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.
Want to turn more leads into appointments? More appointments into sales? You may not be able to have it both ways.
Whether you know it or not, there’s a tug of war going on in your company right now. And the folks who set your appointments are right in the middle.
On one side is your marketing team. That includes your homeshow reps, SFI teams, canvassers and the like. They work feverishly to generate connections with homeowners interested in what you sell. You pay many for each appointment they produce, and as far as these folks are concerned,every lead they generate should turn into an appointment. And they naturally want to be paid for all of them.
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.
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.
Want to get your 2010 off to a great start? A little preparation now will go a long way come January 2.
It’s December, and homeowners across the continent are looking forward to a joyous holiday season. As they do, you need to set your sights out just a little further: the upcoming home show season.
What should you be doing? Get prepared to follow up on your home show leads. How? One step is to plan how you best stay connected to those homeowners who inevitably tell you during your follow up, “I’m just not ready to meet with you yet.”
If a little video is good, is more better? If so, how much? This week we consider the different sides of these important questions.
How Much Video Should I Use On My Web Site?
In my last post, I talked (literally) about using video on your home improvement Web site. But the question I left unanswered was “How much video should I use on my website?”
My answer is simple. Use what’s appropriate.
OK, I will get off the fence. There’s no hard and fast rule for how much video you should use. Nothing is not enough. On the other hand, your Web site should also not be one big TV commercial either.
We’ve all heard the adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” If that’s the case, an online video must be worth a million. Read on. Watch on.
Doubtless your Web site for your home improvement business already has text, pictures and highlights your latest $$$ saving offer. But does it have video?
If not, it should.
Five years ago, the Internet was like a giant online newspaper, with pages dominated by text and images. From time to time, you might come across a few fancy graphics and maybe some splotchy audio or video. But the technology of that era just couldn’t really support much more.
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.
Let’s face it. The cost to generate a fresh, qualified lead these days is high, and getting higher. That leaves more and more home improvement dealers looking to stretch their lead generation investments. And that means they’re looking to work leads they already own: that is, previous customers and past prospects.
The math works. As a home improvement dealer, your cost for these leads is zero: you’ve already got these leads. In fact, you’ve already had contact with them, and (hopefully) turned a bunch of them into sales. If you can cross-sell or up-sell your past customers, and re-hash your old prospects—bingo, you’ll hedge yourself against the ever-rising costs of new, qualified sales leads.
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.
