Your Invited: Stop spending your Green on the Yellow! Learn how to spend less online and get more referrals and using your past projects.
As a professional contractor thriving in today’s home remodeling environment, you'll need a fantastic Internet presence. Remodeling truly is a referral based business.
Too often, contractors get addicted to Yellow pages and forget that there are other ways to market and generate referrals. The yellow pages is a great way to publish your business, but the best strategy focuses on Internet marketing efforts like SEO (search engine optimization), local Internet marketing, and social media marketing.
This intuitive FREE webinar was where Remodeleze experts helped you build a positive reputation and showcase your completed projects via the Internet.
You will learn how to:
* Use the benefits of Internet marketing to your advantage
* Generate and qualify sales referrals
* Prepare for and make sales calls and presentations
* Highlight your past projects
* Develop an exceptional online customer presence leading to satisfied customers
As an added bonus, every attend will receive our FREE ebook “Contractors and Craigslist; More Business Ahead” by simply tweeting us @remodeleze
Ride the Storm: Navigating Through Unstable Periods / Katerina Rudko (Belka G...
Nail Down Your Internet Marketing
1. JOIN THE COMMUNITY Nail Down Your Internet Marketing Break The Yellow Page Addiction Greg Bozigian Remodeleze.com Twitter: @remodeleze
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5. Remodeleze Customer Success Alan Golberg Electric First page Google for his Recessed Lighting in Sherman Oaks, CA project Superior Home Builders First page Google for his Home Theater & Pool Automation in Hidden Hills , CA project HAS Construction First page Google for his Whole House Remodel in Pacific Palisade project Our Dream Builder First page Google for her Master Bath Remodel in El Dorado Hills project First Page Search Success JOIN THE COMMUNITY
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33. Nail Down Your Internet Marketing Break The Yellow Page Addiction Greg Bozigian Remodeleze.com Twitter: @remodeleze Thank You! Free-Trial: http://www.remodeleze.com/Professional/Login/RegisterFree.aspx JOIN THE COMMUNITY
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Notes de l'éditeur
Welcome and thank you attending the Remodeleze.com webinar Nail Down Your Internet Marketing and Break The Yellow Page Addiction. My name is Greg Bozigian and am part of the Remodeleze team. We’re glad you could join us and look forward to spending the next 30 minutes of interacting and sharing with you various ways we see that will increase your marketing presence and your ability to get your next remodeling project online. Our goal today is to leave you with several valuable action items that you can use within your own business to generate results.
Started by two actual homeowners seeking expert advice on their remodeling projects and wanting to share trusted referrals with other community members, Remodeleze was in closed development since 2008, only open to invited users while perfecting our product, results and user experience. We officially launched to the public in early 2009 as a social networking community geared exclusively towards remodeling and all the information associated with it. Our goal is to connect home owners with other home owners and assist with trusted knowledge by attracting some of the best local remodeling professionals around. We offer a subscription based service that provides remodeling professionals with three very important ways to find and close more business online. Fortunately we have enjoyed a wonderful user uptake and many customer success stories. Presently we have over 2000 home owners and professionals interacting within the community; sharing remodeling project advice, product recommendations, posting projects and ultimately generating trusted referrals. We have 20 employees and are located in the heart of Venice Beach, California.
Remodeleze has been a proud member of The National Association of The Remodeling Industry since 2008. We loved interacting with the members so much, that we opened the Los Angeles chapter in 2009. Excited to be part of such successful growth, the Los Angeles chapter has approximately 50 members and is very active each month with various events and learning sessions. We are also proud members of the National Kitchen and bath Association and have been fortunate enough to get positive reviews and mentions in the press by popular sites like Killerstartups.com
Since our launch in early 2009, we have been very active in the local search and social networking space. Earlier this year we released news of our local search technology going live and our partnership with local search and data listing icon Localeze. What this meant to our professional customers was Remodeleze now offered a single point of contact to market their company and past/current work on many of the top search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. Along those same lines, we also launched our business partner and affiliate program two months ago empowering value added partners to help remodeling professionals get more business online.
As mentioned before, we’re especially proud of the success we have had on behalf of our customers. Our goal is to help our professionals get found online and close more business. We never charge any per lead, per call or referral fees. We simply deliver interested people directly to their business. In our first success story, we were able to publish and optimize Alan Goldberg Electric’s recessed lighting in Sherman Oaks California project onto the first page of Google helping him show others interested in local lighting work what he had done. We were also glad to help All Tech Automation be seen on the First page of Google for their home theater & pool automation in Hidden Hills, California project they completed. In yet another example, we got HAS Construction’s whole house remodel in Pacific Palisade, California project in the top five results of Google And finally we served Our Dream Builder’s master bath remodel in El Dorado Hills, California project to the top of Google in only 2 weeks.
In today’s session we’re going to show you how to compliment your yellow page advertising and add new interactive online tools in the social world. We have found that social marketing is extremely beneficial to the remodeling community. Our goal today is to help you understand the importance of using social networking to increase your online presence and become a trusted resource when bidding for projects. Remember at any time you can ask questions via Twitter @remodeleze, or email greg@remodeleze.com
Over the past few decades the yellow pages has been a great source for advertising and marketing your business. As one of the most used sources for finding new business, the yellow pages has been a consumer favorite for the past few decades. It was estimated that at one time, the yellow pages reached 76% of the population monthly and 57% each week.
By now you must have heard that yellow page marketing is dead. Well we don’t necessarily think so. Ask yourself, if yellow page marketing is the only major advertising your doing, well your selling yourself short. Although the yellow pages has some fantastic strengths like finding consumers, building creditability and 24/7 availability, its weaknesses are pretty big as well. Being a print publication you get only one chance at the perfect ad, there's no opportunity to update your messaging and offers, and it’s very hard way to stand out from the crowd.
If you convinced that the yellow pages just isn’t enough, what else should you explore. You’ve heard that social networking, blogging, getting ratings and reviews and “tweeting” on Twitter are the latest internet marketing tools, but just aren’t sure what they mean to your business and more importantly how to use them. Let’s have a look at each one and see if we can share with you some value points and benefits of use.
Our first topic is social networking. What social networking really does is create a touch point for you to use when speaking to your customers. Whether your trying to get new business by establishing yourself as an expert, or find new ways to keep talking with past clients, social networking is a valuable marketing tool for any business. Social networking really brings the creativity out in any marketer by sparking a true marketing message and rejecting a selling message.
Getting started in social networking is very simple and mostly free. First you’ll want to create a personal profile in a social network like Remodeleze, Facebook, LinkedIn or many others. Next you’ll want to make sure that others can contact you both within your community and out side as well. Remember other community members in most social networks are looking for advice on various topics. When creating posts, asking questions or responding to others, always operate under the premise of helping. Hey they're called “peer communities” for a reason. Just as they say on the phone, you can always tell when someone is smiling. A friendly approachable profile is best. Don’t forget to add pictures and videos. Things like your office, your team, your projects and you are what builds trust with others. And finally the goal is to build relationships, not to SELL. User defenses are quick to go up as soon as you turn on a sales pitch.
If you convinced that the yellow pages just isn’t enough, what else should you explore. You’ve heard that social networking, blogging, getting ratings and reviews and “tweeting” on Twitter are the latest internet marketing tools, but just aren’t sure what they mean to your business and more importantly how to use them. Let’s have a look at each one and see if we can share with you some value points and benefits of use.
Blogging is a fantastic way to attract users and search engines. The advantages to blogging come in many different formats. First its one of the most effective ways to get your message out, build and increase interaction with your audience, and advance trust. When you blog, others may deem you as an expert in the topics your commenting on and refer to you often when relevant questions come up. Remember effective blogging sells through advice not pitching. Blogging is a done right is a great way to generate referrals.
So you heard blogging is hard. You think you have to be a journalist. Well not so fast. Bloging is really about having something interesting and relevant to say, not about how much you say. Getting started with blogging can be as easy as signing up on a forum like Remodeleze has and begin questioning and commenting. Other services like Wordpress and Blogger are great places to start a free blog as well. When creating posts you’ll want to start commenting on industry news, telling others about your favorite products and giving experienced based valuable project tips that can save time and money. What you don’t want to do is only publish special offers and “sell” to you readers. In a blog world, readers will subscribe to your content and need to have an interesting reason to do so. Just as with all social networking, establishing trust and becoming an expert is the goal here as well. Whenever you’re creating content, be relevant and concise. Long winded “marketing talk” text just doesn’t fly in a blogger’s mind.
If you convinced that the yellow pages just isn’t enough, what else should you explore. You’ve heard that social networking, blogging, getting ratings and reviews and “tweeting” on Twitter are the latest internet marketing tools, but just aren’t sure what they mean to your business and more importantly how to use them. Let’s have a look at each one and see if we can share with you some value points and benefits of use.
Ratings and reviews are the most powerful feature in social networking. Listening to what peers think of you and your work is the best selling tool to prospective customers. Ratings provide the public a way to share with others their thoughts on your work, service, interaction, communication and their overall experience. These areas of trust are extremly important. We have found that ratings and reviews build a community type approach to helping consumers choose businesses. Gaining g credibility and validation from a third party is something every business should have. Now lets explore how to get rated and reviewed.
Getting rated and reviewed is pretty simple. First you’ll want to create a free professional profile on Remodeleze. Once you set that up, make sure you talk about your experience and past work. Remember before and after are great ways to show improvement. Next invite your customers and colleagues asking for their opinion of you, your work and what they thought of your advice. Keep in mind asking for the rating or review is what most people fail to do. Once someone posts a review or gives you a rating, any potential visitor who views your profile will see and read this comment potentially sparking a new element of trust in your work.
If you convinced that the yellow pages just isn’t enough, what else should you explore. You’ve heard that social networking, blogging, getting ratings and reviews and “tweeting” on Twitter are the latest internet marketing tools, but just aren’t sure what they mean to your business and more importantly how to use them. Let’s have a look at each one and see if we can share with you some value points and benefits of use.
You don’t Twitter? Why not. It’s probably one of the easiest things to do online. In short Twitter is an instant messaging platform that provides real time communication in a non intrusive way. By others opting to “follow” you, means they want to read your updates and posts. This type of relationship builds a real time touch point like no other. Building followers becomes a goal in itself, since that represents an initial interest. Engaging them and keeping them active is a second challenge.
To start using Twitter, simply sign up and create a profile. Twitter asks the question, “What Re You Doing?” and only gives you a 140 characters to answer. With such a short limit, you’ll have to be concise with your message. Getting people to listen to you is called “followers”. Start getting followers by asking friends, customers and colleagues to join and follow. Also add your twitter username to your email signature letting others know this is another communication method you support. The goal is to have fun, say interesting and concise things and as with all social media don’t sell….offer. Getting noticed here is a challenge, but not impossible. Once you start being interesting, followers sees to come in groups.
Now that’s you have seen what’s available, lets see what’s wrong with just advertising in the yellow pages.
So we’ve explored what the yellow pages are and what they do, now lets figure out what they don’t do. A yellow page ad is a directory listing for your business. It provides a reader with your company’s name, address and phone number. Newer ads may also include a website address. But the real question is does it: Add spark any interaction with the reader? Build any trust by displaying what others say about you? Show any current projects? Have any special offers? Establish you as an expert?
What we have shown you thus far are really the three ways to break the yellow page addiction. By adding a blog and using various social networks you ultimately increase your chances of being found on the top search engines when somebody is looking for work you have done or services you offer. This type of Internet marketing is called search engine optimization (SEO).
Letting others know you’re a professional is the first step. Setup up your free profile at Remodeleze, facebook, myspace or many others. Remember to include your contact information, add relevant experience and most importantly don’t sell….advise.
Here are some examples of social networks to use when creating your profile.
Once you have your professional profile setup, next you’ll want to setup your company profile on Remodeleze, Google, Yahoo, MSN and more. Your company profile is the place were others will learn all about your organization. You’ll want to include things like associations, awards, services, areas you work in, email and telephone contact information and hours of operation. If you offer any special financing you’ll want to include that as well since since it is normally a big decision making piece of criteria. Most importantly you’ll want to make sure all the information is correct and accurate.
Remember when choosing social networks to join, always look for “direct services”. What this means is look for services that not only get you found in the search engines, but will also deliver that visitor right to your profile page and not to a directory of other customers offering the same service you do.
Publishing your project is one of the most important pieces of information you can have. It’s completely unique to your business which is a major factor in search engine optimization. For example, our professionals in the Remodeleze community all have the ability to quickly and easily build a micro web page for each project. We give them the power to list detailed features like types of materials and appliances used, project time frames, budgets and much more. When you build your projects you’ll want to make sure and include pictures and videos as much as possible. All these factors together really make a robust page for new visitors to get a good idea of your work. Also remember, to invite your customer to join the project and comment on your work . This becomes a major way to get rated and reviewed.
Here are some examples of social networks to use when posting your project pictures and videos.
Have you noticed? All the services mentioned today have not referenced your own website at all. We find that often times websites were built and delivered to you making it incredible hard and technical to make update and make changes. One reason services like remodeleze are so popular, is that it gives you a way to market and publish all your information online, and does not require any technical skills. If you already have a website that is doing great, think of these “off page” services as the perfect companion to your site.
The power of the internet today is an awesome tool used in marketing. With so many solutions that are free or very inexpensive, there really isn’t any excuse not to market online.
By the way, in case we forgot to mention all of these services are offered by Remodeleze to help save you time and energy. We built it to be a one stop shop for home improvements professionals to easily market online.
We hope you have enjoyed the presentation and have learned some very important action items that you can use in your own business. Marketing online can be lots of fun and can also prove to a great return on investment. As we said before stop spending your green on the yellow…break the yellow page addiction. Once again thank you for attending and if you have any follow up questions please feel free to Tweet us @remodeleze or email greg@remodeleze.com.
Wait there’s one last thing. As an added bonus in appreciation for your attendance today, we are giving you a FREE ebook, The Craigslist Cash Machine. Realizing what a strong tool Craigslist can be for home improvement professionals, we decided to send you this complimentary ebook and hope it helps you market better on Craigslist. You will be receiving an email shortly with instructions on how to get your free ebook. Thanks again for attending