7 Most Effective Ways to Generate Quality Roofing Leads in 2022
Including How to Get Roofing Leads from Insurance Companies!
Competition among roofing contractors is higher than ever. In such a competitive marketplace, it can seem like every roofing business is competing for the same leads.
But roofing lead generation doesn’t have to feel like a rat race. Business owners can optimize their marketing strategy by prioritizing these 7 lead generation tactics—including two of the most effective ways to get roofing leads from insurance companies.
1. Incentivize referrals from existing clients.
When it comes to winning new business, word of mouth is king. Referrals from existing clients can provide a foot-in-the-door opportunity with exclusive roofing leads who are in immediate need of roofing services.
Having a system in place that makes it easy and attractive for homeowners and commercial roofing clients to refer new business your way is essential. Here are a few ideas you can adapt for your roofing business:
- Offer a $500 referral bonus for existing customers who send new business your way.
- Sweeten the deal by offering a $500 discount to the new business referral as well.
- Offer a $50 discount for customers who provide a testimonial or online review of their experience with your roofing services.
- Reach out to satisfied customers from the last 3 to 5 years to ask if they know of anyone looking for roof repair, roof replacement, or roof installation. Let them know about your referral bonus programs.
Having referral bonus programs in place is a great start, but marketing your referral program is the real key to success.
Educate your customers about your referral programs in multiple ways. Talk to them about it verbally. Create an eye-catching handout with the details in writing. Include a graphic reminder as a footer in your emails. Distribute referral cards for customers to hand out to friends and family.
2. Perfect your Google Business Profile
Google Business Profiles (formerly known as Google My Business) are essential for ensuring that potential customers conducting a local search in your service area can find your roofing business online.
What is a Google Business Profile?
Gone are the days of looking up a business in the yellow pages. Nowadays, most people’s first—and last—stop is Google.
A Google Business Profile is the standardized listing that comes up when someone googles a business. It includes the business’s name, physical address, phone number, hours of operation, website link, photos, and more.
Why is a Google Business Profile So Important?
Many times, customers don’t make it past your Google Business Profile to your website. This is part of why having a complete, optimized Google Business Profile is so important.
According to Forbes, an optimized Google Business Profile offers a host of other benefits as well, including:
- Single-handedly improving a business’s local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ranking.
- Standard Google Maps integration, making it easier for customers to locate your business on the world’s most widely used mobile map and directions app.
- A direct messaging option for customers to quickly send messages directly to your company phone or email.
- Highly-visible customer reviews—displayed under your Google Business Profile—that give your business immediate added credibility that rivals Yelp or Trustpilot.
How Do I Set Up My Google Business Profile?
To set up your Google Business Profile, check out this Get Started guide on Google’s support page.
3. Showcase your roofing business’ expertise on social media.
Ensuring your business has an online presence is essential for roofing professionals. But a common question among business owners is, “How do I promote my roofing company on social media?”
Posting informative, engaging content from your company’s social media accounts is a simple, free way to position yourself as a leading expert in your field.
Developing a social media marketing plan doesn’t have to be a long, painful process. Follow these three steps:
- Determine which social media platforms your target market is using.
- Create a social media calendar.
- Repackage your content for use on multiple platforms.
Step 1: Determine which social media platforms your customers are using.
To ensure you are spending your time engaging with potential customers, you first need to determine where your customers hang out online. Once you know which social media platforms your customers are using, you can focus your time and energy on these platforms, and forego the others.
According to SproutSocial, the top 8 social media platforms by monthly active users are as follows. Review the demographic and usage data for each platform to determine which platforms line up best with your customer base.
1. Facebook
- Number of monthly active users: 2.91 billion
- Largest age group: 25-34 (31.5%)
- Gender: 43% female, 57% male (no data on other genders)
- Time spent per day: 33 minutes
2. YouTube
- Number of monthly active users: 2+ billion
- Largest age group: 15-35 (highest reach)
- Gender: 46% female, 54% male (no data on other genders)
- Time spent per session: ~30 minutes
3. Instagram
- Number of monthly active users: 2 billion
- Largest age group: 25-34 (31.2%), with 18-24 close behind at 31%
- Gender: 48.4% female, 51.8% male (no data on other genders)
- Time spent per day: 29 minutes
4. TikTok
- Number of monthly active users: 1 billion
- Largest age group: 10-19 (25%)
- Gender: 61% female, 39% male (no data on other genders)
- Time spent per day: 89 minutes per day
5. Snapchat
- Number of monthly active users: 319 million
- Largest age group: 15-25 (48%)
- Gender: 54.4% female, 44.6% male (no data on other genders)
- Time spent per day: 25+ minutes
6. Pinterest
- Number of monthly active users 431 million
- Largest age group: 50-64 (38%)
- Gender: 78% female, 22% male (no data on other genders)
- Time spent per day: 14.2 minutes
7. LinkedIn
- Number of monthly active users: 810 million
- Largest age group: 25-34 (58.4%)
- Gender: 48% female, 52% male
- 63% of LinkedIn users access the network weekly, and 22% daily
8. Twitter
- Number of daily active users: 211 million (up from 187 million)
- Largest age group: 18-29 (42%)
- Gender: 38.4% female, 61.6% male (no data on other genders)
- Time spent per day: 31 minutes
Step 2: Create a social media calendar.
A social media calendar will not only help you stay organized, but will help ensure you are producing high-quality content that your audience wants to see.
Check out this article from Hootsuite that explains how to create a social media calendar.
Step 3: Repackage your content for use on multiple platforms.
You may be relieved to learn you do not need to create brand new content for each social media platform. A quicker, more effective strategy is to simply repackage your existing content for use on other platforms.
According to Forbes, “If you’ve created a piece of content for, say, Facebook, chances are there are plenty of ways you can repurpose it for Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat and even TikTok. Doing so can be the difference between lagging behind or pulling ahead of your competition on social media.”
Check out this handy guide Forbes put together to help you repurpose your content across platforms.
4. Use email marketing to nurture long-term relationships with your customers.
If you own a roofing business, email marketing can be one of the most powerful tools for building trust with existing clients and generating quality leads.
The biggest advantage of email marketing is that you know the exactly who is receiving your message and how they have interacted with your business in the past. (Are they a former customer? An insurance professional? Someone who signed up for your email list through your website?)
If you haven’t already started building a detailed email marketing list—including details on how each individual relates to your business—now is the time. Make sure you are gathering all pertinent contact information on each customer or potential customer you come into contact with. At a minimum, this should include their full name, address, phone number, and email address.
Business owners who take the time to curate emails specific to each category of contacts can expect more people open their emails and fewer people to unsubscribe.
For more tips and tricks, check out this handy guide from Roofer’s Guild detailing 5 great roofer email marketing tips that get results.
5. Develop a lead generation system for trade shows
Roofers looking for high-quality leads need look no further than their local and regional trade shows. Nothing beats meeting with potential customers face-to-face and discussing their needs in real-time. While canvassing is certainly effective, trade shows allow for many more face-to-face introductions in a shorter period of time.
Consider which trade shows your potential customers are likely to attend. Often times, for roofers, this includes home improvement or construction trade shows or expos.
Invest in a high-quality, eye-catching trade show booth. Your both is an extension of your brand. Having a trade show display that looks polished and professional will help you build trust with any potential customers you may encounter.
Collect as much contact information as possible from the potential customers who stop by your booth. (A great way to do this is by raffling off a larger-ticket item at the expo.) Quickly jot down notes on your conversation after each interaction. This will help immensely when you follow up with them later.
Have a multi-step plan in place to follow up with the new leads you gather—whether by phone, email, direct mail, or something else. (Remember: nothing beats a personal follow up phone call!) Be sure to add them to your email marketing list as well.
6. Get roofing leads from insurance companies.
Those in the roofing business often wonder how to get roofing leads from insurance companies. After all, when an individual or business sustains damage to their roof, their first phone call is often to their insurance agent.
Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as purchasing a lead list or showing up at an insurance agency’s front door after a bad storm. If a business owner wants to utilize insurance companies to secure roofing leads, they have to be willing to invest the money, time, and effort required to build strong partnerships.
But this investment can pay great dividends for those willing to do the legwork. (Spoiler alert: Many roofing contractors are focused on quick sales and are not willing to invest the time and energy required.)
Let’s begin with two ways to obtain roofing leads from insurance companies.
Network with insurance agents and adjusters.
Networking directly with agents and adjusters can help position a business owner for success when opportunities arise.
Local insurance associations or professional groups for insurance agents or adjusters are a good place to start. Many professional organizations require payment of membership dues in order to join. Ultimately, these fees—and the time spent networking—can be viewed as an investment in the long-term success of the roofing company.
Remember, successful networkers establish a mutually-beneficial relationship, so business owners should spend some time getting to know the insurance professionals in their network before jumping in to solicit services. Always bring business cards to meetings and events, and always be prepared to offer insight as a trusted advisor in the roofing industry, should the opportunity present itself.
Market directly to insurance companies.
In addition to networking with agents and adjusters, business owners should keep their eyes open for opportunities to market their business more directly.
Does your local insurance association send monthly emails or newsletters to members? Perhaps they offer paid advertising opportunities in these publications—either in the form of a traditional advertisement, or an article profiling your business.
Does the organization periodically feature member presentations at their events? Perhaps the business owner could host a presentation about roofing.
Are there trade shows in your area geared toward insurance professionals? Perhaps the roofing company could purchase a booth or sign up as a speaker.
The business owner’s overall goal should be positioning themself as a trusted advisor in their area of expertise—roofing!
Partner with a workers compensation company that specializes in roofing.
In addition to generating quality leads, roofing businesses can dramatically improve their bottom line by partnering with a workers compensation insurer that specializes in the roofing industry.
Foresight is the first insurtech specializing in workers compensation for the hard-to-place middle market. Our mission is to improve every business we underwrite, starting with workplace safety. Foresight wraps innovative risk management technology into every workers compensation policy, reducing workplace incident frequency by an average of 31% and giving policyholders the ability to earn lower premiums.
Get started today with Foresight
Looking for a competitive workers compensation quote for your roofing business? Foresight is here to help! Foresight insures safety-critical businesses with a technology-first workers compensation program. With fast pricing indications, online submissions, and in-app reporting, Foresight provides unrivaled value for brokers and businesses seeking safety and savings through technology.
Business owner?
Ask your agent about Foresight, or find a broker near you for a free quote.
Insurance agent?
Get appointed and submit a client for a competitive quote today.
