Online Lead Gen: How to Win & How to Lose

In my last post, I shared how Sears has natural advantages over local home improvement companies when it comes to online lead generation.  Sears has national buying power—online advertisers just love that because they work with a single client that can buy out their entire inventory of online leads and advertising.

Smaller home improvement companies can’t make national buys. That puts them at a significant disadvantage over the big national players.

So, how do the local guys fight back? The answer is for them to look to the brands and manufacturers of the products they sell.

Sears, Sears Everywhere

If you’re in home improvement, you’ve no doubt noticed that Sears is everywhere online.  And they’re especially strong in some key categories: replacement windows, siding and cabinet refacing.  You’ll see their ads in the paid search listings, some organic listings, e-mails and a host of other online advertising channels.

The folks at Sears are undoubtedly smart, so you can assume that if they’re advertising, they must be doing so because it’s profitable for them.  Here’s the question you should be asking yourself:  “Why them and not me?” Said another way, how can Sears find it cost-effective to advertise across so many channels, while local home improvement companies seem to have so few profitable online advertising options?

Online Customer Surveys For Fun & Profit

With the 2010 Census still fresh in your mind, consider how customer surveys can help you run a more profitable home improvement business.

Surveying your customers used to be a huge hassle.  Writing up your survey questions.  Finding the right addresses to which to send them.  Stuffing envelopes with stamped return envelopes.  And then hoping that you get enough surveys back to make your results statistically significant.

Fortunately, you can now take advantage of a number of simple and inexpensive online services that ease the process of surveying your customers.

Is YouTube Your Next Big Thing?

YouTube as part of your marketing mix? Maybe yes…and maybe no.

I’m often asked whether or not home improvement companies should post videos on YouTube, Google’s wildly popular video-sharing Web site. If you haven’t seen YouTube yet, “enormous” doesn’t begin to describe how big a phenomenon it’s become, particularly with the younger demographic. To provide some perspective, YouTube has more viewers every day than the three major TV networks…combined.

So should you use YouTube to generate leads? On this point, I sit squarely on the fence—there is a good case to be made for YouTube, and a good case against it. Allow me lay out the pros and cons:

Industry Trends: Are The Good Times Upon Us?

If early signs are any predictor, many home improvement companies are going to have a strong spring selling season. Have I got your attention now?

Let me share what some of you may already sense. The home improvement market is, well, improving. And, if early signs are any predictor, many home improvement companies are going to have a strong spring selling season.

Online Reviews: They Can’t Hurt Me
…Can They? Part 1

The Internet offers numerous opportunities for homeowners to post complaints about your home improvement company. Many companies ignore these Web sites, and the comments posted there about them. They do so at their peril.

It used to be that consumers who weren’t happy with a home improvement company had limited options. They could call the Better Business Bureau and file a complaint. Or they could simply tell their friends and neighbors about how badly their project went or the unresponsiveness of their contractor.

National Lead Gen: Metrics Shall Set You Free!

Many home improvement brands spend great sums of money buying national media to generate leads for their dealers. A great strategy…or a big waste? Read on.

As we’ve worked with home improvement brands and manufacturers, we’ve learned a lot about their challenges of running national media campaigns. Turns out that brands that run campaigns on behalf of their dealers take on key challenges…not just to develop programs that work, but to also track the results.

Everyone’s Gone Banner Blind (Part 2)!

Internet banner advertising is essential for lead generation. But ONLY if you follow these important tips.

Last week I wrote about ‘banner blindness.’ That’s behavior that Internet users have developed that causes them to ignore banner advertising on the Web pages they visit. This week, I promised to share with you how you can make Internet banner advertising work for your home improvement company?

Here’s the short answer: get your media salespeople selling you offline advertising to throw-in banner advertising on their Web sites.

“Throw-in?” you ask. What is a “throw-in”? And why would a media salesperson “throw in” banners into a media sale?

Agencies! Consultants! SEOs! Oh My! (Part 2)

When it comes to Internet marketing, you’ve got loads of options to choose from. That’s the good news…and the bad. Here’s the second installment of my advice for separating contenders from pretenders.

Last week shared the many options home improvement companies have for Internet marketing help.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of pretenders out there, and choosing them can lead to losing out on your online opportunity, as well as wasting your money.

This week, I want to help you sort through your choices, and differentiate among the good, the bad and the ugly.

Agencies! Consultants! SEOs! Oh My! (Part 1)

When it comes to hiring Internet marketing help, you’ve got a lot of folks to choose from. Here are thoughts for separating the contenders from the pretenders.

In the new world of the Internet, it seems everyone does search engine optimization. Everyone is a Web designer. And everyone knows paid search marketing. And they do print advertising and direct mail, and can handle your e-mail marketing.

As a home improvement company, you’ve heard this in pitch after pitch. “We do that!” “We can handle that for you…” and “We’re experts at that.”