Effective advertising for contractors is not a matter of luck; it’s a result of a compelling offer that’s placed directly in front of your ideal prospects.
After helping countless contractors with their marketing, we’ve found that those who use compelling offers as part of their strategy see closing rates up to 5X higher than those who don’t. That’s a significant difference, and if you want a piece of that success, you need a proven framework.
By the time you’re through with this guide, you’ll know the 6 essential components of a winning offer and how to create your own to book more jobs for your home service business.
What Makes an Offer Compelling?
A compelling offer is the product or service you sell, but positioned in a way that makes it irresistible.
In short, the product is what people pay for, but it’s the compelling offer that gets them to make a purchase.
There’s no better place to learn this than from infomercials.
But wait…theeeeeeere’s more!
The infomercial presenter doesn’t just sell a product, but proposes an irresistible offer, too good to pass up:
- “Instead of one product, you’ll get THREE for the price of one!”
- “Order within the next 60 minutes, and shipping is free!”
- “Still not sure? We’ll give you a 100% guarantee, and you can keep the product!”
That’s the power of a compelling offer. It causes people to take action. As R.L. Adams from Entrepreneur.com explains,
“The lifeblood of any business, at the heart of success in any endeavor, is the existence of a compelling and irresistible offer. Whatever it is that you decide to peddle, whether it’s a product, service or information, the better you are at crafting the offer around it, the more likely you’ll be to succeed.”
NAs a roofing contractor, a remodeling business, or a landscaping company, you can’t make infomercial-style offers. But you can still create a powerful offer that’s interesting enough to help you win new business.
Here’s how.
The 6 Components of a High-Converting Offer
To attract more prospects to become customers, your offer should include as many of the following components as possible.
1. High perceived value
The importance of creating an offer with high perceived value is a top priority. Many contractors take the easy route by offering a small discount, but a small discount isn’t enough to make a customer stop dead in their tracks.
A 5% discount, for example, is not a compelling incentive.
Wowza!
Do you really think this offer would cause someone to stop their search, throw out all the other quotes they shopped around for, and choose you over the competition?
It might. But most likely not.
Instead of discounts, think about what you can provide on top of your service.
- Can you offer free gutter cleaning with a new roof installation?
- How about a free door when a homeowner upgrades their windows?
The key is to find something that costs you little in time or money but is perceived by your customer as extremely valuable.
2. Low friction
A compelling offer has to be low friction. It must be easy for a customer to claim. The more hoops you make a customer jump through, the less likely they are to move forward.
For example, only offering a discount if the job is paid in cash might sound like a good idea, but it only creates another barrier. When it comes to your offers, keep the terms and conditions as simple as possible.
3. Urgency
Your offer shouldn’t be available forever. It needs to have a sense of urgency or scarcity to force people to take action now. This is a powerful tactic used in all winning offers.
Adding urgency is simple:
- Use a hard deadline and communicate that the offer must be claimed before a certain date.
- Use seasonal offers that imply a limited time frame.
Using urgency gives you a great reason to follow up with outstanding quotes and can help you win jobs that otherwise wouldn’t have closed.
This implies the offer can only be claimed during the Summer and entices people to take action sooner rather than later.
4. A Solid Guarantee or Warranty
Adding a guarantee or warranty is all about risk reversal. You need to take the risk out of your customers’ hands and carry it for them. While this might mean paying out a few dollars when things go wrong, you’ll more than make up for it with all of the new business you sign because of your solid no-risk guarantee.
Your guarantee needs to be front and center in all your contractor advertising: in your ads, on your website, and in your sales process. This shows that you have nothing to hide and are willing to do whatever it takes to satisfy your customer.
5. Favorable Payment Options
If you’re able to add special payment options to your offer, you definitely should. Options like “no interest for 6 months” can make a huge impact on the effectiveness of your offer.
Offering payment options makes your products and services affordable to families that might not otherwise have the means, and it can shorten your sales cycle by enticing people to purchase earlier than they intended to.
6. A Clear Call to Action (CTA)
Last but not least, your compelling offer needs to have a call to action (CTA). No matter where customers hear about your offer, you need to guide them toward the next step.
Your call to action can be as simple as:
- Call now to book an in-house visit
- Get a free estimate
- Claim this exclusive offer
- Speak to an expert
And when it comes to pay per click for contractors, CTAs become infinitely more important.
Your Facebook ads need a call to action:
Your Google Ads need a call to action:
And your website and/or landing pages need a call to action:
You may think homeowners would know what to do next once they learn about your offer, but sadly, that’s not always the case.
Tell them what to do next to get started, and you’ll have more people inquiring about your services.
The Final Step to Effective Contractor Advertising
When it comes to effective advertising for contractors, compelling offers are crucial for generating leads and growing your business.
Make sure your offer has a:
High perceived value
- Low friction
- Sense of urgency or scarcity
- Risk-reversing guarantee
- Favorable payment options
- And a clear call to action
You may not find your winning offer right away. In fact, you will probably have to test a few before you find one that genuinely resonates with homeowners. But once you do, it can have a significant impact on your bottom line!
Do whatever it takes to get your offer in front of the right people: knock on doors, ask for referrals, run pay-per-click ads, and advertise on social media. With a powerful offer, you’re bound to grow your home service business and book up to 5X more jobs.
