Marketing for Contractors

Why ads and Google alone don't reach the GC

Most marketing for contractors is built for a homeowner who's already searching. That works, and if it's working for you, keep it. It just isn't how commercial work gets handed out.

A commercial roof, a site package or an electrical scope is decided by someone who already has a project: an estimator at a GC, a precon lead, a property manager, a building owner. They aren't typing your trade into Google tonight. So if you only show up when someone searches "roofer near me," you're late to the commercial conversation.

That's where outbound comes in, and it's the piece most marketing for contractors leaves out. It's a fancy word for a simple idea: instead of waiting for buyers to find you, you reach out to them first. Think of a good estimator calling on GCs, just done at a steady pace every week, so it doesn't stop when you get busy on a job.

Marketing for contractors starts with who hands out the work

Before we write a single word, we figure out who should hear from you. For commercial contractors that's usually:

• Estimators and precon teams at GCs
• Project managers with a job underway
• Property and facility managers
• Building owners and the folks who represent them

You won't get a shared "contractor leads" file from us. Every meeting we book is yours alone, and we work with only one contractor per trade per area, so we're never pitching your competitor down the street.

After the first few meetings, we look at them together. Wrong title or wrong size job? We cut that group. Right fit? We find more people like them. A month of real conversations teaches us more about your best buyer than any planning document.

What the message should say

GCs hear "we do quality work in your area" all day. It blends in.

What gets a reply is a short note that mentions a kind of job they recognize, uses the words they already use, and asks for a quick conversation. No brochure, no capabilities deck. Same idea on LinkedIn and on the phone: one offer, one ask, aimed at the person who can put you on a bid list.

Commercial roofing sounds different from sitework and drainage, and both sound different from EV charging installation. We work with contractors in all three right now. That's why we kick things off with an hour-long call to learn what kinds of commercial jobs you want more of and how the people who award them talk, so our messages sound like they came from someone in your trade. You know your trade. We help say it in their language.

Email, LinkedIn and phone, working together

Cold email does most of the heavy lifting. LinkedIn and phone calls help it land.

• Email puts the job and the ask in front of an estimator on their own time.
• LinkedIn means your name and company already look familiar when they read it.
• Phone calls reach the precon folks and PMs who still pick up.

Each one makes the others work better. Calls and LinkedIn can start right away. Email takes a little longer, because new email addresses need to warm up first (more on that below). That's why first meetings typically start coming in 2 to 3 weeks after launch. That's typical timing, not a promise down to the day.

We can add a few extras on top: showing up when people search Google or ask AI tools like ChatGPT for help (that's SEO and AEO), handwritten letters to a short list of high-value GCs and owners, and Google Local Services Ads where Google offers your category. They're helpful, but none of them fill next week's calendar alone. They support the email, LinkedIn and phone work.

Keeping your company email safe

Your domain (the part of your email address after the @, like yourcompany.com) is what GCs already see when you send a bid. If too many cold emails go out from it, email providers can start treating it as spam, and then even your real bids can end up in junk folders.

So we never send from your main address. We set up separate, similar domains that point back to your website and send from those. Your everyday inbox stays exactly as it is.

New email addresses also need to warm up. Warm-up involves sending a small number of normal emails for two to three weeks so providers like Gmail and Outlook learn to trust the new address. Skip it and your emails land in spam. It's a lot like breaking in a new truck before you load it up.

From there we keep each inbox's volume low and watch the bounce rate (the share of emails that come back undelivered because the address is bad). On three of four recent campaigns it stayed between 0.21% and 1.01%. Every email also includes a simple way to opt out.

Agree on a good meeting up front

A meeting that wastes your afternoon is worse than no meeting. So before anything goes out, we agree on what a qualified meeting means for you: your trade, the area you cover, job size, and the job titles that can actually put you on a list.

Then we review the first meetings together, cut what didn't fit and keep what did. We measure success in booked meetings with the right people, not in how many emails got opened. Every reply gets a quick response that a real person checks, and each meeting lands on your calendar with a short summary so you walk in prepared.

How SalesGlider fits in

Think of us as the outreach part of your team. We handle the list, the email setup, the messages, the replies and the booking. You show up and do what you already do well.

First meetings typically in 2 to 3 weeks

New email addresses warm up for two to three weeks before the first emails go out. Calls and LinkedIn can start sooner.

A meeting target we keep working toward

Before we start, we agree on a qualified meeting target together. If we miss it, we keep working until we hit it, at no extra cost. The partnership is $3,500 a month with no long-term contract.

Real results, labeled by trade

In the last 90 days our work produced $2.03M in new qualified pipeline (the value of real jobs on the table), 207 interested replies, and an average of 14 interested replies a month across active clients. One specialty contractor client got 24 interested replies in a single day. A roofing client landed 4 bids in the first 3 days of sending.

Kyle Peterson, Owner and President of Roofs by Peterson, was kind enough to let us share this:

SalesGlider's cold email got us on a major DFW general contractor's preferred bidders list, and this week we had four bid invitations come in in a single day. These GCs are nearly impossible to reach and they're reaching them. - Kyle Peterson, Owner & President, Roofs by Peterson

Across four client campaigns in the last 90 days, 33,723 emails turned into 73 positive replies, about 1 for every 460 emails. A typical cold email average is roughly 1 in 2,000. These numbers come straight from unedited platform reports, and you can see them on our contractor page.

Who we're probably not right for: if you want pay-per-lead or shared leads, only do residential work, or want a list of emails instead of booked meetings. And if your jobs can't pay back $3,500 a month, we'd rather tell you that up front.

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Other good options

We haven't tried every option out there, so this isn't a ranking. Just an honest look.

Homeowner ads and a local website. Agencies built for residential HVAC, roofing and home services are great at that. It's a different job from getting in front of GCs.

Hiring a salesperson. A full-time sales rep (often called an SDR) usually costs $75K to $110K a year once you add salary, taxes, tools and training time. That's someone you manage, and there's no meeting guarantee.

A blog or SEO retainer. Content can help over months. It usually won't get you on a bid list this quarter.

If residential leads are already coming in, don't change what's working. If you want more commercial meetings, another homeowner campaign probably isn't the answer.

Putting it all together

Five pieces work together:

1. Getting to know you. We sit down with you for an hour to talk through the work you're chasing and the words that land with the folks who hand it out.
2. Protecting your email. Separate, warmed-up addresses so your company email stays clean.
3. The right list. Estimators, precon, PMs, property managers and owners. One contractor per trade per area.
4. The right message. A job they recognize, a short ask, no brochure.
5. Fast replies. A real person answers quickly, books the meeting and sends you a short summary.

Keep the customers you already have. This is the part that gets you into the next room.

What your first month looks like

In week one, we get on a call with you for about an hour to learn which commercial jobs matter most to you, who decides who gets them, and how to talk to those people in a way that gets a reply. We set up the new email addresses and start warming them up. Calls and LinkedIn can start as soon as the list is ready.

In weeks two and three, warm-up wraps up and the first emails go out. First meetings typically start coming in 2 to 3 weeks after launch.

Every reply is answered quickly and checked by a person. Meetings land on your calendar with a short summary. You tell us which ones were good, and we sharpen the list. Then we do it again. That's really all marketing for contractors has to be: a steady loop that keeps good conversations coming.

If that sounds like the kind of help you've been looking for, we'd love to talk.