“Bags of Clicks” = Bags of **** (Part 1)

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:

And Now, In a New Location – Keyword Connects!

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:

Keyword Connects
77 Rumford Avenue, Suite #4
Waltham, MA  02453

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!

Google Earth for Fun & Profit

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.

The ServiceMagic Market Survey Says: “Soft”

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.

Flying High With Google Earth, Part 2

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.

Winning With TV

In these blog posts, I generally take on topics of online marketing as they relate to home improvement marketing. This week, however, I’m going to stray a bit from that theme and consider the changing strategies for leveraging broadcast media for lead generation.

First, it’s great that home improvement manufacturers are working hard to generate leads on behalf of their dealers. This is more and more important as media channels continue to fragment and the buying power of a centralized, national entity becomes an essential element for media success.

Wisdom From a Fishing Forum

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:

Facebook – Romancing Your Customers

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.

Time Is On Your Site

Let’s consider one of today’s most-misunderstood Web metrics:  Average Time on Site.

First, a definition: Average Time on Site is the average of the time that your visitors spend perusing the pages of your Web site.

Simple enough.

But Average Time on Site can tell you many things about what your prospects are looking for – or what they can’t find – on your Web site.

First, consider how you can increase your Average Time on Site.

Home improvement companies that sell a single product typically run Web sites with fewer pages. With less content to review, it’s likely that their prospects will spend less time on average on their Web sites.

A Room With a (Page) View

In my last post, I reviewed the meaning of Web site “visits” . . . and “cheap visits.” You get cheap visits from Internet users whom you don’t stand a chance of ever selling anything to:  perhaps they don’t live in your marketing area or they simply wanted to sign up for your sweepstakes giveaway.

Let’s now consider another Web marketing metric: “page views.”

Simply stated, one page view is one of your Web site pages viewed by one visitor. If one visitor views five pages, that’s five page views.  If ten visitors view one page, that’s ten page views.  If one visitor views one page, jumps to another page, and then returns to the original page, that’s three page views.