Creating a website for your contracting business is no easy feat. Turning browsing into clicks is one thing, but turning clicks into leads is another. So how do you get your website’s sales funnel working for you, as a contracting business that runs on commissions?
For one thing, gone are the days of phone books and storefronts—the internet is where 97% of people go to learn more about your business, with your website serving as the central place where clients can access you and your offers. The goal is to begin or continue a relationship there.
How Do I Build a Rapport With Potential Clients?
To create trust and credibility with website guests, you’ll have to put yourself out there. Showcase what you’re expecting them to pay for—no one blindly hands over money. Trust must be earned.
Include things like positive testimonials and photos of your best work. This shows them that others in their position have taken the risk before them and had a great experience.
Then consider presenting a gift: something of value in exchange for their email/business (discounts, pdfs, etc.). This way, you can follow up if you don’t get the initial lead. When you give, people feel they owe you something in return. Your landing page is a great spot for this type of subscription prompt.
They’ll also appreciate free and useful content. Blogs/Q&A sections are a great way to present relevant info that makes their experience both clarifying and rewarding. But be sure to keep your most valuable stuff at a price point.
How Do I Make My Website Look Amazing?
The appearance of your site and its composition will directly affect the path of navigation and visit time. Creating memorable branding is just the beginning—optimizing it for enticement and clarity takes practice.
Your priority should be your mobile site since more than half of your visitors will be browsing on a smartphone. Search engines also reward mobile sites with better results.
A minimalist, organized layout, consisting of an eye-catching image beside a clickable portal, is going to herd your guests where you need them without distraction. The last thing you want is confusion or frustration.
For contracting websites, CTAs should lead to a contact submission form, free estimate form, or your contact info page.
How Do I Increase Leads from the Backend of My Website?
Behind the scenes strategizing will affect how many people find your site, stay there, and click. There’s a lot of ground to cover.
Hiring a web host can be incredibly beneficial and efficient. Web hosts do a lot of the SEO visibility work for you, keep loading speeds up, and keep everything up-to-date—so you’re easily found and relevant. Otherwise, you’ll have to optimize your SEO yourself. To do this make sure on the backend of your site you are:
- Using keywords naturally in the content
- Writing longform (1600+ words)
- Tagging content and pictures
- Getting good backlinks
- Using analytics as feedback
- Creating enticing metadata excerpts
- Making URL slugs/permalinks simple
- Linking internally and externally.
Bots will crawl your site and decide if it’s up to par to present, so these details have to be in order and cohesive, with quality readability.
You’ll want your site to act as a net that holds the guest there, travelling through your content. This is called a sales funnel. Guests often need a minute (and a few touch points/impressions) before finally buying in. You can keep presenting yourself in different ways until you become “familiar.”
A great sales funnel may start through your social media pages, which link to a blog post on the website. This blog post can contain a CTA that leads to the landing page, which then prompts the prospect for an email. From there, you can proceed to send regular newsletters plugging CTAs back to your site until finally, your subscribers feel comfortable enough to book you. This circulation keeps them in your net until you win them over.
Patience is a virtue, but if all of your platforms are optimized for the guest’s comfort and you’ve established your authority, it’ll take no time at all to get that phone call. Then, their word-of-mouth testimonial may become your next funnel starting point for a new lead.
In an ocean of marketing and other hungry website hosts, don’t let your guests get lost at sea. Be the smooth sailing trip through information and reassurance—that’s what people need to commit. Just like any relationship, you must invest value into a relationship if you want to gain trust, loyalty, and commitment. Your contractor’s website is your first date. Don’t strike out!
For more awesome business development tips, check out our new and improved, eco-friendly website! Yes, we are asking you on a date. And yes, this is the CTA. Don’t make it awkward.
