There are numerous challenges with owning a successful pool design and build business, including weather and unforeseen building process obstacles. Budgeting and labor planning can almost seem like a roller coaster ride. One thing that is a constant is the need to drive leads, more customers. While building beautiful pools that create happy homeowners are an obvious crucial essential, getting enough customers to sustain a healthy business is even more important.

For this outdoor lighting company, we researched high volume, low cost keywords that are correlated to the their lighting services that are also representative of the end of the sales journey, meaning not research-like keywords, but rather ready to buy keywords. For each keyword, we created a group of ads to test out which one would work best. In the Google ad world, this approach is called Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGS). And then we built or used existing landing pages that are optimized for the keyword that is in the ad - all translating to lower cost click and higher performing ads.

Speaking of conversions - the purpose of these ads, over the six month period, this company received 66 “conversions.” In non-technical terms, this includes people who submitted a form on the website and also click on the telephone number to call in the mobile-only ads. It does NOT include people that called the website after reaching the website as a result of the ads. Most design/build companies we speak with have about 2-3x as many phone calls as they form submissions (often much more).

Around October 2016, we kicked off their Search Engine Optimization efforts. We began by identifying the most searched keywords in their service areas along with cities that had the best HHI (household income) and population combination. Weekly, professionally written articles targeting these keywords along with ongoing new local landing pages, and now high-quality backlinks, this landscape design/build company now has 45% of the keywords being tracked on the first page (first 10 spots). They began with only 5% of their tracked keywords on that page! 

Home improvement review sites like HomeAdvisor and Angie’s List are not a necessary fact of doing business in the digital age for landscape or design/build companies. If you will choose to live on there, it may not be in your best interest to put all of your marketing dollars into these platforms. There are be better ways to generate leads and build your business, such as SEO or Facebook/Instagram Advertising.

Properly documenting hardscape projects gives hardscape design and construction companies excellent marketing materials they can use to win new contracts. However, without a full understanding of the techniques available and how to use them, the task can seem very intimidating. The reality is actually much different.

"User experience website design" sounds fancy, right? It's really not. It's part of every beautiful, functional website design. What are some basic elements? What exactly is user experience website design. Whether you're a manufacturer or a design/build, think about the story - beyond the "scroll down" message. Without further ado, scroll down and watch the video. Hahah

Want your events to last longer? The power is in your hands. In this intro-to-the-topic video, we introduce spreading the wildfire event approach with widgets that encourage people to take photos, using branded items, and share them on their social media. The return? People are posting images of themselves, happy, with your brand. Magic. Watch for more and tell us how you've done it!

Yelp is a powerful website and app. As the 10th most popular website - it gets a lot of action from visitors. Surely, you've used it to read reviews and maybe you have your free profile setup on there. Does this mean you should be spending money on this platform - as a landscape design build company (or anyone really!)? Watch now.

Using Blackwood Group's inspiration website, Halstead created a highly image driven website. The new look placed each project into a separate case study - into what developed to be a true, high-end elegant digital portfolio. The projects are all accessible via the homepage - but city as well as by category. Awards and about the company are accessible via the menu.

A customer telling you they told your office manager something that you are now contradicting? Forgot what you promised Mrs Smith? Always looking for random sheets of paper in your trucks, office, and who knows elsewhere? Stop wasting time being disorganized with your daily conversations. While yes, it takes time to organize yourself and start you and your office team to use a CRM - it will save you more time down the road. And help you keep more customers! Watch this video to learn what is a CRM and 5 ways to know it's time for your design/build to get this magical CRM!

Put that thing down! Don't do it! Don't you please still use the analytics from five - or even three years ago! People over the age of 50 aren't as non-web savvy as you think. Almost 3 out of 4 of them are on Facebook. That's just Facebook - think about how many of them search online (even on their smartphones!). Things have REALLY changed with marketing effectively to this age group. So don't get suckered into outdated traditional marketing techniques and then wonder why they're not working!

Have you ever met anyone who was amazing at everything? Someone who could paint like a pro, prepare architectural drawings, cut pavers, install pavers, run a training workshop, design a brochure, photograph the best angles of a project, write hundreds of words on a specific topic, run social media campaigns, manage a calendar, run interviews, prepare taxes...? I think you're getting the point here. You can't be great everything. It's impossible. But yet you might be doing (almost) everything. What would happen if you delegated what you suck at and did more of what you're amazing at? How would that impact your design/build business?

In any business, regardless of the industry, companies need to be where there potential customers are. Would a toy company be at a local home show? I sure hope not! And while on that topic, not many people should be at a home show ;-). Back to digital marketing, should design/builds be on Snapchat? Is all the hype about it really better than Facebook for the design/build industry? Find out.

Anna talks about how to apply the still-very-true approach of growing your design/build business with referrals - except this means to expand your definition of what a referral really is today. And it's not just people sharing your info with one another while they're visiting someone's home. Referrals are indeed - online reviews! So stop skipping this part. ASK FOR REVIEWS!

In this episode 2, Anna talks about the four action items that design/build professionals need to take (online) in order to take advantage of the biggest opportunity this industry has ever had! Go!

Quality data about your customers and potential customers is key to running a successful business. In days past, collecting this sort of information was a time consuming process involving weeks of gathering data and transcribing that research into readable charts and reports. Now this sort of information is readily available: fully compiled and ready to work with, provided you know how to read and use it. Introducing Facebook Audience Insights.

D.L. Hickman & Son, based out of the Newport Beach, CA area, is a high-end, landscape construction company. Hickman relies on landscape architects to create the design for the very complex landscape installations that their staff completes.

No matter the size or market of your landscaping, design, or construction business, you should be updating your company blog to help with your website traffic and leads. But with numerous variables in play, it can be difficult to determine the frequency with which you should be blogging. We're here to help provide some clarity!

Since service review websites like Yelp and Amazon have developed a large consumer base by offering their basic services for free, Angie’s List has had to up the ante by promising in March that it would join its competitors in the realm of free basic reviews. On July 1, 2016 Angie’s List came through on that promise. While this development gives clear advantages to homeowners, will business owners reap the same benefits? Here is what you need to know.