When leads start slowing down for your carpentry business, naturally, you start to panic. Hopefully, you’re reading this blog before that happens. The best carpenters are proactive rather than reactive when it comes to their business. These 12 proven strategies for getting carpenter leads will help you keep a steady flow of business and potential customers coming through your door.
We will look at three different lead generation categories and break down the most effective strategies for carpenter lead generation within them. We’ll focus on website, networking, and advertising strategies to get you more carpentry leads. Additionally, we’ll rate each of these strategies on a scale of 1-5 stars based on how essential they are for gaining your business better carpentry leads. If a strategy is rated 5 stars, it’s an essential strategy that every carpenter should be using if they are looking for more leads. If the strategy is rated 1 star, it’s still an effective strategy for lead generation, but it isn’t the most important strategy to focus on.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Absolutely Essential
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Strongly Encouraged
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Best Practice
⭐️⭐️ Useful Strategy
⭐️ Not Essential, but can be effective
Website Strategies
The assumption here is that you have, at the very least, a basic website built that shows your carpentry services online. Most carpenters have some form of a website, even if they built it themselves. Having a great-looking website that functions well is a proven lead generation strategy within itself, so check out our web design and development resources here if you’re starting from ground zero. You can also check out our list of 5 stunning carpentry websites for inspiration.
1. Create a Contact Form
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Absolutely Essential
A contact form is the most basic tool you can utilize on your website to capture job leads. Without one, your site visitors don’t have anywhere to take action if they are interested in doing business with you. For most websites, you’ll need to use a contact form plugin like Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, or Contact Form 7. If you utilize a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system like HubSpot or SalesForce, you can use form plugins from those CRM’s as well.
An effective strategy for lead generation is including strong call to actions on your landing page that encourage site visitors to fill out your contact form. For example, you can use CTA’s like “Get a free carpentry quote today!” or “contact us for your free estimate.”
2. Feature Tons of Before and After Photos
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Best Practice
Including before and after photos on your homepage or within a separate tab on your website is a great way to build trust and authority with your website visitors. Potential carpentry leads will see the quality of your work and feel confident that you can get the job done for them. You should get in the habit of taking photos before, during, and after projects are completed so that you can share them and put your wonderful work on display!
3. Write Relevant Content and Case Studies
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Strongly Encouraged
As a carpentry business owner, writing may not be on the top of your priority list. With that being said, having relevant content on your website will provide value to your leads and help them identify you as a thought leader amongst carpenters. We’ll get more into this in the next strategy, but Google will also recognize your website as authoritative when you add more relevant content to your site, meaning they will recommend your carpentry services website and rank it higher on Google search results. Case studies are also an effective way to showcase previous projects and outline your carpentry process for interested customers.
4. Optimize Your Website With SEO
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Absolutely Essential
Utilizing Search Engine Optimization is absolutely essential for carpenters and service professionals. In a nutshell, SEO is tailoring your website to search terms relevant to your business so that your website shows up higher on Google search results. If your website is on the first page of Google, potential carpentry leads are more likely to click on it.
You can optimize your website by adding relevant content as mentioned above, targeting keywords, creating backlinks to your website, and improving your site structure. Blog writing is an effective way to improve your SEO because each of those individual blogs can rank on Google as well. For example, if you wanted to target the keyword “Carpenter Professional,” you could write a blog on that topic and rank for that keyword when people are searching for it. SEO can feel complicated and frustrating, but it’s well worth the effort. Check out our free SEO resources here if you want to learn more.
SEO is a long-term strategy for gaining job leads, and many carpentry business owners choose to hire a digital marketing agency or lead generation company to manage their SEO. Here at Hook Agency, we have a Google specialized team with years of experience helping contractors like you rank higher on Google. Learn more about our SEO services!
Advertising Strategies
5. Level Up Your Branding
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Absolutely Essential
An excellent name, logo, and overall brand play a large role in the success of many carpentry businesses. If you’re struggling to get job leads, it may be time to consider leveling up your branding. A strong carpentry brand is memorable and resonates with its viewers. If you don’t have a name for your carpentry business yet or you’re considering changing it, check out this list of fantastic carpentry company names. Your brand is the face of your company, and having an effective logo and color scheme that can live on all of your promotional material is also important for capturing carpentry leads. Take a look at these contractor logos for inspiration. The ultimate goal is for people to recognize your brand and choose you for their next carpentry job because of it.
When you have killer branding, you can leverage it in other lead generation strategies as well:
6. Create Apparel (With Your Contact Info)
⭐️⭐️ Useful Strategy
What’s better than a walking advertisement? Creating fun and interesting apparel for your employees, friends, and family to wear is a fun and effective strategy for lead generation. Outside of creating brand awareness and having people ask about your company, branded clothing is a wonderful place to put your contact (phone number, email address) info to capture leads. This isn’t a must-have strategy for carpenters, and it shouldn’t be in your employees’ job description, but it has been shown to be effective in gaining new leads and customers. Plus, customers and staff enjoy having cool apparel. They get to rep your company, and it’s generally a sign of good company culture.
7. Get a Truck Wrap
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Strongly Encouraged
Okay, something that might be better than a walking advertisement… is a driving advertisement! Whether it’s for you or your employees, having a badass truck wrap with your branding is a fantastic way to capture leads. The requirements for a great truck wrap are that it’s attention-grabbing, well designed, and has your contact info on it so that people can call you or send you text messages about potential carpenter jobs. This is a strategy that’s been proven to generate leads and interest in the carpentry industry.
8. Start a YouTube Channel
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Best Practice
Video content is a great way for you to inform and engage with your audience. The great thing is that you don’t necessarily need a pro video crew and a full-time editor to put out effective video content. Tons of top contractors utilize YouTube to promote their business and inform their viewers. A great way to get started with a YouTube channel is to commit to making one video a week and promoting it on your other social media channels and your website. You can take videos of a project you’re working on, interviews with customers and employees, or sharing insightful carpentry tips. Have fun with your videos, the primary goal is to display your high-quality work and provide value to anyone who watches.
Some excellent examples of lead-generating YouTube channels are Roofing Insights and NorthFace Construction. Both of these contractors are clients of ours, so we know how effective a great YouTube channel is!
If you want to keep going down the YouTube rabbit hole, check out our Hook Agency channel for some excellent marketing content.
9. Invest in PPC Advertising
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Strongly Encouraged
This strategy is strongly encouraged because of how fast you can gain new leads from PPC advertising. If you’re unfamiliar, PPC stands for Pay Per Click, and the most common form of PPC advertising is through search engines like Google. You can write ads, then target relevant keywords such as “best carpenter in Minnesota,” and show up as a Google ad when people search that term. The beauty is, you only pay if someone clicks on your ad and is directed to your website (hence the name Pay Per Click). Truthfully, running PPC campaigns isn’t quite that simple. There is definitely a learning curve when it comes to PPC advertising. Here at Hook, we help tons of contractors gain excellent leads through PPC advertising. Read more about our paid ad services here.
PPC is a proven strategy for gaining leads and absolutely something to consider if you’re looking for faster results.
Networking
10. Implement a Referral Program
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Absolutely Essential
Want to know a great strategy for getting new leads? Ask for them! Create a referral program for your existing clients and get in the habit of consistently asking for referrals. This can be as simple as calling a satisfied customer and asking them if they know anyone needing your carpentry services. Having a CRM system (Customer Relationship Management) is important for keeping track of all your past and present clients and any leads that come in.
You can leverage your CRM to follow up with clients and inquire about referrals consistently. Also, don’t forget about the lifetime value of your previous customers. Keeping their information on file and reaching out to them annually is another effective strategy for getting reoccurring business.
11. Attend Local Networking Groups and Events
⭐️ Not Essential, but can be effective
Your service area likely has a local B2B networking group like BNI or a chamber of commerce. While these groups can be time-consuming and costly, lead generation has some potential. These networking groups (and others) allow connecting with other professionals and gaining referrals. The downside is often, groups like these do require memberships. We recommend seeing if any groups allow for one or two free visits to a weekly meeting so that you can check them out and introduce your business. You’ll have the opportunity to promote your business for free a few times and see if coming back consistently would be worth your time.
12. Ask for Reviews
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Best Practice
Reviews could be categorized as an advertising strategy, as most people come across them when googling your business. Still, because of the person-to-person element of asking for them, we included this strategy in networking. Asking for positive customer reviews is cost-free and an excellent way to improve your brand image when people come across your carpentry business. When potential leads see multiple 5-star reviews for a business, it communicates trust immediately. You can also leverage 5-star reviews on your website to showcase customer satisfaction!
The best time to implement some of these lead-generation strategies is now! If you’re unsure where to begin, you can start with this list’s most essential 5-star strategies.
The most essential strategies are:
- Creating a contact form on your website
- Optimizing your website with SEO
- Leveling up your branding
- Implementing a referral program
If you want a partner to help you gain better leads and own your marketing, give us a call! At Hook Agency, we believe that contractors deserve a marketing agency that cares. Read more about our marketing and SEO Services here.
