People aren’t going to give up their precious email to anyone - you have to give them a reason to.)
Create a free guide, checklist, or PDF that would help people interested in your services. These are often referred to as lead magnets.
Here are some idea of lead magnets you could give website users in exchange for their email address.
FREE HOME BUILDING GUIDE — Create a guide covering all aspects of the home building process, from financing to design to construction, and offer it as a free download.
BUDGETING WORKSHEET — Create a simple worksheet that helps potential clients calculate their budget and financing options for building their dream custom home
DESIGN INSPIRATION EBOOK — Put together a collection of inspirational home designs or current trends
EXPERT Q&A SESSION — Record a Q&A session on important home building topics and offer access to the recording when they sign up
Always be thinking of what you can share that can help your ideal clients out. Do you regularly have customers asking you the same questions, or making the same mistakes? All of that can be great to share in a monthly email.
6. Include forms asking what they need.
Having forms on your site is a good idea for two reasons:
They require your potential customers to put in their contact information, and
You can use them to get customers to self-select for your services.
For example, you might think that all of the people who come to your website want one kind of service. But there might be an entire hidden segment of them that really want something else. By including a form where they can tell you what they want, you can give them what they need and potentially find new markets to expand into.
7. Consider creating a library of low-cost or free resources.
You’re probably sensing a theme here: show off your expertise in useful ways, and make people share their info with you to get it. This is a classic strategy for a reason — it works!
Think about things you could quickly and easily create that might help people out. This could be anything from a short course on planning your first home build, a remodeling checklist, or a series of short videos showing people how to do simple jobs around their house. (Kind of like this library of free tools I’ve created for construction businesses!)
The more you can show people you’re there to help, the more likely they’ll be to hire you when the time comes.
8. Offer chat support…
… but only if you’re willing to keep up with it!
Live chat tool implementation on websites increase conversions by 20%!
(According to CampaignMonitor.com)
Most of the top construction companies are missing out on this conversion-increasing opportunity.
There are loads of apps you can use to easily offer live chat support on your website. The website users have to put in their info to start the chat, so it’s a win-win all around — they get quick answers, you get new leads.
The one caveat here is that you have to be sure to keep up with it. People expect fast responses via chat, so if you’re not up for that kind of turnaround, don’t offer a chat option!
Some of the top chat support tools include LiveChat, Olark, and RocketChat.
Use your website for networking
9. Put your site into local directories.
Networking may have you thinking about industry lunches or handing out business cards, but your website can be useful for that, too. To find more local leads, make sure your construction website shows up in local directories, like your Chamber of Commerce, or other industry or association-specific listings.
10. Share your site on social media.
Share posts about your work regularly on social media and be sure to link back to your site in each one — this is a simple way to stay top-of-mind and get more exposure to potential customers.
Not sure what to share? I get it — coming up with content can feel daunting. I find it helpful to remember that my potential clients don’t really know much about my industry, so just starting with the basics is a good place to start.
Go for anything along the lines of resources, tips and tricks, before and after, or even tracking the progress of a build. People love seeing projects come together, and free advice is always helpful, so share things that get people interested and help them trust you so they feel comfortable coming to you for their projects.
Finally, get creative!
11. Create ways for people to interact with your site
(With the caveat being that usability comes first.)
OK, so all that stuff I said about user experience up the page takes precedence — but if you can figure out ways to make people actually want to come to your website and spend more time on it, that’s a great opportunity for lead generation.
Here are a couple of fun things to play around to increase engagement:
Quizzes
How many times have you seen one of your Facebook friends post the results of some silly quiz they did on the platform?
You can’t hide from the truth — people absolutely love quizzes, and they’re a quick and easy way to get your potential customers to share their information. Even something really silly like a quiz on what their ideal house style is, or what kind of first-time homeowner they should be can be really effective. They pique people’s curiosity and also feel like a fun little game.
You can also go with more serious, advice-based topics like “How to know when you’re ready to build your first home” or “What kind of financing might work best for you” — the whole point is to give people a little bit of information, and a little bit of fun, all framed within you showing off your expertise so they feel like they can trust you.
Blueprint Builders
This one is a little more advanced, but if there’s a way you can help people feel involved with creating the project you’ll be working on (even if what they come up with has nothing to do with the end result), they’ll be much more involved with your business and likely to give you their info. Even giving people something like a PDF template of building options they can print out and then draw on or put together into a house can be a great option here.
General Price Calculators
Obviously budgets change all the time with builds, so this one has to come with a disclaimer on your site, but if you can create some sort of very generic budgeting tool so people can get a sense of how much a job might cost, they’ll happily put in their contact info just to play around with the numbers. Plus, this can help you screen out the customers who don’t have the budget for your kind of work.
I recently built a website for a mobile concrete mix company and we were able to create a calculator to tell consumers how much concrete they would need for their residential project.
Schedulers
This is one of the easiest, no-brainer ways to use your website for lead generation — put a scheduling calendar right on the site so people can book a time to meet you or have a call with you to talk about their project. Most scheduling software is very cheap (as in, a couple of bucks a month) and people from younger generations find it much more convenient to book in a meeting this way instead of calling in to make an appointment.
Here are a couple of scheduling tools I love:
That’s a whole lot of ideas — and let me just take a sec to remind you that any ONE of them can make a big difference, so don’t get intimidated or feel like you have to have every single thing here nailed down for better lead gen. Think of it more as an experiment, and go for the low-hanging fruit (cough cough, the scheduler!) first.
The whole point is to get creative and think about a couple of ways to use this resource you’ve invested in to bring even more business to your door. So choose one to try out, and see how it goes — it might take you a minute to find the perfect combination of elements that works for you, but I can promise you that doing any of these things is going to get you more leads than letting your site sit there like a bump on a log.
Let’s wrap this up…
To get the most out of your contractor website and generate more quality leads, make sure to:
Set up the foundations of SEO on your website
Consistently post high-quality blog posts that people want to reference or share
Have a strong, clear contact page
Make it clear what your offers are and create a good user experience
Set up a compelling email list invite
Include forms on your site asking people what they need
Consider creating a library of free or low-cost resources
Offer chat support (if you’re willing to keep up with it)
Get your construction website into local directories
Share your website on social media
Get creative with ways that people can interact with your website
Need an effective custom home builder website to bring in more leads and book more projects this year?
I’m here to help! I’ve helped dozens of businesses in construction increase their conversion rates and book more jobs with strategic websites on Squarespace. I’d love to serve you and help you achieve the same. Learn more about custom website design by booking a free 30-minute consultation today!
