17 Simple Ways (Free & Paid) to Get More Roofing Leads in 2021

Are you struggling to find residential or commercial roofing leads?

Like any business, a steady stream of new leads is crucial to a roofing company's longevity and sustainability. If you don't have prospects to talk to, you don't have anyone to sell to, which is a significant problem. However, roofing lead generation is easier said than done.

In this article, we’ll discuss strategies that can help you drive traffic to your website, generate free estimates, and ultimately, get more opportunities for your sales team to identify and close exclusive roofing leads.

17 Roofing Lead Generation Strategies for 2021#

When you’re looking to learn how to get roofing leads, you’ll be glad to know that there are plenty of different avenues. Take a look through the roofing lead generation tactics below to find what works for your business.

#1. Use Live Chat to Convert More Visitors into Roofing Leads#

Your first step should be to maximize the value of your existing traffic. This area offers low-hanging fruit, which is the easiest and fastest way to increase leads and conversions.

Live chat is an excellent way to improve roofing lead generation. It offers your sales team a personalized touchpoint where they can interact with potential customers in real-time as they browse your website.

Repairing or installing a new roof is a big investment, and naturally, most people will have questions and hesitations when choosing a roofing company. Live chat provides a real-time channel to address these questions and overcome any potential objections.

There is a lot of evidence that shows higher engagement translates to more conversions, as 79% of businesses say live chat contributed to upticks in customer loyalty, sales, and total revenue.

Source: JivoChat

JivoChat enables companies to monitor their visitors' on-site behavior. At a glance, you can see who's visiting, which web pages they view, and which domains they are coming from.

You can then use these insights to set up proactive chat messages, engaging prospects at the perfect time, whether they are showing intent to buy or if they are about to leave your site.

If no one is available, or the visitor would prefer to speak over the phone, they can leverage the JivoChat callback feature to speak with your sales team in 30 seconds of less.

After a visitor requests a callback, all your support agents or sales reps’ phones will ring at once. Once someone answers, all the other phones stop ringing. This ensures a prompt personalized response at a critical moment in the sales process.

Live chat software will prevent roofing leads from falling through the cracks, and help you close more inbound sales opportunities.

#2. Rank Your Business in the Local Map Packs#

97% of search engine users search online to find a local business and 28% of local searches result in a purchase. Two compelling statistics to showcase the high degree of buying intent behind local search.

Further, Broadly reports that 51% of people searching for a roofing contractor turn to online search engines to find reliable contractors in their local area.

The Google Local 3-Pack is the top three results in Google's search engine results pages, which appear together beneath the local map whenever users make a local search.

Source: Google

This map pack holds the #1 position in most Google searches (excluding ads), so you can drive organic traffic without breaking your budget.

It also positions your company as more relevant than other options because of its perceived importance. Users get a glance at your business, and the customer reviews and ratings can influence purchasing decisions or, at least, increase traffic to your site.

#3. Bid on Your Most Valuable Keywords (PPC)#

A strong PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaign can attract more traffic to your landing page. However, not all keywords are created equally, so you’ll want to use a tool such as Google Keyword Planner to identify valuable keywords.

You can generate better roofing leads if you target keywords with a medium volume instead of high volume at first and use more specific phrasing. For instance, bidding on "Atlanta's metal roofing" is more defined than "roof repair."

Source: Google

Bidding on these precise, long-tail keywords not only allows you to attract traffic with greater purchase intent, but it is more likely to result in exclusive roofing leads and more conversions.#

#4. Retargeting Non-Converting Visitors (SEM)#

Ever notice when you leave a website and then go to facebook, you see an ad from that same site as you scroll down your feed? That’s retargeting in action.

Source: ReTargeter

Retargeting presents another way to get roofing leads in the form of pixels. Pixels are tiny snippets of code you can place on your landing pages to track and record information about user behaviors.

With this data, you can create personalized service recommendations and retarget visitors with tailored ads that display as previous site visitors browse other sites, like Facebook, Google, and Bing.

For example:

If someone visits one of your roofing service pages and leaves without calling or filling out a form, you can retarget only those people with ads that contain customer testimonials, for example, across other sites in the Google Display network, or even social media channels such as facebook and LinkedIn.

Remember: most people don’t purchase roofing services on their first visit to a website, so using retargeting is a smart—and free—marketing strategy to re-engage non-converting visitors and leads.

#5. Run Facebook & Instagram Ads for Roofing Leads Online (Social PPC)#

Social PPC—paid ads run on sites like Facebook and Instagram—is an effective channel to generate roofing leads at a lower cost.

Source: Roofing Marketing Pros

You can use these ads to put your business in front of customers where they spend a lot of time. Facebook Ads allows you to create custom audiences by uploading email lists, or similar to Google display, use pixels to track visitors to certain pages on your website.

By using social PPC, you can can re-engage warm roofing leads on channels where they spend a lot of time. The key is to remember to use your retargeting ads to answer questions that leads might have during the buying cycle, and leverage social proof (eg: testimonials) in your ad creatives to build trust.

#6. Create and Optimize Your Review Site Listings#

According to Broadly, 87% of people will look through review sites and wait to find three to five-star ratings before getting in touch with the company.

If you're wondering how to get roofing leads regularly, you should look to optimize the reviews you have online.

A profile with poor reviews, or no reviews at all, is not going to help build trust, and due to the level of competition among roofing contractors, could mean the difference between landing a job or not.

Check major industry review platforms, including:

• Google Maps shows your average review ratings and contact information about your business. Carefully consider how you respond to poor reviews to win the trust of new prospects.
• Yelp is the most used review site for any industry. If you’re not cleaning up your Yelp reviews, you’re leaving money (and your reputation) on the table.
• Home Advisor is specifically for home services, making it a no-brainer for any roofing business.
• Trustpilot aggregates reviews directly from your customers and displays them on your site. It gives you greater control over the reviews you show, so try to present your business in the best light.

Also, run some Google searches for your main service keywords and see if there are any roofing directories or other third-party review sites that show up. If so, make sure you have an optimized profile with contact information, pictures and reviews.

It is well worth your team’s time to dive into each platform, so you can leverage the social proof to stand out from competitors and attract new customers.

#7. Launch a Review Campaign#

Most businesses aren’t proactive about collecting customer reviews. If you launch a review campaign, you can stand out. Better yet, you may generate exclusive roofing leads in the process, either through repeat business or referrals.

Ideally, you should capture reviews right at the point of service or with a quick follow up soon after the completion of work. Get in touch with your previous clients—via email, phone, in-person, and social media—and ask them to help to leave a review on sites like Yelp, Google My Business, and Home Advisor.

Source: Google

Most people are happy to help businesses that have provided a memorable product or service. If you offer customers a great experience, it's possible to gather many positive reviews to leverage across future marketing campaigns.

#8. Form Alliances with Other Local Businesses#

Networking is an important source of roofing leads. Get out into the community and connect with other businesses who offer related—but non-competitive—services.

Here are some networking opportunities to consider:

• Chamber of Commerce
• Industry Conferences
• Meetup.com
• Toastmasters

For instance, your local Chamber of Commerce can be an excellent opportunity to meet local business owners with similar interests. You might also connect with property managers, architects, developers, and others who work with homes and properties.

Introduce yourself and ask what you can do for them first before asking for referrals or special deals. While it may be a bit of a numbers game, eventually, you can establish long-term relationships that are mutually beneficial for lead generation.

#9. Nurture Roofing Leads with Email Marketing#

If someone has opted into your email list, they have directly expressed interest in your roofing services. With this in mind, it seems crazy that more companies don’t use email marketing to nurture their roofing leads to the point of purchase.

At the very least, you should have an automated follow-up email series to re-engage leads with promotional offers, such as a free inspection.

You could also send out a case study that gives people a clear understanding of how you approach roofing projects and how you can deliver great customer satisfaction.

By staying in touch throughout the customer journey, your sales team can quickly close the deal when the prospect is ready to buy.

#10. Start a Referral Program#

A lot of marketers wondering how to get roofing leads completely overlook referrals. Roofing contractor leads are difficult enough to come by, so you should pursue every avenue available to you.

When homeowners are already making home improvements, they have buying momentum. So, if you have a strong network with related businesses in the home service market, it can be a rich source of referrals.

Reach out to other home service businesses such as window repair, plumbing, and electrical work. You can make agreements to refer each other to customers when they ask about your respective services. After all, customers always prefer an endorsement from someone they already know and trust rather than finding new services themselves.

#11. Canvassing for Exclusive Roofing Leads#

Canvassing is still one of the best forms of marketing for roofing leads. With so many innovative online channels, like social media and PPC, many sales professionals have lost touch with their roots and often forgoing pure person-to-person communication.

There is power in standing directly in front of a prospect. You can use a conversational tone and body language to personalize your answers, overcome objections, do a presentation or demo, and even close at the door. Sure, it's not as easy or passive as inbound marketing, but direct in-person sales still work.

About 2% of all door knocks result in a sale.

Another benefit of pounding the pavement is that a lot of your competitors aren't doing it. They either lack the skills for door-to-door sales or don't have the confidence, which leaves a lot of opportunity for those who are willing to hit the streets.

#12. Send Out Direct Mailers#

Source: Postcard Mania

Another method that is seen as "old school" for generating roofing leads is direct mail.

You might not be able to keep a prospect’s attention with a long-form brochure as easily. Still, postcards and short letters can present promotions and introduce your company to homeowners in a familiar way that is comfortable and easily accessible.

With each direct mail piece, be sure to include a specific call-to-action that leads to the next step in the sales cycle — be it a phone call, email, or website visit.

You can also utilize classic marketing techniques to create urgency, such as a limited-time promotion or by telling them their neighbor is getting their roof done. 60% of people make purchasing decisions because of the fear of missing out (FOMO).

#13. Attend Trade Shows for Commercial Roofing Leads#

Business owners who attend trade shows can avail of several advantages:

• Ability to Field Questions Live - Hear your customers out, and answer their concerns to overcome objections.
• **Product Demonstrations **- Show exactly why your product or service is superior in undeniable fashion — people need to see it to believe it sometimes.
• Prove Determination and Commitment — Who would you trust to do business with: a company at a tradeshow or a fly-by-night operation?

Use trade shows as an opportunity to meet customers in person and to get roofing leads in a domain where you face less competition.

#14. Use Outdoor Advertisements for Roofing Leads#

Rather than spending big on billboards, make use of your existing assets by placing advertisements on your company vehicles and storefronts.

Also, try offering customers discounts if they allow you to place a branded yard sign on their property after you have finished their project. This small step can increase your brand visibility without spending too much.

If you can afford billboards, remember that motorists don’t have the time to read a lot. So, use a simple message, clear design, and a strong call-to-action, and include your contact details (or website).

#15. Offer Free Inspections#

If you charge for roof estimates, it might help you earn more on a per-transaction basis, but it could severely limit the number of leads that take you up on an estimate in the first place.

The majority of roofing companies will offer some level of free estimate. Think of it as a way to start more conversations with potential buyers. Make it as risk-free as possible for a consumer to make that initial touchpoint.

While you may incur some costs with estimates that go nowhere, you will soon identify the truly-qualified homeowners that can boost your bottom line.

#16. Set Up a Storm Response Campaign#

Source: Postcard Mania

The most powerful marketing strategy is engaging prospects who are already at the bottom-of-the-funnel, hungry for a solution. After a bad storm hits a neighborhood, the desire to fix their roof and get back to normal life will be a top priority for most homeowners.

You can prepare to capture these leads by setting up storm response campaigns on Google, Facebook, Direct Mail, and Instagram. This omnichannel approach can drive traffic to your dedicated landing page for a fast and free estimate.

You may even succeed in spreading brand awareness _before _the storm hits, putting your business top-of-mind when disaster befalls some potential new customers.

#17. Try Telemarketing#

Quite often, telemarketers will focus on outbound cold calls to homeowners in your territory to attempt to set appointments. But you can also train them on specific campaigns, such as a storm response.

You can use storm tracking software to identify areas that were hit the hardest. With your consultants on stand-by in those neighborhoods, your team is ready to arrive to provide same-day estimates, and hopefully, one-call closes.

If you don’t have the time or budget for a full in-house team of phone sales reps, considering outsourcing to an agency specializing in this service.

Frequently Asked Questions About Roofing Leads#

Can I get free roofing leads?#

Yes, you can generate free roofing leads. It requires a great deal of time and commitment, but if you set up your organic online traffic strategy, you can build a funnel that consistently brings free or low-cost leads to your business. Remember to use a solution like free live chat software to engage website visitors and answer their questions.

What are exclusive roofing leads?#

Exclusive roofing leads are those that only your business has access to. Some lead generation companies sell leads to multiple roofers, so the prospect is getting bombarded by competitors. Exclusive roofing leads have a higher initial price but provide better closing opportunities.

How can I get exclusive roofing leads?#

You can get exclusive roofing leads through various methods, including SEO, PPC, Social PPC, canvassing, and tradeshows. Alternatively, you can save time and money by purchasing exclusive leads from a company that has already done the hard work for you.

How much do roofing leads cost?#

On average, $20 to $80 is a reasonable rate for quality roofing leads. If you don’t know how to generate roofing leads efficiently, they can cost a lot more. However, with a smart lead generation strategy, you can secure valuable leads at a lower cost per acquisition (CPA).

Can I buy roofing leads?#

Yes, you can buy roofing leads. This approach saves time, which you can invest in closing deals and improving your business. However, you must consider your budget and determine if buying roofing leads delivers enough return on investment (ROI) to continue.