Home services lead referral websites such as Angie's List, Home Advisor, Yelp, and now, Amazon Home Services, have become the unfortunate norm in contractor "marketing" today.  Turn on the service and the inexpensive leads come flooding in right to your iPhone. Trust me, I understand. I remember receiving leads from HomeAdvisor— called ServiceMagic.com back then—while I was in a sales/project management role. And once the service was turned on, my calendar would almost instantly book up with late evening appointments with homeowners that were less than ready to buy. That is if the meeting even took place. 

The process of designing a website has changed tremendously over the last 5 years—not just for home improvement contractors, but for every type of small business. With Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, and the countless other online website builders out there, landscapers, home remodelers, architects, and home services contractors really have no excuse for sporting a company website that's outdated and not mobile-friendly. But much like the technology behind modern website design has changed so drastically, so has the purpose for having a website for your business in the first place. 

If you're feeling the heat of new competitors (or suddenly more popular older ones), then it may be time for you to take your strategy online. Maintaining a healthy revenue today in a home improvement business often means dominating the digital world. So how exactly do you do this? Here is your five step plan to making sure you get the attention you need from the customers you want in your local area.

The way homeowners find and hire architects today—like many other segments of the home services industry—is drastically different than just 5 short years ago. While word-of-mouth advertising and media attention is still relevant, most of it has shifted online. And just like all other purchasing decisions - over 80% of your potential customers are researching before they call you (of course, online). So what are the three ways to drive leads online today?

Thinking back to decades ago, when a storefront business needed more foot traffic, they looked to traditional advertising to increase awareness of their store. The store owners would make sure they are trying to bring in the right buyers and advertise to them in place those buyers would be in and use advertising material that would grab their attention. Well, today's online marketing is not much different. 

An aggressive search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing effort kicked off March 2016. In addition to the SEO campaign for the NY region including NY, CT, PA, and NJ, UNILOCK was also looking to harness the power of professionally written content to engage website users, increase website traffic and lead generation, and build brand loyalty across the region. 

SEO isn't mysterious; it's not witchcraft. There is a formula that works and factors that don't. What makes SEO complex is that the formula includes hundreds of variables. In our previous blog post, we mentioned that Google's algorithm includes 200+ factors. Some are foundational (such as high-quality content) which will severely impact your rankings and some are complementing (like image descriptions). And since there are so many SEO factors, it's easy to lose track of what is still relevant and what's not. We believe (and hope) this is the reason for using outdate SEO tactics. To check your knowledge (or quiz your SEO person), check out this incredible infographic on what SEO used to be versus what it is now.

We here at Halstead Media are obsessed with understanding how today's SEO works. We say today because SEO techniques change almost everyday; its a constant flow of change. And with Google's 200+ ranking factors (source: Google) in their algorithm to rank web pages, we keep busy with our obsession of SEO learning. Equally as obsessed, are home remodeling and landscaping business owners in getting more revenue, more leads, and more traffic. There is nothing that drives that more than first page (top of page) ranking in search results for keywords relevant to your services. If you're looking for ways to boost your rankings, we have a million ideas, but here are a few to get you started.

The number one way to getting leads for projects you want to design and build is through your website. Period. Yes, there are numerous other ways to bring in some leads - referrals, home shows, PPC, print advertising, you get the point. But in terms of return on your time and money, your website is your best bet.

Before we discuss why you're not getting enough traffic to your site, how do you know whether or not you're getting enough traffic? What is considered enough traffic? Easy: ask yourself these two questions:

Blackwood & Associates, based out of Canonsburg, PA, contacted Halstead Media with two goals in mind: to transform their website style and to increase the company's revenue.

The 2016 Houzz report on the state of the industry is out and we couldn't be more excited about the info and based on the content - majority of general contractors, home remodelers, builders, and landscapers feel the same. 

2015 proved to be another year of growth for the industry - year over year as well as compared to the pre-recession times. 

Google accounts for about 90% of all searches (Source: Moz). And 97% of all consumers use online media to research when buying something local (source: BIA/Kelsey’s study). So what does this mean to local home improvement contracting companies? It means that Google is King. It also means that Google is focused on providing quality search results to shoppers, hence its popularity and ability to continuously interest people to use its search engine. 

If I told you that I could deliver 20 prequalified leads directly to your cell phone every month, would you believe me? Probably not. You would probably believe me even less if I told you that in order to that, I would be using just your website and a few social media sites. That's right...I wouldn't tell you to pack up 5 pallets of stone and head off for the weekend to a home show that cost you $5k. And I wouldn't say turn your HomeAdvisor account on so you can drive around to visit tire kickers until 10 o'clock at night after working a 10 hour day in the field. Nah, just your website and the place where over 80% or homeowners will be looking for their next contractor to hire.  

Your website is supposed to be your selling machine, right? If you find yourself often questioning why your site isn't bringing you enough calls, or when it does, it just lands you too many appointments for projects that don't drive enough revenue, then its time to look to your website. 

Home services professionals, such as architects and landscapers, aren't going to spend hundreds of hours on improving their site - they have a business to run. That's where the problem is - the website is a key part of business. 

Website analytics are not a-learn-it-overnight kind of topic. From selecting the right tools, to understanding how to use them - you can invest hundreds of hours and still be in the dark about truly understanding how well your website is doing online. There are a few that are more important than others and thankfully, we'll help you identify these top metrics to get you on the right track.

First, selecting the right tool isn't as important as always using the same tool. Every website tracking tool (e.g. Google Analytics is one) uses slightly different reasoning in their calculations. Some have more filters and some give you the raw data. So before you go on tracking a specific group of metrics, the first and most important thing you need to do is pick a source for your metrics and stick to it. 

Lets take a step back together. You've been hearing this acronym for years now. You know that you need to make sure your website is SEO'd and all that good stuff. Heck, everyone's paying a lot of money for this stuff. Maybe you're even thinking that its been a while since your website was redone so you need a new website to help with SEO. But what exactly is SEO? It's really not all that mysterious. 

SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is indeed something you need to make sure is at the top of your priority list, when it comes to driving leads. We'll help you understand why.

SEO is...

Content is king. Trust me—we eat, sleep, and breath content. Content is an amazing tool for creating meaningful connections between buyers and sellers. It is arguably the most efficient way to create emotional buy-in while simultaneously educating and influencing the reader. Enough said—we love content.

But content is only an element of the inbound marketing methodology; so be it a critical element. As a home services business, you can write amazing blogs all day everyday, resulting in a bazillion visitors every month to your company's website. Last time I checked, website traffic doesn't pay the bills for home builders, kitchen design firms, or landscape contractors. 

Looking to increase their digital presence, Harmony Hill engaged Halstead Media to design an integrated marketing plan that would bring their offline reputation to the online world. The construction marketing specialists at Halstead Media implemented their complete Contractor's Marketing System designed to increase website traffic, drive leads, increase close rates for new projects. 

Today’s consumers have all the power. The sooner business owners realize that, the sooner they can begin to build lasting relationships with prospects and customers. The way to do that in today’s busy world is by providing useful content and helpful information to prospects throughout their journey. The buyer’s journey typically lasts over 100 days for large purchase like a custom home or remodel. That’s 100 days of online research, searching about potential companies to hire, how the process works, costs and budgets, and other related topics. And each year, that amount grows at a rate of almost 20%.  

Since the beginning of time, manufacturers in the hardscape and landscape industries have offered marketing support to their dealers and retailers via an advertising co-op program. Traditionally based on volume of sales, the hardscape dealer or product retailer receives funds—commonly around 50% of the cost—towards regionally-focused, co-branded advertising placements.