6. Struggling With Lead Generation? 8 Organic Marketing Strategies That Actually Work for Contractors

In this episode, we talk about something that's made a huge difference in our business.

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Right now, we are receiving about 30 % of our leads that are coming organically from

Google.

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And guess what?

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We are not running any type of ads.

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Truth is, this did not happen overnight, but it did come from focusing on building a real

foundation for our online presence.

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Today, I'm going to share with you a few things

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that we've been doing that has helped us build that.

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Hey, I'm Che Toya.

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I've spent more than 10 years in construction, working behind the scenes in marketing,

hiring, and I've seen how overwhelming it can be to grow a business.

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That's how we've learned to build a sustainable business using clear systems, strong

communication, and intentional recruiting.

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If you're ready for better hiring, smarter marketing, and a business that doesn't fall

apart when you step away,

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Welcome to building better contractor businesses.

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Before we jump into today's episode, I want to invite you to join our Building the Better

Contractor Business Facebook group.

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This is a space where contractors can come, connect, ask questions, and share what's

working or not working in their business.

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This is a group where we talk about things such as building better systems, creating more

consistent work, and just growing a stronger contractor business.

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If that sounds like something that you're currently looking for, be sure to check out the

show notes.

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The link will be below.

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So when it comes to marketing and SEO, I want to be completely honest with you.

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For years, we tried different marketing companies.

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We've hired so many people that said that they could build our business to the next level.

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We paid people to build websites.

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We paid for marketing services.

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And honestly,

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We never really saw the results we expected.

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One situation really stuck with me was that we were added to a subscription for someone to

build us a website.

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And as soon as we stopped paying the subscription and also the services that we paid for

it for them to build the website, we lost everything that they had built.

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We lost our website.

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We were devastated.

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I was very upset and the website was gone and we realized we had no control over that

website and I was pissed.

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And that was a huge big wake up call for me.

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Understanding that we did not have no control over this website.

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Understanding that if I wanted to grow our business we needed to really understand what

was happening and understand marketing.

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So one of the things that I started doing was Googling our company, as well as other low

voltage companies that were also here in the Valley.

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And I paid, really paid attention to what came up, especially the stuff that I seen for

our organization.

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If I seen anything that was outdated, if something was inaccurate, or if something just

didn't represent our business the right way, I focused on updating it, correcting it, or

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improving it.

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Because when someone searches your company,

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that it's their first impression of your business.

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And that's something a lot of contractors never take a look at.

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Around the same time, I started learning more about SEO and online presence.

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Also, when COVID happened, I had all the time in the world.

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I just had a baby and I thought I might as well learn marketing.

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And I also want to be clear about something.

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I am not an SEO expert.

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Everything I've learned was because I wanted to grow our business and to understand how

people were finding us.

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I wanted to understand why people buy to learn the psychology of marketing.

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really dove deep in learning marketing and learning why people buy.

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And this was all around from COVID and I thought it was very important that I spent that

time wisely and that's what I did.

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And what I started to realize is that building organic leads really comes down to

consistency.

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It does not happen overnight, unfortunately, but over time, we started noticing something.

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More people were finding us online.

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More people were reaching out organically.

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And today, about 30 % of our leads come in organically from Google.

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And we are still building that foundation today.

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And this really, really excites me that we've built a business oh through organic

marketing and 30 % of our business comes from online presence.

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So I want to share a few things that we've been doing that has helped us and how we

started building that foundation.

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So I think the things that I'm going to share with you is the basics.

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very, very important that these are the things that you guys have in place, just simple

things that has helped for us.

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And I am, as I said, I am no SEO expert, just things that I have found that has helped us

grow our business online.

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I have spent thousands of hours watching YouTube videos, as well as paying for courses.

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I have also taken courses at CSN, as well as courses that I've

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purchased when it came to marketing, just to learn, understand why people buy, and then

also just to have an idea of how to grow our business organically online.

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So number one is to just make sure you have a Google business profile.

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And so in the past, your Google business profile used to be called Google My Business.

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That is no longer what it's called.

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If you search on Google,

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for you to create a Google business profile, you will see an option to do so.

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And one of the things that I will say is PO boxes aren't allowed.

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Another thing is that if you do not have an address, just make it where it's hidden.

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I know a lot of times when we're speaking to other SEO experts, they're always like, you

gotta have an address.

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But now the thing that Google has made it is where if you do not have an actual location,

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and you're trying to use a PO box or use whatever, they're now asking you to do a video to

show your location.

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And to me, that's been a problem.

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If you have like a home address or you have somewhere where you don't want people to know.

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So if you're not able to add an address, don't worry.

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I just, know, the most important thing for you to right now to understand is for you to

build that foundation, you have to make sure you have a Google business profile.

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Very first.

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important thing.

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And then also when it comes to making sure you have a Google business profile that it's

set up, what's very nice about having a Google page, you can place it to if you if you're

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a service provider, and you are focused in like I live in Las Vegas.

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So I can place it in all the major locations here in Nevada.

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Nevada can actually be very big.

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So maybe I don't do every area.

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and I don't have to with Google, you can set it exactly how far you wanna go.

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So I do think that's very important is for you to set the location of where you're at,

which will help you with your local, for people to find you locally, organically.

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Also, I do talk to a lot of business owners and contractors, and I'm also always surprised

that so many contractors or business owners, I have so many friends, I've been in this

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business world for about 12 years now.

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And so many people that I know don't have the first step of building an organic business

online and that's having a Google business profile.

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Of course, there's hundreds of other things.

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But to me, the most important thing is to at least set yourself up on Google.

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Very important.

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You know, they say Google is the number one page for people for searching.

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I know AI and all those different sites are, know, possibly changing that.

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But as of right now,

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Google is one of the number one locations that people are actually doing searches.

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So for that reason, be sure to have your business set up on Google.

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And it's very easy.

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When I first set it up, I watched a YouTube video.

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So, and also chat GBT or whatever software you're using will walk you through it as well.

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Nowadays, that's what I'm doing if I have a question on how to do something.

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And when if you're not on Google, that's going to be a huge opportunity that's missed.

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And as I said, Google is still the number one search engine that might change in the

future.

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But for now, that is number one.

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And when it does come to these other platforms, and when it comes to AI, know, chat GBT

has been a huge one.

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Jim and I, all these different softwares, they're pulling their information from online.

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So for that reason, you know, start off with having a Google page is actually going to

help you be found on AI, chat GBT, or whatever software you're currently using.

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So if your company is not there, be sure to get there.

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So if not, it's going to be a lot harder for people to find you.

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Number two, and I think this is very, very important, is focusing on Google reviews.

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So this is something that our team has been very focused on getting Google reviews.

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And I couldn't do this by ourself.

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We are still building that foundation of Google reviews.

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I believe we currently have 168 Google reviews.

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So still not a whole lot, but we've received that amount of Google reviews just because

we've been focused throughout the years just asking customers.

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So I think that it's something that we've been consistently asking for.

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Our team has had to understand the importance of it.

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We've made it part of our culture.

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We've done contests with our teams to encourage them to ask for reviews.

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I think this is very important.

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And then also one of our last contests that we did was whoever got the most Google

reviews, we would take them to dinner with Kevin and I.

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And it wasn't just a regular dinner.

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We took them to the top of the world.

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The top of the world is here in Las Vegas.

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And it's an amazing location.

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It's at the stratosphere, the strat, whatever you want to call it nowadays.

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But the strat has a restaurant called the top of the world.

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And it goes into kind of a view of a circle.

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and you're going around and around and around and you get to see the whole entire view of

Las Vegas.

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So if you have not been there, I do recommend for you to go out and check it out.

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It's a really nice restaurant.

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And so the person who won that, it was him and his wife, was one of our technicians at the

time.

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He is now a estimator, so he's grown within the company.

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But him and his wife, we know we took them up there.

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We just had a good time, a great time.

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We got to know him a little bit better.

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We got to know his wife a little bit better.

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And it was just a fun way to get our team, everyone involved.

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But the most important thing that we've really talked about was the importance of the

reviews being real.

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Google doesn't want you to get fake reviews.

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They have to be real.

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They have to be from actual people who use your services.

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I would also say they don't have to be your actual client who signed the job.

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Where like we tell our people in the field all the time,

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If there's someone who comments, you're doing an amazing job, ask them for a Google

review.

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They're real.

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There are people who actually see you doing the work.

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So getting Google reviews to us has been something that we've been growing on in making

sure that it's been consistent.

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We talk about it at our weekly meetings.

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know, last week I talked about the how we are running our team meetings.

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And so those are something that I speak about every week.

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I'm talking about Google reviews every week.

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So I do think that is something that needs to be completed and it needs to be completed on

a consistent basis.

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Like you can't just one week, I'm gonna get 10 Google reviews, but after that, I'm gonna

get none.

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So it has to be something done over time, not just, we're gonna get 20 Google reviews and

then tomorrow we won't get none.

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Like Google looks at things like that.

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They want you to be consistent.

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So for that reason, make sure your...

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consistently asking for Google reviews.

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Number three is posting photos consistently.

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So with Google's business page, you're able to actually post post and you're also able to

post photos.

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And so these two things can be used for two different things.

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Like your photos, they can only be images, no text, and you just post a photo.

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And then your posts can be like company updates that's going around on the company.

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I mean, it only be one photo at a time.

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And so that as well, of course, you have to be consistently doing it because Google wants

to see that you're consistent, not just, I'm going to post one time and never post again.

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So make sure you're consistent.

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Also make sure that you're, you know, that you are not just posting it once and you're

forgetting about it.

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Like it has to be consistent.

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And then one of my biggest struggles throughout the years, you know,

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being more on the marketing side of things now and the technicians being more on the

getting the job done kind of on that side.

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You know, it's hard to ask the guys for pictures and be like, hey, take pictures when

they're just so focused on getting their work and they're enjoying, they're doing the

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things that they possibly like, but I could never ever get pictures.

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So that was always a struggle.

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But what has helped us recently was

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We started uploading photos into our CRM system on a daily basis.

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So when they do their daily closeouts, they're also uploading photos.

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And these photos, our project manager is actually going to review them.

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And the photos that look good are the ones that she believes that she said she should send

to me.

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Those are the ones that she's gonna actually send to the marketing team.

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That way we can actually post them and do the things that we do with marketing.

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So we will use those pictures for Google as well as posting as well.

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Also very important that Google, the photos do not have to just be the job sites.

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A lot of people think the only photos that can be completed is job site photos, but that

is not at all true.

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I post photos from networking events that we've attended, community events that we've

attended, awards that we've received, company events.

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recently for Christmas time, me and Kevin went to Target and just filled the carts with

toys for one of the general contractors that we work with.

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The general contractor that we work with, Alam Construction actually, they were getting

toys for donations for Christmas, giving them to kids that were in need.

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And so this was a great way for us to get involved with one of the general contractors

that we work with.

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But at the same time, for us to use that, yes, we're doing something for good, but also

marketing, branding.

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So, you know, we took a few photos of us filling the cards and then we posted them on

social media.

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No, we weren't doing them for that marketing and that stuff, but we were actually doing it

for branding, or for not branding, I'm sorry, donating.

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But why not share those times, since it's a great time of us doing something great for our

customer, our client.

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as well as something great for the kids as well.

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And so it's just being, you know, having fun and also something positive to share.

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I've also posted photos from our Christmas party, you know, every Christmas time, holiday

party.

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We have a holiday party with the team, teams comes out last year.

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We went to F1 arcade, we had a good time, but that was a great time to take photos of the

team, photos of them riding the rides, we had eight food, we just had a really good time.

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You know, other events that we attend that we could take pictures as well.

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A couple of weeks ago, I received an award for being a sponsor at the Kids Block event

through the Women in Construction event.

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They had introduced, they pretty much said KNB Communications.

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They didn't say my name, but KNB Communications was being awarded an award for being a

sponsor.

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I had people, had invited someone to come with me to accept that award.

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and I had her take pictures for me.

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And so these photos show people who are as in our company, other photos you could take as

you behind the scenes.

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I've taken photos at our quarterly meetings that I've spoken about, at our yearly meetings

that I've spoken about.

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These just show exactly who our team is and it just helps our clients, possibly potential

employees figure, decide exactly, is this a company that I wanna work with?

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Number five is to use social media for branding.

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I also of course post the photos that I receive from the technicians on Facebook,

Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, but I mainly use social media for branding because the

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reality is most people are not going to Facebook to book a low voltage contractor.

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They're not, unfortunately.

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So, and that's also why I believe we should not be running ads on Facebook because

unfortunately people aren't going to Facebook.

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They're going to Facebook to, you know, to relax.

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They're going to Instagram to relax.

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Maybe they've had a hard day.

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They're not going to Facebook to look for a technician or for a, you know, low voltage

contractor.

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So for that reason, I use Facebook and Instagram more for when someone looks up our

company, we're active.

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We got photos that shows them exactly who we are.

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To me, this is the most, most important that when someone looks us up, everywhere online

is similar.

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It shows we are active, we are present, we're also involved in our community.

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I think that's something that I've learned.

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In the past, I ran ads on Facebook and LinkedIn, and actually I've never ran ads on

LinkedIn.

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Instagram.

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I never got results.

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I know we hired a marketing company about last year and they were running ads on Facebook

and I was like, why?

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Why are you running ads on Facebook?

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But to me, Facebook, Instagram, like these are great locations for branding to share with

companies of who we are.

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You know, maybe that will change at this moment.

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I don't believe that we need to be running ads on Facebook.

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uh Another thing is number six is to write weekly blogs.

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Every week we have a blog that comes out.

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And the goal is super, super simple.

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It's answering the questions people are searching for.

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So a couple years ago, I read the book, They Ask You Answer, which was a really, really

good book.

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If you've not read the book, you should.

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But the book was pretty much about

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providing content on the things that people are already searching for.

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The author of the book owned a pool company.

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He was selling like pools and you know, the what he was doing, and it's been a while since

I've read the book, so I may get it confused, but he was online.

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He was literally giving the answers that everyone else of the pool companies were scared

to share, such as pricing, such as the things that no one wants to talk about.

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but because those are the questions that people are already answering or asking online, it

made it very helpful that he was answering those questions.

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And so because he was answering the questions that they were asking, of course his blog or

his content was coming up.

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And of course I do feel like things may be a little bit harder now, but it's still

possible.

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And so where am I finding, where do I find

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these tools that tell me exactly what are people searching.

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So some of the tools that I'm currently using is Ubersuggest as well as Answer the Public.

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Ubersuggest and Answer the Public are owned by the same company.

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I believe his name is Neil Patel, that might be wrong, but I use these differently.

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Ubersuggest pretty much helps me with keywords.

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It will also do like an SEO audit, tells me exactly.

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how our website is doing, is there anything that I need to fix, any ideas for content, our

competitors, what are they doing?

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So Uber's address is great for that.

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What content are they writing?

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Answer the public.

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If I put a keyword out there, it's going to show me questions that people are actually

searching online.

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They have this free option, but when you're in the free option, I believe you can only ask

maybe one or two, maybe more keywords.

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day, not very many.

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I do pay for Ubersuggest as well as Answer the Public, but I, know, because I do use this

once a week, that it just made sense for us to use it.

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I also will do a search directly on Google.

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When you search something on Google, there is a section that shows people also search for.

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And so I'm using multiple tools to get better feedback.

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on questions that people are actually asking for.

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And then that's how I'm deciding which direction I want to go for content.

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But that just, know, as I said, just shows you exactly what people want to know and the

things that people are wanting to know, why not answer it?

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number seven is answer questions customers are asking, which,

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I honestly already shared that with you guys, but there is a book as I mentioned that's

called, They Ask You Answer, and the idea is very simple.

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All you're really doing is providing content that answers those questions that people are

searching online, and that's how they find you.

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Number eight is to pay attention to the leads that are coming in.

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One of the things that I've been doing is talking to ourselves, team, talking to our

estimator.

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asking them about the leads coming in during our leadership calls, I'm finding out.

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I'm finding out from our serum system or dashboard, it tells me exactly where the leads

came in from.

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It also told me how many leads we got from each section and we have it broken down from

weekly, monthly, quarterly, as well as yearly.

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And so that data is very useful for me as I am creating plans on marketing.

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And so

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Another thing I'm also looking at when I'm looking at the dashboard or I'm asking our

estimator, our sales team, what projects are people calling about?

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And so, you I had asked this question a couple of months ago and they were like, oh, we're

getting a lot of jobs on security cameras, warehouses.

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For all, what, three or four months, all my content I was writing about was warehouses and

security cameras because my art estimator had told me months prior,

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that the most profitable jobs for us are warehouses and security cameras.

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And so that was the direction that I went.

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But because I went that direction, I was able to get, it was working.

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And so I also asked, what are the projects we want more of?

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And so that he said, oh, we want more data cabling projects.

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And so because he said we want more data cabling projects, what is my keyword now?

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my focus is on data cable projects.

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And so I use that from, I use Ubersuggest, I use the Answer, oh my gosh, what is that

called?

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I just said it.

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my gosh.

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Oh, Answer the Public, and then I also do a search on Google as well.

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But these are just things that I, you know, I'm doing my own market research by asking the

team, by asking tools.

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I'm not just,

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relying on the phone to ring, I'm looking at data to see what's working and what's not and

what is people actually asking for.

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But that's what helps me understand what content we should be creating.

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I just go off of data.

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So some of the key lessons that I've learned throughout the years of marketing, the most

important thing is to understand is building organic leads take consistency.

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We've been doing this for over a decade.

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And I'm finally figuring out knowing exactly this is what we're doing and what I'm doing

is working.

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And also I would like to say as well to not allow for other people to come in and be like,

oh, I know more than you.

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No, I've been doing this for 12 years.

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Yes, I can learn more, but to not allow other people to or other marketing companies to

come in and to know what we're doing is working and not to change.

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That is something that I've had to learn recently.

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And for you to also understand that it does not happen overnight.

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Organic marketing is not going to happen overnight, but when you keep showing up with

reviews, photos, content, helpful information, you start building a foundation that keeps

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working for you.

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So if you're listening to this episode, here's something simple you can do this week.

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Google your company's name.

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Look at everything that's coming up.

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Ask yourself a few questions.

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Does this represent the way that I want my business to look?

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And if it doesn't, start fixing it.

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Organic marketing takes time, but when you stay consistent, the results start to build.

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And over time, you create a lead flow that does not depend on ads.

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And that's

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how you start building a better contractor business.

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If you believe that this episode brought you real clarity, be sure to share it with

another contractor who also needs it.

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And if you want to keep this conversation going, be sure to join our community of

contractors inside Building Better Contractor Businesses Facebook group.

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This is a community where we talk through the real problems

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that you are having in your business.

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The link will be found in our show notes.

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And remember, we are not just completing projects.

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We are building better contractor businesses.

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I will see you next time.