You’re in the right place if you want to find out how to get more construction leads for your residential projects and optimize your outreach. Increasing the quantity and quality of your leads is essential for the growth of your residential construction business so you can attract the right clients and maximize your marketing efforts. 

In this article, we’ll share how to get leads for construction through 17 proven tactics, as well as the pros and cons of each strategy, tips for qualifying construction leads, and more. Read on to take your lead generation to the next level. 

Click on a link below to jump straight to the section you’re most interested in:

• What is a construction lead?
• How to get leads for construction
• How to qualify construction leads

What is a construction lead?

Simply put, a residential construction lead is anyone who has engaged with your business via phone, email, web form submission, social media, networking, or other form of digital or in-person exchange. 

As with most businesses, residential construction leads fall into the following categories:

• Information qualified lead (IQL) - Someone who is seeking general information, but hasn’t expressed a specific interest in your services.
• Marketing qualified lead (MQL) - A prospective client who has inquired directly about your services and indicated a need for your offerings.
• Sales qualified lead (SQL) - A highly qualified prospect who meets your target client parameters and has a high likelihood of converting to a sale/new project for your business.

(We’ll discuss more later about qualifying construction leads and how best to approach these lead types.)

One last thing to note before we share how to find construction leads — it’s imperative as a business owner to define your ideal client first before exploring outreach strategies. Doing so will enable you to more accurately pinpoint your marketing efforts, as well as help you move on from engaging with less qualified leads that don’t match your goals so you don’t waste your time and resources. 

How to get leads for construction

Now that we’ve established what construction leads are and the importance of defining your target client, let’s explore how to get residential construction leads through these 17 powerful strategies.

Digital marketing 

Pros:

• Reach - Nowadays, prospective clients are most likely to use their computer/laptop or mobile device to search for the businesses and services they need, so utilizing digital marketing is an essential way to increase your reach.
• Scalable - You can test various digital marketing methods and decide which ones you’d like to invest in. If you want to know how to get more construction leads in a cost-effective way, digital marketing is one of the best techniques.
• Highly targeted - Digital marketing strategies enable you to be very targeted in your outreach, whether through audience demographics in your online advertising or selecting certain keywords to include on your website. 

Cons:

• Cost - Getting your digital marketing strategy done right can take some testing, so these techniques require some trial and error, as well as investment.
• Time commitment - Digital marketing also requires a good amount of time to set up, maintain, monitor, and optimize, so if you’re going to engage in these strategies, be prepared to commit some time to it or have someone manage this for you.

Tactics:

1. Build a construction website - Having a professional website for your business is a must-have when engaging in digital marketing. Your website is your online “home” for your business, which you can customize to suit your goals, highlight your services and showcase your past projects. Check out our Construction Website Inspiration to learn more.
2. Search engine optimization (SEO) - SEO involves writing copy for your website or blog that contains strategic keywords or keyword phrases you’ve selected in order to help you rank higher in search engine results. Utilizing SEO in the right ways can increase your chances of being found by prospective clients when they search online.
3. Content marketing  - As with SEO, content marketing such as blogging, videos and case studies provides more ways for your business to be found online and for future clients to gather more knowledge and engage with your business in a meaningful way. Explore How to Brand Your Construction Business to learn more.
4. Email marketing - Nurturing your residential construction prospects  through email marketing is a great way to “warm up” your leads with valuable information about your business, and provide tips and guidance on the construction process while sharing more about your offerings and brand. Don’t miss our guide for How to Do Email Marketing for Construction.
5. Social media marketing - Not only can social media marketing elevate your overall brand presence online, it can increase traffic to your website and drive actual leads to your business. As a highly visual marketing channel, social media is a powerful tool for showcasing your work to potential clients and connecting more directly with prospects. Read Social Media for Construction Businesses for more insights.
6. Lead providers - Using an all-inclusive lead provider service like Houzz Pro versus a pay-per-lead provider helps you reach more qualified clients more consistently and increase your online reputation. Trusted by over 3 million contractors, designers and other home service professionals, Houzz Pro helps pair you with the right homeowners with our Select Match and Live Connections services, and much more.
7. Paid targeted advertising - When you need to amplify your marketing reach online, paid local advertising through a service like Houzz Pro can help you reach the right audience. With millions of upscale homeowners coming to Houzz each month, advertising on Houzz’s channels gives you premium exposure to increase visibility and attract new clients.

Referral marketing

Pros:

• Good “word of mouth” marketing through reviews, referrals, and connections
• Less costly than other digital marketing strategies

Cons:

• Not as reliable or consistent as other forms of marketing
• Need to pay others for providing referrals in your referral program

Tactics:

1. Create profiles on customer review sites - In exploring how to get leads for construction, expanding your online presence through other customer review sites can help increase your “digital footprint” while also amplifying word-of-mouth marketing for your business online. 
2. Collect customer reviews - Encouraging clients to leave reviews on your own site helps legitimize your business  and gives a first-hand account of your work.
3. Offer a client referral program - Incentivizing former clients or complementary businesses through a referral program is a solid way to increase your outreach and gain more leads.
4. Reach out to friends and family - Getting referrals through the friends and family who are already supportive of your work can be invaluable for your business, so don’t overlook this tried-and-true referral strategy. 

Networking

Pros:

• Very personal and can lead to more meaningful engagement
• Ability to sell yourself directly to prospective clients, answer questions on the spot, and eliminate ambiguities

Cons:

• Time-consuming and requires in-person commitment away from business operations or project work
• More limited in its scope (not able to reach as many prospects at once)

Tactics:

1. Local groups - Whether through local business, trade, or marketing organizations, joining a local group can be a great way to find construction leads for your business.
2. Attend conferences or trade shows - Larger conferences and trade shows offer ample networking opportunities to share about your business and connect with prospective clients face-to-face.
3. Attend or support local events - Participating in or sponsoring local community events, sports teams, and charity events can help get the word out about your residential construction business right in your own backyard.
4. Partner with businesses in adjacent industries - Partnering with other complementary business owners can augment your client reach and value. Consider joining forces with adjacent local businesses, whether through business partnerships, joint project work, or cross-promotion to create a solid network and increase market reach. Check out Construction PR Tips to learn more.

Cold marketing

Pros:

• Can help make you “top of mind” when prospective clients need your services
• Underutilized and less competitive versus digital marketing

Cons:

• Can cast too wide of a net with unqualified prospects
• Costly and time-consuming

Tactics:

1. Door to door marketing - Identify the neighborhoods of your ideal clients, then visit door to door to introduce yourself and your services or have your sales team reach out to promote your business.
2. Print marketing - Create professional print mailers, such as postcards, flyers, or door hangers with compelling visuals and a call-to-action and have these distributed to your target neighborhoods and prospects. 

How to qualify construction leads

Whichever lead generation and outreach strategies you choose, you now know how to find construction leads in a variety of ways to suit your business and goals. It’s essential, though, to understand how to properly qualify and manage leads so you can maximize your time and effort. Here are a few tips and techniques:

• IQLs (information qualified leads) seeking general information about your business can be placed in a lead nurturing program such as email marketing where you can keep them updated about your business while slowly warming them up as a prospect.
• MQLs (marketing qualified leads) who have expressed interest in your services but aren’t ready to commit can also be placed in an email nurturing and direct follow-up program (via phone or email) that’s more tailored to their specific needs.
• SQLs (sales qualified leads) can be engaged more actively by providing a quote, a visually compelling proposal or preliminary 3D model, and direct follow-up calls and emails to help nurture into a project commitment.

Conclusion

Having a solid grasp of how to get leads for construction projects, how to target  your ideal client, maximize outreach and qualify leads can help give you the competitive advantage your residential construction business needs in your market. 

As the #1 site for renovating homeowners, let Houzz bring more construction leads to you by signing up for our Houzz Pro lead generation program.

Want more tips for gaining clients and increasing your bottom line? Read How to Increase Sales in Construction to learn more.