Home Improvement Leads: Starting With the End in Mind

Ever hear of the blind squirrel finding a nut?  The comparison is apt when I look back at how my partner and I got into the home improvement lead game. Unwittingly, we did a couple of smart things.

The first is that we listened carefully to what our first client, Moonworks, wanted from an online lead generation program.

·         They wanted branded sales leads from homeowners in southern New England

·         They wanted the leads to be exclusive to their company, to reduce competition

·         They wanted leads that set in-home sales appointments at 60+%

·         They wanted those appointments to close at the same rates as appointments generated through other lead channels

·         They wanted to pay for performance, on a Per Lead basis

After that first meeting, we went home and tried to figure out how we could deliver. Could we do it? Should we do it?  Would we even be able to generate any leads in the first place? 

We had no idea. But we did work diligently to create a Pay Per Lead program that delivered on those criteria. 

Cut to almost 4 years later. It hasn’t always been pretty. There’ve been plenty of ups, and there have been some downs. But after 400+ home improvement clients and tens of thousands of leads, we think that our “branded, exclusive” Per Lead model is the right one for larger home improvement dealers.

Let me share a testimonial from one of our dealers, 2daysBath out of Delaware.

“We’ve worked with Keyword Advisors for nearly a year now, and we’re just delighted with the leads they generate for us.  From July to December of 2008, we received 111 leads from Keyword.  We’re now approaching May of 2009 and we’ve already received 161 leads year-to-date.  We’ve set appointments with 68.9% of them, and closed 26%, resulting in over $110,000 in sales so far this year.  Keyword Advisors has proven to be a terrific investment.”

Andy Wahlund, Owner

2daysBATH, Wilmington, DE

We thank Andy and his team for keeping such diligent numbers on our program.  We love when our dealers do that!

By starting with the end in mind and focusing on the quality of our home improvement dealers’ appointment set rate and sales closing ratio, we’ve created a Pay Per Lead program that ultimately proves itself not in theory – but on our dealers’ balance sheets.

This blog is specifically dedicated to helping home improvement dealers and home improvement brands to understand the internet, online marketing opportunities and the pitfalls that lurk everywhere online.

Next time: the 2nd unwittingly smart thing we did from the beginning to help drive quality home improvement leads.