Have you ever wished for “loyalty at first sight?” Sorry to say, that’s just in contractor fairy tales. If not in actual publication form, the fairy tale principle has been known to create an idea of “magical marketing” – where you can do one or two really smart things, probably online for free, and voila, your company lives happily ever after. If only.

What you’re more likely to find, once again, is the one thing that hasn’t changed: marketing is a process.

You couldn’t very well search for info on the marketing funnel without hearing that it’s outdated, past its prime, no longer the right thing to do. Sure – it’s no longer the right thing to do if you no longer want to build your customer’s connection to your company through a series of stages. But if you do…

You may indeed find different routes for getting there, but don’t expect them to be shortcuts.

In whatever way you adapt your marketing funnel for contractor marketing in 2021, it’s still about building stronger relationships over a series of interactions. Even given as much change in media and marketing as we’ve seen, you’re not going to find a fast-acting pill for prospect loyalty and referrals. But you will have a process that looks something like this:

Awareness – Your prospects enter your funnel at the broadest stage, where they simply become aware of your company and the services you provide.

Consideration – If their awareness of your company is a match for their interests and needs, they will consider using your services.

Conversion – If their consideration, plus your offers and risk reducers, solve their problems, they’ll convert into your customers.

Loyalty – With their satisfactory customer service experience, and possibly maintenance agreement conversion, plus your continued customer retention contact in mail, email and social media – they will be able to stay connected to you as their contractor.

Advocacy – If you have loyal customers and impress upon them the importance of referrals, and provide incentives for them to sing your praises to their friends and neighbors, they will become your advocates. And your process starts all over again with the awareness of these friends and neighbors.