Storm season comes every year for roofing contractors. However, when and where the storm hits and the severity change every year.
There are many roofing contractors that have relied on big storms to generate most of their business.
Once the work dries up they have to rely on other channels to generate new customers.
The challenge with a lot of contractors is that they’ve never built a system that doesn’t rely on outside forces for new business.
Enter a CAS
What is a CAS?
A customer acquisition system (CAS) is a strategy that organizes your resources in a way that consistently generates new customers for your business.
There are two main parts to a CAS.
Lead generation and sales/conversions.
Both are equally important in generating revenue for your business.
Lead Generation: Can be online or offline.
The most common way that roofing companies generate leads is through door knocking/canvassing.
There are three main benefits that building a customer acquisition system will have on your business: Predictability and consistency, more referrals, and a higher conversion rate.
Benefit: #1 Predictability and Consistency
The biggest benefit of having a customer acquisition system is the consistency. Instead of relying on outside forces like stormy weather or referrals for new business a customer acquisition system produces results every month.
You can consistently predict how many leads a campaign will produce and how many conversions you’ll get from those leads.
Slow pay is part of the construction industry’s culture, and it’s not something most of you have a great deal of control over.
With a CAS you can predict when you will get paid by the number of leads you’ll generate and the sales that go with it.
If you consistently generate 30-40 new leads a month and convert 5-10 new customers you know what your projections will be in 4 months.
This allows your business to predict revenue in advance. This allows you to meet your payroll and pay for materials, etc.
One of the best ways to illustrate the power of a CAS is a metaphor.
The Faucet Philosophy
You know water can’t flow unless water is turned on first. The same is true for business. You won’t get customers unless the faucet and water line are turned on and primed.
The reality is when most roofers try to turn on their faucets no water comes out because they don’t realize the water line is actually off. Or if the water does come out it’s just a trickle.
Instead of a flow of refreshing cool, clean, crisp, water that satisfies your thirst, they find a cup of brown nasty dirty water.
This is the harsh reality for most roofers. No matter how hard they try they are stuck with either a feast or a famine.
The water flows freely sometimes and they have more work than they can handle while other times the waterline runs dry and they’re just trying to keep things going until the next job comes around.
Their system isn’t primed to grow.
Only roofing business owners with a predictable system of for generating qualified leads can truly say
“When I turn on the faucet, I get the exact amount of cool, clear water I want.”
Do you rely on outside forces to generate new customers?
The weather will always be a factor in roofing but it doesn’t have to be the main revenue-producing factor for your business.
Instead of storm chasing, you can actually build a system in which customers that have storm damage come to you.
Benefit #2 More Referrals
Not many people realize that in order to get a lot of referrals you need a large customer base.
To get a large customer you either have to be in business for many years or use a CAS to build it in record time.
Generating new customers from referrals should be one of the main channels of growth.
However, this should not be the only way that your business gets new customers. This puts your business in a perilous position because referrals are inconsistent on a month to month basis.
There is no predictability
You have no idea how many referrals you will get a month to month.
By consistently promoting your message to people that don’t know who you are you will be building a bigger customer base.
This bigger customer base will lead to more relationships, more opportunities, and more referrals.
Benefit #3 Higher Conversion Rates
According to Roofing Contractor Magazine over 90% of roofing jobs begins with an online search.
Even you get a referral from someone they will most likely search your business online. People will judge the type of business you have by your online presence.
If you have an online presence that positions your company as the expert and authority in your marketplace you will have a much easier time with conversions in the online and offline world.
2 Main Channels To Build A CAS
AdWords
The best thing about AdWords/PPC is the predictability. Google has a tool called Keyword Planner that lets you know how many people are searching for roofing contractors in any location.
It provides a 12-month snapshot of searches in any area you choose.
Unlike most channels, people do not get tired of seeing your ads. In fact, over 50% of people do not know that they are even clicking on an advertorial.
Most advertising campaigns have a limited lifespan. AdWords is one of the few channels in which the results get better over time.
AdWords gives you the ability to position your company in front of people at the top of the buying cycle.
People that have roof problems and are in a need of a roofer that can solve their problem.
Use a landing page
For a roofing AdWords campaign, having a landing page is a must. Unfortunately, there are many roofing companies that send their paid traffic to the homepage of their site instead of a landing page.
Sending traffic to a landing page is a much more effective strategy than sending it to a website.
Target high commercial intent keywords
Always bid on commercial intent keywords. These are the money keywords that generate the most calls.
They are usually the most expensive. I recommend you use Unbounce or Clickfunnels to build your landing pages.
Use Negative Keywords
How do you make sure that your ads are not targeting tire kickers? By using negative keywords.
Negative keywords allow you to exclude people that are tire kickers or people that are not related to what you can service.
Use Call Tracking
Call Tracking is an important element in determining the success or failure of a campaign. Call tracking allows you to see how many calls you receive, the best keywords, and the quality of the leads. We use Call Rail to track our calls.
Facebook Advertising
Facebook is too big of a channel that you can ignore. There over 2 Billion monthly users on Facebook.
The average American spends 45 minutes a day on Facebook. There are many roofing companies that have seen success with Facebook Ads.
You can check out the Video I did with Roofing Annex here:
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There are a few strategies that work well with Facebook.
Gift Card Offer
The most important part of a successful Facebook Advertising campaign for a small business is the offer.
What unique offer can you provide that will immediately make your company stand out?
Offering a Home Depot gift card for $25 for every roof inspection you do can be a great way to get new opportunities into the pipeline.
Think about spending $25 per appointment.
If you spend $1000 that would be 40 gift cards.
40 Gift Cards is 40 Roof Inspections.
Out of those 40 Roof Inspections, how many do you think you will convert?
If you can convert just 5 that turns into a roof replacement then your campaign will be highly profitable.
Storm Ad
You can use hail tracking software to advertise your services to the specific neighborhoods that a storm hit.
A lot of neighborhoods have no solicitation rules. This allows you to bypass this and directly reach those people that have been affected by storms.
Offline
You can build a similar system in the offline world using door knocking and canvassing as lead generation channels.
The leads you’ll get from these channels are often superior to internet leads. The big drawback is scaling this system.
With paid advertising, you just turn on a switch and you can scale but with door knocking you need multiple people to execute your plan.
Conclusion
Paid advertising is one of the most predictable ways to generate new customers. However, paid advertising and lead generation is only ½ the battle.
The other half is sales and conversions.
One can not go without the other.
Once you have this system in your business you can predict how many new customers you will get and how much revenue this will generate.
In the end, the three main benefits of having this system for your business are predictability, more referrals, and higher conversion rates.
This is superior to relying on stormy weather and canvassing neighborhoods after the storm. I’m not saying you should stop but this system will get you better results.
