Since you’ve already made the smart move of adding IncentivesHub to your website, you know how this first-of-its-kind app from Pearl Certification helps homeowners find your discounts, plus federal, state, and utility rebates and tax credits on your site.
IncentivesHub was designed to help you attract, engage, and convert more website visitors. By giving homeowners a quick and easy way to save more on your services upfront, you can beat sticker shock, speed up the sales cycle, and help your customers achieve a faster return on their investment.
So, how can you get the most value from this new tool?
First, you’ll want to maximize the number of people interacting with it. There were about 50,000 Google searches in the U.S. last month for “contractors near me.” How many of them resulted in visits to your website?
Don’t worry, we’re here to help. And let’s face it, on-the-job learning is nothing new for you.
Below, we’ve put together everything you need to know — and do — to get started, organized in five categories. Here’s how to connect with more homeowners, grow your visibility alongside your book of business, and ultimately turn more IncentivesHub visitors into customers.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
You may have heard the acronym thrown around before, but if you aren’t sure what it means, here’s a simple way to think about it. “SEO” — or “search engine optimization” — refers to steps you can take to make your website and your services easier for homeowners to find when doing a Google, Bing, or Yahoo search. And since the first of those is the most widely used search engine, we’ll stick with that.
If you want more homeowners to find your website, you have to first help Google find, explore, and add your site to its list (a process called “indexing”). Then you want to ensure when it does find your site, it directs homeowners searching for your services there, by ranking it on the first page of — and ideally in the top two or three spots on — its search results.
Now, Google takes a lot of “signals” into consideration when returning search results. But there are a few fundamental practices you should put in place to give your site the best chance of being returned and ranked highly in search results.
Use relevant keywords on your page
Are you a general contractor, or do you specialize in, say, HVAC repairs and replacement? Are you only serving customers in one specific city or zip code, or are you open to homeowners across a broader geographic area? Do you provide home energy audits with blower door tests or other services?
Information like this should be spelled out in several places on your site. So, in addition to your location, your service area, and your list of your services, you might consider working your location info into a homepage tagline like “Providence’s Trusted Plumbers Since 1996.” These “keywords” are signals to Google that the information people are searching for can be found on your site.
When it comes to attracting potential customers who are searching Google for home energy rebates and tax credits to IncentivesHub, make sure the page you’ve dropped IncentivesHub onto also features plenty of well-written copy that includes keywords associated with these savings programs. Don’t forget to include the names of the systems or appliances you’re installing that come with savings, as well as the names of the major rebates and tax credit programs offering the savings. When Google crawls your site, it will look for this copy rather than an interactive tool like IncentivesHub, so the keywords you choose matter.
The right keywords are those that potential customers are Googling in your area. To find them, start with free tools like Google Trends or Google Keyword Planner. If you want to dig deeper and go after competitive keywords or start creating articles, consider a paid tool like SEMrush.
While not strictly necessary, if you have the bandwidth, quality content around topics that tie in to your core services can help you rank for your keywords. Think helpful articles on common home performance issues, how to prepare for an installation, how to read the energy-efficiency information on your new HVAC system, etc. But for most contractors, a simple page that includes your contact info, the most relevant keywords (see the previous bullet point), and your IncentivesHub link should do the trick.
Social Media
Social media can be huge for contractors. Channels like Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) are designed for images and video and have huge audiences, but they’re often underutilized by contractors.
Now that you have a tool like IncentivesHub in your kit, it’s high time to change that. Here are a few simple suggestions that can help you start developing an audience on social:
Quick Video Testimonials
As you know, when you sign up for IncentivesHub you get free social media templates to announce and promote your new tool. As homeowners and your sales team continue to use IncentivesHub, be sure to periodically capture testimonials from customers. Showcase how much they saved by partnering with you and using this tool. Video works best, and there’s no need for perfectly polished production or anything longer than 30 seconds. If video isn’t an option, consider getting a written testimonial and a photo of your happy customer. The more peer stories you can share from your customers, the more trust you’ll build with potential customers.
Homeowner Q&A
Once you’re up and running on social media, consider soliciting images of home renovation needs from your audience, and then — on, say, a weekly or monthly basis — sharing recommended solutions, including the pricing breakdown and a link to IncentiveHub on your website, with all of your followers.
“Before” and “after” Renovation Photos
If you’re consistently posting high-quality “before” and “after” images of home renovation projects, it’s almost certainly going to get noticed and over time it can increase public awareness of your company, which in turn can lead to new business. Try to use consistent photographic staging (i.e., take the “before” and “after” photos from the same position and in similar lighting conditions) to achieve the most dramatic effect.
Pro tip: If you’re running a particular discount for home performance improvements, consider running a paid promotion campaign on social media channels to draw more attention to it. Bear in mind, you don’t need to have a huge budget lined up to connect to relevant audiences in your area, and you can quickly brush up on the basics of audience targeting for Instagram and Facebook if you need any help with campaign structure. While you’re at it, you might also consider the potential value of running paid campaigns on Pinterest or YouTube.
Email Newsletters
Similar to social media, email is another channel contractors may want to consider. Regular newsletters keep your leads warm for next to nothing. Assuming you aren’t sending out a regular email newsletter at present, here’s how to get started in three easy steps:
- Build and centralize your subscriber list: You’re likely collecting emails with every prospect you speak to and every deal you close — but if you aren’t, it’s time to get started, because this is your subscriber list. Just be sure your customers have an option to opt in — and out — of your newsletter when they share this information with you. You’ll need to start gathering and saving these emails in a single repository, too, preferably in Microsoft Excel or a Google Sheet.
- Aim for a monthly cadence and seasonal content: Putting out a monthly newsletter is totally doable, provided it’s short, simple, and to the point, which usually works best for busy homeowners, anyway. Keep the messaging in sync with the seasons — you might call out discounts on building shell improvements during the colder months, for example and feature IncentiveHub as the call-to-action link at the end of your email.
- Make it easy to unsubscribe: To stay compliant with the laws governing email marketing, make sure a one-click-unsubscription option is enabled for your recipients in the footer of your email.
Printed Marketing Materials
Digital marketing techniques are among the quickest, most effective, and least expensive ways to reach the broadest possible audience, but there’s still a lot to be said for old-school approaches. This is especially true when you’re trying to penetrate a local market, which may be the case for many contractors. And with digital tools like QR codes, you can easily direct homeowners from printed materials like flyers, postcards, and pamphlets right to IncentivesHub, which is already optimized for mobile.
Sales Conversations
You might be thinking of IncentiveHub as primarily a tool that exists online and adds value to your website — and that makes sense. But don’t overlook the ways in which it can be used to enhance in-person sales conversations as well.
After all, it’s one thing for you to tell a prospective customer there isn’t a higher-value deal out there for the money. It’s another to show them your value in real time by bringing up IncentivesHub on your phone or tablet, inputting their address, and displaying the discounts, rebates, and tax credits that can bring their costs way down. Use IncentiveHub at the kitchen table to help alleviate sticker shock and close competitive bids faster.
Next Steps
The marketing tips above should give you a way to start building and growing your audience and an idea of how IncentivesHub can help. If you have questions on installing or using IncentivesHub, don’t hesitate to reach out to Pearl’s customer service team at help@pearlcertification.com.
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