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.
After four great years in the famous Waltham Watch Factory building, we have moved. We’ve found some great space in another former factory building…now with more twice the room.
Find us now at:
We’re actually just a short walk from our old location.
We have a new phone system as well. Call us now at our main number, 781-899-3675 and use our directory to connect to the party you want to reach.
In the area? Drop by and say hello!
In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, I considered how home improvement companies actually sabotage their leads with Google Earth. By using Google Earth to check out the exterior of a home before setting an appointment, they can unnecessarily downgrade a perfectly good potential sales opportunity.
Smart remodelers won’t stand for that. Instead, I’d expect them to first book the appointment . . .and THEN use Google Earth to come up with ideas on how to sell to that homeowner. Home improvement salespeople have long researched their prospects using Google searches, Facebook, and other background information they find on line, and the smart ones have now added Google Earth to their arsenals.
I just finished reading ServiceMagic’s Home Remodeling Survey, covering the first 6 months of 2011. It confirmed what we – and many of you – have seen so far this year: softness in the market with a few bright spots.
I take away both good news and bad news from this survey. Leading with the positive, homeowners still want energy-efficient and savings-related home improvements. Specifically, solar installations are gaining popularity, and were tagged as the most popular remodeling category so far in 2011.
Can having too much knowledge about a prospect actually be bad for your business? In the land of the Internet, that may well be true.
My last post considered how remodeling companies use Google to qualify prospects who are considering exterior home improvement projects. For instance, roofers, siding companies, paving firms and solar dealers regularly use Google Earth to assess properties right from the comfort of their offices. They take the time to drive out and meet with homeowners only if their initial review of the property indicates that it could be worthwhile.
How much time do homeowners spend on your Web site? Well, it’s generally a lot . . . or a little.
Which is better? When it comes to lead generation for home improvement companies, that depends on many factors. All of which I summarize in today’s video blog post as “The Dumbbell Effect.”
As a lead generator for the home improvement industry, I often find myself swimming in dirty waters. “Dirty” in that a lot of other lead providers use what I consider to be questionable tactics and sales pitches to get a piece of your marketing budget.
So what works and what doesn’t? To answer that, I’d like to point you to – of all things – a recent post from a striped bass fishing forum. And, before I go any further, let me say that we had absolutely nothing to do with this posting. Moreover, we don’t even know who the poster, “Michael P”, is:
Industry observers knew the day of reckoning would come one day. For years, Web site operators had secretly and not-so-secretly bought all-important inbound links. Their objective was to game Google’s search ranking algorithm to secure high search rankings for their Web sites.
And for years, buying links worked like a charm. So well, in fact, that the practice became widespread. And then one day, Google decided to down on Web site operators trying to buy their way to the top. In fact, the problem had become so widespread by that point that Google used the opportunity to make very public examples of some very prominent Web sites.
When it comes to assessing your Web site’s performance, knowing what to track is as important as what not to bother with. I’m pleased to have had the opportunity to share some thoughts on this in the current issue of Replacement Contractor Online.
Best,
Todd Bairstow
With the passing of Valentine’s Day last week, I’m reminded of the connection between romance and, yes, online marketing.
At a recent seminar I attended for Internet marketing geeks, the speaker talked about Facebook, and how people actually use it. And he presented connecting with prospects on Facebook in terms of building relationships. The trouble is that companies too often use Facebook like one night stands. They want to immediately swamp their prospective customers with offers and promotions to consumers to part with their money as soon as possible.
But the reality is that Facebook users don’t want one night stands. They want to be romanced.
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.
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