Don’t Let Your Leads Freeze This Winter!

As a con­trac­tor, regard­less of whether you’re in the roof­ing, paint­ing, or remod­el­ing indus­try, we know you’re always think­ing a sea­son or two ahead. And if you aren’t, you real­ly should be. 

Right now our clients across the coun­try are prep­ping for win­ter, par­tic­u­lar­ly in those areas that are most impact­ed by inclement weath­er. While you might assume that’s a prob­lem only for those on the east coast, it real­ly tends to hit our west coast friends too. After all, weeks of rain can halt pro­duc­tion, cre­at­ing sim­i­lar issues to those fac­ing snow and ice. 

Bad weath­er is bad for busi­ness, no mat­ter where you live!

So, what can you do about it?

5 Tips for Keep­ing Your Leads Up Through­out the Win­ter Season

#1: Make a Plan

This might sound sim­plis­tic, but you’d be sur­prised by how many busy busi­ness own­ers get in their rou­tines, work­ing with their heads down, until sud­den­ly the lead flow halts. It’s expect­ed, but there are no plans in place. And by the time you get a plan togeth­er, you’re already weeks into a scary-slow period. 

Get ahead of it! Plan NOW for that win­ter lead freeze, active­ly talk­ing with your team about how you can all work togeth­er to cre­ative­ly keep the leads flowing.

#2: Incen­tivize Win­ter Work

For our paint­ing clients, Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary are tough, tough months almost across the board. 

We’re help­ing their teams get the word out NOW about spe­cial win­ter incen­tives for ser­vices sched­uled dur­ing that slow-down. Many peo­ple don’t even real­ize they can book work that far in advance and are hap­py for the con­ve­nience AND the sav­ings. Be hon­est, too! Let them know that your goal is to offer them val­ue AND help keep your awe­some team work­ing all win­ter long. It’s a win-win!

#3: Stay Visible

What service(s) do you most want to pro­mote and sell dur­ing the cold­er (or wet­ter) months? After you have your list, uti­lize social media and client-based email cam­paigns to keep those ser­vices top of mind. Paint­ing cab­i­nets? Share some killer cab­i­net con­tent, plant­i­ng the idea that it’s a MUST-HAVE item before the in-laws arrive.

Roof­ing? Let peo­ple know that, believe it or not, you can roof all win­ter long! And tell them why. Is it your tools, train­ing, expert team, or safe­ty pro­ce­dures? Maybe all of the above? Sud­den­ly you’ve shared your key val­ue points as well as pro­mot­ed services.

What­ev­er you do, don’t slow down on your brand­ing and social media work. If you need to tight­en your bud­get a lit­tle, that’s fine, but don’t freeze it. Shut­ting off a chan­nel like that will always come back to bite you in the end.

#4: Stay Active in Your Community

Nev­er under­es­ti­mate the pow­er of ​“old fash­ioned” mar­ket­ing and brand­ing tech­niques… Local spon­sor­ships, donat­ing time to a fundrais­er, or cre­at­ing hype online by donat­ing ser­vices to a local indi­vid­ual or non­prof­it can keep your name on people’s minds. Local chan­nels and news out­lets may even pick up your sto­ry and car­ry your name a bit further. 

#5: Don’t Be Afraid of Dis­counts and Spe­cial Offers

Win­ter­time sav­ings and incen­tives are total­ly nor­mal, and won’t make you look like a dis­count com­pa­ny. As we touched on above, just share the ​“why”, and make sure you focus on the val­ue you’re offer­ing dur­ing this excit­ing off-sea­son opportunity.

You also can build spe­cial incen­tives around spe­cif­ic hol­i­days. For exam­ple, did you know that Cyber Mon­day is a huge day for our clients? With just 24 hours to lock in the best sav­ings of the year, peo­ple tend to get excit­ed and book esti­mates quickly.

Or, mix and match rel­e­vant ser­vices. Paint­ing cab­i­nets? Add new pulls for free. Roof­ing? Maybe add a free gut­ter clean­ing. You can get creative.

Be Cre­ative, Proac­tive, and Consistent

The right plan can turn a weak sea­son into an awe­some lead-gen oppor­tu­ni­ty. Get­ting ahead of it makes all the dif­fer­ence, as well as expos­ing your­self to cre­ative ideas and mar­ket­ing plans.