WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS WHITE PAPER

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1 60 Contents What You Will Learn... 1 Marketing Plans for Denver Home Contractors. 2 Online Marketing Components 3 Local Search.. 4 Paid Search... 6 Organic Search.. 8 Online Marketing Pitfalls WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS WHITE PAPER It can be difficult to develop a client base for a home contracting business in the Denver Metro area, especially if you re just starting out. Traditional marketing methods are frustrating and oftentimes fruitless for contractors without marketing experience. If you re like most business owners, you d rather focus on servicing your clients and running your business as opposed to conducting marketing activities. The answer to your marketing woes: Online Marketing. Online Marketing through search engines is the most cost effective marketing approach for most Denver businesses. This paper will teach you the following about Online Marketing: Actions you can take TODAY to improve your search engine rankings The 3 main components of Online Marketing through search engines and how each will bring you clients How to identify and avoid - online directories that will likely do nothing but drain your marketing budget How to design your website to turn more website visitors into clients Web Design Tips 12 Getting Started. 14

2 2 MARKETING PLANS FOR HOME IMPROVEMENT CONTRACTORS Do you have a marketing plan? Home contractor marketing plans should contain the following general areas 1 : A current Look at the State of Your Home Contracting Business Business Goals Target Clients Marketing Strategies to Meet Business Goals Budget for all activities, including marketing This paper will address marketing strategies for your contracting business specifically the benefits of Online Marketing. As shown in Figure 1, Online Marketing through search engines provides the greatest Return on Investment (ROI) for your marketing dollars, and can reach your target clients much more effectively than traditional forms of advertising. The cornerstone of any contracting business marketing plan must be online marketing. Online marketing with search engines provides a much better ROI and a lower cost per lead than traditional forms of advertising. Figure 1: Cost Per Lead for Online Marketing Search vs. Traditional Forms of Advertising 2 1 Entrepreneur.com Small Business Encyclopedia 2 US Bancorp Piper Jaffray Research

3 3 ONLINE MARKETING COMPONENTS All contractors need to be aware of the three major components of online marketing. All 3 components can and should be used to generate home improvement contracts. Each of these components is described in depth in Figure 2. To illustrate, when searching for Denver Finished Basements, within the search results, there are 3 distinct areas where your contracting business can appear: Local Search Paid Search Organic Search To have a truly effective Online Marketing Campaign, you need to focus on getting visibility for your contracting business within each of the three major areas of Search: Local, Organic, and Paid. Figure 2: Google Search Results for Denver Finished Basements

4 4 LOCAL SEARCH One of the easiest ways to get your listings to appear in search engine results is to take control of your local search listings in Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. This is a great first step to immediately increase your chances of bringing in business from the Internet. The Local Search Results for Google Denver Finished Basement are featured in Figure 3. Local Search appears near the top of the search engine results and provides a link directly to your home page. It is free and all contractors looking to promote themselves need to get listed in Local Search. Figure 3: Google Local Search Results The search for Denver Finished Basements yields just one basement contractor within Denver. Their location is noted by the letter both on the list, and on the map. When you are on an actual search engine results page, clicking on the link

5 will take you directly to the contractor s website (if they have one). You can take a look at the current search engine results for Denver Finished Basements on your own computer by clicking here. All of the major search engines have a local search component and you should ensure that your home contracting business is listed within each one. Local Search Advantages: It is FREE Local search results appear at the top of the results page (just below the sponsored listings) You can upload detailed information about your home contracting businses including an overview, photos, web page link, services offered and much, much more Local Search Disadvantages None You need to sign up for this right now 5 All 3 major search engines will allow you to submit your business information to local search. Get started now with these links. To take control of your local search listing now at the three major search engines by clicking on the links below: Google: Yahoo: Microsoft: The Bottom Line on Local Search Free and easy way to get a presence with major search engines Potential to bring in clients for relatively little effort A must for contractors who wish to promote their services online

6 PAID SEARCH Paid search advertisements can be purchased by any organization, and when an ad is clicked, the advertiser pays the search engine. As shown in Figure 4, paid advertisements appear to the right and sometimes at the top - of the search results in all major search engines. 6 Paid Search is the quickest way to get a visible link to your website from within search engine results. Although it will cost money for each click, it is the quickest way to bring traffic to your website. Figure 4: Paid Search Results Paid search involves establishing an account with the major search engine providers to have specific ads appear based on various search terms. Users clicking your ad are taken directly to your website. Paid ads receive somewhere between 15%-30% of all clicks on the search engine results page. 3 3 ComScore Estimate

7 7 Unlike other forms of advertising, users are actively seeking your services with paid search making it much more likely to generate hot leads than traditional forms of advertising Paid Search advertising differs from traditional advertising methods because the advertising is highly targeted. Traditional advertising like direct mail and TV ads interrupt the user and are almost always ignored and rejected. With paid search advertising, you get hot leads. A person has a home that needs fixing or improvement - they type in a search term, and your advertisement appears. They click on your ad and arrive at your website - ready to be converted into a client. Paid Search Advantages: Easy to sign up and get started You control what search terms trigger your advertisement You control your ad rank in the sponsored links area Quick way to get traffic to your website Highly targeted prospects delivered to your website Paid Search Disadvantages Do your homework before engaging in paid search part of your research should include repeated visits to our completely free Denver Online Marketing Blog Steep learning curve to do it right Can be complex Time consuming You can lose money quickly if you don t know what you re doing To get started with paid search, use the following links below. Google: Yahoo: Microsoft: The Bottom Line on Paid Search The quickest way to get prospective clients to your website Easy to get started and get a presence with search engines You can burn through a lot of money with poor results if you don t do your homework prior to buying paid search ads

8 ORGANIC SEARCH More users click on organic search result links than any other, making it the holy grail of search marketing. Keeping with our example search term of Denver Finished Basements, please see the organic search results in Figure 5. 8 Figure 5: Google Organic Search Results Although only a few results are shown in the above screen capture, listings continue on for many pages. Organic listings appear on the left side in the major search engines, below any sponsored ads or local search results. Most users click on Organic Search results While 15%-30% of all user clicks are for paid search results, the remaining 70%-85% of clicks are for organic listings. It is great to be listed here, and it is often times possible, depending on what search terms you want your contracting business to be ranked near the top.

9 9 To do well with Organic Search, Google must recognize your web site as a high quality site with relevant content for the terms being searched So, if you want to rank highly for Denver Finished Basements in the organic listings, your site will need to be recognized by search engine algorithms as being highly relevant for the given search term. So, your web site (or a given page on your site featuring the search term) should have a lot of good information relative to the search term. So good in fact, that other websites use your contracting web page as a reference and link to it. The keys to doing well in organic search are having great, popular content that is used frequently by others. Having a blog right on your site is a great start. Organic Search Advantages: It is completely free The majority of users click on organic search links Organic Search Disadvantages You need to be constantly aware of industry trends and apparent changes in search engine algorithms You ll need to have some sort of computer programming help to make sure that your website is properly coded You ll need to keep your website consistently updated with fresh, relevant information to make sure that search engines recognize your website as an authority Even if you do everything right, organic search engine rankings take a long time to improve The Bottom Line on Organic Search An essential part of your online marketing strategy Very time consuming your website must be an authority for your specific areas of practice Results take a while to materialize you won t jump to #1 instantly

10 10 ONLINE MARKETING PITFALLS There are other options for your online marketing budget besides search engines, but many of these alternatives receive a fraction of the traffic and will likely not yield a positive return on investment. This white paper primarily deals with online marketing through search engines by far the most effective way to market your business online. But there are other methods including online paid directories where you can market your business. But are they worth it? How are People Going to Find Your Website? I frequently give online marketing presentations to business groups in the Denver Metro area. During my presentations, I put the audience members into the notso-hypothetical position of looking for a Denver professional (attorney, plumber, landscaper - whatever). Then I ask for a show of hands of how the audience members would go about finding a Denver area professional in various ways. How many would use Google? How many would use Yahoo? How many would use Microsoft (or MSN)? How many would use DexKnows.com? How many would use YellowPages.com? The overwhelming majority raise their hands for Google. Many hands still remain up for Yahoo and Microsoft. Only very rarely does an audience member raise their hand for DexKnows.com or YellowPages.com. Don t Spend Money At Low Ranking Websites According to Alexa.com, major search engine traffic is far more significant than online paid directories (see Figure 6):

11 11 Your online marketing budget needs to focus on where people are actually searching for your services the major search engines as opposed to regional or national directories that get much lower volumes of traffic. Web Site Alexa.com Internet Traffic Rank 4 Yahoo.com 1 Google.com 2 YellowPages.com 770 DexKnows.com 6,606 Figure 6: Traffic Rank of Major Search Engines vs. Local/Regional Directory Websites Where do you want your business marketing message to appear? My informal polling as well as Alexa data indicates the overwhelming majority of Denver searches begin at a major search engine like Yahoo or Google. Extremely High Cost For Very Little Return A small business owner in Eagle County revealed to me that he paid $12,000 to be listed in a phone book company s online directory for 1 year, and it generated just ONE client. It was essentially a waste of precious marketing dollars. The Bottom Line on Online Marketing Pitfalls Everyone uses major search engines, so advertise on Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Don t advertise on unpopular websites Online directories may not be worth the money do your homework prior to investing your marketing budget 4 Alexa.com Search May, 2008

12 12 WEB SITE DESIGN TIPS By getting more familiar with the search engine strategies presented in this white paper (Local, Organic, Paid), you ll have the capability to bring more visitors to your website. But this isn t enough. Entire books have been written about what to do when a visitor reaches your website. How do you convert this hot lead into a client? Obviously, you can t take advantage of online marketing techniques unless you have an online presence. Therefore, you MUST have a website. Your website must have the single goal of generating business for your home contracting business. Any website items that don t contribute to this goal are distractions and should be eliminated. The primary goal of your home contracting website is to generate business. It is just that simple. You build a website to generate business for your contracting business. Many contracting websites don t have a clearly defined objective at all to their detriment. They are disorganized, difficult to navigate, and focus on business accolades and services rather than on generating business. To generate business, your website must focus solely on your visitors In order for your website to generate business, the website must be designed around the site visitors and must demonstrate that your contracting business can update or improve their home. Business is generated through your clients, therefore the entire website must be crafted from the client perspective. If you use the Search Engine techniques described in the previous sections, it is likely that the majority of the visitors to your website have arrived at your site after conducting a search for a specific service that you offer. You must not disappoint them. Who is your typical website visitor? Someone that knows what they re looking for, and they want to find it fast. If you don t give them what they need quickly, they ll find another contractor website that will. In order to accommodate these impatient users, your website must: Have a clean, compelling, modern design Be clear of distractions (like flash or any type of animation) Be free of extraneous information

13 13 In other words, provide only information on your website that is pertinent to the visitors that you would like to convert into clients. Anything else gets in the way of this conversion process. Web Site Design Tips If your contracting website wins website design awards, you re probably doing something wrong. The average website visitor decides within 50 milliseconds whether or not they re going to even bother looking through the pages of your website. Think up-to-date and well structured website design. You don t want a flashy, gimmicky, or distracting website. This will just irritate visitors and they ll look elsewhere. For your website to be effective, it must: Look contemporary like it was designed within the past year or two Compare favorably to the competition Be very easy for the visitor to navigate Be very easy for the visitor to find what they need Be free of clutter Be free of motion, animation, and Flash Your website doesn t have to be an award winning or cutting edge design. Usually this is a bad idea. Your site needs to be pleasing to the eye and easy for site visitors to find exactly what they re looking for. The Bottom Line on Your Website Design Your website needs to look professional and up to date Design the website for the prospective clients that visit your website. Make it easy for them to find the information that they're looking for

14 14 GETTING STARTED You are now familiar with the online marketing techniques that are available to you as a home contractor to successfully market your services and bring prospects to your website. There are two paths that you can take to promote your business online: No matter what path you choose, the Denver Online Marketing Blog can be a tremendous asset in your online marketing pursuits. Do It Yourself If you have a technical aptitude and love computers, you may be interested in doing it yourself. I have many free resources, tips, tricks, and how to advice on the Denver Online Marketing Blog at Database Watchdog that can assist you in getting started. You can also or call me (contact info is below), and I should be able to answer any questions that you have. Get Some Help Many contractors would rather not deal with marketing efforts and would prefer to focus on servicing their clients. For these contractors, outsourcing online marketing activities makes the most sense. I have the ability to relieve these contractors of the burden of marketing online, freeing up their time so they can focus on their core business. I provide a free one hour consultation for all contractors. I would be happy to describe these online marketing techniques in more depth help you further explore how new business can be driven your way through the Internet. Contact Information If you re interested in a free consultation or if you just have questions about Internet marketing, please contact me. Frank Salvatore Database Watchdog, LLC fsalvatore@databasewatchdog.com