How to get more leads for your contracting business - For Free.
Why Contractors Should Care About Online Marketing
If you become famous, you’ll be rich.
It’s the unfair advantage of having attention.
Take Elon for example… He launches a cologne called “Musk” and sells $3M in under an hour.
And it wasn’t even a good product. The cologne smelt like burnt hair.
But when you have 108M followers on Twitter… Selling 30,000 units of something isn’t hard.
All it takes is a tweet.
Imagine if that's all it took for you to hit 7-figures this year?
In the last few blog posts we looked at how to hire rockstar employees, and now I want to show you how to become what we call a local celebrity.
You can check out the blogs on hiring by clicking here and here.
Back to making you a local legend.
First, you have to understand the goal:
The goal is that you have more work than you know what to do with AND you know how to get clients on demand. Anytime you need more work, you can pull a lever and new work starts flowing in.
We also want to own the process.
What I mean by that is you don’t want to rely on another person to put food on your table. No marketing agencies, no angi, no home advisor, no thumbtack, etc. All they do is bring you expensive leads that make you rely on them to grow your business.
That’s a big no for me.
Once we have a clear goal, we need a plan.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you need to have a fancy website, a great logo, crazy business cards, google ads, facebook ads, and 10 social media accounts.
But the truth is, if you want to become a local celebrity you only need to focus on two things.
Doing amazing work for your clients
Sharing about it online (primarily Facebook)
A lot of you reading this already have nailed down part one - doing amazing work. But after working with hundreds of contractors, I know a lot of you struggle with getting your name out there.
You might have enough work to keep you busy right now, but if you truly want to grow the business, you will need a lot more.
So I’m going to give you the only Facebook marketing strategy you will ever need.
And I’m not just going to tell you what to do, I’m also going to give you everything you need to be able to do it even if you aren’t tech savy or creative.
The Complete Guide For Marketing Your Contracting Business On Facebook
There are 4 parts to a successful Facebook advertising strategy.
Part 1: Creating your Facebook page
Part 2: Optimizing your profile
Part 3: Posting about projects you complete
Part 4: Getting customers to share
And I don’t plan on leaving any stone unturned.
What you’ll need to get started
A personal Facebook account
Logo for your business + a cover photo for the Facebook page
The easiest way to create a logo/cover photo is to use Canva - they have a ton of great templates.
*To make the Facebook page set up quick and easy, create your logo + cover photo before starting*
How to create a Facebook Business Page For Your Contracting Business
I’ve spoken with a lot of contractors who set up a personal profile for their business. This is not the correct way to do it. You need to set up a Facebook page.
We will walk through this step by step. If you follow along with the directions on this page, it will be very easy to get your page set up properly.
Go to https://facebook.com/pages/create
You will be directed to a page that looks like this:
Put in your Business name (or what you want to operate under, ex Niagara Interior Painting, Niagara Deck & Fence Staining, etc)
Select the category your business falls under. (House Painting)
Include a bio that quickly tells a potential customer who you are and why they should choose you.
Example: A Niagara-based painting company that prides itself on quality workmanship and top-tier service.
The next step is to put in your business info. Make this section as complete as you possibly can - the more info Facebook has on your business, the more they can suggest your page to other people in the community.
The next page will get you to add a profile photo and a cover photo to your Facebook page.
What should your profile photo be for your Facebook page?
The profile photo should either be your company logo OR a personal, professional headshot. Keep in mind that if you are going to use a personal photo, it should make you look happy & friendly. No straight faced, serious photos allowed. Since Facebook is a people-first platform, headshots work very well but a lot of business owners opt to use their logo instead.
What should your cover photo be for your Facebook page?
The cover photo should be a high quality photo that shows off your business and grabs the attention of anyone who lands on the page. It can be a picture of a completed project, or a picture of your team. You’ll notice that I always put text over the photo - this is so the person can quickly understand what we do, and what we want them to do next. Keep in mind that your cover photo + profile photo make up the majority of the first impression.
Next, you’ll be asked if you want to add an “action button” to your profile.
An action button is displayed on your Facebook page. This is your “Call To Action”.
We recommend selecting “Send Message”
Next, you’ll be asked if you want to add WhatsApp.
In our opinion, you can skip that step.
Then, you’ll be asked if you want to invite friends to like your page.
You can invite up to 1,000 people per day to like your Facebook page. We recommend inviting everyone on your friends list to like your Facebook page.
This is a very easy way to get your name out there and to tell everyone that you’ve just started a new Facebook page for your business.
Note: DO NOT get your friends to recommend your page if you have not done work for them. We get a lot of contractors asking “Should I get my friends to recommend my Facebook page?” and the answer is NO!
Potential customers can see right through it. Fake reviews hurt your brand.
Once the page has launched go to your about section and fill in:
Your Service Areas
Other websites / social links that weren't added in earlier steps
Don’t worry about filling in what sports, movies, etc you like.
Now that the basics are out of the way, let’s set up automatic responses.
How to set up automated responses on Facebook for your contracting business.
Next we will set up automated responses. This means that when someone clicks “Send Message” on your profile, you will automatically get back to them and collect their contact info.
Make sure you are logged into your Facebook page.
At the bottom of the sidebar, you’ll see “Meta Business Suite”
This is where we will complete the set up of your page! When you get there, click “All Tools” in the left navigation bar.
Click Inbox.
Then in the top right corner click on automations
You’ll want to set up a Frequently Asked Questions automation.
Our recommendation is to keep it simple and put the most common projects you take on.
For example:
Each question's response will be: Hi first name! Thanks for reaching out to us, what phone number can we call you at to set up your free estimate?
To get the first name to automatically show up, just add it by using the button I’ve put a red box around. You’ll also want to put “Add to menu” to On
After you have added all of your services, click save changes and you’re done!
How to add your services to your page
Add your services by clicking on “All Tools” again. In the bottom right corner you will see the word “services” as shown below.
Begin adding the services you offer.
Example: Interior painting / Exterior Painting / Deck & Fence Staining
You will also want to add a service called “Free Estimate”
Be sure to…
Use a high quality photo that showcases previous work. Since the picture is very small on Facebook, you should only use after photos. Make sure the pictures are bright.
Keep the descriptions brief. Be sure to touch on how you handle common pain points that customers typically experience. You can see in my example, I mentioned that we make the process easy, we keep their home clean and make sure that they are 100% satisfied.
Set the price to “Starting At” - and put it to the minimum job size.
A perfect first post on Facebook for your contracting business.
The welcome post.
Hi neighbors!
We couldn’t be more excited to announce we are going to be back in [city] this summer transforming homes and providing jobs to locals for the [1st/2nd/3rd etc.] summer in a row!
Last summer we helped [previous # of clients] clients with their interior & exterior projects, and this year we don’t plan on slowing down!
We expect our spots to fill up even faster this year so if you have a project on your mind, NOW is the best time to book (you also get to take advantage of our early bird discount!!)
Scheduling an estimate is simple - just send us a message and we can set up a time that works for you!
Or you can give us a call at [phone] 📞✅
Support Local.
P.s - Don’t have a project but still want to help us out? Share this post with your friends, your support goes a long way! :)
How to get more online word of mouth for your contracting business
Start posting after EVERY project
The strategy is simple, but extremely effective.
After every project you complete, create a short post that:
Showcases your work
Thanks the clients for trusting you with their home
Here is an example you can use:
Feedback like this makes all the hard work in the sun worth it‼️☀️
[client testimonial]
On this project we…
✅ Scraped the peeling paint off the windows
✅ Washed the windows to make sure the paint adheres properly
✅ Applied wood filler or caulking where there were holes or cracks
✅ Applied primer
✅ Applied two coats of [product info] to make sure it last a long time!
Thank you [clients first name] for choosing us - your support means the world to us! 🙏
If you’re reading this and you want help tackling your projects this summer - send us a message! 📩 We would be happy to help!
Or call us at [phone] 📱
Attach before and after pictures + a photo of the review they left on your page.
If you do this after every project, then ask your clients to share it - your Facebook page will blow up! Not right away, but eventually.
You might be wondering - why Facebook?
You’ve probably heard about building websites, google ads, about SEO, flyers, homeshows, etc.
It’s not that you shouldn’t do them, or that they won’t work - it's just a matter of focus.
The man who chases two rabbits catches neither.
The first step to become a local celebrity is to implement what we talked about in the google doc.
THEN, you can add on websites, seo, etc.
But honestly, if you do what we taught you in this blog, you won’t have to.