Lead generation is the lifeblood of any business. And as a mold remediation professional, lead gen is critical to your company’s success.
Leads are important—period. That’s true if your mold remediation company is just starting out or if you have decades of experience. It’s true for both small operations and established companies that service national accounts. And it’s true whether you’re focused on aggressive growth or just stabilizing your business at its current size.
Any way you slice it, you need leads.
Why Lead Generation Is So Important for Mold Removal Pros
As a mold removal professional, you’re all too familiar with how mold grows. In fact, you likely share the basics with your customers on a regular basis.
For example, you’ve probably explained how certain environments are at higher risk for mold more times than you can count. There are factors—you might think of them as ingredients—that contribute to mold growth. Moisture is a big one. Temperature is another.
Without the right setting, mold won’t grow. But in the right setting, it can thrive. Strange as it might sound, your company’s financial stability and growth both work the same way.
There are key ingredients that are essential to a steady flow of business. Without these ingredients, your business isn’t likely to thrive. Leads are one of the most critical factors.
That’s because leads represent your opportunities for new jobs. Without new jobs, your profit margins will shrink. But with a steady influx of work, you’re set up for a stable bottom line and even year-over-year growth, if that’s your goal.
If you want to guarantee the health of your company—both today and in the future—you need a reliable lead generation strategy.
Roadblocks to a Strong Lead Gen Strategy
Of course, if lead generation were easy, everyone would do it well. While it doesn’t take a sophisticated set of technical skills to master lead gen, it does take a well-developed strategy.
The EverConnect team has considerable experience working with mold remediation professionals to generate qualified leads. Through that experience, we’ve seen what works and what doesn’t.
We’ll get to our top tips for strong lead generation in a bit. First, let’s examine some of the most common roadblocks to lead generation success.
Unrealistic Expectations
One of the most common pitfalls we see mold remediation business leaders falling into is painfully basic—impatience.
Regardless of your lead generation strategy, you need to set your expectations appropriately. Leads won’t start flooding in overnight. Trust us, it would be amazing if that were possible. But sadly, it isn’t.
Instead, lead generation efforts tend to be more like a snowball rolling down a hill. Once you get the thing going, it picks up speed and momentum as it goes. But you’ll almost certainly have to start small (compared to your long-term goals) and give your lead generation strategy time to build that momentum.
What does that look like in the real world?
Depending on the tactics you use (and your budget), we could be talking about weeks or even months. Sure, you’ll get some leads right away. But you aren’t likely to see optimal results out of the gate.
Inexperience with Marketing
When it comes to mold remediation, you’re an expert. You easily know more than the average person about removing and preventing mold growth. But there’s a fair chance you’re not a marketing expert.
That’s totally okay, of course. Marketing isn’t your primary job. But if you want to generate leads, you’ll need to learn some marketing basics.
Business leaders who skip this critical step don’t see results faster. Instead, they undercut their own efforts. Marketing is too expensive and takes too much time to do it without a solid strategy and a well-crafted plan.
Rather than glossing over your marketing inexperience, accept it and take the time to learn the core concepts before you start spending money. (Reading this article is a great first step.)
Insufficient Marketing Budget
While there are ways to generate leads that are technically free, the truth is every single lead generation method we’re aware of will cost you something. You need to be ready to commit money, time, or both if you’re serious about lead gen.
We get it. The promise of inbound leads with little to no expense sounds nice. But as nice as that sounds, it’s a myth, pure and simple.
That doesn’t mean you have to have a massive marketing budget to tackle lead generation. A bigger marketing budget might accelerate your lead gen efforts, but you can get started with a meager budget if that’s all you can afford.
Just be sure you’re ready to spend some money and devote some time to lead generation.
The Easiest Ways to Get More Mold Removal Leads
Now that we’ve covered the potential obstacles, let’s shift gears. Below are four easy ways to start generating leads quickly.
In this article, we’re focusing primarily on lead gen options that are low-cost. The good news is our first three suggestions are perfect if your marketing budget is on the small side. But take note—these low-cost options will require you to spend more time engaged in the process.
Because you may not have time to do lead gen, yourself, we’ve also included a fourth option that’s more expensive but less time-consuming. As an added bonus, the fourth option is also the one most likely to deliver results quickly.
Here’s how you can start generating leads right away.
Start Asking Customers for Reviews & Referrals
It’s been nearly a decade since Nielsen first published their finding that 92% of customers trust recommendations from family and friends more than any other form of advertising. While a lot has changed in the last decade, the power of customer referrals and customer reviews holds strong.
Consider the following:
- Referral customers have a much higher retention rate—37% higher—than non-referral customers.
- Referral customers are 4 times more likely to pay it forward, referring even more friends and family on your behalf.
- On average, leads generated through referrals convert 30% better than leads non-referral leads.
- 91% of customers younger than 35 trust online reviews as much as they trust referrals from friends and family.
- An average of 3 stars or better is necessary for creating trust for most consumers.
- You need at least 40 reviews before most consumers will trust your star rating.
While reviews and referrals aren’t identical, they’re very similar. Potential customers trust online reviews almost as much as they trust referrals. Plus, the process for generating leads through both referrals and online reviews is almost identical—ask for them.
When you’re done with a job, just tell your newly satisfied customer how much you’d appreciate referrals or an online review. You don’t want to come across as pushy, but you don’t need to be shy, either. The best approach is to be direct.
You can also ask for referrals and reviews in a follow-up email after the job is done and the bill is paid.
Post Pictures to Social Media
One of the unexpected advantages of working in mold remediation is that your work has the potential to be visually impressive. Before and after pictures are particularly powerful.
And a social media platform, like Facebook, is the perfect place to share these.
But before you start snapping pics and posting them, here are a few guidelines:
- Always ask for your customers’ permission before taking pictures or posting them online. Some customers will happily allow for pictures, while others won’t be comfortable with the possibility of their mold problem going viral.
- Make sure the pictures are clear, in focus, and taken in good light.
- Make sure the before and after pictures you plan to use are of the same spot(s) taken from the same angle(s).
- Don’t attempt to edit the pictures before posting them. Even when edits are done well, there are tale-tell signs. If you get caught altering before and after pics, it could undercut your credibility.
You don’t need to worry about running out and buying a high-dollar, professional camera. The camera on your smartphone should do the job just fine, providing it’s in good working order and you have a steady hand.
If you want to go above and beyond with your customers, you could even show them the pictures you plan to post before posting them. This is a great time to ask for a referral or review. After all, they’ll have proof of your work right in front of them!
When you post the pictures, be sure to include a short description of the work, as well as a link to your company’s website or your contact information.
Cover the SEO Basics on Your Website
We’ll be honest. We assume that even if your mold remediation business is small or brand-spanking-new, you have at least a basic website. If you don’t, we encourage you to get right on that.
While some small business owners opt to use a Facebook page in lieu of an actual website, we don’t recommend that approach. You’ll have far less control over the content and format. Plus, a website will be more likely to rank for organic traffic than a Facebook page.
Of course, just having a website isn’t enough. You need to also make sure that website is set up correctly.
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” In essence, SEO just means designing and writing your website (optimizing it) so that your site shows up when potential customers perform only searches on Google (and other search engines).
There’s an entire field of study devoted to SEO. In fact, you could easily spend thousands of dollars just having an SEO pro analyze your site and make recommendations. But you can take care of the basics on your own, at least to get started.
Here’s what you need to address to, bare minimum:
- Make sure your homepage (the main page of your site) clearly states your business name, what your business does, and what area you serve.
- Make sure your site includes your contact information, including your address and phone number.
- Make sure it’s easy for potential customers to find what they’re looking for on your site. (For example, it’s a good idea to include a link to your contact page in your navigation bar.)
- Make sure you have an “About Us” page that provides a little more detail about your company’s values, standards, certifications, and history.
- If you have them, include testimonials or quotes from satisfied customers, as well.
There’s a lot more you could do to beef up your SEO. If you have the time and technical inclination, sites like Semrush, HubSpot, Search Engine Journal, and Moz have some good information for SEO newbies.
Partner With a Professional
Now we come to our final suggestion. As we mentioned above, this one comes with a price tag. But it’s also the method for lead generation that’s most likely to supply your business with plenty of new opportunities quickly.
An effective lead generation partner will know the ins and outs of generating leads and can guide you through the process of creating a full-blown strategy. While you’ll have to pay for this kind of help, the cost can easily be recouped by simply working and closing the leads your partner generates.
However, not all lead generation companies make great partners. Here’s what we recommend you look for in a potential lead gen partner:
- Find a partner with clear, transparent billable terms. You want to make sure you don’t run into any hidden fees, too, so take the time to read through the agreement before you sign anything.
- We recommend working with someone who offers exclusive leads. That way, you’re not competing against other mold removal companies to win business from leads you’ve already paid for.
- Look for a lead gen company that has experience working with mold remediation companies, like yours, if possible.
- Make sure your potential partner has a clear process for handling disputes. (Hopefully, you won’t have any disputes. But if you do, you want the assurance of knowing you’ll be treated fairly.)
- Avoid long-term commitments, particularly if this is your first time working with a lead gen partner. You don’t yet know what kind of results you’ll get. You don’t want to lock yourself into something long-term.
The money you invest in lead generation literally comes back to you through new jobs. So while this option will force you to carve out space in your budget, there’s a good chance it’s worth it.
If you decide that you can’t afford a lead generation partner right now, this might be something you work toward as your company stabilizes or grows.
Your Next Step for Mold Remediation Leads
When it comes to leads generation, a reliable strategy isn’t just nice to have. It’s essential.
That’s true whatever your current business goals. If you’re in growth mode, you definitely need leads. There’s no way to grow a business without new accounts. But if you’re happy with the size of your mold removal company, lead gen still matters. The key to long-term stability is consistency. Clients naturally come and go—especially in an industry where many of your clients are dealing with what they hope will be a one-time issue. You need new customers coming in regularly just to maintain.
In this article, we’ve discussed some common challenges to building a lead generation plan. We’ve also shared our four best tips for getting leads quickly.
If you’d like some direct help generating leads for your mold remediation company, we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that’s exactly what we do. We specialize in working with several industries, including home services providers like you. We have a strong track record of helping mold removal businesses optimize their lead gen.
