How to get painting leads: 7 offline and online methods

Key takeaways

• Generate quality painting leads by focusing on your market niche and honing your brand personality
• Connect with potential customers in person within your community, network with related local businesses, and ask for referrals
• Boost your online presence with SEO tactics, social media updates, and business listing sites

Whether it’s a one-bedroom apartment in the city or a two-story house in the country, there’s one thing every dwelling needs: a good paint job. The painting and decorating industry had $18.6 billion in revenue in 2022 alone, and the residential sector accounted for a majority of that. This makes it a highly lucrative business category, with plenty of potential customers for residential-painting business owners like you.

While you can buy painting leads online from lead generation services, these pay-per-lead deals don’t guarantee success. While some might be good leads, many may be old or cold, resulting in a lot of wasted time and energy following up on them. In the end, what seems like a low lead price might not be worth it.

Instead of turning to a lead generation company, learn how to generate your own high-quality painting job leads. Whether you choose offline methods, an online approach, or a combination of both, you can generate new leads that will be more likely to choose your services over the competition.

Prepping for new painting leads

Much like prepping a room before painting, you’ll need to do some preparation before you can generate new leads—namely, by nailing down your target market and your painting business brand. When you’re clear on those two elements, your painting lead generation efforts will be far more focused and therefore more effective.

Get specific with your target market

Your target market is the specific group of people you want to reach. While you may think you should try to cater to homeowners at large, that’s too broad of an audience. Focus on your niche by answering the following questions:

• Where is your service area?
• Are your potential customers single or married? Do they have a family?
• How much do they earn?
• What kind of housing do they live in?
• What do they value most—for example, saving money, aesthetics, or the environment?
• Where would they look for painting contractor referrals—for example, online, on community noticeboards, or through referrals from friends?

Create a few buyer personas to describe your ideal customers so you know exactly who you’re speaking to and how to meet their needs.

Fine-tune your painting brand personality

Research shows that 70% of people buy from businesses that align with their values. As such, consider how you want potential customers to perceive your brand and how you can stand out from other house painting service providers in your area. 

For example, perhaps you work especially fast or save your customers money in the long run with a five-year warranty. Or maybe you offer a convenient payment plan or exclusively use eco-friendly paint products. Be sure that all your marketing materials—from your company name to your business cards to your website—clearly and consistently reflect your brand personality and embody the tone and characteristics you want to convey. 

How to generate painting leads offline

If the digital world isn’t exactly your forte, there are still many ways you can generate new painting leads offline. Here are a few to get you started.

Meet folks face-to-face

Despite (or perhaps because of) the proliferation of digital marketing, studies show that people still respond well to a personal, face-to-face approach. Don’t be afraid to knock on doors in your service area to introduce yourself. You could host a booth at a community event, organize a fundraising drive for a local charity, or paint a nearby homeless shelter or children’s play center for free. (You could even write your own press release to generate buzz with the local press.)

Tell everyone you meet what you do. Let your friends and family know that you’re looking for painting leads, and ask them to tell everyone they know too. Hand out flyers and business cards at every opportunity and post them on community noticeboards that your potential customers might read. For example, you could ask to post flyers at your local library, church hall, coffee shops, or shopping center.

Also, bear in mind that there’s no better advertisement for your business than a beautifully completed paint job. If your customers are happy, ask if you can leave a lawn sign or a stack of flyers to let people know who did it.

Network with other local home services

Visit home improvement stores in your area to introduce yourself and ask if you can leave flyers or business cards with them. Get to know other related independent service providers, like realtors, building contractors, electricians, plumbers, and paint shops; they could serve as a source of future referrals for you.

If there’s a trade show in your area, offer to do a talk or run a workshop there. While you’re at it, make an effort to chat not only with potential customers but also with other service providers.

Whenever you connect with someone new, aim to build a relationship, let them know what you do, and then stay in touch after the event. That way you’ll spring to mind first when one of their clients needs a paint job.

Ask current (satisfied) customers for referrals

Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful tool that can take you far. The key to asking for referrals is to do a great job. That starts right from the beginning with your first interaction with a potential new customer and continues through the job itself, the clean-up afterward, and even the invoicing process.

Provide excellent customer support all the way through, addressing any concerns constructively and helpfully. Then when the job is done, ask for a referral. If you’ve done it right, your customers will be more than happy to sing your praises to their friends, colleagues, and neighbors. 

How to generate painting leads online

Digital marketing doesn’t have to be complicated. You can set up a free website, start a social media campaign, or make use of business listing sites—or all three. Here’s how to make the most of your digital marketing efforts. 

Spruce up your website

Your painting business website is your online home. At a bare minimum, it’s a place to let potential customers know what you do and how to get hold of you. But with a bit more work, your website can do so much more. 

For example, you can create a website pop-up that invites visitors to share their contact information, such as their email address and phone number. In exchange, you can offer an incentive, like a 10% discount on their first paint job or a handy preparation checklist they can reference before painting work begins. On your site, include photos of previous painting work you’re proud of, along with written or video recommendations from satisfied customers.

Put a content marketing plan in place. For example, create helpful blogs or videos about how to know when your house needs repainting or what should be included in a painting quote. In case people don’t know what’s involved in a painting job, you could explain how it works, from stripping off the old paint to applying the final coat to cleaning up afterward.

Keep sharing on social media

Using social media can grow your business and help you generate painting leads. Social media platforms can be used much like a website—as a place to share your contact details, what you do, and recommendations from customers.

You can also use them more actively and share the same kind of content as you might on your website blog or vlog (video blog). Potential customers on social media especially appreciate quick tips and tricks, like how to clean a painted wall or touch up the paint after drilling a hole to hang a picture.

Share any special deals you’re offering, host a giveaway, or give regular updates in real time about a job you’re working on (with the homeowner’s permission, of course). Your goal with social media is to keep popping up in the feeds of potential customers so they automatically think of you when they need painting work done. 

Implement a few SEO tactics

Search engine optimization (SEO) helps your website (and social media posts) move up the search engine rankings so potential customers can easily find your painting business.

Start by choosing relevant keywords that your target market would be typing into search engines. For instance, “house painting in Austin,” “Milwaukee painting contractor,” or “home renovation Boston.” There are many free keyword research tools available online to help you with this. Then include those keywords in all your content, across your website, and on social media.

If you’re relatively confident online, you may be able to do this yourself. Otherwise, consider paying someone to do it for you. Local SEO requires a certain level of skill and takes time, as search engine algorithms are always changing. Look on sites like Fiverr and Upwork to find people who can help you manage this. 

Add your business to online directories

Another easy way to attract painting leads—even without a website or social media—is to be sure your business is listed and accurate on online directories. Many people start there when looking for home services contractors.

For example, when you claim your free Yelp Business Page, you can use it to share your contact details and business hours, upload photos to show potential customers what you do, and promote any deals you’re offering. Customers can also leave reviews about your business, which is a powerful way to attract new painting leads—plus after claiming your page, you can respond to those reviews, giving you the opportunity to show off your excellent customer service. 

Keep the painting leads coming in

Every successful painting company needs a constant flow of new, high-quality leads. Take control of your lead generation with offline and online strategies that work for you.

Go old-school with face-to-face connections in your community, network with related businesses that can refer customers to you, and after you’ve done an excellent job, ask for referrals. 

Boost your online presence with SEO tactics and by adding your company to business listing sites so potential customers can easily find you. 

Regardless of where they come from, follow up on your leads as soon as possible to catch them while they’re hot.