It has been a challenging time for many different industries lately, being that it is either difficult or absolutely impossible for some businesses to operate while the Shelter-in-Place guidelines from the COVID-19 are in effect. Some industries have been hit harder than others, but if you are currently working in the Home Improvement vertical, we have some tips that can help you keep your business afloat during these difficult times.
One activity that many of us are still able to do, even while we're working or sheltering at home, is visiting the internet. One way you can use this activity to your advantage is to use this time to work on your web efforts, such as strengthening your own website with blogs or videos to catch that organic traffic. And if your website looks like it is from the early 2000s, there are many freelance designers out there who are looking for work right now. Use this time to see what your competition is doing and to maybe even get ahead of the game, whether it is on search results, social media or even YouTube!
With everyone sheltering at home, and especially now that it's spring, many may be thinking about starting those home improvement projects. Given the current situation, however, many of those projects we would have hired out for may have become do-it-yourself projects instead. You can assist those people, and your business, by creating DIY (Do It Yourself) Videos and uploading them to YouTube, or to your website, or to social media platforms or anywhere else you suspect people will go to find help. Through these videos you can add value to the lives of consumers while building a strong reputation and increasing your brand.
You can get your lead buyers more involved with the DIY process, and you both can benefit from them. Have your buyers make the videos, and since most of them will generate leads organically, you can sell the leads generated by it as a cost-per-sale. It is a way to shift the cash flow for lead gen and participate in the upside of your trusted client(s). For example, you can put a lead generation form in in the video description, but not charge your buyer until a close has been made. This is a good way to get your buyers to make DIY videos and be more involved in the process.
Technology is being used as a way to keep us all connected; use it to connect yourself with your leads and clients. If you can not be at a job-site, consider practicing social distancing by using a drone to measure to measure for estimates. Or even using video platforms such as FaceTime or Zoom to interact and do a virtual walk-through to get estimates that way. Think about what jobs need to be done for you, are there ways that technology could help in the mean-time?
Now is the time to work on making sure your sales and fulfillment processes are efficient and, to the extent they can, automated. It is also a good time to work on building strong supplier relations for your leads. There will be a lot of unmatched leads during this period, and suspect some companies may be tempted to reprocess them once the Quarantine is lifted. It is important to know and trust where your leads are coming from.
We are all finding our ways through these challenging times together, all across the globe, and many of us are looking at the same walls of our homes or feeling the same air from our furnace or AC units, but at some point, we will begin to venture out again and want to make changes to the homes where we just spent so much of our time. If you are still not sure how to generate leads, check out our guide on how to do so. If you found this article helpful in this trying time, consider subscribing to our newsletter to better your business!