Your Towing Company's Guide to Digital Marketing for Lead Generation

Lean on lead generation in your towing marketing plan. With the right combination of digital marketing strategies, you can establish an online presence that puts your towing business in front of customers when they look for you. We’ll look at what lead generation is, then outline what lead-generating efforts to add to your digital marketing plan.

[Related: Hibu Case Study: Discount Towing]

What is "lead generation" in digital marketing?

Lead generation is the process of capturing potential customers' interest in your services, with the goal of converting them into sales. In other words:

• Calls
• Emails
• Form fills
   

These are leads from people who aren’t customers YET...but they’re “raising their hand” for your services.

These are the stages of lead generation:

• Target — Identify and attract prospects
• Outreach — Appeal to them and build connections
• Win — Nurture and convert prospects into customers
   

Digital marketing solutions help your towing business reach a wider audience and single out certain demographics. You can attract those potential customers... engage them... and ultimately convert them into customers with multiple digital channels working together.

[Related: 6 Common Digital Marketing Challenges for Local Businesses (and How To Solve Them)] 

5 towing company marketing solutions that help generate leads

These five digital marketing solutions for towing pros are tried-and-true lead generation engines.

1. Professional Websites

Make sure your website is primed to generate leads. We know — easier said than done, but it’s the foundation of all your digital marketing. With 71% of all small businesses having a website, yours has to distinguish itself in the towing industry to generate leads.

Appealing towing website design isn’t the only factor (although that’s important, too). For your website to truly reel in customers, it has to act as a lure, a hook and a net. In other words, it has to help customers find your site, like what they see and easily get in touch.

These are absolutes for your towing business website:

• Mobile-friendly design
• Contact details on every page
• Voice search compatibility (for those “Hey Siri, call a tow truck” emergencies)
• Clear calls to action for inbound leads (like “Contact Us” buttons and forms)
• Fast loading speeds
• Professional search engine optimization (SEO)
• Customer reviews on full display
   

That’s a starter list, but ultimately, you need a smart website that works for you — not just a digital storefront, but an interactive tool that turns visitors into new customers. All of these features — alongside engaging content that makes your business stand out — can make your website your lead generation bedrock.

[Related: Today’s Website: Free Guide for Small Businesses]

2. SEO Services

Converting customers can’t happen without visibility, and that’s where SEO comes in. SEO impacts every aspect of your digital marketing, and it’s can deliver high returns for your towing company.

We’ll give you the basic definition: SEO services help make your business more visible in  search results, from your business listings to your website to your social media profiles

With nearly 70% of all customer searches beginning with a search engine, we can’t overstate the importance of SEO. The higher your business ranks, the more you stand out from your competition.

Here are a few more ways SEO services boost lead generation in a big way:

• Draws more qualified leads to your website
• Narrows the search field down to your unique towing services
• Pinpoints and highlights your location
   

And it’s cost-effective. SEO’s ROI ranges anywhere from 225% to 1,220% — it’s well worth working into your lead generation strategy.

[Related: How To Make the Right Marketing Investments]

3. Review and Reputation Management

Over 99.9% of people read reviews when they search for services online. And people search specifically for negative ones too. Your towing company has to harness positive online reviews to nail the “appeal to” part of lead generation.

But you may find your ratings and reviews lackluster or just plain lacking. Unfortunately, there’s plenty of negative perceptions among customers when it comes to towing business practices.

It’s a challenge, but that’s why online reviews for your business can make such an impact. Make sure you:

• Ask customers politely for reviews and star ratings
• Respond to all online reviews, positive and negative
• Focus on solutions when you respond to negative reviews, resolving the matter as best you can
   

Professional responses pay off, showcasing your business’s commitment to transparent, quality service. You build trust with existing and potential customers, bolstering your reputation — and leading to more customers.

Still, the whole process is time-consuming and easy to lose track of if you go the DIY route. Review and reputation management tools take the load off your back, and they help to ensure that negative reviews and a poor first impression don’t cost you new customers.

[Related: Free Guide: Taking Control of Your Online Reputation]

4. Automated Email and SMS Marketing

Sixty percent of customers make at least one monthly purchase after reading a company’s or brand’s email. Finding a way to automate your emails and text messages — so you don’t forget to send them — can  pack a hefty punch for lead generation.

For a towing company, automating your review requests is a great way to get started. Automated marketing tools make it easy to schedule email and SMS requests for a review after a job well done, so you can “set and forget” your messages to customers.

[Related: How Marketing Automation Can Save Time (and Make Money!) for Your Small Business]

5. Social Media Marketing

You’ve established a high-performance website, supercharged your visibility with SEO, amplified positive reviews and kept in touch with customers through marketing automation. Now what?

Over half of social media users (and potential customers) like seeing posts highlighting a business’s services. And if that’s not a good reason to start marketing your towing business on social media, we don’t know what is!

Create your official tow company social media accounts and get to posting. Start with Facebook and Instagram (both owned by parent company Meta) — Facebook is the most popular global platform.

You can post about anything that interests users:

• Your team and your tow trucks 
• Interesting stories or safety tips 
• Current discounts
   

And of course, reminding everyone that your towing services are just a call away.

Finally, invest in social ads to make sure your towing company gets in front of more of the right people. Your hard work — from crafting posts to recording videos — won’t go to waste.

Check out our free guide to Facebook marketing for local businesses for a deep dive.

[Related: 7 Social Media Pointers for Tow Company Marketing]

Increase your businesses's lead generation with Hibu

Busy running your towing business? Of course you are. At Hibu, we’re happy to handle your lead generation strategies for you.

We’re dedicated to helping small local businesses like yours thrive in competitive local markets. Our digital marketing solutions are custom-built to attract, engage, reengage and convert your local customers.

Fill out our short Get Started form or call us at 877-237-6120 for a free, no-obligation consultation.