In an industry that’s constantly changing, home improvement lead companies have found different ways to adapt and overcome, so don’t get left in the sawdust. With social media becoming a place for recommendations, and Amazon launching Home Services, the home improvement game has changed. Here are some ways to help compete successfully in this ever changing market.
Know Your Market
Going after leads is a smoother process if you know who they are. By doing some brainstorming and possibly persona creation, you can get into your lead’s head and better understand what they’re thinking. It’s like mind reading, but for lead generation! For example, if you’re looking for solar leads specifically, think of the types of people that would buy solar panels, or need their solar panels fixed.
Where are they?
What age are they?
What platforms are they on?
When would they be searching?
What pages would they go to for research?
What wording would they use when they are searching?
By answering these questions you may even find out things you had no idea about. Once the answers are pieced together, you’ll have a better understanding of how to move forward successfully.
Use Facebook Like A Pro
When using Facebook, it can feel like there’s new add-ons everyday, and people will flock to Facebook for almost anything, including finding who they want to improve their home. Recently, I myself have seen many friends asking for “recommendations” on my feed, and other friends commenting where they can have their problem solved. Now you might think that recommendations aren’t useful when it comes to leads, but if a user isn’t Facebook friends with someone, they can still search recommendations that are publicly posted. For example, if you want to find leads for HVAC, type “HVAC recommendations” or “HVAC recommendations Houston” into the search bar. Once you hit search, you’ll find askers looking for HVAC companies to help them with their issue.
To contact the asker, DMing (direct messaging) them or commenting on the post is an option, but some askers would find that creepy. Also, most of the recommendations you find will be older posts that have already been fixed, so there would be no point. Although, you can still use them to generate leads. Sometimes askers will post their recommendations to a group they think will provide a helpful answer. When groups show up multiple times, or you find a group that communicates quite a bit, join the group and promote your services when they pop up there. Recommendations could potentially be helpful, and even without them, you can still search for Facebook groups that could be helpful in generating specific leads.
There’s also a feature Facebook has in their advertising for businesses that lead generators could potentially find interesting, it's called Facebook Residential Profiles. Located in the “Home” section under “Demographics” on your ad, it allows your business to advertise specifically to users who are: first time homebuyers, homeowners, renters, multi-family home, single home, as well as household composition. When you pair this filter with other demographics such as how much money they make, age and gender, your ads will be optimized for your target market. We’ve mentioned this before in a previous blog post.
Content Is King
What better way to reach people than using their own words? The tried and true way of lead generation is still SEO and Adwords campaigns. To be successful in this you really have to remember strategy #1. Knowing the ins and outs of your target market will guide you to the best results. Understanding your target market combined with some research on keywords is how successful campaigns are run. While the biggest, most generic home improvement keywords are extremely competitive on the search engine results page, more specific search terms such as tile cleaning Madison or epoxy flooring could be well within your reach. Write content such as blogs, articles, infographics, or videos to drive traffic organically to your website. People love content, video especially, and when it comes to home improvement, they love DIY videos. Now, you don’t want your leads to remodel completely by themselves, but you could help them with smaller jobs. There is potential to secure their contact info for when they need bigger jobs completed.
Putting A Pin In Home Improvement Leads
When it comes to social media advertising, companies will push Pinterest to the side, thinking there’s no market there. They couldn’t be more wrong. Secretly, Pinterest could be more powerful than Instagram, and possibly even Facebook when used correctly. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at the research. The user base of Pinterest is currently at 200 million users, who are primarily mothers, ages 25-54 who are middle to upper class. Middle to upper class is the demographic for homeowners, and so are mothers. Older couples have also been looking at home remodeling in the recent years, to provide comfort and mobility in their later years.
Statistically, the ones searching around the home improvement market are male, but women are searching as well. Normally with homeowners remodeling is a joint decision, so women are powerful influencers and decision makers when it comes to home improvement. Being successful on Pinterest requires a strong image game. Putting beautiful remodeled homes on these user’s screens would generate website traffic. From there, well designed landing pages with contact information will generate leads, when optimized for this target market. Promoting on Pinterest could be a breeze compared to other platforms. Here, keywords can be used to target specific markets and demographics can be used here as well. Pinterest users enjoy promoted posts surprisingly and they like knowing about different brands, so don’t be shy when promoting posts. A couple things you should watch for is being genuine to your followers. CTA’s (Call-to-Action) are banned on Pinterest, so don’t use them unless they are in the description.
Time And Place Are Everything
Specific situations, emergency or not, create a need to fix or fortify homes against disaster or discomfort. Watch trends in the industry. HVAC is searched most during July when it’s hot, and right after Christmas when it’s freezing. Generally, when it comes to home improvement, people like searching in January (When they get Home Depot gift cards for Christmas) and leading into summer. Statistically, it’s a bad idea to advertise types of home improvement around autumn. People are getting ready for winter, and it’s a pain to remodel in the cold.
HVAC keyword searches in the last year.
HVAC keyword searches in the last 5 years.
When something breaks in the middle of the night, the homeowner will search for 24 hour services. This allows for cheaper campaigns on Adwords as well as gives you the ability to reach a certain market. Another market that people don’t think about as often is natural disasters. Home improvement is widely searched in the east coast right now, why? Hurricanes. Natural disasters seem to be happening more frequently and in more parts of the United States, and people want their homes to survive when they strike. The south and east coast google ways to prepare for hurricanes. You could get leads this way, as well as helping them to get the right help they need. The same goes for places that get a lot of tornadoes, and I’m sure basement remodeling is on their minds. You just need to think about why people need to remodel and fix their homes, and the search becomes easier.
