Winter Fire Restoration Leads: Marketing to Manage Your Revenue Stream When Fire Leads are Sparse
13 January, 2023
Posted by John Niewiecki
Winter Fire Restoration Leads: Marketing to Manage Your Revenue Stream When Fire Leads are Sparse
Often during the winter months the environmental conditions are not conducive to the fire and smoke damage seen in the hotter months of the year. This often puts a strain on fire restoration and smoke mitigation companies seeking to make ends meet during these lulls in restoration opportunities. Albeit good for those in our service territory who would be adversely affected by such events, fire restoration companies can find it a challenge.
So how does a fire restoration company compete during these lean times? There are a number of options available, and the experts at FireRestorationLeads.com will review them all so there is a clear understanding of both the pros and cons of every option.
SEO [Search Engine Optimization]
SEO or search engine optimization is huge today in marketing one’s business for clear reasons. Search engines are the “Yellow Pages” of today that is the go-to for everyone. Ranking well organically, in other words surfacing your website and contact information when certain keywords and phrases are typed into a search engine, means that your company knows the most about restoring a person’s home or business, as well as the authority on the topic.
This type of third-party endorsement by the very complex and intelligent algorithms that drive search engines today is a powerful marketing tool. Potential customers who are victims of fire or smoke damage trust these algorithms to show them those companies that are a proven asset to people in their situation, as many of us do on a weekly or sometimes even daily basis for nearly everything we want and need.
The Pros of SEO:
Organic placement in an online search for your fire restoration services means FREE advertising for your company. By ranking first, or at least on the first page of search results means that nearly every person searching for your fire restoration services will get an AI [artificial intelligence] endorsement of your company . . . an AI endorsement they trust.
The Cons of SEO:
Although organic placement in search results are free, it takes a significant amount of sweat equity to not only earn placement at the top of search results, it takes continued maintenance of that placement all year, every year. There are no quick fixes to SEO placement, and if anyone attempts to sell you one, they will only result in harming your business, potentially forever. These techniques are referred to in the marketing world as “black hat” strategies that will, if, and likely when, discovered by search engines, will definitely de-rank your website, but more likely remove any presence of your website from search results.
. . . And for all intents and purposes, if you do not exist in search results, your business does not exist at all.
Especially in the case of the fire restoration industry where competition for the top result in a search query such as “repair my home after a fire” is being sought by dozens, possibly hundreds of fire restoration companies in a particular market, it may be necessary to have someone on staff to write for SEO on a full time basis.
If this is an avenue your fire restoration business is considering, the experts at FireRestorationLeads.com can help. We are SEO experts, and you may contact us here.
Direct Marketing
Direct marketing is the targeting of individuals who have a high propensity to buy your fire restoration services directly, by way of mediums such as snail-mail, email, social media, and texting campaigns. With most of these options, one would rely on a vendor who claims to have physical addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers of people interested in fire restoration services. The exception of course is social media marketing in which the targets they offer are based upon meta data they have compiled about their users.
The Pros of Direct Marketing
A fire restoration company does not necessarily need a direct marketing expert on staff full time with a direct marketing strategy.
The Cons of Direct Marketing
To be candid, what are the odds a restoration company is going to snail-mail, email, or text a prospect who needs their home restored right now? Not very likely. Even in relation to social media marketing, the sum of meta data accumulated about a user will often cloud the one post they make, if they make one at all, about the fire damage to their home or business. Targeting in this regard is very difficult as well as expensive. By and large countrywide companies such as ServPro can afford such efforts. And even with such brand awareness, when people watch all or part of their life literally go up in smoke, what are the odds they are recalling a commercial or direct mail piece they received? Unlikely.
Knowing Your Fire Restoration Services Are Needed, When They Are Needed
The best opportunity, not only because it is far superior to the aforementioned strategies that rely on a prospect to recall your business or proactively seek it out, is offering a solution at the time when it is needed most.
Commonly referred to as “fire chasing” or more appropriately dubbed emergency response, being there when disaster strikes is a huge benefit to a victim of fire and/or smoke damage. Armed with proof of workmanship and an honest promise of when the work can be finished, as well as imparting knowledge of how the process works from board-up to clean up to insurance paperwork then finally to completion, a restoration expert is invaluable to a victim of structure damage.
There are a number of ways to be in-the-know of an active, or in the recent past, fire situation. Oftentimes simply reading the newspaper first thing in the morning can make one aware of fire events the prior day. Searching social media for fire events is also common. Other options also include listening to a fire/radio scanner for dispatches to a fire event.
Rangecast is a clear option for this strategy. Not only is Rangecast backed by the world’s leading scanner radio experts, their patented MultiSync technology ensures that unique, simultaneous fire transmissions are received, indexed, recorded, and even sent as a text alert to a fire restoration sales team in real time. This allows for situational awareness of fire events that allow for a restoration company to offer assistance and guidance to a family or business who are victims of a fire emergency.
The Pros of Knowing Your Fire Restoration Services Are Needed, When They Are Needed
Clearly, when a person watches their home or business partially or significantly damaged by fire or smoke, they are unlikely to be searching online for a restoration company to start the remodeling process, and unlikely to be recalling a direct mail piece they received in the mail recently. As ServPro states, such victims of fire damage want their life back “like it never even happened.”
By professionally and compassionately approaching a structure fire victim with a real solution to their life being turned upside down, as well as the knowledge to shepherd them through the complicated and confusing process of working with their insurance company, an emergency response team can, not only earn their business, but also be a huge comfort in a time of need.
Revenue-wise, this solution is truly a dream come true. With a properly configured Rangecast system, a fire restoration company receives an uncapped number of leads every month, and under normal conditions will receive ALL of the fire leads in their market. Yes, ALL OF THE LEADS in REAL TIME.
The Cons of Knowing Your Fire Restoration Services Are Needed, When They Are Needed
There is a stigma to “fire chasing.” Large restoration companies that have the capital to fund more traditional marketing strategies sometimes disparage an emergency response strategy. But as discussed in the article “The Ethics of ‘Fire Chasing’ and Emergency Response in the Restoration Industry,” an emergency response to a fire or smoke damage event is far different from the often unethical practices of lawyers who “ambulance chase” to find revenue.
Here's the difference: A lawyer who chases ambulances is attempting to find negligence where there (probably) wasn’t. If there was clear negligence in a physical injury to a person, the “chasing” wouldn’t be necessary, the victim has a clear opportunity to find representation and sue the person or company who harmed them. “Ambulance chasing” has a negative connotation because it is often an attempt to find negligence where there is not simply for financial gain.
Emergency response to a person affected by a fire is not, in any way, an attempt to find victimhood where there is none. A family or business affected by structure fire damage is certainly in need, and when a capable and knowledgeable person approaches them in an effort to help them, they want the help. This is supplying a demand, not creating one out of irrational greed.
To learn more about Rangecast Fire Restoration Lead Generation and real time alerting, please contact John Niewiecki at (401) 490-JOHN (5646) for a free consultation.
John Niewiecki
John@Rangecast.com
(401) 490-JOHN (5646)