All New, Effective Means for Home Improvement
Contractors to Generate More Leads
Google has granted home improvement contractors a newer, more
effective way for them to get free leads. More and more workers in the home
improvement sector—contractors, renovators, remodelers, etc.—are looking into making
use of blogs to increase their leads and improve their business.
Here is a question from Sam W:
“I
noticed some of my remodeling competitors have added a blog to their website.
Would adding a blog on my website help me get more leads?”
So, is blogging a good source of news lead for contractors? Is
it a worthwhile idea to add a blog (and actually use a blog) on your old or new
contracting business website?
Before answering this question, let us first ask, “What
makes up a good lead source?”
Here is a criteria we can use to help determine whether lead
source is indeed “good” or not.
1) Number of leads. Is a method providing sufficient amounts
of leads? You may think that being able to get one “good” lead per month is
better compared to nothing, but we cannot say it is a “good” or sufficient
source of lead.
2) Quality of leads. Does a high percentage of your leads
actually turn into sales? Do you even want getting “leads” that just waste your
time but rarely turn into money?
3) Cost-effective leads. Do your generated leads give you a stable
profitable return-on-investment (ROI)? Remember, you are not working and
investing money for free.
4) Consistent flow of leads. Are your leads continually
coming in? A considerably “good” lead source is able to provide a relatively predictable
flow of new prospective clients.
We all know that there could possibly be no “perfect” source
of lead anywhere out there—or specifically unstoppable leads that are inexpensive
AND high-quality. With that said, there are some lead sources that do have an
overall higher rating compared to others.
Take note: We have evaluated 15 of the most popular lead
sources for home improvement contractors—weight both their pros and cons—using
the criteria above. Some were pretty good but others were pretty lousy.
But now with the recent changes in Google’s algorithm (how
Google ranks websites in search results), a new method called Content Marketing
a.k.a. Inbound Marketing has become a new, more popular increasingly effective way
to do search engine optimization or SEO.
Content/ Inbound
Marketing for Contracting Business Lead Generation
Basically, this all-new approach aims to create fresh yet
relevant content that your prospective clients and current customers are highly
interested in topics related to your service, often done on your website’s
blog. For instance, if you want your website to get ranked for the keyword
“kitchen remodeling in Austin, Texas” so you will become more visible in the Google
search results, you should publish an article on your website’s blog with the
topic and title: “5 mistakes you should avoid in remodeling kitchens in Austin,
Texas”—as this will be a more interesting article that people in Austin, Texas looking
for kitchen remodeling ideas are likely to click.
To follow up on the above step, you should write another
article a week later entitle, “3 ways you can save money on your kitchen
remodeling project in Austin, Texas” so your blog will continue getting quality
exposure and clicks. Simply regularly provide new content that are of interest
to readers, especially those looking into the services you offer, particularly
in the areas they live in.
The key to all these is that: the articles need to be informative,
well written, and of good value to your targeted readers. Google now measures
how long a reader stays on your page, how much activity or engagement they do
on your blog or site, plus other factors that determine if your content is valuable
and relevant for the reader’s particular search term.
Not like conventional SEO methods, which often use web
content loaded with too much keywords, but aren’t really much valuable, the
content you provide for content/inbound marketing has to be of good value.
PROS and CONS
Pros
·
This is an excellent, long-term Google-friendly approach.
There are home improvement contractors following this method for about 3 to 4
years ago who continue to get regular traffic to their websites inexpensively.
·
When applied properly, this approach can get you
a lot more new money-generating leads as it increases your sales closing rate. It’s
possible to increase the percentage of customers who will choose your service
over your competitors’ up to an astounding 80 percent from the industry standard
of 15 percent.
Cons:
·
This approach may take you lots of time, energy
and a little money to get started before you can see results. It is a long-term
strategy requiring commitment, often demanding at least blogging 3 to 4 times a
month for a period of 6 to 18 months to see tremendous results. The hard-work
will be all worth it though.
·
You need to work smart as you consistently write
interesting articles for your blog readers. First, you need to choose the right
topics that people are mostly searching for online. Then, you need to come up
with a good title (relevant and with keywords). And then add meta description to
help your article get ranked in the search engines all at the same time attracting
the interest of people searching Google so they will click your article instead
of others.
BOTTOMLINE
Content/Inbound Marketing SEO is an excellent new method for
your home improvement service to produce high quality and cost-effective leads
to get more traffic to your site and business. Real contractors have actually
used this method and succeeded in increasing their line of clientele and number
of sales.
So what about you? Have you tried blogging for SEO and lead
generation for your contracting business? How has it worked for you so far?
Would you be willing to try this long-term strategy even if it requires time
and effort for a good number of consistent leads?
