Lead Generation for Fence Companies
Whenever I talk to a contractor, no matter what industry they are in, I have a set of questions I ask. With fence contractors, I ask “Do you know why people get a fence?”
The silence sometimes is a very long pause.
After they answer, I find only 2 out of 5 get the answers right. For a fence contractor or a business that offers fencing as a service (think competition if you are a fence only contractor), your buyers buy fencing for 1 of 4 reasons.
- Security (dog, family, kids, property)
- Containment (keeping kids and pets in)
- Privacy (nose neighbors, blocking out the outside world)
- Curb appeal (Both residential and commercial)
That is the main reasons they buy fencing.
Think about it.
How can you use it with the following 13 tips to market your fencing business?
- Commercial customers
- Website
- Social media
- Yard signs
- Talk to customers
- Buy fencing leads
- Analytical tools
- Networking
- Promotions
- Company vehicles logo
- Expand your fencing business
- Free online listings
- Past customers
- Don’t forget about commercial customers
Do you have 100 local businesses that can at some point use a fence around their property? If you do, how do you keep in touch with them? How often? And what do you offer them?
Every fence contractor should have a program in their marketing system that caters to commercial businesses.
Here are five simple examples:
- Auto/Boat/RV
- Construction
- Agriculture
- Manufacturing [small, medium and large]
- Rental Company
Not only should you target commercial companies with new fencing, but maintenance, repair and rentals.
Account-Based Marketing is the type of marketing program you should set-up for commercial businesses.
- Refresh your website
If you use tip number one, do you have the website pages and content to have your website show up in Google? Do you target all the types of fencing with a website page or landing page for that specific type of fencing? With all my clients and Contractor Marketing Network, I try to manage website content as specific as I can. This article is a piece of that website content. This article or website page is Fence contractor or company specific. Nothing vague here. All tips fence contractor specific.
Keep your website growing, add content. Map out that content. Know why you are making it. Have pages for types of fencing to the towns you serve. Are one of those towns, cities or area you serve different? Make a website page that caters to them.
Also keep your website fresh. One page a week minimum.
- Set up accounts on social media
How many social accounts do you have set-up and do you use them?
Facebook: You should be posting daily. A few pics a day won’t hurt to fit into your content plan. Plus, an on-going set of Facebook Ads. Nothing bank breaking, but $5-10 per day on different ads surely will pay you some return. NOTE: All my clients are on a $150 a month min. ad spend.
Instagram: There is a ton of things you can post to Insta. But, research into the right keywords is important. Gain a following locally and boost a few posts a month. Get your page into local homeowners and businesses feed. It will pay off. Maybe not right away, but in time, you’ll make your money back. Having a strategy for IG is important.
YouTube: Have you made a few 3-5 minutes video for you fencing process, or types of fence you sell? With YouTube, I like to use the videos not so much to get business from YouTube, but linking it to the website and adding it to the proper page on the website. It helps keep people on your website or digital marketing property longer. Try making a few videos.
Twitter: Is the shadow networking social platform. As a fence contractor you should do your research to follow manufactures, business that use or could using fencing in your marketing area. Don’t think your going to pull in a bunch of leads from Twitter, but it can help you pull leads in from your other marketing channels.
Pinterest: Google search a type of fencing material and tell me if Pinterest isn’t top ten either for web pages or images. Pinterest is the social media platform where you park your website content. It has a little SEO juice, plus is another place to be notice as the fence expert you are. You can even cross promote it with other social media channels.
LinkedIn: Is the social platform to interact with like businesses and local businesses. If you have an Account Base marketing plan in place, it should include LinkedIn. This is where business owners hang out.
- Put up yard signs:
Where legal, put up yard signs. Now I am not saying litter every telephone pole with you yards signs or put them randomly on main street. But yard signs plus an EDDM marketing campaign can do wonders for you fence company. When you are in a neighborhood chances are other people will be in the same situation as your customer. Same type of property, house, demographic, etc. They might also be at work when you are working so truck lettering is useless, if you are gone, when they aren’t around to see it. This is where yard signs help. Maybe the neighbor comes home and sees a nice new fence. The drive by slowly looking at the job you did and “Here’s your sign”!
- Ask customers how they heard about your fence business:
Before we get into this, all customers are liars. There I said it. They are but not on purpose. They may tell you they saw you on Facebook, but what might have happened is the searched on Google for Fencing and your Facebook page ranked better than you website. It happens. So did they find you on Facebook or Google? This is why looking at your Google Analytics is so important. You do look at your Google Analytics once a week right? Once a month?
- Buy fencing leads:
I hate the thought of even writing buying leads in this article. But, it does have its place. If you are new or trying to fill in your schedule until your marketing programs and plans take hold, you may need to buy leads. Home Advisor (OUCH), Angie’s List (HOME ADVISOR with a twist) and Thumbtack come to mind. I am sure you can find a lead broker that specializes in Fencing. Everybody is a marketer these days. I am sure they have some kind of lead funnel they are willing to sell you leads on a pay per call or pay per contact system. NOTE: We build marketing systems that produce leads, not sell you leads. In the long run it is cheaper and more profitable.
- Use analytical tools to better understand how much traffic and where it is coming from:
Get a deeper understanding of how people search for your fencing company by using Google Search Console and Google Analytics, both are free and have a wealth of digital marketing knowledge.
- Build up your network:
If you haven’t you should work on building a network of realtors, contractors and other local businesses that you can network with. Insurance agents are another type of business to network with.
- Run a promo:
If you want you can put together an offer with an added bonus to the buyer. Post top solar lights at gates free or at a discount. Get creative with your offers. When you find one that works get out with more ads to your local market. Facebook and Google ads are great for running promo offers. Test on small audience first and when you find a winner, expand.
- Use your company vehicles to your advantage:
Park where people can see it when you park at any business. On the weekends if you aren’t working, try parking your truck at the local pet shop. Pet owners are big fence buyers.
- Expand your fencing business:
If you are a fence installer, think about expanding your business into fence rentals. Temporary fencing is big business.
- Claim your free online listings:
The first listing any fence company should get is their Google My Business listing. Then you can expand to the other listings. Read this article for your listings. Yelp, Facebook and Bing are other listings you will want to have too.
- Don’t lose touch with past customers:
Each of my clients has a monthly newsletter that Contractor Marketing Network creates for them and sends them out to past customers of our clients. It is a great way to get referrals, reviews and additional work from past customers.
Conclusion
That’s the dirty dozen tips we have for fence company marketing ideas. If your fence company needs help with developing a marketing strategy, creating the marketing materials and executing a proven marketing plan, get in touch with us. We would be glad to discuss ways to help your business.
Contractor Marketing Network 