The objective of any construction oriented company, whether it be a remodeling contractor, new home builder or specialty service provider is to make potential customers want to connect with you, so they can buy from you. Potential customers need to understand your unique value and that begins by branding your story. Here we feature a remodeling contractor who went from start-up to an admirable NAHB Remodeler of the Month.
After almost ten years in business, Crossbeam Builders desired to take their marketing to a whole new level in late 2018. They began with education and a strategy. In early 2019 they accumulated and organized all their content and had a new website built and launched in the summer.
Like others, Crossbeam Builders was initially focused on building the company and now was in a position to make a change for the future success of his company. That change was based on becoming more of a service than a product. The owner knew he had to find the time to learn a little about marketing and website SEO through the first a Basic Class and Advanced Class. Then we created a Marketing Plan to begin the journey to transform his message for more quality leads.
Disclaimer: Certain operational details are omitted to protect the contractor’s business strategy.
There were some good local competitors for this contractor, but the biggest weakness was all the remodeling contractors were weak at telling their story. We built a plan that would allow our remodeling client to capture the best of who he was at that given moment, with a clear vision to be ready to expand his online marketing as soon as the structure was in place. Take a moment at the end to meet Chris, the owner of Crossbeam Builders. We happened to meet him earlier in the year at the International Builder’s Show when MyOnlineToolbox was a speaker at the industry’s largest trade event. We were able to get a short interview well before Chris obtained this acknowledgement.
The website was terrible, and in a short time of working with MyOnlineToolbox, we were able to organize enough content to isolate the main services and the target locations. The structure of the site was carefully orchestrated so the next project could be implemented with maximum marketing efficiency. For example, we started with a Kitchen Remodel which linked to the Location and Services already created on the site. And of course we were able to get a customer review video, loaded to YouTube then embedded to the website. From there we made our Facebook post to further solidify the social marketing with the website marketing.
Now that we had a great representation of beautiful projects along with customer videos, we were ready to tackle the goal to show the pride in being a leading remodeling contractor. That begins by how professional and well organized the remodeler is before each project and how they show up to each project. Everything about their business, from their processes to their work trailer is more than just a set of tools and supplies randomly thrown together. The company strives to have a potential customer imagine them backing into their house to working on a remodeling project. This is the true story of a company who has become successful about branding itself as a service, not just a product.
Sometimes very little is worth its weight in gold. Here is an excerpt from the full story you can find at Qualified Remodeler – Crossbeam Builders Remodeler of the Month (which we encourage you to follow next).
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Absolutely. But there are many ways that we can do so depending on where you are in your business growth.
Some people are building their own website on their own and want to do things as inexpensive as possible so we have a lot of Free Videos that are self help oriented as mentioned in the above answer.
Some people have a website that doesn’t seem to be performing well but perhaps can be salvaged with just some entry level marketing so we offer a Basic Marketing & Website SEO Education Class.
Some others have a nice start so they desire to turn it up a notch with the next level of marketing so we offer an Advanced Marketing & Website SEO Education Class.
And perhaps you are looking to work with a dedicated contractor website company and we can guide you in the right direction too. However, our approach is so different since we don't just give out names for many reasons, and mostly because programming companies tend to target specific types of contracting clients based on size, complexity and investment for marketing. We don't want to waste your time or their time if it is not a right fit. It's like saying you want a car but have not stated you are looking for a Kia, Ford, Mercedes or Lamborghini. Yes, they all may get from point A to Z, but there is a big difference and we can help you best decide.
Then there are those who are looking to have a thorough plan in place that encompasses a strategy for your services, locations, competition and growth. These companies, subject to our interview policies, engage us for a Strategic Marketing Plan that includes both the Education Classes as part of our Diamond Marketing Engagement.
The Basic Class topics ensure the foundation of your marketing efforts help specifically your website itself. So many times people (owners and programmers) build a website they believe will bring them leads only to find out much later that the Search Engines are bypassing them entirely. We look to ensure you understand enough so the structure of your site looks to not only provide a text and graphical representation of what you do, but also enough so the search engines can understand what you do in order to be ranked for search placement.
The Advanced Class topics take it one step further by expanding on topics that are either extra for your website, or perhaps externally supporting your website. Testimonials are one example where they can help both your site for fresh content or consumer rankings depending on where they are obtained. Mapping, Video and Facebook Social Sharing are external topics that also can support your rankings.
Both the Basic and Advanced Classes combined are far less expensive to Lead Generation companies who mostly focus on short term opportunities while the classes are designed to guide you to ongoing long term quality reputation and direct to your website opportunities.
Unfortunately too many contractors look to create a very short term solution regarding their website. Yet this is one of your most critical components to long term success. Too many view a website passively while we are so much more successful when a businessperson realizes that marketing is an important aspect to any business, and the website is a piece of marketing.
A simple analogy is deciding on a pen, paper, word processor or even chalk, none of it matters if you do not know how to write.
It is hard when someone really doesn’t believe in marketing, so that is the challenge that is hard for us. But once you realize that while there may be shortcuts to getting found online, the smart move is to position for quality opportunities over a period of time, and that requires just a limited amount of marketing and website education regarding SEO.
It’s not intimidating at all and that is why we encourage you to review the Many Contractor Marketing Education Reviews to see how many peers just like you are now able to view their business so differently in such a short time for a small investment too.
We intentionally like to ensure you know the difference of products we sell (available at anytime by anyone) and service we provide (under certain circumstances).
We sell Marketing & Website Education Classes, both Basic & Advanced. They are perfect for company owners, office staff and even programmers who are good at website development but are not goof at website marketing which is a different subject matter.
We provide a consulting service, on a limited basis, and after we talk to you for those who are looking to be very strategic with their Marketing Planning, including the website and all the SEO topics that surround the website. Sometimes an existing website can be upgraded and sometimes a brand new website will be needed. Sometimes we can use your same resources and sometimes we need to replace the existing resources. You must be ready to participate in this endeavor.
Technically everyone needs a plan in some fashion or then you have no way of organizing the process for success.
But the reality is most contractors will not want to spend the time and money strategizing their services, locations, competition and organizing themselves before working with a website company.
This reality is based on either the desire to get website going as fast and inexpensive as possible, or perhaps, there is a desire but there is an intimidation for the extra time and money required or even perhaps there is simply no understanding about marketing and subsequent Marketing Planning Strategies.
So the answer is, Yes you should have one. But No, you do not need one to make better strides by taking our classes.
But without a real plan, the Basic & Advanced Classes will at least give you a stronger direction to enhancing your own branding, website development, or working better with your website programmer. In other words, the classes can help supplement your Marketing Planning by clearly understanding the direction you need to go.
Simply agree to take a short time (about 8 to 10 hours for the Basic Class, and 10 to 12 hours for the Advanced Class) to learn these industry specific Brand Marketing and Website SEO principles.
Think of it another way, so many kids go to get a MBA for business without even knowing what type of company they will be a part of. Many of the first things they learn is marketing topics. Yet many contractors go into business first and skip this step all together. So all you need to do is realize you skipped an important step to growing any business and realize there are some classes just for your type of business to bring you forward, inexpensively and without much of a time commitment.
All our testimonials are mostly designed to help inspire you to further educate yourself. Of course we love hearing that we did a good job putting this all together.
So it all begins with you being excited, not intimidated and willing to give up just a few hours to learn for a lifetime of marketing benefits.