Keyword Quoted in Replacement Contractor

Keyword was recently quoted in the latest issue of Replacement Contractor magazine. Jim Cory, the erstwhile editor of Replacement Contractor wrote a good article, Get Me On Page One, for home improvement companies on pay per click marketing and search engine optimization and spoke with my partner Paul Baudisch, and myself.

The article raises some differing viewpoints on whether organic or paid search alone are enough. Our view at Keyword is that the more listings you can have on the page, the better your results will ultimately be. While others champion a different strategy, Search Page Domination is where we’ve seen the best results.

Dave Yoho, the Home Improvement Industry’s Force of Nature

I’m at the Yoho Home Improvement Economic Summit that’s paired with the Remodeling Show out in Indianapolis. For those of you who haven’t heard Dave Yoho speak, you’re really missing out on the home improvement industry’s force of nature. While Dave knows every aspect of the home improvement business inside and out, he also has an unmatched passion for the industry.

At the Economic Summit, Dave is taking dozens of companies across the country through two days of hardcore, nuts and bolts, nose to the grindstone home improvement operations.  For those of you who haven’t heard Dave present in the past, I recommend checking out the Yoho YouTube channel to see the man in action. Lots of great material on closing, sales language and appointment setting. 

Live Blogging at the Home Remodeling Show

I will be at the Hanley Wood Remodeling Show in Indianapolis for the next couple of days and will be blogging about the event from start to finish. I am on the Internet Marketing panel at Dave Yoho’s Home Improvement Economic Summit and will be wandering the show floor over the next couple of days. Look for several updates over the next couple of days as I hear from several of the biggest names in the home improvement industry.

Turning the Tables: Advice For Lead Gen Companies

I’ve written a lot about how home improvement dealers can produce more value from their Internet leads.  Now I’m turning the tables, to suggest how the online lead companies can serve them better.

Here goes:

1. Limit the number of times they sell each lead. Home improvement companies really don’t want their leads shared with anyone, let alone their competitors.  Yet most lead generation companies sell their leads as many times as they can (2X? 3X? 5X?  I’ve even heard as many as 12X).But every time they sell a lead more than once, that lead loses value. A lead sold 6X has a significantly smaller chance of closing than a lead sold only twice. To make their customers happiest, they should deliver leads that have the best possible chance of closing.  And that means limiting the number of times they sell their leads.

Internet Leads & Follow Up—Joined at the Hip

When I ask home improvement companies about Internet leads, I hear a range of opinions. Many are good…and many are bad.

Why the difference?

It may well be their lead sources.  But after listening to hundreds of phone calls over the years driven by Internet campaigns, I realize the difference often has to do with how these inquiries are handled by the home improvement dealers receiving them.

Don’t Smash Your Re-Hash

Browsing through Qualified Remodeler this week, I came across an article entitled Three Ways to Spruce Up Your Marketing—Instantly.

The article’s “Instant Improvement Idea #1” was “Get a Better Follow-Up System”.  In other words, learn to make re-hashing really work for you.  Being an Internet guy, I naturally began wondering what that meant for online-leads-gone-cold.

In short, it’s a big opportunity.  Re-hashing Internet leads is as valuable as re-hashing your leads from other media. You’d think that would be an obvious point, but for too many home improvement companies, Internet leads still fall to the bottom of the follow-up pile.

Search Engines – Clawing Your Way Up – Part 4

My past three posts explained why home improvement companies have such a hard time clawing their way to the top of the search engine rankings. If you haven’t (yet) read them, don’t despair. I’m finally getting to the point.

Here it is: Real responsibility for high rankings on the search engines does not rest with your home improvement company.

It rests instead with the owners of the brands you sell.

Why? Let me offer a bit of history.