How to Get Water Damage Leads

Written by Devon Eddy
Published on April 16, 2020

How to Get Water Damage Leads?

Generating water damage leads is not some much about cold calls and usual lead generation tactics.  Most people don’t plan a water damage event and so don’t shop around for a water damage mitigation service.  Water damage events are usually unforeseen and calamitous. Positioning yourself to be the name that comes to the customer when such an event occurs is the secret to water damage lead generation.

How to get water damage leads? Leads for water damage are usually an emergency.  Lead generation strategies and tactics geared toward putting your name where it is easy to find or to make yourself easy to recall are the most effective. Several strategies work well.

  •         Local Networking
  •         Targeted Advertising
  •         Local Visibility

The key to generating water damage leads is to pre-position yourself and your advertising in such a way that you are the name that most people recall when they suddenly find themselves in need of your service.  Creating an easy to recall brand, making yourself known and visible in your community, and leveraging the new paradigm of online marketing to your advantage are three of the best ways to generate water damage leads.

Understanding Lead Creation Techniques

Local Networking

In general, calls to a water damage specialist come after an unusual event in a business or home.  A major leak, a roof problem, a fire, a major storm, or some other disastrous event has left chaos.  People aren’t shopping for someone to clean up the mess. They want someone to come right now.

Many times, a plumber or an insurance agent has made a referral.  Some emergency relief organizations provide lists of local companies that provide services to homeowners and business owners after storms or other natural disasters.

One primary means of generating these sorts of water damage leads it to pre=position yourself in your local community by networking among these organizations and other businesses.  There are several ways to accomplish this, such as:

  •         Business to business referrals
  •         Local Advertising
  •         Getting involved locally
  •         Building your brand

Each of these is important and should be part of a complete lead generation plan for your business.  While they can be useful when done individually, these water damage lead generation techniques work best when used together as part of an integrated plan.

Business to Business Referrals

Business to business referrals must be cultivated.  They don’t just happen because you hang up your sign and buy some equipment.  Other business owners are careful about making referrals because the quality of the work that you do as a referred business, reflects on them as well.   Other business owners cannot afford a bad situation from a referral.

Building a business to business referral network takes time and involves becoming involved with other businesses on not just a business level but also on a personal level as well.  There are some tricks to getting established among referring businesses.

  • Identify your potential business to business partners – Learning the local business environment and finding the best companies to cultivate as a business to business referral candidates can take some research.  Learn who are the market leaders in all the categories of potential business to business referrals and make those your target partners.
  • Establish your Brand – You need to be known as well.  Building a brand takes time.  You must establish yourself as the go-to organization in water damage mitigation.  Doing this among your business owner peers is a good way to gain the attention of these business to business referral partners.
  • Going Face to Face – People like to have a face to put with a name, be it a personal name or a business name.  You must be visible and available to get connected.  Joining local trade organizations and community organizations are great ways to cultivate these personal relationships that turn into business relationships.

Local Advertising

Water damage lead generation is all about putting the name of your business where it is easily recognizable and easily remembered.  After a disaster, people who are looking for water damage restoration services often turn to the first name that comes to their mind. Making yourself or your company the first one that people remember in a crisis is a sure way to generate leads. 

  • Local Media – Local TV and radio can play a part in keeping your name visible and in people's memory.  All too often, if someone needs water damage restoration services, they will remember the last TV or radio commercial they heard for those types of services.  Homeowners and business owners don’t preplan the needs for water damage services.   They tend to react to the situation and making your name the one they remember is critical.
  • Be Visible – Your business fleet may consist of one van, or you may have a fleet of vehicles on the road.  Each one of them represents the opportunity to advertise on a continuous basis in your community.  Those vehicles are rolling billboards that can keep your business name and services in front of your potential customers.  Vehicle wraps are relatively cheap and can become one of the best tools available to make yourself visible every day to thousands of people.
  • Be Engaged – Being engaged with your potential customers is a great way to keep your and your company fresh in the customer's mind.  Offer more than just emergency water damage services.   Stay in contact with your potential customers through a blog or website.  Offer tips and ideas on carpet cleaning, restoration, and mediation of damage.  This also works to keep yourself engaged with your business to business referral partners.

Get Involved

Successful service businesses typically are those that are not just seen by the public as offering a top-quality product.  Those potential customers also look at more subjective considerations, such as the perception of your business as a good citizen of the community.  There are several strategies for making yourself identified as a good community citizen.  Being seen as a positive force in the community keeps your brand in people's minds.

  • Local Community Organizations – Get active in local organizations like the Lion’s Club, Rotary, or any other active local organization.  This is a great way to network with other businesses that have the potential to become referring partners.  It also enhances the perception of your business and yourself as partners in the community.
  • Support your Community – Actively supporting organizations and agencies in your community who perform charitable work, or other community support services builds your reputation as a part of the community.  Whether you choose to participate with the local food bank in some fashion or you sponsor a little league baseball team, your name or your business name associated with these types of organizations are what people remember.

Build Your Brand

Brand building is more of an art than anything else.  TO successfully build a brand that will stick in people’s memory requires some careful planning, some artistic input, and creating a look and feel that is remarkable enough that people remember it easily.  There are some things to consider when building your brand.

  • Know your target- You must know and understand your potential customer.  Know the target of your brand affects all the other decisions that follow.
  • Know your competitors – Who are you competing against for this targeted customer?  What is your competition doing to reach customers? 
  • Identify Yourself Clearly – Make your company stand out.  Have a focus and build an identity with a personality that is attractive to your potential customers.
  • Make yourself remarkable – The right business name, the right logo, the right colors all go together to make your business stand out to your potential customers.  When you standout, positively, your customers will remember you when they need water damage restoration.
  • Be consistent – Use your branding consistently across your company.  Apply your logo and colors to all your printed material, business cards, and advertising.  You want people to know who you are quickly without having to stop and read the entire advertising message.  Just a glance should reinforce in the public mind your company name and message.

Targeted Advertising

An avenue of advertising that is rapidly growing is targeted advertising.  New technologies and the rapid growth of online media sources have created a paradigm shift in the way advertising is being sold and used across the entire marketplace.  Any successful business must understand and engage in this new media opportunity.

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The Paradigm Shift

For decades, the foundation of advertising was print media, and newspapers in particular.  The advent of radio and television advertising created a paradigm shift away from print advertising and, until just a few years ago, was the dominant advertising media.

Now a new phenomenon is creating a new paradigm in advertising.  Targeted online advertising is the fastest-growing advertising medium in the world.  The ability to tightly target where your advertising dollars are focused allows a more precise advertising response.  There are several opportunities for putting the name of your business where it needs to be when potential customers are looking for water damage restoration services.  This means more targeted water damage leads for your business.

The Big Three

There are three big players in the online advertising gang right now.  There are many other players but focusing on these three will return the most water damage leads for your investment.  The downside is that managing your advertising and content on these mediums can be time-intensive and there is a steep learning curve to make the most effective use of your advertising dollars.

  • Facebook – Facebook has become a social institution.  People use it to stay informed, to communicate with friends and family, and to make social statements.  It also serves as a conduit for businesses to focus advertising on identifiable groups of people in a local area.  This ability to put your company name and logo in front of your potential customers is the real advantage of advertising on Facebook.
  • Google – Google offers several ways to advertise.  You can choose from pay per click advertising, Paid search engine placement, and SEO advertising and ranking can get your business name and location in front of potential customers who are searching for water damage.  This can turn them into water damage leads quickly and economically, if Google advertising is done correctly.
  • YELP – Yelp is a different sort of animal.  Many people use YELP daily to search for local services such as restaurants and stores.  More and more service providers are getting on the YELP site to generate leads.  The major advantage to YELP is that it allows users to provide feedback in the form of reviews, which can affect how your listing ranks on the search.  If you can generate lots of positive reviews, your name will appear at or near the top of the listings when people search for the keywords you use, such as water damage restoration.

The Social Media Downside

Like anything else, there is a downside to using social media advertising on the internet.  There are certain skills and knowledge that can determine how successful your social media advertising campaign becomes.  These skills and this knowledge can be time-consuming to acquire.

Ongoing time is required to manage and update these social media outlets for your advertising.  Many small business owners simply don’t have the time or expertise to make an online social media advertising campaign successful.

We recommend that, as a small business owner, whether it's water damage, HVAC, roofing, solar leads, or something else you're looking for, find and hire someone who specializes in developing and managing online SEO advertising.  In the end, the return you get on your investment will certainly pay off in more water damage leads for your business.

You are Your Own Best Lead Referral Service

In the end, you are your own best water damage lead generator.  Building your brand, generating trust and connections with your business peers and among the public, and keeping yourself in front of your target customer base all depend on how you approach the concepts of water damage lead generation.  Creating that public profile that makes people think of you first when they need water damage restoration is the key to success.

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