Every moving company needs new leads
One of the hardest parts of running a moving business is the constant search for new customers. Not only to grow, but also to stay in business to pay for salaries, office, trucks etc. But how do you obtain a constant flow of leads?

There are many ways to generate new leads and new business for your company. Various marketing channels can serve as part of your strategy and depending on your budget and size of your business you might want to use one or more of these channels. We will explain the pros and cons per channel below.

Your own website:
In the digital age, it is important for a company to have an online presence and especially it’s own website. Customers search online to find a moving company that meets their needs. Therefore, generating new leads can be effectively done with your own website if they can find you.

There are many online tools available to create a website and list high in the search engines. Although it might seem easy to create a beautiful online webpage, it isn’t as simple as it seems. We suggest to hire a good designer / developer to make a website that really states who you are and what you stand for.
Given the fact that a website is a big part of the marketing strategy, your website needs to be more than just attractive in order to generate useful and quality leads. Ask your website builder about SEO and SEA

Pros: Leads generated from your website are usually a very good quality
Cons: If they can’t find your website, or it’s too difficult to leave their details, it will not generate many leads.

SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
A part of your strategy might be Search Engine Marketing which can be split up into 2 different options;

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
The joke is often made ”where do you hide a dead body? On the second page of Google, nobody looks there”. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of the key aspects that you will need to invest time and money on to get to the first page in google and have people actually visit your website when looking for a mover. This is not a one time investment though, SEO is something you will need to keep doing on the long term to keep it’s effect. We suggest to find a professional SEO company to help you with a strategy.

Pros: If you reach the first page you get more quality leads
Cons: It takes a lot of time and investment to reach the first page. You also cannot stop investing. You will lose your position in the search engine.

SEA (Search Engine Advertising)
You can advertise in search engines like Google to get potential customers to your website. You can specify a specific target audience (location, search phrase, etc) to advertise on. You will pay for each person who clicks on your advertisement and goes to your website. You will also need to pay if this person leaves your website without doing anything. Reaching the right audience and a good website can deliver you a lot of new leads.

Setting up the advertising campaigns and maintaining them is not easy. We would always recommend to hire a professional to do this.

Pros: Target a specific audience, attract lots of visitors to your website, easy to measure.
Cons: Expensive, strong competition, you might get leads you can’t service

Social Media
While social media started out as an online place where people came together to share photos and comments, it has grown into one of the most important places for online marketing. For moving companies there is also a good opportunity to generate leads. It will however not give you the same amount of leads as other channels do but can help build a good image of your company and brand. People who move will research your company. Seeing positive reviews, images of your company and trucks will help gaining more trust in your services. This also helps build your brand and gain trust with other agents if you are working as an international mover.

In order to do successful social media we advise to take a course (one-time) and setup a stratgey that will not cost you to much time.

Pros: Helps build your brand, a good way to do customer service or help with questions
Cons: Not an effective way to generate higher volumes of (international) moving leads.

Offline marketing
In recent years, online advertising has become increasingly important. Still, there are some advantages for moving companies to keep working on offline advertising. Especially if you want to stay well-known locally.  We can divide offline marketing into 2 things: offline advertising and conferences/trade shows.

Offline advertising

Offline advertising can be very interesting for creating more brand awareness. Especially when doing it locally. For example, it is possible to use billboard ads, posters in bus shelters and a sponsorship of a local sports team to create more visibility. Another good way to increase brand awareness is to collaborate with other companies, such as real estate agencies or market orientated magazines.

Pros: Good way to increase brand name awareness, especially locally
Cons: Difficult to measure the results.

Conferences and trade shows 

A good way of generating more leads and business is going to conferences or trade shows.
Conferences can be a good way to gain more knowledge about the moving industry it is also a good place to get in touch with suppliers and agents you work with. Face to face meetings will leave a longer impression and will result in more trust and eventually more business.

For moving companies it might also be interesting to visit or have a booth at trade shows. Present yourselves professionally, share business cards en follow up.

Pros: Personal contact with your customers, supplier and agents. Builds trust
Cons: Expensive, time consuming

Lead generators
A lead generator is a company that specializes in generating leads (data from potential customers) by using various different online marketing tools. They will try to generate high volume leads for moving companies.

A lead generator gives a moving company the opportunity to get targeted leads for their business.
Either based on move size, origin location, destination or move date. You usually pay for every lead you receive. The price will depend on how specific you want your leads to be. Check for budget and capping options.

Pros: Only get leads for a specific product/service, only pay for valid leads and easy to measure ROI
Cons: Compete with other companies on the same lead. Check how many get the same leads.

So there are many different ways to generate moving leads. Each way has its pros and cons, so it is important to clearly determine which of your budget you will spend on each channel. We always suggest to look at your short term and longs term business strategy.

Leads and ROI
Whatever channel you use to spend your sales / marketing budget on, make sure you get a good ROI (return on investment). Measure what each new lead will actually cost you and how much it actually brings. Smaller companies might only use one or two channels, medium to big size companies will have strategies for all channels.

Just make sure you follow up each lead as soon as possible, be transparent and provide professional service. If you do, each channel has the possibility to help you with structural new business.

We lead the way.
Quot8 has been one of the frontrunners in generating international moving leads for years. We have been supplying leads to 500+ international moving companies since 2014. Through constant innovation and development, building partnerships and listen to our customers we find the best ways to generate high-quality leads.

Let us help you!
Let Quot8 help you to grow your business. We receive daily 100’s of potential quote request from people with an intend to move internationally. Our staff will be happy to contact you for more information.