Social Media

Many time when I talk to construction business owners, they are struggling to think of new topic to write about in their blog. A blog, when used properly, can be a great way to interact with your potential clients, strategic partners and existing clients. What a great way to promote your business.

I thought it may be a good idea to write some ideas of ways to use your blog and promote writing.

1. Interview customers and have them do a guest blog about their project
2. Talk with your strategic partners about product trends, designs and useful ideas for homeowners
3. Testimonial and pictures before, during, and after the projects. Try to create a storyboard that details the event.
4. Talk about your companies process and how it benefits the clients. Why not help your potential client understand the unique way your experience is beneficial to them.
5. Share your employees and tradesmen’s unique skills, service and dedication to your clients by blogging about it with your community.

Having testimonials on your Blog and then writing articles/stories about each customer is useful and good reading for potential customers.

Want to upload some testimonials yourself? Here’s how.

Using  Audio Acrobat is a good site for recording audio and producing a html code for uploading it to your website. If you have an account with Audio Acrobat a testimonial line can be set up and a unique URL to your testimonial line will be established. This URL can then be used to send out in a newsletter informing your clients with instructions on how to record a testimonial for your business.

Also, SKYPE has a call record option and that too can be saved to your desktop and converted to a html code to upload using various free tools http://www.ehow.com/how_4464333_embed-audio-html.html

Would you like to ensure that when you’re blogging, you are utilizing the best practices for Search Engine Optimization?

Here is a good link for SEO tips when blogging. http://labs.wordtracker.com/seo-blogger/

Want more hits to your website? Use your blog as educational material to attract your ideal customer and be creative. Here is a link to content optimization ideas for your website. Good reading- http://www.remodelbuddy.com/content-optimization Also, try using testimonials for your marketing kit- have one to give to potential clients. Do you ever mail a DVD or CD with info on your business before your appt, hand it to them during or leave/send one after? Why not, it works…….I have proof:) Here is some info on marketing kits. http://www.remodeling.hw.net/blogs/postdetails.aspx?BlogId=timnagle&PostId=90623 Do you have any ideas that you have used for your blog you would like to mention? Let us know, leave a comment.

A great tool, as we know, is the internet and our website. As professional contractors it is easy to get caught up in the daily business and operations and easily neglect your marketing strategy or marketing plan. In this day and age, it is more important than ever to be in front of  YOUR customers, in front of your ideal clients. Think about it for a  minute… if homeowners are being more selective, it is even more important for them to know, like and trust you, before they will choose or buy from you. Here is a poll from NARI’s home page that I found. Only 331 people voted, but it is a good indicator of what is important for homeowners when hiring a contractor. 52% of the people that voted, find references most important. 52%! Honestly, I think it is even higher than that. But the bottom line for remodeling professionals, it is more important than ever to market yourself in a way that people get to know, like and trust you. Again, in this new era when someone mentions a company’s name for a product, people search for information on the internet. When talking with friends about a vacation spot, the chances are the vacation spot will be typed in the search engines for more info. Well, homeowners may hear about you as a reference, may see your job sign too, but they more than likely will still want to ” look you up online.” When they look you up online, what will they find? This is the perfect opportunity to earn that know, like and trust with a potential client. We talk about this quite a bit with our members, because it is a normal part of the buying cycle and one ignored too much. Customers want to know more about you in their own environment. When you can position yourself in your industry as an expert, clients will seek you. It used to be good just to have a website. The problem is that if you have a website that isn’t content optimized, your website could be like a house in the middle of the woods without windows, doors or a mailbox – no one knows it exists but you and it isn’t that fun to visit – Opportunity lost. So in the coming couple weeks, we’ll be adding blog posts that talk about how to use your website as a marketing tool that is content optimized and will position yourself within your industry as the expert. On the image below, you’ll see several of the areas we will discuss:

Please subscribe to our blog on the right hand side of this page so that your Remodeling & Home Improvement business won’t miss any of the effective and practical advice that we will be rolling out.

Most people use LinkedIn to “get to someone” in order to make a sale, form a partnership, or get a job. It works well for this because it is an online network of more than 8.5 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 130 industries. However, it is a tool that is under-utilized, especially in the Remodeling & Home Improvement industry. So I’ve compiled a list of 8 ways to increase the value of LinkedIn: 1.) Increase your visibility. By adding connections, you increase the likelihood that people will see your profile first when they’re searching for someone to hire or do business with. In addition to appearing at the top of search results (which is a major plus if you’re one of the 52,000 product managers on LinkedIn), people would much rather work with people who their friends know, like and trust. 2.) Improve your connectability. Most new users put only their current company in their profile. By doing so, they severely limit their ability to connect with people. You should fill out your profile like it’s an executive bio, so include past companies, education, affiliations, and activities. You can also include a link to your profile as part of an email signature. The added benefit is that the link enables people to see all your credentials. Past customers can recommend you and increase your credibility. This is an excellent way to also find their connections in your area and see where they “group” and “connect” to people in your community. 3.) Improve your Google PageRank. LinkedIn allows you to make your profile information available for search engines to index. Since LinkedIn profiles receive a fairly high PageRank in Google, this is a good way to influence what people see when they search for you. To do this, create a public profile and select “Full View.” Also, instead of using the default URL, customize your public profile’s URL to be your actual name. To strengthen the visibility of this page in search engines, use this link in various places on the web. For example: when you comment in a blog, include a link to your LinkedIn profile in your signature. 4.) Enhance your search engine results. In addition to your name, you can also promote your blog or website to search engines like Google and Yahoo! Your LinkedIn profile allows you to publicize websites. There are a few pre-selected categories like “My Website,” “My Company,” etc. If you select “Other” you can modify the name of the link. If you’re linking to your personal blog, include your name or descriptive terms in the link, and voila! Instant search engine optimization for your site. To make this work, be sure your public profile setting is set to “Full View.” 5.) Thinking of hiring a new sales person, production manager or working with a strategic partner like an architect or designer? Perform blind, “reverse,” and company reference checks. LinkedIn’s reference check tool to input a company name and the years the person worked at the company to search for references. Your search will find the people who worked at the company during the same time period. Since references provided by a candidate will generally be glowing, this is a good way to get more balanced data. Increase the relevancy of your hiring. Use LinkedIn’s advanced search to find people with sales, production and work experience like yours to see where they work. For example, a programmer would use search keywords such as “Ruby on Rails,” “C++,” “Python,” “Java,” and “evangelist” to find out where other programmers with these skills work. 6.) Be transparent. Earn know, like and trust. Companies will typically check your references before hiring or working with you, homeowners may also check on you before meeting you or before making a decision. This is a great place to privately get to know you and can be a better benefit if you advise them you are there through publications, website, business cards, literature and more. Maybe a potential partner will look for you too. What a great way to be transparent and earn people’s know, like and trust. 7.) Make your appointment go smoother. You can use LinkedIn to find the people that you’re meeting. Knowing that you went to the same school, play hockey, or share acquaintances is a lot better than an awkward silence after, “I’m doing fine, thank you.” This can be a great warm up tool for a sales appointment. Have a sales team? Get them on LinkedIn. 8.) Ask for advice. LinkedIn’s newest product, LinkedIn Answers, aims to enable this online. The product allows you to broadcast your business-related questions to both your network and the greater LinkedIn network. The premise is that you will get more high-value responses from the people in your network than more open forums.