Should you be doing more with mobile online marketing?
Well yes…and no. Fact is, most homeowners doing research online use a full-sized screen, i.e. they consider your offerings in front of their laptop or desktop computer. That means they’re not using a mobile device when checking you out.
But Todd, you say, everything I read tells me that mobile online marketing is growing, growing, growing! Indeed, that’s what the statistics tell us. From those statistics, I estimate that 10-11%% of all visitors arrive at home improvement Web sites via mobile devices.
Five years ago, some quick-witted entrepreneurs were able to capitalize on one of America’s greatest weaknesses: Spelling.
This won’t really come as a shock to most of you, but most Americans are poor spellers, and even poorer typists. In “our” field, this manifests itself in errant search queries:
Windws
Windoes
Windowes
Windoze
Cabinets
Cabinnets
Cabinettes
I see mis-spellings like this all the time on Google and the other search engines. And years ago, it used to make a difference in the search results. Google would actually show results for the mis-spelled words – not for the keywords that the user meant to search for.
No surprise: lower-priced products are generally easier to sell than more-expensive products. Ensure that you’ve got enough of the former, and you’ll be building a base on which you can cross-sell your customers to your more profitable offerings.
Remodelers constantly tell me “Hey, I bought a new domain!” And with that goes the typical story that they are going to build a second Web site to seize on important new keywords and dominate their market!
Well let me offer a little reality on this strategy. Finding a great domain name is terrific, and I’m happy for anyone who scores that coveted domain. Securing, for example, “SeattleWindows.com” is a great coup for a windows dealer in the Seattle area.
Many remodelers over the last few years have told me about sales pitches from companies like ReachLocal and Yodle. And while I understand their sales pitches to be slick and well-choreographed, these firms make a number of claims that are dubious at best.
But the one aspect of their sales pitches that is most egregious is what I call the “Bag of Clicks.” The pitch goes like this:
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.
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.
Last week we considered search engine rankings—and why it’s so hard to get (and stay) on top. It seems that Web sites run by online lead brokers and national brands dominate the search engine results. You’d simply like to get your own Web site to rank highly for common terms like “replacement windows” and “vinyl siding”, the ones you know homeowners in your territory are searching for.
Those Web sites that do get the high ranks certainly look authoritative. But the frustrating part is that you know that their owners have probably never swung a hammer for a customer in their lives.
I typed the term “replacement windows” into Google this morning. I then confirmed what many of you already know.
Online lead brokers dominate the search engine results for replacement windows terms—particularly in the organic results of the pages. Here’s just a quick list of some of the Web sites I found:
Most of these Web sites embrace the best practices for search engine optimization, i.e. getting high search engine rankings. They’ve invested in doing all the right things—selecting relevant domain names, ensuring deep, successful histories with Google, etc.
The roof of my sun porch recently sprang a leak, causing water to seep into my ceiling and walls.You know what water damage looks like—ugly and brown.
Because I have the home repair skills of a toddler, I decided to call a contactor before any more damage was done. I figured that I could call someone who knew roofing and could handle the interior wall work and repainting.
Unfortunately, instead of calling just one contractor, I had to call five.
Why? Because the first four didn’t answer the phone and worse, they didn’t bother to return my calls.
Every week, Todd Bairstow—our online expert—shares his wisdom on an aspect of Internet marketing for home improvement companies. You can read his thoughts here on his blog or you can subscribe, and we'll send you his latest posts each week.
