Now you know how to get all licensed and “official” in your state, you know the importance of having an amazing website for your business, and you know why you should have a registered corporation.

Now what do you need? More clients, of course.

When it comes to getting leads for your business, there’s general two different “levels”. Level 1 is when you’re just starting out, a brand new general contractor business looking for its first clients. Then level 2 where you have some completed jobs, satisfied customers, and you’re looking for ways to drive more leads to your business on a consistent basis so you can keep growing.

Level 1 is mostly only applicable to those who are just getting started. Level 2 can be for these people too – but it’s also for everyone else. Whether your business is 1 year old or 7 years old, the level 2 information can help you drive more leads and grow your business.

If you’re already an established general contractor, you might want to go ahead and skip down to level 2.

Level 1: Getting Started

This is going to be easier for some people than others, depending on your connections and how well known you are in your local area.

But start off with the easy stuff – spread the word that you’re now a licensed general contractor and you’re looking for work.

Tell all your family and friends, and ask them to recommend you to anyone they know who might need some construction work done. This may sound simple to you, but the knock-on effects for your new business can be stunning. Just be telling your family and friends, you give yourself a great shot at getting some initial customers.

They want to help you succeed, so anytime they find someone in their life (maybe a friend at work, or someone from the golf course) who needs a general contractor – they’re going to recommend you. Those first few customers are the first step… you do great work for them and not only will you become their “go to” contractor for future jobs, but they’ll sing your praises to their friends and family which might get you some referral jobs.

Tip: Make some business cards with your name, profession (general contractor!), and phone number and give a few each to your friends and family so they can pass them to anyone who might be interested.

You could also try some other interesting things in your local area – maybe speak to local businesses or community centers and let them know that you’re a new contractor seeking work.

Maybe you can offer a discount to get the ball rolling? You might not want to work for less, but think of it this way: you offer a discount to entice people to work with you rather than other contractors, then this gives you a chance to impress them with your work. When impressed, your customers will recommend you to other people who you can charge at full price. So essentially, it’s the same as paying for marketing or advertising.

And with that, we’re on to level 2!

Level 2: More Leads, More Growth

So at this point you should be up and running. You have at least some completed jobs under your belt, you’re gaining some satisfied customers and maybe even some happy referrals.

You’re making some money and you’re on the right track, so now it’s time to take it to the next level. Now that you have money coming in, it makes sense to re-invest some of that money into your business to take it to the next level.

This part of the successful contractor blueprint involves advertising your business to bring in more jobs. There are many ways to do this – traditional advertising, and also modern digital advertising (which involves your website, and is insanely powerful).

Traditional Advertising

There are lots of ways that you can advertise your business in the local area. You should start with some of these simple things:

• Pay someone to hand out posters or flyers, or have them put in local community centers or shops, or pretty much anywhere that people from the community will see them. Keep them simple – a nice picture, a sentence or two about what you do, and a big “CALL NOW” message with your phone number.
• Get some signage that you can put outside a customers premises while you’re working. Just your business name and your phone number. People passing by see someone is having construction work done and that they’ve hired you – that’s a good sign. It’s also good to do simple things like keep the work area nice and clean, it gives a further good impression.
• Take out some ads in local newspapers.
• Get your business added to local business directories.
• Try to get to know other general contractors in the area – they’re your competitors, but maybe they’ll pass you some jobs when they’re all booked up.
• Also get to know general contractors in areas close to yours. Often if a contractor gets a job that’s too far from their base of operations, they will pass it to a local contact – that can be you!
• Actively look for jobs from businesses or government agencies that you can submit a bid for.

Quick tip: You might try a bunch of these methods and get some clients, but you won’t necessarily know which method was the most effective at landing you new business. So a simple solution: ask your leads or clients where they found you. This will help you know which advertising methods are working the best for your business, and thus which you should keep investing in.

Now we get to the really exciting part, digital advertising.

Digital Advertising

Welcome to 21st century advertising. It’s a whole new world, which has really only gotten very popular for businesses within the last 5-10 years.

Digital advertising is very powerful, and very cost effective.

Modern technology allows you as a business owner to find your ideal customers online, and advertise your services to them. Because general contracting is very customized to the clients needs, you want to use digital marketing to generate leads (rather than sales).

A lead is when someone fills out the contact form on your website, which basically tells you “hey there mr. general contractor, I’m interested in your services, please call me back”.

After that, it’s your job to contact the lead and close the deal.

So here’s how it works: your lovely website has a contact form which leads can fill out. You show ads for your business other places around the internet (Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and many others) – a person clicks on your ads, arrives on your website, and fills out your contact form. Then you call them back and close the deal.

There’s also an ever growing number of technologies and tools that can be used to make your businesses digital advertising even more effective, but let’s leave that stuff to the marketing experts.

You Should Hire A Digital Marketing Expert

Digital marketing is insanely powerful, but also pretty complex. You could of course learn to do it yourself, and perhaps it’s worth doing at least a little research to learn more. But really, you have better things to focus on – you have a business to run, after all.

This is where the marketing agencies come in.

You hire an agency and let them take care of all the complex stuff. They will charge a fee of course, and you will also have to pay to have your ads shown to potential customers.

But, these are expert marketers – and they understand that you’re making an investment in them, and that you need a positive return. That’s what they’re good at – their job is to make sure you generate more revenue than it costs you to hire them and show your ads to folks.

Hiring an advertising agency can be tricky. There’s a lot of bad ones out there, so you need to be really careful.

We proudly recommend our friends at LeadBurst.com

They’re experts in the field of digital advertising, and they can help you grow your business vastly and quickly. They’re also friendly, and they absolutely understand the value of a dollar.

Click here to learn more about LeadBurst.com and how they can help your business grow consistently. It’s the best choice you’ll make this week.

So there you have it –  a crash course in modern marketing for your general contractor business. I hope you got some value from this email, and now have a better understanding of what you need to do to have marketing grow your business.