It’s easy, you need to have an awesome website. 🙂 All joking aside, if you’re in home renovation business, you might want to consider renovating your website to get more leads.
How many remodeling, rebuilding, or home renovation companies describe themselves as “the best in the area”, “leading edge design”, “following the latest trends”, “ experts in the field” and so on? It’s safe to say – ALL of them. Now, how many are actually delivering on that level and are you one of them? Think about that for a while. It’s ok to use these phrases to show you are at the top of the game and we encourage that, but there are few things to think about before you describe yourself as absolutely “the best”:
- Are you delivering on that level?
- If NOT, should you be saying you are and how can you get there?
- If YES, are you showing it the right way?
- Do you have a website that represents your business the same way you would describe your work to your customers?
Keeping your clients happy with top quality work is your main priority and it should be. Between that and managing your employees, calculating payroll, and chasing deadlines, you probably haven’t had that much time to think about, well, pretty much anything else, let alone about stuff like GENERATING LEADS, or having a CUSTOMIZED WEBSITE. Now, we are here to make a new “to do” or at least “to think about” list for all of you in renovation business that have been to busy working but not improving.
Get Those LEADS
Like the word itself describes them, they will lead you to your target audience and your true customers. Now the important part is to find the right way for your business to target them and catch as many as possible. Think of it as fishing. You have to have the right marketing bait for the right fish, you need to look in the right place and most important, you need to be patient with your strategy. Before you go on fishing for your leads, you need to strategize and discover what are your goals and who do you want to target.
How to Generate Leads using Facebook Lead Ads
Who is your perfect customer? Someone who needs home renovations. What area are they living in? How old are they? What types of work are they in need of? And most important, how can YOU help THEM and how can THEY find YOU?
Your Website Will Get You There
When was the last time you took a serious look at your website and compared it with competition while checking the latest trends? Can’t remember? Is your website actually doing anything for you, or just sitting there looking like an old, digital business card (read: it’s there just so people can “google you” to see your contact information with a humble list of services you provide and nothing else). If you really want to make improvements and start getting work through the magic of internet and everything it has to offer, not just by word of mouth, your website needs to go through some serious remodeling, preferably by a professional. It needs to have key components not just to be found by search engines, but to convert those into leads that will become happy customers and your best referrals for future business.
Get To The Top Of The Search. Optimize Your Website For SEO & User Experience
A) Your website needs to be visually attractive
By being in the renovation business, visual effects are the first that you want your website to have, but that’s just the cover, the small, yet important first step towards a fully customized website that will make wonders. Don’t forget about having a modern and unique logo that should be memorable and attractive. Use the latest designs and quality branding and invest a few extra dollars here. Visitors must like what they see in the matter of seconds, or they will leave. Show some of your best work at the very home page,because that is the first thing they will notice.
Research showed the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000, or around the time the mobile revolution began, to eight seconds. Goldfish, meanwhile, are believed to have an attention span of nine seconds.
That’s just the way it is. You need to give your visitors attractive content, mostly in forms of images and videos in order to keep them interested to learn more in a matter of seconds. Not an easy task, but not impossible.
B) Your website needs to be fast
Closely related to the first, it’s all about the time. You can have the best looking website in the world, but if it takes too long to load, no one will be there to see your latest renovation project you are so proud of if it didn’t happen in seconds. You are probably wondering How fast should my website be (https://www.bluecorona.com/blog/how-fast-should-website-be)? Ideally, really fast, 1 to 3 seconds fast. You can still have high quality images and videos in your latest renovation project portfolio without waiting forever for them to load. To make this work, your website and all it’s “heavy” components must be completely optimized.
The importance of speed is not just in the eye of the visitor, but also in the eye of Google. Same as with your potential customer, Google will give better rankings to a faster competitor and this is how your competition gets more traffic than you. You don’t want to lose this battle in two fields just because your website is slow, improve it.
C) Your website needs to be mobile friendly
Mobile traffic is winning the game over desktop traffic. People simply like using their smartphones whenever they can especially for those micro moments. For example, if I want to search for renovation ideas for my living room, I’ll check Instagram or Pinterest and my smartphone is the first I’ll grab. It will probably lead me to some cool design and renovation websites. This is why your website must be mobile friendly. If your amazing page isn’t accessible for all devices, you will lose audience. It will always be easier to scroll to another page instead of trying to find a way to navigate an old school website even though it has the answer I need. Every page of your website can be and should be a valuable source for your lead. If this is the case, you will climb up on the Google search list, just have patience and make sure your website is optimized.
Website Content Matters
Your website should be your sales representative who’s working 24/7 with the smartest brains (built in tools and functionalities) to bring you the best possible result. It’s not just about getting visitors to your website, but to keep them there with content that will answer their questions, and by using smart CTA buttons you can get their contact information in no time. They might not be your next client, but you can always follow up with them if you know where to find them.
All this needs to be nicely packed in a visually attractive presentation and you will get all the leads you need.
Now, let’s break it down to list of crucial pages your website should have, that need to work hand in hand with what we mentioned above:
- Services Page
Be as detailed as possible in listing all the services your company offers. You don’t want to list just “home renovation” and leave it at that. You want to divide that from biggest project to the small stuff you do. Sometimes the small but certain projects can bring you more money than the big one you are still waiting on. Break it down to categories and each of them can have their own subcategory. Use keywords that you think your target would Google when looking for services you provide. Definitely start using Keyword Planner and enhance the chances for Google to rank you better.
2.Awesome Gallery
You are in the renovation business, well show us how it looks like, don’t make us read long paragraphs where you describe it with no visual aids. Everyone loves a good “before and after” story and you should show it with high quality images or even better with videos, if possible.
If you want your business to be great digitally, than you must invest in all the latest trends and everything that goes with it, such as professional photographer, or videographer. Also, you don’t want to pile up images of every work you’ve ever done. Organize it! Have a separate gallery for kitchen, living room, bathroom, bedrooms…you see where I’m going. You can also organize it by the type of work you are doing. The point is to make it easy for the viewer to find the work he would want you to do for them. Don’t make them look too long, remember the attention span we mentioned above. If they can find what they were looking for and you wow them with your gallery, your next client could be a click away.
- About page
This is the place where you want to justify the trust and show credibility. Introduce your team of experts working with you. Share their educational background as well as their working experiences.
Don’t be shy of listing any major events and conferences you attended. Share the story of your business and how you started. Feel free to brag with any certificates and awards you and your team won and always update. This is the place where you can get really creative and also fun. The team photo doesn’t have to be serious, you know. Make it friendly and welcoming. Show your professional photos, but also your on site, working images. Sometimes your face and faces of your team members can be the final key that will seal the deal.
- Contact page
I, personally, really hate when I can’t find email address under contact, instead of that I can only fill out a form. I’m sure I’m not the only one. Why can’t there be both options there. I simply like to use my email and not be limited with characters or anything. Some people will prefer to see a phone number right away. They saw your work and want to check your price and conditions right away. Having a phone number that stands out is proven to increase website conversion rates, so use it. The point is, don’t limit the ways your potential customer can reach you.
Put everything there:
- Address
- Office and mobile phone
- e-mail address
- Contact form
- Social Media Buttons (assuming you DO have Social Media pages for your business)
- And add your location to a Google map
If you have more than one location, list the same details for each of them. Be accessible. Make the user’s life easier, so they are more likely to remember you and come back.
- Blog Page
If you don’t have it already, you need it. If you want to rank well in the organic search results this is where you start. Yes, blogging drives business and rankings, your website SEO will thank you later. This is the place where you can give most answers to Google searched renovation questions. You can write about latest trends in house design, make videos with house improvement tips and tricks and the best of all, you can turn each of your projects into a blog piece.
You have the story and inspiration comes with your every day work, so why not use it to boost your SEO. In order to grab attention, you need to become a great resource. Before anyone decides to start renovating, they will Google ideas and look for different solutions for their home. Be there to give them the answers they need.
- Testimonials Page
Do you always trust what a company is saying about themselves, or would you prefer to hear it from someone who was their actual customer. In the business of renovation as with any home improvement services, word of mouth is very important, but don’t just leave it at that. Make it digital. Stay in touch with all your past clients. Make sure you are rewarding their trust by giving a small thank you package and they can always put a nice word for you out there. If they are really satisfied with your work, they won’t mind writing a review, you just need to make it easy for them to do it.
They can write a Google review, or a nice word on your Facebook page if they prefer. Don’t be shy to ask for a review, especially if you know they were really satisfied with the home improvements you did for them. At the beginning, you won’t have a significant number of reviews, so consider using a review collection platform, like Review Us Now. This will help you increase the number of reviews and at the same time increase their visibility, which you want, especially if they are positive. Referrals will show credibility and make your business real, rather than just you bragging about your amazing services yourself.
- Friendly reminder – Don’t forget about Social Media!
Having Social Media Pages for your business is old news and I won’t repeat the importance of it as I assume you already know it. If not, please check out some of our previous Blogs and find out why you should invest in Social Media Marketing. I just want to highlight the importance of having Social Media buttons on your website that can take your potential client to your amazing Instagram/Facebook profile where you keep some of the best images of your work, or where they can follow your daily stories from your working site. More importantly, Social Media can be the first place where someone will discover your amazing renovation work and will click to your awesome website to learn more. As you can see, it works both ways to bring more traffic, more leads and to help you rank better.
