As a small building firm, staying competitive in today’s digital age is crucial. One way to do this is by effectively using social media for lead generation. In this blog post, we’ll explore the benefits of acquiring customers this way and provide tips on how to use it effectively.
Previously, many trade businesses were not active on social, but it has become an increasingly popular way to find customers in recent years. According to a study by Hootsuite, 83% of builders now use social media for business. And in a survey by Construction Marketing Association found that 45% of construction companies use social media to generate leads.
Benefits
One of the benefits of using social media for lead generation is that it allows you to reach a larger audience. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have a wide range of users, including potential customers, suppliers, and partners. By creating a strong presence on these platforms, you can reach people outside your customer base and increase your chances of generating leads.
Social media isn’t like any other channel, as it allows you to connect with potential customers on a personal level. It will enable you to engage with your audience, build relationships, and establish trust. This is incredibly important for builders, as potential customers need to know they have found a builder they can rely on to safely and accurately complete their project.
Many social media platforms offer lead-generation tools that can help you to turn followers into leads. For example, Facebook allows you to create lead-generation forms that can be placed on your business page.
Getting Started
Creating valuable content, responding to comments and messages, and interacting with your audience will build that all-important trust and credibility with potential customers, increasing your chances of generating leads.
Let’s look at some tips for effectively using social media for your lead generation.
- Create a strong presence: To effectively use social media for lead generation, it’s crucial to have a strong presence on the platforms you choose to use. This includes creating a professional profile, regularly posting valuable content, and engaging with your audience. Let your audience really get to know you, including details of you, your business, and your work. Don’t forget to show how knowledgeable you are about building.
- Use visuals: Construction is a visually-driven industry, so it’s important to use visuals on social media platforms. This can include photos and videos of your completed projects, as well as happy customers and testimonials, graphics, and infographics.
- Offer value: Use social media to offer value to your target audience by sharing tips, advice, and industry insights. There are some great examples of builders and tradespeople using social media to give advice and tips, cementing their expertise with the viewer. Check out @thep00lguy on TikTok, he has 14M followers or @paint_warrior, who has over 800K followers – both popular UK tradespeople.
- Use calls to action: Encourage your followers to take action. For example, you can use a call to action in a post to ask followers to contact you for a free consultation.
- Run a contest: Contests on social media can be a great way to generate leads. For example, you could ask followers to submit photos of their current home and then randomly select one winner to receive some building work free.
- Use hashtags: Hashtags are a great way to increase the visibility of your posts and connect with potential customers, particularly on Instagram. Use relevant hashtags, such as #construction or #building, to reach a wider audience.
- Utilise paid advertising: Paid advertising on social media platforms can help you reach a larger audience and increase your chances of generating leads. Consider using Facebook or Instagram ads to target potential customers in your area.
- Measure and analyse: It’s essential to measure the success of your social media efforts and analyse the results. Use tools like Google Analytics to track website traffic and conversions from social media. From this, you’ll be able to see what content resonates with your audience so that you can create more of it.
Social media is such a valuable tool for lead generation for builders – there is no other channel that allows you to really connect with your audience and showcase your expertise.
By creating a solid presence, using visuals, utilising hashtags, and measuring and analysing your efforts, you can effectively use social media to generate leads and stay competitive in today’s digital age.
