Why It s Essential for Home Improvement Companies to Use Digital Marketing

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1 Why It s Essential for Home Improvement Companies to Use Digital Marketing A Quick and Easy Guide to Digital Advertising for Local Businesses

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS The State of Home Improvement Marketing Today The Benefits of Going Digital The 5 Best Digital Marketing Services for Your Home Improvement Company 2

3 The State of Home Services Marketing Today In the past 100 years, advertising and marketing has rapidly changed. With the increasing influence of digital marketing, home improvement companies, such as HVAC, roofing, plumbing, and remodeling companies, can no longer rely on catchy radio jingles or a space in the Yellow Pages to get their services in front of new clients. 85 percent of consumers report that they now use the Internet to find local businesses. Consumers are now using search engines, social media, and online reviews to find and research potential home improvement companies. And, more importantly, they re researching across a variety of platforms. Some may be using their smartphone to look up a way to fix their leaky pipes, while others may be researching energy efficient HVAC services from their laptops. As a home improvement company, you have to understand how to connect your services to your targeted audience s typical purchase cycle. You have to think about how your customers find you, where they are researching your specific services, and what prompts them to call your business versus your competitor. When searching for home improvement services, are your potential customers finding you, or your competitor? 3

4 The Typical Home Improvement Marketing Plan: 77% of contractors have no marketing plan Most contractors grossly overspend on Yellow Pages Small business owners only spend about 10% of their annual revenue on marketing 4

5 Moving Past Traditional Home Improvement Marketing - Leaving The Yellow Pages Behind About a decade ago - before the ease of a Google search allowed people to find what they needed, when they needed it, wherever they were searching for it - the Yellow Pages were the place to go to look for everything. However, as technology has advanced in the last decade, more and more people are turning to the Internet to discover new services and products. This is a great opportunity for home improvement businesses to reach a wider, more specific audience at a more affordable rate the problem is, most home improvement businesses aren t keeping up. On average, 77 percent of contractors spend over half their budget on Yellow Pages ads that provide little to no ROI. An article by Forbes titled Should Small Businesses Still Book Yellow Page Ads? highlighted the difficulties associated with seeing a return on Yellow Page ads and found that not only is it difficult to see a return, but it can also be difficult to break even. $4,000 Cost of campaign 10 Number of leads needed to gained new customer $100 Value of one new customer 400 Number of leads needed to break even 40 Number of customers gained to break even 800 Number of leads needed to achieve 100% ROI 5

6 The example above shows that if a small business owner were to sign a Yellow Pages contract for $4000 a year, they d need about 400 leads, or over one call a day, to break even. The likeliness of this many calls coming in is unlikely, making Yellow Pages ads a risky marketing tool to bet on. In addition to their high cost and low return on investment, the Yellow Pages are also no longer a lucrative marketing tool simply because fewer and fewer people are turning to their giant yellow books to look up a home improvement company. Think about it, if a consumer notices their faucet is leaking, they re probably not going to dig around for the latest version of the Yellow Pages; they re going to pull out their phone from their pocket and Google, Why is my faucet leaking? Consumer searching in 2002: 46% 21% 55% from Yellow Pages from friends from Internet from Contractors Consumer searching in 2013: 10% 35% 43% 43% The above data highlights the slow decline of turning to the Yellow Pages to search for a new home improvement company, and the increase in consumers turning to the Internet for information proving that digital marketing is not just the future of home improvement marketing, but should be incorporated into any home improvement company s marketing plan as soon as possible. 6

7 The Benefits of Going Digital It s clear that it s beneficial for an home improvement business owner to advertise online because that s where potential leads are looking for him, but there are plenty of other benefits to advertising your home improvement company online. Your online presence doesn t just give you the option to let people know you exist (i.e. a Yellow Pages ad), it also allows you to curate and promote awareness about your company, giving you the opportunity to prove why you re a better company than your competitor. A good website gives you the opportunity to show off your professionalism and your knowledge in the industry as well as provide helpful information such as locations and contact info. A social media presence allows you to interact with your customers one-onone, giving you the opportunity to build solid relationships that ensure repeat business and guarantee word-of-mouth recommendations. Claiming your places pages gives you the ability to monitor, and respond to, both negative and positive online reviews, allowing you to ensure your reputation stays intact. marketing offers an easy way to let your clients know when you have an upcoming promotion or to remind them when to get their pool cleaned. Finally, one great thing about advertising online is the ability to directly target the people who are most likely to convert. Rather than posting an ad in the paper that targets the general populous, advertising online allows you to not only reach the specific demographics of your typical customers and the geographic areas closest to you, but it also allows you to place your ad in front of the eyes of someone who is looking for you. So when someone Googles, Why is my faucet leaking? you can make sure that your ad appears front and center, or front and to the right, of that person s search results. When searching for home improvement services, are your potential customers finding you, or your competitor? 7

8 The 5 Best Digital Marketing Services for Your Home Improvement Company While offline marketing such as radio and TV commercials, billboards, and newspaper ads are still great for promoting your home improvement business, an integrated plan that blends both offline and online marketing is the most effective way of gaining and retaining the attention of potential leads. With the variety of digital marketing services available, it s #1 important to know which ones are best for your home improvement business. Website The first place to start when creating a digital marketing plan is having an online presence. In this day and age, not having a website for your home improvement company is almost like not existing at all. Most small businesses seem to realize this fact, with 82 percent reporting that they currently host a website. However, it s not enough to just have a website, you must have a good one. Think of your home improvement company s website as the online version of your lobby. You want to appear clean, professional, and friendly and you want to make sure you re meeting all of your customer s needs. If you have a website that is outdated, cannot be easily navigated, and that doesn t have clear calls to action that direct your customer on how to get in touch with you, you risk losing that lead to a competitor with a more digitally savvy site. 46% use mobile exclusively when conducting an online search of all consumers, however 91% of small business websites are not mobile optimized 8

9 In addition to offering a great website experience to your customers on desktops, you also need to be aware of what you re offering your mobile customers. With more and more people turning to their mobile devices when they need to find a nearby business, it s more important than ever to make sure your business is available on mobile devices by optimizing your website, claiming and updating your contact information on online directories sites, and ensuring you have single-click contact options within your site. By doing this, it makes it simple for customers to locate you and contact you immediately on their smartphone or tablet. SEO #2 Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website on search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. This is often referred to as the organic search results. The higher a site is ranked on the search results page, and the more frequently it appears in the search results list, the more visitors the site can expect to receive. To put it clearly, SEO is what determines if your business pops up when someone searches for your specific home improvement services in your area. And it not only determines if your site shows up, but where. According to Google, 34,000 searches are performed every second on their search engine alone, and 75% of people never click forward past the first page! SEO attracts potential clients directly by serving links to your website to people who are searching for your specific services using targeted keywords. And, it is the number one lead generation tool online! However, SEO is extremely difficult for the average business owner to manipulate. Google is constantly changing their algorithms, and it takes a full-time SEO expert to understand and keep up with how these changes affect a site s visibility. However, it s a competitive solution that a digital marketing agency can manage at a very cost-effective price with a welcomed return on investment. 9

10 #3 PPC Over 600 million search queries are made each day, so it s important to make sure your potential customers can easily find your business when searching for your specific services. Pay-per-click (PPC) is a process that allows you to bid on specific keywords related to your business, so that when a potential client searches for those keywords, your ads appear in the top paid section and the right-hand side of the search results. According to Kenshoo, a global software company, clicks for paid search increased 15.9% in the last quarter of Integrating PPC into your marketing plan can be a quick and cost-effective way to reach out to relevant leads. A PPC campaign provides businesses with a userfriendly platform that offers up-to-the-minute analytics, customizable options, and the ability to easily change out the offers and adjust advertisements. In addition, PPC can help boost your organic search results. Combined with SEO, PPC is excellent at driving new customers and retaining past ones. #4 Marketing marketing is a unique marketing tool that allows you to directly connect with your past customers and potential leads who have already expressed interest in your business. It allows you to keep in touch with past customers, keeping you in the forefront of their minds when they need your service again. This especially important considering more than one third of prior-year customers can t remember the name of the home improvement businesses they ve use in the past. Without marketing, you re essentially marketing to prior customers in the same way you market to nonexistent customers which is more costly and less efficient. 10

11 marketing also allows you to interact with potential customers who have signed up for more information about you, allowing you the chance to reel them in. Though marketing may seem simple, with the amount of s that people receive daily, it s important to know how to do it right to make sure your is read, and more importantly, that it doesn t get marked as spam. 82% of consumers open s from companies marketing is an excellent integrated marketing solution that can seamlessly work with any advertising service you are currently using. If you have an upcoming special, you can promote it on social media and put an ad on the radio. But the best way to ensure it meets relevant eyes is by directly sending it to your customers inboxes. And with 93 percent of people saying they use the coupons they receive via , it s an easy and cost-effective way to ensure return on investment. Social Media #5 It might seem strange to create a Facebook page or Twitter account for your home improvement company. However, if you look at Facebook, you ll see why so many businesses have integrated this digital marketing service into their traditional advertising strategies. Social media marketing provides home improvement companies with the unique opportunity to connect and engage with their current and potential customers on a level like never before. Through social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, home improvement company owners are able to effectively manage their online reputation and quickly build a core network of supporters for their brand. They can also learn about the specific preferences of their customers, direct users to their website, and easily announce new products, promotions, locations, and more. 11

12 47% of Americans say Facebook is their #1 influencer of purchases 34% of marketers use Twitter to successfully generate leads Social media is also a great way to manage your online reputation. The one-on-one interactions that social media allows you to have with your customers gives you the ability to respond to negative reviews to maintain your reputation, as well as further promote your positive reviews. And with 86 percent of people reporting that negative reviews influence their buying decisions, you want to make sure you are able to monitor what s being said about your business online. However, just because a business has social media accounts, it doesn t necessarily mean they are producing more new leads and retaining customers. Though it can be easy to set up a social account and understand how to create posts, effectively integrating it into your current advertising solutions can be tricky. Having social accounts is not enough to have a successful social campaign you have to know what kind of content to create, who your specific audience is, and how to successfully target new customers using social ads. Using a digital marketing agency with social media specialists that understand how to increase your home improvement business presence and generate new leads is key. When searching for home improvement services, are your potential customers finding you, or your competitor? 12

13 Be Found. Get Connected. Stay Engaged. See Results. The world is quickly becoming digital and it s time for your business to catch up. At G/O Digital, we understand the power of digital marketing and the specific needs of local home improvement businesses. G/O Digital provides a number of marketing services that can help you target and acquire new customers. We have a team of talented, digital industry leaders dedicated to delivering best-in-class local outcomes and results. At our core, we understand how to connect your home improvement business to your more demanding, fast moving, and ever-changing customers. Contact a digital strategist today to learn how you can find new customers, retain current ones, and grow your local home improvement business. Call us at to get started!