5 Ways to Get More Roofing Leads and Customers (Even if you’re lazy)

So, you’ve got your roofing business successfully up and running.

CONGRATS! Many time it seems like that’s the hardest part.

But now, as each month passes, you’re worried about where your next customers are going to come from (especially if it’s not raining), and you’re thinking… I didn’t sign up to be a marketer !!

I understand your frustrations. Many local business owners start out creating a company based on their skills and passions and a gap they see in the market – NOT on their desire to become a roofer marketing expert.

 
Lucky for you, there are quite a few ways to get roofing customers to COME TO YOU now that we’re in the digital age. This is the age of inbound marketing, where customers search for the businesses they want to find.. and you’re in the best position to take advantage of that now! In fact, we’ve used these exact methods to help other roofers TRIPLE the traffic to their website in some cases. Here are some screenshots of their rankings and traffic results: 

Some offline methods still work, too. So in this quick guide, I’m going to show you a few ideas for how to get commercial roofing leads in a long term, evergreen manner – some of which will allow you to keep getting roof contractor leads long after your initial input is over.

DISCLAIMER: Now, it needs to be said that you can’t simply set up a fly by night roofing business and get quick leads. Building a successful roofing company takes time , because when it comes to the bigger roofing jobs, decision makers want to see that you have been in business for a while, that you can be trusted, and that you have existing high quality work to show off. This means you need to have solid branding and consistent messaging. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter how many people you get in front of.. they’ll always choose a different company, especially when it comes to the bigger jobs like commercial roofing contracts or complete roof replacements!

So the tips below are geared towards  existing roofing contractor companies that already have a client base and past work. This is not for one-man-roofing-shops.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s jump into it!

1. Get Customers to Come To You Naturally

Of course we have to cover SEO as the number one way to get in front of your customers. We do it b ecause we believe in it , we love helping business owners reach their goals, and one our favorite specialities is the roofing industry. What better way exists to get roofing customers than to get in front of people who are literally searching for you? If you’re in Chicago, and someone is searching for a “commercial roofer in Chicago”, there is no better place to be than the first page of their search.  After all, what’s the best way to sell hot dogs? Set up a hot dog stand in front of a bunch of hungry people looking for hot dogs!

This is exactly what SEO for roofing contractors aims to do. Sadly, SEO can get a bad rap because there is a lot of bad information (not to mention bad… ok, really terrible.. providers) floating around the web about whether it works and how roofers can do SEO. The truth is it works if it’s done right.

Did you know you can even do Yelp SEO  to get your roofing business ranking higher there? Yep, that’s right! Anywhere there is a search engine (including Yelp), there is usually something that can be done to make sure  you show up higher than your competitors.

If you want to do your own SEO, you need to make sure to optimize the following on your website: page titles, meta descriptions, images, headings, keyword density on your content pages, and location factors.

If you want us to help with this, check out our roofing case study where we tripled the traffic of a local roofing company (…even after they had already been with another SEO co for 5 years!) We do this kind of work regularly and can do the same for you!

Want to see how we doubled, and then tripled  the organic traffic for a roofer in a very high competition market, in only 6 months? You'll want to read our case study!

Get The Case Study

Pros

• Long term and evergreen – once you are ranking, it sticks as long as you stay on top of trends

• No cost per click involved. You get ranking and people start coming to your website organically

• The ROI over years can be  massive . If even one additional roofing job per month makes up for the cost of your SEO plan, the gains from this can be huge, even once you’re done working with an SEO company

• Mostly hands-off if you hire someone to do it

Cons

• Takes some time to get off the ground – not a good strategy for quick gains or impatient people

• Difficult to find trusted providers

• Monthly cost to get the work done can feel high until it begins paying off

2. Pay For Customers to Come To You

Google Adwords is a lot like SEO, but instead of paying to come up to the first page over time, you pay to  show up at the top of the page immediately . The catch? Each click is going to cost you. Different keywords cost a different amount depending on the competition between people bidding for your keywords, but you can get clicks for between $10-$30 from people looking for roofers in your area. If you need more commercial roofing leads, this is a sure way to immediately start getting calls as long as your website is optimized for conversions and you are paying attention to your PPC campaigns, making sure to use the best keywords to get more commercial roofing customers contacting you.

Pros

• Very fast set up and result – like turning a faucet on or off

• Can start and stop campaigns depending on when you need leads

• Can target campaigns very specifically – for example if an area near you just had a crazy hail storm, you can immediately begin bidding on keywords for those repairs

Cons

• Easy to waste money if you do it yourself

• Need to make sure your website is conversion optimized

• Can be confusing for DIYers to set up conversion tracking

• You will  always have to pay for clicks and be dependent on advertising spend if this is your main advertising investment

3. Land In The Customer’s Mailbox

Direct mail marketing is an oldie and a goodie, and can still work for roofing companies. If you can contact the right decision makers who own commercial buildings, each direct mail marketing campaign can really pay off with even one additional commercial roofing job. Hire a professional to put together an action-inspiring direct mail design, and either pay someone to find you a list or go straight to InfoUSA.com to buy the exact leads you need.

Pros

• Set it and forget it – send out the mail and wait for calls to come in

• Small time investment

• Easy to target geographic areas

• “Junk” mail can’t be tossed and ignored as easily as email

Cons

• You are marketing to customers who may not be looking for a roofer, unlike options 1-2 where people are already searching for your services

• Bad design, poor branding, or poor targeting can mean the campaigns flop

• Must send out campaigns regularly to bring in leads regularly

• Some mail pieces may never reach the decision makers for commercial buildings, who are the ones that will turn into roofing leads

4. Cold Calling, aka Telemarketing

On a budget and just need to start finding leads  now ? There is always the option of just sitting down and buckling in for a few extreme cold calling sessions. Don’t be deterred if you need to bootstrap yourself this way – you  will get a lot of rejections, but if you have even a 1% conversion rate, then 1 out of every 100 people you call could get you another commercial roofing contract. And that’s worth it!

Pros

• No investment cost to get going (unless you’re buying leads)

• No marketing expertise or time investment required to get going

• You can simply sit down and do it

Cons

• Can be discouraging

• You  will get a lot of rejections

• Requires a time investment

5. Social Media Marketing

I left social media marketing for last because it has to be done very specifically and over the long term to be effective, and many business owners simply don’t have the time investment for this. It definitely doesn’t pay off right away.

If you can keep your Instagram and Facebook pages updated weekly with fresh, relevant content that establishes you as an expert in commercial roofing, then it can bring you leads when you use social media advertising to get in front of the building’s decision makers. It’s unlikely to bring you leads without investing a little bit more in advertising the presence you have build, so it’s not something I recommend DIYing.

One easy way to make sure your profiles are always updated with your latest work is to have your staff regularly take pictures on the job and send them to a single person (I recommend your office administrator) who is responsible for posting them online. Voila! You have a simple process for keeping your properties updated, that way you  can benefit from them in the future.

Pros

• Easy to just knock it out every week

• Establishes your social proof and expertise

• Grows over time

• Can attract multiple types of leads in addition to commercial

Cons

• Does not provide immediate results

• Requires an ongoing commitment

• No direct ROI – must invest further in the platforms you’ve built up

Besides getting more commercial roof leads, you might also be interested in this guide of ideas to market a roofing company that we put together, which includes 10 ideas for your roof marketing. And don’t forget, you will definitely need a roofing website to make all of this come together.

With all of that being said, what are your thoughts? There are even more ways to get those roofing leads you need through referrals, networking, etc, but those usually have a larger time requirement for a smaller payoff, so I wanted to cover the things that get you the biggest long term bang for your buck.

Questions, ideas? Let me know in the comments!

Want to see how we doubled, and then tripled  the organic traffic for a roofer in a very high competition market, in only 6 months? You'll want to read our case study!Get The Case Study