Cold calling no longer generates leads like it used to. Lead generation is the way to go if you want to build a sizable customer base for your painting business. Lead generation helps your business stand out in a competitive landscape by securing a steady flow of painting leads that can drive revenue. In this article, we’ll look at how to get painting leads from the residential and commercial sectors. Some will cost your hard-earned dollars, others nothing but your time. Let’s dive into the best free and paid ways to get leads and grow your painting business.
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How to Get Painting Leads for Free
Here’s how to get free painting leads for your business.
Optimize Your Google Business Profile
If you have a Google Business Profile for your painting business, optimizing it can help you generate leads. People who search for your painting services will see your Google Business Profile displayed in two areas:
- Google Maps
- Google Search Results, aka the Map Pack
The Map Pack provides essential information related to your business. Given that 44% of local search results lead to the Map Pack, you should update it with all the relevant information your prospects seek. Include your business name, registered address, phone number, and a description of your services.
Your business profile should also feature recent paint job photos or photos of you or your crew working on a painting project. After completing a job, ask satisfied customers to leave positive reviews so potential leads can verify your services.
The more reviews, the better. This is because Google’s algorithm pushes business profiles with higher reviews to the top. This increases your search visibility and attracts more leads. The best part? You can do all of this for free.
Post Viral Content on Social Media
Having a business in the digital age means you can use social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, to get free leads.
On Facebook, you can create a business profile for your painting company and feature behind-the-scenes pictures of a painting job or promote special offers and discounts. On Instagram, you can share videos of painting tips or photos of a before-and-after project with relevant hashtags. Consistent posting helps your business stay relevant and creates awareness among interested customers. Especially if your content goes viral, you’ll have an influx of leads that cost you little to almost nothing.
Across both channels, you want to include a clear CTA, such as “Get a Free Estimate,” to encourage your target market to reach out. You can also use LinkedIn to share important company updates and team successes to broaden your network of home service professionals.
Get Referrals and Word-of-Mouth Leads
You’ve probably heard success stories of fellow painters who built a business through word-of-mouth referrals. Building a successful painting business on referrals alone is rare. However, it is one of the best free ways to get started. You only need one client to demonstrate your skills and encourage them to spread the word to their neighbors, friends, or relatives.
Aside from in-person referrals, it would help if you encouraged your clients to leave a positive testimonial or review online. These can be on Yelp, Google My Business, or other local online directories or social media pages. Consider incentivizing your clients with future discounts or a one-time free maintenance service in exchange for a review if necessary.
Besides boosting visibility, virtual reviews help your business rank higher in search engine results. As such, they generate several free leads from prospects who see your profile and read your reviews.
Partner With Local Businesses to Get Commercial Leads
Wondering how to get commercial painting leads? Networking and partnering with other home service experts is an excellent way to expand your commercial client base and get recurring business. Real estate agents, construction contractors, and interior designers are constantly looking for reliable painting contractors to recommend to their clients. You can be one of them.
Your networking strategy should focus on delivering value, such as offering a referral discount or a complimentary service that earns you rave reviews. Networking with large-scale contractors can also help you find larger commercial projects.
Ensure you participate in industry events or local community activities where you can meet other professionals. Over time, networking with the right people can help you garner a steady stream of quality commercial leads for your painting business.
List Your Business on Online Directories
You can advertise your painting business for free on websites like Houzz, Yelp, and Angi, where homeowners and businesses look for reliable home service providers. It’s amazing how quickly you can attract quality leads through this list once you receive positive client reviews. Listing your business on multiple directories boosts your chances of being noticed by a wider clientele visiting these sites.
Your listing must be appealing and accurate so that potential clients will choose you from a list of similar services. You can ensure this by providing:
- Detailed service descriptions
- Clear contact info
- Professional images of completed paint jobs
When a customer leaves a review, engage with it professionally. Also, include relevant keywords such as “interior painting services” or “commercial painting contractor” to help you improve visibility.
Engage in Reddit Threads & Facebook Groups
Community groups are an underutilized gem when it comes to generating leads. Hyperlocal Facebook groups are a good way to connect with community members looking for painting contractors. As part of these groups, you can pitch your services to interested members and offer them timely advice to build trust.
It may take some time to yield results, but don’t worry. After establishing your reputation as a painting expert in these groups, you might become the preferred painting contractor for various homeowners and businesses in your community.
Reddit threads offer a similar platform where you can contribute to paint job discussions or respond to painting service requests. By joining Subreddits, you can interact with community members and network with other service providers in the industry. You can find active leads on popular Subreddits like r/HomeImprovement, r/Construction, and r/tradepainters.
Best Paid Methods to Get Painting Leads
If you’d like to try a different route, here’s how to get painting job leads using paid strategies.
Create a Professional Website for Your Painting Business
Investing in a professional website for your painting company shows your customers you mean business. It is one of the most effective ways to attract leads, given that nearly 80% of consumers report searching online for local businesses.
Aside from being user-friendly and easy to navigate, your website should also have a mobile-friendly design. This is because most consumers look up this information on their smartphones.
Websites with a clean and modern layout perform best, especially when they include a service menu and customer testimonials that serve as social proof of the quality of work. Including a clear and compelling call to action (CTA) is an excellent way to get prospects to inquire about your services and get leads.
You can also use search engine optimization (SEO) techniques with regular blogging to boost your site’s visibility in local searches. SEO-led blogging makes it 13 times more likely to get a positive return on investment (ROI).
Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
Did you know your business can earn $2 for every $1 spent on Google Ad campaigns? Paid advertising can lead you to the heart of your online customer base by targeting your key demographic.
When people actively search for related keywords online, Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising helps you generate immediate and high-quality painting leads. For example, when potential clients search for keywords like “painting contractors near me” or “house painting companies,” Google Ads can help your services appear at the top of these search results. To optimize your Google Ads campaign, you should target the right keywords by:
- Using specific keywords like “residential painting contractors” or “commercial painting companies near me” instead of broad terms like “painting services”
- Including long-tail keywords that indicate a specific need or intent, like “best painting contractors for small apartments”
- Identifying negative keywords to prevent your ads from appearing in irrelevant searches, like “DIY painting tips”
- Including location-specific keywords to attract leads from your service area, such as suffixing “near me” or “near X neighborhood” after a relevant keyword
You can also benefit more from your PPC campaigns by identifying the ad formats that generate the most leads for your business. For example, search ads allow you to target high-intent users actively seeking painting services. Call-only ads are ideal if you want potential clients to contact you directly from the paid ad. Lastly, LSAs or Local Service Ads work best for residential services. They include a Google Guarantee sign that inspires trust and helps convert clicks to leads.
Learn More: Housecall Pro’s + Google Local Service Ads integration.
Facebook and Instagram Ads for Targeted Leads
If you’re not keen on Google Ads, consider Facebook and Instagram. They are effective paid advertising avenues for attracting commercial and residential painting leads. You may be able to target a more segmented audience via these social media platforms, based on interests and user behavior. Use the paid ads feature to promote your social media posts, such as:
- Compelling video content of your on-the-job painting process or timelapse
- Persuasive before and after images or a dramatic transformation of a completed paint job
- Carousel ads that feature various painting projects, the services you offer, or any special discounts or deals
Ensure you add clear captions highlighting your services, followed by a CTA, like “Get a Free Estimate” or “Request a Quote today.”
You can also use Facebook ads to retarget page visitors who didn’t convert to leads. Use tools like Facebook Pixel, which tracks prospects when they engage with your ads. Using the data from this tool, you can create a custom audience for your retargeting campaign. Next, you can create custom ads for these target groups, depending on where they are in their customer journey. For example, display a special discount ad to incentivize customers who typed a message to your business, but later retracted it.
Retargeting this audience via ads gently reminds them of your services and creates a top-of-mind association, encouraging them to return. Retargeted ads work wonders. They are 70% more likely to convert into leads than first-time impressions.
Use Email Marketing to Nurture and Convert Leads
Creating personalized emails for your prospects is a proven way to nurture relationships and convert them into long-term clients. Segmented email campaigns can impact your business, with some marketers reporting a 760% increase in revenue with this strategy!
Email marketing entails creating an email list of both past and present leads. This includes your past clients and people who responded to your ads or filled out an inquiry via your contact form. The next step is to segment this list on factors such as:
- Location
- Service type, i.e., residential vs. commercial
- Engagement level
- Customer lifecycle stage
Now, you can start creating valuable email sequence campaigns for each segment. For example, you can send residential prospects tips outlining the top color trends or color combinations for their home. As for your commercial prospects, you can email them maintenance tips for paint jobs or case studies that showcase your work. Alternatively, you can email limited-time offers or special promos to create a sense of urgency and convert leads.
Invest In Content Marketing
“Content is king” is more than just a marketing catchphrase; it holds true for a reason. Content marketing shows you how to get more painting leads over the long term by posting useful blogs on your website. This way, your prospects see you as an expert in the painting business.
To do this, you must build a blogging calendar that publishes valuable content. For example, you can post blogs about DIY painting projects and how to pick the best paint and color or how to prepare a home for painting.
Creating such marketable blogs helps you attract organic leads. Most importantly, they boost your SEO and make your business more discoverable – leading to long-term leads and conversions.
Create Eye-Catching Lawn Signs
Digital marketing efforts can bring huge wins for your business, but sometimes, a simple and classic approach like lawn signage works best. It’s inexpensive, highly visible, and attracts local attention.
They endorse your work by showcasing your services to anyone looking for a painting contractor in the neighborhood. But most of all, they offer concrete proof of a successful paint job and validate your expertise with social testimony. All you have to do is ask a client if you could put up a sign in their yard for a few weeks to market your services.
The best-advertised lawn signs are professional and easy to read. Ensure your lawn sign displays your business name or logo prominently. It should also briefly describe your services and include contact information. You can also add a catchy CTA to encourage prospects to contact you, such as “Add Color to Your Home and Life — Call Us for a Fresh Coat Today!”
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Lead Generation Strategies to Avoid for Your Painting Company
Now that you know how to get leads for painting, here are some lead-generation strategies that cause more harm than good.
Avoid Using Aggressive Sales Tactics
Aggressive sales tactics may have worked back in the day, but we know better now. Being too pushy can drive nearly 84% of your customers away. Even before you’ve worked with a customer, they create a negative impression of your painting business. Instead, customers respond more positively to businesses that respect them and give them the space and time to make informed decisions.
While the need to hard sell can feel tempting when looking for leads, consider a more thoughtful strategy. Soft sales techniques can build a natural rapport with prospective clients. For example, offer them advice without obligations and schedule timely follow-ups, building a trustworthy relationship that encourages them to consider your services more organically.
Avoid Buying From Lead Generation Companies
Buying leads from lead-gen companies like HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, or CraftJack is neither effective nor sustainable for your business. Their most glaring drawback is that these companies offer shared leads, meaning multiple painting businesses like yours compete for the same customer. Such low-quality, non-exclusive leads may force you to quote lower prices to undercut your competitor, which affects profitability.
Such services also steal focus from your online presence by directing leads to your profile on their website. As such, you lose a chance to build an independent online presence that can and will attract organic leads over time.
Lastly, the cost per lead can be high, and there is no guarantee that the paid lead will convert into a client. With such high costs and little guarantee of an ROI, you’ll be unable to justify paid leads as a worthwhile investment.
Avoid Not Tracking Your Lead Sources
The most common mistake painting businesses make is failing to track where their leads come from. When you don’t track your leads, you fail to pinpoint which strategy is working – data you can use to optimize your marketing efforts. Working without this data is akin to shooting in the dark as you continue to invest in underperforming tactics instead of maximizing those that work for your business.
For example, successful lead tracking might reveal that most of your leads come from Google Ads instead of social media. Accordingly, you can allocate more of your budget to Google’s PPC campaigns. CRM systems and automated marketing tools can help you track your leads better, leading to higher conversion rates.
Turn More Leads Into Loyal Customers With Painting Business Software
You can choose from a number of free and paid methods to generate leads for your painting business, including:
- Social media marketing
- Targeted advertising
- Content marketing
- Networking
Choosing the right approach can seem confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. The best way to go about this is to test different strategies and track your leads to figure out which ones work best. Besides lead generation, the job of a painting contractor entails a delicate balance between good service and efficient client management.
Housecall Pro has a suite of marketing tools and painting business software to make this balancing act easier for you and your painting company. Enjoy seamless online booking, sending quotes that win more jobs, faster invoicing, and with integrated voice solutions your business has no choice but to grow. Scale your painting business to new heights by starting your free 14-day Housecall Pro trial today!
