Are you in need of new home improvement marketing ideas to help grow your business?
As a seasoned marketer, I like to do my best to help out companies in the home improvement industry who may be struggling to generate enough leads and sales through their old tried and tested marketing techniques (or just the usual Google ads).
So, if you think you’ve tried everything and are still getting nowhere, take a look at the list below – you might find a few practical ideas that will bring new life to your marketing campaign.
1. Be helpful with content marketing
Did you know that 74.2% of companies recently indicated that content marketing is having a positive impact on their marketing teams’ lead quality and quantity?
If you don’t already have a blog, the best advice I can give you is to get one and dedicate it to providing helpful, quality content to your visitors – emphasis on helpful, here. Address the questions they are asking you on a daily basis, and provide them with useful information to help them along their buying journey.
Address the big issues your best customers are going to want to know about the most, such as:
- How much they can expect to pay for your products/services and what can affect cost
- The different solutions your competitors are offering
- Detailed reviews of your products/services
- Comparing various options in a helpful, unbiased way
- How they can find the best solution to fit their home and lifestyle
- The common problems with the solutions you offer
- How long your services/products take to install
Here are five more specific examples:
- How Much Does it Cost to Install a Hot Tub?
- Conservatories vs Oranges; Which is Best for You?
- How Long Does it Take to Install a Boiler?
- Double Glazing vs Triple Glazing – Which is Better?
Don’t forget to include the language they are using when they search for these terms in Google – but at the same time, don’t overstuff your content with keywords; they should appear naturally two or three times within the body of your text.
You don’t have to restrict yourself to written blogs, either; you can be publishing everything from videos and infographics, to SlideShares and photos you’ve taken of particular jobs.
At the bottom of each post, you can add call-to-actions (or CTAs) which are bright, clear buttons giving your visitors something to do next. Offer premium content such as a free guide to download, before taking them to a page where they will fill in their name and email address – converting them into leads.
This whole process is called content marketing, and it’s without a doubt one of the best ways to capture and generate more home improvement leads for your business.
Once you have lots of lovely leads (perhaps you already have an existing database) who may not be quite at the stage where they’re ready to buy yet, the best thing to do is nurture them along by once again being – you guessed it – helpful and giving them more of the right information at the right time.2. Nuture existing leads with email marketing
You can do this by using automated emails that are specifically tailored depending on the type of content they’ve downloaded, or whatever action they’ve taken to become a lead. In fact, 95% of companies using marketing automation are using email marketing to their advantage.
For instance, perhaps they signed up to the hot tubs newsletter, or downloaded a free guide to conservatory materials. In each case, what might be helpful for them to receive next?
Perhaps you could send them a friendly email with a link to a blog comparing 5 of the most popular hot tub styles, or include a link to a case study about a homeowner who was worried about which materials would be best suited for their home.
The point of these emails is to nurture the buyer further along their buyer’s journey by predicting which problems, challenges or decisions they might be facing next – in other words, which hurdles might stop them from becoming a customer? By providing helpful content, you can remove those hurdles.
These emails should be split between two or three weeks and should be spaced out so as not to ‘spam’ the recipient with too much information at once. These are known as ’email workflows’ and here’s how to set one up and the various types of different workflows you can be using.
TIP: There are various tools and software out there to help you create automated email nurturing campaigns – some of them are even free to start with!
3. Remind past clients what else you can offer
Instead of just trying to reach out to new customers, what about contacting some of your old ones with a reminder of some of the other services you offer? After all, they already know what a great job you can do, so you could argue the hard part’s already done.
Some of your previous customers may not even be aware that you can help them with other products or services, and a well-worded email could do the trick of enticing them into one of your other areas of expertise – especially if it’s related to work you’ve already done for them.
For example, if you’ve already sold a customer double or triple glazing for their home, might they be interested in a conservatory? Or perhaps you repaired a client’s roof a year or so ago – do they know you also offer a guttering service?
You never know, they might have been thinking about getting work done for months, and your email just happens to fall into their inbox at exactly the right time! (That of course, would be very lucky indeed)
4. Try an online webinar
These days, visual content such as video is big, and getting bigger – for instance, YouTube reports mobile video consumption rises 100% every year – and online webinars are a brilliant way to offer something visual and engaging to your ideal buyer.
An online webinar doesn’t even have to be shot live – it can be prerecorded and placed on your website or YouTube channel.
As for presentation, as long as it’s clear, helpful and contains practical information and advice that viewers can act on, all you need is yourself (and maybe one or two other people if you have them spare) and your smartphone’s camera – that’s it!
You can host a webinar about practically anything your ideal buyer will find valuable; you could address their questions, or give them helpful tips on a hot topic – you could even use some of your existing content to come up with a script to turn it into a useful webinar. Some examples you could try include:
- The Home Conservatories Q&A
- 5 Ways to Protect Your Roof From Storm Damage
- Hot Tub Maintenance Dos and Donts
TIP: For more advice on webinars, read ‘How to Do a Webinar Your Audience Will Love’.
See example roofing webinar.
5. Start using Google MyBusiness
If your home improvement business depends on a lot of local business, one of the best things you can do to ensure you’re found by the right people is to claim your Google MyBusiness account.
Never heard of Google MyBusiness? Think of it as an online hub that combines Google search, maps, and Google + together with Reviews, Insights and Google Analytics into one simple, easy-to-use interface. So, when potential customers are searching for your products and services in Google, they’ll find you.
Hold on, that’s not all! Having a Google MyBusiness listing will also help your website rank better in search, which means you’ll probably get more overall visitors to your website – just make sure it’s set up to convert them into leads once they get there!
Convinced yet? Luckily, I’ve written a blog detailing exactly how you can set up Google MyBusiness – the best part is, it’s absolutely free to do and can be completed in just 7 simple steps.
6. Take a ‘mobile showroom’ to every quote
Marketing in real life can be just as important as online, so this next tip will help you to be prepared when opportunity strikes.
Keep a light version of your showroom with your team whenever you go out to jobs – I know it sounds like a lot of work, but it could just be in the form of a booklet showcasing some of your best work, with bright photos, an up-to-date price list, customer testimonials and business cards with your website and details.
That way, if you do get talking to any curious prospects about what you do, you’ll have something you can immediately show them, so you can start moving them along the sales funnel if they decide it’s something they’d be interested in themselves.
7. Host an open house in your showroom
Another great way to grab the attention of local prospects and business in your area is to host an open house in your showroom or workshop. Invite the locals down to meet you and your team, ask any questions they like, see examples of your work and just generally get a feel for your business.
The best bit about all of the above? It’s all happening in a friendly, safe environment with absolutely no pressure to buy. Just make sure you have some business cards or materials for them to take away at the end of the day. You can also take their details if they wish to sign up to your newsletter or blog!
8. Get your van to do the hard work
What’s the number one selling point of your company – what makes you unique and special? Do you always deliver on time, every time, or their money back? Or perhaps no job is too big or too small. Whatever that selling point is, stick it on your van – along with your phone number and website.
Getting your van to absolutely nail it in terms of marketing is a true art form – you need to keep it short and to the point. In other words, the simpler, the better. For more, check out the ‘Top 5 Tips for Vehicle Wrap Design’.
9. Start a social media competition
Haven’t you heard? Social media competitions are all the rage, and help increase interest in your company, along with likes on your page – as well as just generally getting more people talking about your brand.
Everybody likes to get something for nothing, so if you make your prize a free hot tub, conservatory or boiler,for example (and all of these are high ticket items) then you’ll soon have lots of people liking your page, as well as sharing and commenting on your post.
It doesn’t have to be particularly costly, either. Here are five examples of the types of thing you could try:
- Win a free hot tub – simply like our page and comment!
- ‘Like’ and win a free annual service for your boiler
- Share and comment to win a free magnetic central heating filter and controls
- Enter our competition to win a free conservatory!
- Tell us why you love hot tubs to win £500 off our entire range!
And here’s a screenshot of hot tub company Lay-Z-Spa demonstrating how it should be done:
10. Introduce a referral programme
A referral programme can be a great way to encourage more people to refer friends, family members and colleagues who can then become leads themselves. After all, 92% of respondents trust referrals from people they know, and the reward you offer doesn’t even have to be that big.
It’s a very cost-effective way of earning new business, and all you need is to offer a complementary product or service (for instance, a free annual service on their boiler or free wireless controls) – or perhaps a free £50 voucher for a high street store or restaurant of their choosing. Up to you!
Referral programs work even better when you offer rewards for the referrer, AND the new prospect – so, perhaps a 10% or 20% discount when they choose your home improvement company over any other. They’ll actually feel like they are doing their friend/family member a huge favour.
11. Write an engaging email series
You can also try experimenting with fun, engaging content via email, such as a ‘how to’ email series or a 7-part story delivered in easily digestible chunks. This could be a great idea for those who are completely new to your product or service for example, and want to know everything they can.
Your email series doesn’t have to be simply written, either (although sometimes that can be powerful enough on its own), you can also include videos, infographics or images to help demonstrate your point. For example, a ‘How To’ series on how to weatherproof your roof could include videos and diagrams.
For those who sign up to your email series straight off the bat, getting to know you via their inbox can help you quickly build a connection and establish their trust, as you’re taking the time to share valuable knowledge with them – and most of the time, you’re doing it for free.
12. Showcase your work with Pinterest and Instagram
As I mentioned above, visual content can be a powerful tool; combine that with social media, and what do you get? A platform to not only showcase your work but also connect with new audiences. Pinterest and Instagram are great examples of visual platforms that can work well for the home improvement industry.
One example I can show you is the Compact Power Equipment Rental Pinterest page, which is spread out over 44 brilliant boards full of tips, examples and inspiration. Even better, the average number of people who visit this page per day is a whopping 25,000.
Just remember to keep it relevant, don’t be afraid mix it up a little, and engage with your audience. Here are some more awesome tips to help up your Instagram game via Buzzfeed. For instance, have you thought about trying a collage?
13. Recapture their attention with re-targeted ads
This of this as Google ads, the smart way. Ad retargeting helps make sure you advertise to all the right people, as it only shows your ads to those who have previously visited your site in the past 30 days. In fact, your conversion rates could increase significantly when using this very clever technique.
Here’s how it works; someone who is an ideal fit for your business has been on your site in the past few days, perhaps to look at your conservatory blog or the various types of conservatories you have on offer – but they’re still doing their research. Maybe they’re still looking at all their options.
Then, when they go onto Facebook or YouTube, what do they magically see? An ad featuring the exact same product they just so happened to be checking out earlier, reminding them of their interest! That’s why retargeting is so effective – after all, our attention spans wander at the best of times.
However, just remember to rotate your ads every week to keep things fresh – keep using the same old ad could get annoying, and your ROI could drop back down again.
Conclusion
I really hope you’ve found this blog helpful, and that you can put some of the above home improvement marketing ideas to good use as part of your own campaigns. Some of them may seem a little like thinking out of the box, but these are all tactics other businesses, just like yours, are using to get ahead.
Have any questions about marketing your home improvement business effectively? Feel free to leave a comment below, or just give me a call – I’d be happy to offer some free advice.