Home Improvement Lead Generation - Advantages and Disadvantages

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2 2 Introduction Your home improvement company needs leads. Lots of them. It s no secret that leads are the source of your new customers. And often completely unproductive. And with the explosion of the Internet over the past decade, online media have become a primary starting point for finding the leads you need. But it s not easy. In fact, figuring out online lead generation can be confusing. And time consuming. And expensive. I can help you achieve many useless things. To make matters worse, as the Internet matured, so did a system full of media sales hucksters, agency pretenders and virtual carnival barkers all of whom are happy to promise all the quality leads you need. They re mostly lying. Or ignorant. Or both.

3 3 Yes, they will spend your money and generate impressions, events, conversions and all sorts of other activity. But you don t want impressions or activity for their own sake you want (all together now) sales leads! High quality, pre screened, productive leads. The kind that turn into profitable, high quality customers. That s what this short e book is all about. Understanding how online lead generation works (and how it doesn t), clarifying what s really important and knowing enough about what really matters to push back against the endless onslaught of salespeople who hope to take advantage of your need for leads. Todd Bairstow Co Founder Keyword Connects

4 4 Table Of Contents Myth #1: Paid Search is Easy to Do 5 Myth #2: My Web Site is Already Optimized 9 Myth #3: Social Media Rules 12 Myth #4: Online Listings Make the Phone Ring 15 Myth #5: Mobile is Important for All Companies 18 Myth #6: The Phone Isn t as Important as the Web 21 In Conclusion 23

5 MYTH #1 Paid Search is Easy to Do Paid search lead generation is easy to do poorly, easy to do expensively and easy to do ineffectively.

6 6 Myth #1: Paid Search is Easy to Do Paid search (i.e., the sponsor listings that you see at the top of Google and Yahoo search results) is a straightforward process. There s no black magic here. You put your money down and, provided you bid high enough, your ad will be on the page for a given search query nearly every time. That s the good news. The bad news is that it s easy to do poorly, easy to do expensively and easy to do ineffectively. You or the marketing agency you hire to spend your money can waste thousands of dollars, generating impressions and even clicks. All without getting you the leads your business needs. Many paid search providers trumpet their technology. Claims about automated keyword generation and complex bidding algorithms may sound high tech and cutting edge but in the end, they pollute the process and often generate terrible results. A big agency, for example, may tell you that they will spend $3,000 of your money on paid search advertising in Orlando during the month of March. And they will find a way to do that whether or not there are really $3,000 worth of effective search terms they can bid on.

7 7 It s all done by software, without human intervention. Their technology spends your money to fit your budget, not necessarily to drive cost effective, high quality sales leads. Wisely spending your money requires an understanding of many factors. They include which search terms to buy and which to avoid, the value of phone calls, the right level of qualification, the dangers of overincentivizing and more. Buying the term windows, for example, may seem like a good use of a home improvement company s paid search budget. Unless, of course, your ad shows up on a search for car windows or Microsoft windows. In which case you ve wasted your money. Well executed campaigns are very complicated. Hiring a company or an individual who has expertise in paid search in general and your niche in particular is important. Can t I just do it myself? you may ask. It s possible. But with paid search getting more complex and more competitive every day, I don t recommend it. While you certainly have your own best interests in mind, the complexities and constant change involved with online advertising may have you spinning your wheels and wasting your money. You don t want to make the same mistakes that agencies and marketing firms make.

8 MYTH #2 My Web Site is Already Optimized Your Web site s search ranking is a living breathing thing that needs constant care and feeding.

9 9 Myth #2: My Web Site is Already Optimized This one s almost not a myth since, at its heart, its true: If you can do organic search (a.k.a. search engine optimization SEO ) well, there s nothing more valuable. Moreover, it s free. But doing this in a way that makes you consistently stand out is very difficult. With organic search, your Web site s ranking is never finished it s a living breathing thing that needs constant care and feeding. Plus, today, everyone who builds a Web site is building it to be optimized for search engines any advantage is hard won and even harder to hold onto. Unlike paid search, SEO is black magic. Google, Yahoo and other search engines don t share the algorithms they use to determine rankings. Even if you manage to get to the top of your particular category, the next time Google modifies its algorithm (something it does regularly) your Web site may slide right to the bottom. It gets worse. Within organic search, Google is actively choosing winners and losers, and with a bias towards large, national brands. Search on any major home improvement term ( siding, for example) and guess who shows up Home Depot, Lowes, HomeAdvisor and other behemoths. Your company competes against these giants all the time.

10 10 Finally, I see many SEO agencies trumpeting their successes all the time. They delight in showing that your Web site now ranks high on specific terms in your particular town (e.g., fence installation Natick Massachusetts ). While this appears to be success, the reality is often different. Only a half dozen searchers may enter the term fence installation Natick Massachusetts over an entire year! Your SEO agency has essentially spent a lot of effort, and your money, to get you one half of one visitor per month. In effect, you re in first place on a search page that nobody visits. This is all not to say you shouldn t optimize your Web site in this way. It s just that at this point in the evolution of search, doing SEO is table stakes the price of just being in the game. Here are the factors that matter most when it comes to SEO: 1. Longevity. Yep, that s right. The age of your Web site and Web address is what matters most in the eyes of Google. So while the guy you hire to improve your search ranking will hopefully do his best, you need to be in the game for years, not months, for your Web site to be at the top. 2. Inbound links. This refers to links from other Web sites that link back to yours, a sign that other Web site owners like your Web site. And while there s been a lot of chatter about how inbound links and link history are losing their importance, they are still a significant factor in organic search rankings.

11 11 3. Quality, fresh content. Google likes active Web sites with active pages. The more you write and post about your subject area, the better Other factors come into play as well, but these are the top three when it comes to organic search rankings. Note that all three of these are hard to achieve quickly and reliably. My point is not to scare or dissuade you from paying attention to organic search. That said, you should be aware of where this fits into your online marketing mix and be clear on what you can, and cannot, achieve.

12 MYTH #3 Social Media Rules If you want the phone to ring with qualified leads, most social media activities are going to have a hard time generating real ROI.

13 13 Myth #3: Social Media Rules Everybody s doing it. And your customers spend a ton of time there, so that s where you need to be as well. When it comes to social media, this is a common refrain. Unfortunately, it s just not very effective if you re looking for leads. What matters is whether all that time spent by your prospects on social media translates into leads for your home improvement business. Because if the answer is no (which it probably is), you ll be wasting a lot of money and effort in a medium that doesn t get you the leads you need. Here again, there s an immense gulf between the heavy breathing hype, and the metrics and traffic that matter. Does social media have value for some businesses? Absolutely. Big name brands (Starbucks, Coke, GM) that want to connect on a more personal level do see benefits. So do offer based companies like cash for gold, free e book giveaways and even online classes. But if you want the phone to ring with qualified leads for your home improvement business, most social media activities (e.g., Facebook and Twitter updates and banner ads) are going to have a hard time generating real ROI.

14 14 Where Social Media DOES Work for Home Improvement Companies One aspect beneath the social media umbrella that is worth your attention is customer reviews. Web sites like Angie s List, Google and Yelp provide opportunities for customers to run local searches and read reviews across a wide range of businesses. And while these reviews can be faked to some extent, in the eyes of Google and organic search, they can be an important differentiator. Keep in mind as well that homeowners feel a big sense of risk when hiring a home service company. Reading positive reviews about your business will help allay customer fears. Since most local businesses have zero reviews, just having a handful about your company can make a big difference. So encourage your customers to post there. What about negative reviews? Won t you get some of those if you encourage customers to post, and won t those hurt you? Not really. Everybody who has reviews has some bad ones. But there s more to lose by having no reviews at all. So long as you don t have a LOT of negative reviews, you ll be on the right side of the current landscape.

15 MYTH #4 Online Listings Make the Phone Ring All of the listing services combined deliver less than 10% of what the major search engines do.

16 16 Myth #4: Online Listings Make the Phone Ring If you ve been in the home improvement business for more than 20 minutes, you ve no doubt received solicitations to list your business with one of the dozens of online directory services (Yellow Pages, SuperPages etc.). Our experience is that these types of services drive a small fraction of traffic. Yes, I know that the salespeople for these services love to screech about how You are missing out! if you don t sign up with them. Not really. All of these listing services combined deliver less than 10% of what the major search engines do. But don t ignore online listings entirely. They serve a legitimate purpose, mostly by helping local businesses get found by the real search engines. So make sure your listings are set up accurately, once, and then just leave them alone. You can do this on your own or, since there are so many of these, you can pay a third party service (e.g., Yext, Universal Business Listing) once to do this for you.

17 17 If you do engage a third party service, pay close attention to the specifics of your listing. Common mistakes in our industry include listing bathroom remodeling companies as plumbers, or window installation companies as handyman. Close, but totally wrong. And, since Google and others use these listings in part to determine how to categorize your Web site, getting this right makes a difference. The right way to create these listings is to load them up with as much information as possible. Max out the number of images, videos, logos, payment information, descriptions that you re allowed to submit. The more information your listing has, the more the search engines and directories have to display to their visitors. But don t worry too much chances are you ll never be able to get all your listings to display 100% correctly. Online listing Web sites and directories remain imperfect beasts. But a best efforts degree of investment of your time and energy is all you need.

18 MYTH #5 Mobile is Important for All Companies Avoid the temptation to believe that your business will win or lose because of your mobile efforts.

19 19 Myth #5: Mobile is Important for All Companies Maybe you ve seen the stats: 40% of total Web site visits come from some type of mobile device. Doesn t that mean that your home improvement Web site needs to be tailored for mobile users? Probably not at least not yet. The reality is that mobile matters a great deal more for some businesses than others. Mobile is very important, for example, in emergency situations: a clogged sink, a broken air conditioner, a failed heating system, a flooded basement. In these cases, desperate homeowners will simply reach for their phone and start searching. If you re in the plumbing, HVAC, junk removal, or water damage business, mobile listings aren t just important, they are your new lifeblood for calls. When consumers need help fast, they reach for their mobile phone. But for those who sell high value, high consideration products items like sunrooms, replacement windows, home siding that urgency is usually not part of the mix. In these industries, mobile is still just nice to have. Remember as well, that if your target customer is 45 years old or more, he/she is unlikely to be mobile friendly to begin with. These folks are just getting used to searching for products on the Web, and for them, a computer is still the device of choice.

20 20 So by all means, keep an eye on mobile Internet. It s certainly easier than ever to optimize your Web site and advertising for mobile devices. But avoid the temptation to believe that your business will win or lose because of your mobile Internet efforts. Your products may just not dictate that.

21 MYTH #6 The Phone Isn t as Important as the Web No matter how smart and efficient you are in generating leads, if you re not great on the phone, you ll ruin the leads anyway.

22 22 Myth #6: Online Listings Make the Phone Ring The biggest mistake (by far) that we see home improvement companies make regarding online leads is that they take their eye off the ball when it comes to the telephone. Because no matter how smart and efficient you are in generating leads, if you re not great on the phone, you ll ruin the leads anyway. Here s what great on the phone means: Lightning fast call backs. In the eyes of a prospective customer, the speed with which you respond to an inbound lead is a test of your service quality. Every minute that ticks by between the moment a homeowner submits an inquiry and when you call the homeowner back (at Keyword Connects, we aim for five minutes or less) is hurting you. Dedicated, well trained phone staff. This is the front end to your entire business. If the person on your staff who first speaks with prospects first is unfriendly or uninformed, you will lose business. A smooth, systematic, efficient phone process, every step of the way. Do you prescreen prospects adequately? Do you set appointments consistently? Do you make confirmation calls? Do you follow up on questions? Can I call to reschedule an appointment easily? You get the idea. Your phone operation needs to work well, 100% of the time. No excuses.

23 23 In Conclusion Online lead generation is powerful. In fact, it s changed the home improvement industry (for the better) in all kinds of ways. But it s also raised the bar. Far too many service providers are more than happy to take your money to get you visibility online and impressions metrics that don t matter. Unfortunately, so much of it never adds up to what you really want great sales leads. Keep these six myths in mind the next time you re given the opportunity to invest in online marketing. They will help ensure you spend your money well, and that you snare more than your fair share of great Internet sales leads. See you on the Web! About the Author: Todd Bairstow is a Founder and Partner at Keyword Connects. Before launching Keyword Connects, he worked at Arnold Worldwide in Boston, one of the largest advertising agencies in the country, and has worked in Internet marketing for 18 years. He is a prolific writer and speaker on topics of online marketing for home improvement, and writes a popular online blog at

24 Need Leads? Contact Us Keyword Connects generates highest-quality sales leads for more than 400 home improvement companies across the country. To learn how we can help your business, contact us today: x86 A Publication Of