CreativeAbode.com

Learn the Top 10 Website Building Tips to Knock-Out Your Competition.

2009-07-02T09:58:00.000-07:00

A company’s website or online brochure is usually the most important component of its marketing communication toolkit. Your prospects are looking for service professionals online 24/7, and they should be able to find your info and photos with 2 clicks of their mouse.

What do I mean by a “Live Website”? …it’s one that’s hosted by a vendor directory that allows you to log in to update at your photos, company info, events, and testimonials as often as you wish. Both you and your customers will benefit by keeping your brochure content fresh.

Take a peak at www.LocalConstructionPros.com - it's where thousands of residential construction contractors choose to advertise their services for under $400 for a TWO year membership. I believe this offer is good until early 2010.

To have a company website with LocalConstructionPros, click here. Creating your own website is super easy, but you can call 347-789-3909 if you need help. Click HERE for a sample contractor website.

Top 10 Website Building Tips

The Homepage Should Suck 'em In
The website's homepage should match what’s inside your prospect’s head - Right Now. There is an emotional reason for the person’s interest in your service. What is it? What are they trying to create? What are they worried about? What opportunity would they love to capitalize on? What problems are they running into? If that person were to launch into a rant about renovating their home, what would they say? …hmmm, start with that. It'll peak their interest instantly.

Fire the Big Guns First
Your biggest selling point should be at the top of your brochure – the “Hotspot”. Once you hook them with something sweet, they'll read on to find the rest of the goods. Identify what you believe is the biggest benefit to your target audience, and feature it at the top. Don’t make the common mistake of starting with technical junk. – boring! Think benefits and thought-provoking statements.

Make It Forwarding Worthy
Putting a goldmine of information in your website will encourage the reader to email it to their friends and family in their community. What real residential construction tips can you share? Write your website text from an expert’s point of view, rather than a salesperson, you will gain the trust of your prospects. Also, feel free to get creative. If you have a funny story to share, as long as it pertains to your service, share it.

Make It Personal
An experienced speaker talking to a large audience will pick one person in the crowd and speak directly to him. Connecting with one person will change the tone of the speaker’s voice, and make him/her sound warmer, and more personal. In a similar fashion, the words in your brochure or website should use this technique. Try to zero in on one imaginary person. Why? Because writing in a direct “I’m-talking-to-you-only” style will make them feel important. In the end, to feel important is all your client really desires.

Add Flavor
Don't let your website's text sound dry or too technical. Share some emotional experiences with your reader. Tell your reader some “secrets”. Make it juicy. Give them some free advice.

Get to the Point…Fast
Keeping your message simple and to the point is super important. Remember, not everyone wants to be educated on every aspect of your service. Don't waste words on junk that doesn’t highlight benefits.
1. Show that you’re passionate about your service
2. Talk about its benefits
3. Show how others have benefitted in the past
4. Include a call to action.

HERE’S A BIGGIE!!!!! Continue to ask yourself, “What are my client’s needs?”

Don’t Talk About Yourself.
This is so HUGE that I’m going to say it again!
Don’t talk about yourself. You MUST talk about your client’s needs.

Read this carpenter's brochure out loud with a nasally operator voice:

“Our company was formed in 1996. In the last 10 years we have worked on many homes in the Monmouth County region. Our company’s reputation is unsurpassed in the industry.” …Yuck.

How did this make you FEEL? Instead of connecting with the customer by talking about their needs, they’re more interested in blabbing about themselves. Always keep the customer in mind, and try using “you” and “your” instead of “we”, “I”, and “our”.

Share Qualities That Will Make Their Experience Unique.
In general, people will not take the time to deal with you if they can find the same thing with less effort—but they will deal with you if you offer them something unique. The element of uniqueness can involve price, style, service, or some combination of all three. The most effective brochures are the ones that flaunt a company's unique points while outlining client benefits.

Please Make It Easy For Me to Read
Every website should be organized so the reader can scan the page and easily get to what they need. Create compelling, attention grabbing, boldfaced headlines throughout the site as if to say, “Hey, this is some very important stuff!” But, definitely avoid using all caps, because studies show that ads, emails, and brochures with all caps get very little attention.

Include a Call to Action
Regardless of how you organize your brochure, there's only one way to wrap it up…Ask your reader to Take Action.

Note: The call to action is NOT a call to hire you on the spot. It's asking your reader to take the very next step in the hiring process. Maybe it’s making a phone call, sending an email, or setting up a meeting in your office. It's probably not to sign a contract - so don't ask for that yet.

A simple call to action is, “Call Us Now For A Free Phone Consultation – 347-789-3909”

LocalConstructionPros.com

Top 16 Reasons to Advertise Your Construction Company on the World Wide Web

2009-07-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

So why put your business online? Some of the answers will surprise you, but I promise to deliver the goods in these top 16 reasons to use technology to grow your business. Read this mountain of benefits….

1. To Establish A Presence:   248,241,968 people in the US use the Internet – that’s about 75% of the population (June, 2008). No matter what your business is, you can't ignore 250 million people. Even the small “mom ‘n’ pop” shops are easily building ads online, attracting more customers, and serving their local market. Don’t wait for your competition to get ahead of you. If you're a construction industry contractor Join LocalConstructionPros.com today.

2. To Network: Every smart business person knows, it's not what you know, it's who you know. Passing out your business card is part of every good meeting, and every business person can tell more than one story about how a chance meeting turned into the big deal. Well, what if you could pass out your business card to thousands, maybe millions, of potential clients and partners? You can, 24 hours a day, inexpensively, and simply, on the WWW.

3. To Create a Favorable Company Image: Internet advertising shows your potential customers that you are a legitimate operation that provides a service to a huge audience. (It’s a proven means of raising a company’s reputation and preference level.) Even if they never see your website, presence on a World Wide Web contractor directory is a testimony of your commitment to your business, your product or service, and your reputation.

4. To Cut Cost: As you well know, the amount of business you attract is a direct relationship to the amount of advertising you do, and advertising on the Internet is the most cost-effective form of advertising available. Cut out the paper, ink, printing, postage, delivery, materials, and laborers, and you’ll get the greatest BANG for your buck. For a fraction of the cost to run a small classified ad in a local paper for ONE MONTH, you can run a "full page", unlimited photos, color display ad to a worldwide audience on the Internet for a FULL YEAR!

Let’s compare Internet advertising to direct mailers.

DIRECT MAIL POSTCARDS
5000 post cards = $375
designer = $400
postage = $1350
time = tons
price = $2125
results = junk mail – in the garbage
INTERNET BROCHURE
no paper cost = 0
no designer needed = 0
no postage needed = 0
time = 15 minutes
price – under $400
results = local and world wide web presence 24/7 - (immeasurable)

5. To Make Business Information Available: The online vendor directory allows you to add text, pictures, short movies, prices, time sensitive promotions, testimonials, locations, phone numbers, and email addresses to your company's brochure to serve your potential customers. Some online vendor directories allow you to add to and change your brochure anytime you need to simply by logging on to your account, going through the steps, and hitting “Update”. ---Try doing that with your magazine, newspaper, or Yellow Pages ad!

6. To Start the Snowball Effect: The Internet is the first truly interactive advertising and PR medium. It allows your customers to become participants in the promotion by allowing them to email a link from your ad to a friend or co-worker. Anyone who understands sales dynamics knows that the more you can get your prospects involved, the better.

7. To Achieve High Accessibility: Your clients spend time at their computers – in fact, many are in front of their PCs right now! With Internet advertising, you’re available for them, 24/7. This means your advertising will be working for you all the time; whenever your clients are ready to buy - even while you sleep. Also, a last minute search for information before buying is only a few clicks away. I don’t think this would work with a TV spot, a billboard, or a week old newspaper ad.

8. To Reach Your Target Market: Who are your clients? It is true that the majority of computer users are folks with above average incomes. People with money have computers and use the Internet to shop for luxury items and service professionals. A marketing and advertising approach that targets high income families is always going to be a major component of any serious ad campaign.

9. To Be Competitive: If your competition is already on the Internet, you need to be there, too. If they are not, you need to get there first, because soon almost everyone will be looking to the Web to find service professionals. Get in the game now.

10. To Help Sell to Existing Customers and Gain Future Referrals: One study found that nine out of ten buyers continue to read the vendor’s online ads and brochures after making their choice/purchase. Internet advertising reassures buyers that they have made a good decision. This increases the odds that they will be happy with their choice, make referrals, and hire you again.

11. To Educate and Develop Prospects: Prospects need to feel fully educated about a company before making a decision to buy or hire, and they prefer to learn about products and service professionals through the convenience of the World Wide Web. Your Internet advertising becomes the knowledgeable salesperson missing from many businesses today. You can create an ad to help educate your prospects, and with descriptions, testimonials, photos, and videos, show them all the benefits of your service.

12. To Help You Close the Sale: Seven out of ten salespeople surveyed said that they refer to their online brochure when closing a sale, because advertising reinforces good decisions and creates the best prospects for future sales. Plus, customers believe online ads save them time and money, and this alone brings them closer to making an informed decision.

13. To Answer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):  Whoever answers the phones in your office can tell you they usually have to answer the same questions over and over again. These are the questions potential customers want to know the answers to before they choose you. Post an updatable FAQ in your vendor directory ad to remove that barrier, save some time, and do more business.

14. To Test Market New Services and Promotions: The advertising and PR requirements of rolling out a new product/service and testing for results are very expensive and time consuming. With a promotions tab in an online directory you can quickly and cheaply create coupons, gain visibility, and benefit from customer response. It’s your crystal ball into where to position your product or service in the marketplace. That’s Amazing.

15. To Reach The Media:  Every kind of business needs the exposure that the media can bring. Their main product is information, and they can get it quicker, cheaper, and easier on-line. ---Digital images, videos, press kits, testimonials, descriptions, and tips and trends articles, can all be made available with a vendor directory advertisement.

16. Internet Advertising works! Millions of manufacturers, retailers, service businesses, and individuals advertise on the web every day…Over and over again…Because it works.

Homeowners are online looking for general contractors to do renovations to their homes. If you're a Residential Construction Contractor, you might want to register with LocalConstructionPros.com today.

Go to www.LocalConstructionPros.com to find local residential construction contractors, home improvement article and videos, as well as unique home decor products. Find home renovation, home remodeling, kitchen and bathroom renovation contractors.