How To Get Real Results Using Online Marketing

Cape Cod Remodeling Company Knows How to Give Real Value

Technorati Tags: Addition, Bath Remodel, Builders, Cape Cod Remodeling, Cotractor, Kitchen

America’s 20 Strongest Building Markets

Where They’re Still Building Strong in the US.

In this recent article from BusinessWeek, we get the inside scoop on America’s 20 Strongest Building Markets.

Some are due to recent storms, some because of an influx of population; and yet others are due to factors such as recovery funds and even *GASP* a strong economy.

Builders: If you’re miserable where you are and your market is in the tank for the foreseeable future…do you ever think about picking up and moving to where the action is?

Those of you who live in these areas are cursing me right now. But, well, sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands and take some action, right?

What do you think?

Technorati Tags: Builder Marketing, Construction Jobs, Construction Marketing

Pest Control Nashville

Those of you who are considering offering some video on your website, check out the video at Pest Control Nashville.

This pest control company has a great short video that instills trust and offers real value to their customers.

Using green solutions in today’s market is a great way to service your customers. These guys do it right!

Technorati Tags: Pest Control Nashville

Contractor Marketing – Just Do It Now and We’ll Add It to the Next Invoice

Hey contractors, subcontractors, vendors and business owners…any of these situations ring a bell?

My favorite one is “We’ll go ahead and pay for this this time, but just show us how you made it, so we can do it again in-house, from now on.”

In the construction industry–especially lately–it’s a common occurance to get low-balled and otherwise manipulated by vendors, contractors, and subs. This video shows us how ridiculous these situations can be to construction companies and, really, all business owners.

More favorites:

1. We didn’t budget for this.

2. I mean, lunch at the taco stand was about $12. Sir, this is not the taco stand. Well, it was, I had beef… Sir, you had the filet. Yeah…cow.

3. I’m not making any money on this either.

4. We can do this. This is not a challenge. This is an opportunity.

5. Well I can cover your hard costs, but that’s really as far as I’m willing to go.

6. We’re gonna make it up on the next one.

Heard any of these before? How do you deal with these “opportunities” in your business?

(This video was brought to my attention by the awesome folks over at CenterNetworks.)

Technorati Tags: Contractor Marketing, Vendor Bullshit

Construction Marketing and Trust – Withhold or Give Away?

An interesting question arose in a conversation yesterday about whether it’s best to withhold your competitive secrets until after a sale is made, or if you should give your knowledge away freely.

A huge part of construction marketing is the sales process. Your salesman (for many of you, you are your only saleman) should be well versed in your marketing process, because business development is the essence of marketing.

Personally, I’ve found that the more people I help, the more clients I get. This means going into an appointment or a meeting with the mindset of “I will do my best to steer this person down the right path.” If I focus on “sales” I lose. If I focus on adding value with no expectation of reciprocation, I usually win.

When I go into a meeting with a prospect, I try to act as an advisor, treating him like I would my best friend or a family member.  I often say things like, “Even if you end up hiring someone else to do this, make sure they do X, Y, and Z. Because otherwise you might not get the best results.”

I say things like, “If this was my own project, I would do it this way because XYZ. Make sense? I would be happy to walk you through the process if you have more questions.”

I am free flowing with my information. I will sit down with a prospect for an hour or two and spill everything I can in that amount of time. You might think it’s crazy for me to do this, but the whole point of this process is to build trust.

If a prospect doesn’t trust you, then you are sunk. (Especially in the construction industry, right my friend?)

Also, I know the real value I bring to the table is what I can do for a client, not what I can tell him in a two hour meeting. If a client could learn how to do my online marketing process by himself in two hours, then I really don’t have a valuable service, now do I?

The same is true for a construction project. If a homeowner is trying to take advantage of you by milking you for information so he can do the project himself, ask yourself this question: Could you teach a novice how to remodel in a two hour meeting? Of course not. So I propose that the fear of giving away the farm for free is unwarranted here.

Also, you can usually screen out the tire kickers before you waste time doing a house call, right?

Let’s cut to the chase: Some people are very tight lipped about their “trade secrets” and think it’s best to play their cards close to their chest. I understand this mindset. But for me, I’ve found that the more people I help, the more new clients end up finding me. And I think being a free flowing resource is a great way for you to achieve the same results.

It all boils down to helping people. If you help enough people accomplish their goals, your marketing will take care of itself.

Your thoughts? I’d love to hear other opinions on this issue.

Technorati Tags: Trust based marketing

Local Construction Marketing

Would you like to show up at the top of your local Google listings for keywords like “Construction”, “Contractor”, “Remodeling”, “Plumbing”, or “Builder” etc?

If you’re like most local construction businesses (and other service-based small businesses) you know that getting found online can be the difference between 100% booked for 6 months, and sitting idle waiting for the phone to ring.

Here’s a story of how I helped a business owner get to number one with only a few minutes of time and a few very easy changes to his Google account:

HOW TO GET YOUR CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS RANKED ON PAGE ONE OF GOOGLE LOCAL

If you’ve been paying attention to the world of search marketing, you know that Google has been getting very serious lately about displaying localized search results, even when the searcher doesn’t type in a location.

Google uses information from the searcher’s IP address (and more, especially if you’re using Chrome as your browser) to pinpoint the searcher’s location and display results based on that specific geographical area.

This is why, more and more, you will notice the “Google Local” listing right at the top of the results. You will recognize it by the map, with up to 10 listings, usually A though J. We call this either “Google Local”, or the “Google 10 Pack”, or “Google Maps.”

The other day I got a call from a contractor in New York who had not seen any activity from his website like he had hoped he would.

Also, he was ranked number one in the “organic” Google listings for his best targeted “remodeling” keyword.

Usually, the organic listings get around 70% of all clicks, so this will normally get the job done. But not this time.

I told his it was probably caused by two things:

1. The market is still awful in his area.

2. He’s getting trumped by the Google 10 Pack.

So, we rolled up our sleeves and tried to change that situation.

Long story short: After spending about 30 minutes talking him through some changes in his local business account, he is now ranking as number one for a few high traffic keywords and on page one for many others. 

I’ll check back with him to see if he starts getting calls, but you too can begin to make progress in Google Local if you follow the steps below.

GOOGLE LOCAL MASTER PLAN

1. Change the title or “Company Name” in your listing to your base keyword (Remodeling? Construction? Contractor?) first, then your company name second. (Warning: don’t go crazy with excessive keywords…just use the ones that get real targeted search traffic.)

2. Fill out every detail in the entire listing. (This includes business hours, payments accepted, coupons, pictures, video…EVERYTHING.)

3. Fill out all five of the allowed business categories, using the keywords that get real search volume.

4. Get real, honest reviews from your best clients. (Best way? Whenever you hear a compliment from a client, say thank you and then ask them if they’d be willing to do a review for you on Google. Send them a link to your listing. Repeat.)

Set a goal of 10 reviews over the next month, and watch the magic happen!

Long post, I know. I try not to yammer on since people simply don’t read long posts on the internet.

BUT, if you’d like to know more, fill out my contact form and I’ll see if I can help you out.

Good luck, and happy optimizing!

Technorati Tags: Local Construction Marketing

Branding Ideas for Your Construction Small Business

What every construction business owner should know about branding.

Hint: It’s about your personality!

Here’s Pamela Slim’s take on the subject:

“The reality is, people don’t refer companies or brands; they refer the people in those companies. The more your customers know your personality, your interests, your values and your real voice, the more likely they will refer business to you.”

(Don’t worry. Even if you are bone-dry boring…that’s still personality. You must showcase the real you.)

Check out the rest of this great article by Pamela Slim guest-posting at Duct Tape Marketing about branding for small business:

5 Ways to Amp Up the Personal in Your Brand

You will find some great tidbits like this:

“Write clearly and with personality.

“Check your website, blog posts, marketing materials and emails and make sure you are communicating in a clean, clear, engaging way. The basic rule of thumb is to write like you talk. If you are a corporate refugee-turned small business owner, you may be used to using words like “value-add,” “paradigm shift” and “out-of-the-box-thinking.” You wouldn’t use these words in regular conversation, right? Strike them from your written communications and people will find you are not the tremendous bore they thought you were, you are actually down-to-earth, funny, and engaging….”

Slim also talks about the importance of interesting photography. Showing real-life pictures of yourself and your team can make an enormous difference in your marketing.

People instinctively click on the “about” page when visiting a website. Show ‘em who you are and what you’re all about, or most of them will click away forever.

This website shows how a mechanic does this with style. And don’t you think folks, that if a mechanic can do it, a contractor can do it too? I do. (Just teasing, all you mechanics out there. I love you guys too!)

Try this stuff. It works, I’m tellin’ ya.

For more from Duct Tape Marketing, check out this compelling concept of “Make a Referral Week.”

 

 

 

Welcome Kila Hill Manufacturing

A big hearty online welcome to Kila Hill Manufacturing.

Kila Hill Manufacturing is a Montana machine shop, manufacturer, and contract machining company focusing on:

•     Production Machining, Manufacturing

•     CNC Services

•     General Precision Machining

•     Toolroom Services

•     Product Design and Development

•     Prototype Machining

•     Rescraping, Rebuilding

•     Premium Engine Surface Resurfacing

•     Light Fabrication

•     Finishing

•     Assembly

Kila Hill is a Montana manufacturing company with precision machining skills.

“Competitive in price, unsurpassed in quality, that’s Kila Hill Manufacturing.”

http://www.kilahillmanufacturing.com/

Technorati Tags: Kila Hill Manufacturing

Contractor Website Tips

[Here's one of my more recent posts from Contractor Talk, the best construction forum in the history of time.]

I’ve been doing a ton of free website critiques lately. (In fact, I have a few piled up that I need to finish right now.)

Here’s the cool part:

So far every local market I’ve researched has major opportunity. Big cities, small towns…every one I’ve looked at. These local markets, for a construction business, are all very attainable. A little work and you really can get to the top of Google and start getting traffic.

Quick start do-it-yourself list:

1. Find keywords that get real traffic using Google Keyword Tool. (Hint: find your core keywords to optimize your main website. Then find all the other “lower-traffic” keywords and optimize a page for each set. You want a big “online footprint” to get all the residual traffic from long tail keywords.)

2. Check your competition by “Googling” your new-found keywords. (Advanced web guys can use fancy software to find holes on page one.)

3. Put the best, most attainable, most relevant, targeted keywords in your page title. Hint: If the words won’t bring you visitors who are already actively looking for your specific service, they’re no good.

4. Build your new-found keywords into your URL. (If you have a URL that is more than a year old according to Google’s info, then KEEP IT. Add keywords using subdomains or “/directories” added to your current URL. Reason: domain age has SEO clout.)

5. Post fresh content about once a week. Don’t “keyword load” in a spammy way, but do sprinkle your keywords in naturally. 200 words is plenty, per new post. If you can talk about your industry for 5 minutes, you can add fresh content. It’s not difficult.

6. Link out to relevant sites. And link internally to your a hub on your own page (tastefully.)

7. Get inbound links. Be ethical. How? Simple: If you have to ask “should I or shouldn’t I,” don’t do it. Use common sense.

8. Make a video, and distribute it online with a link back to your site in the description.

9. Stay up all night fretting about it for 6 months in a row.

10. You are done. Go have a beer.

PS. If your spouse keeps asking what the heck you’re doing on that stupid computer…you know you’re on the right track.

Technorati Tags: contractor website

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