When people need water or fire damage restored, they need a professional service that is reliable and cost-competitive right away. It’s just a matter of letting people know where your business is located, your prices, and what scope of restoration services you offer so they can easily get in touch with you and hire you.
In our digital age of laptops and smartphones, online marketing is the best way to get an emergency restoration service launched and maintained in the competitive business world. If a rival company is already investing money into this venue, there is probably a reason – more than one, in fact: raising public awareness, generating new leads, and bringing in new customers. In short, online marketing is very profitable. More than that, it is becoming a necessity in today’s marketplace, outstripping old-style print advertisements like yellow pages.
Marketing indicators show more people (especially, the upcoming cell-phone generation) are doing business through the internet, including increased searching for services on mobile devices, such as smartphones, while in the process of their daily work and schooling. An investment in online marketing increases your chances of drawing attention to your service when the customer needs you.
Two very powerful online marketing channels that cleaning & emergency restoration specialists (or any other professionals) should invest in are our social media referral and search engines. A social media platform like Facebook is the new “word-of-mouth” advertisement.
For example, friends will ask their online friends for the best service to pump out a flooded basement. Then, there are the search engines, like Bing or Google, which are still growing in popularity as reliable information sources. Utilizing every source of internet marketing is in your best interest.
Here are a few strategies that can help you get more leads & customers increasing your online revenue & profits quickly:
1. Pay Per Click (PPC) Google
PPC advertisement has proven to be an effective way to market restoration services and so has become very popular.
Highly targeted website traffic – When a restoration professional creates a variety of ads using specific keywords, the quantity of website traffic generated tends to increase. Also, advertisements timed to run for a specific geographic location at specific times, as at peak traffic times, is effective: for example, 5-7 pm, Atlanta GA.
Speed to Market – PPC ads are in many ways more reliable than SEO in attracting a targeted customer base and leading them to conversion.
Fast results – A restoration specialist wants fast response time. A PPC gives nearly instant results. Creating your own Adwords account is relatively easy. If you already have a well-developed website, then run it on Google and watch your traffic increase; remember, every hit is a potential customer.
Measurable – Most anything stemming from a PPC is measurable: profits, views, visits, clicks, costs, and more. PPC ads are all about objective targets. You already know how much you have in the budget and whether you are profiting or losing even before setting up your first PPC. All the key performance indicators and reports show very important information pertaining to your goals.
Less dependence on SEO – Nothing can replace the profitable impact of a good SEO campaign, which is extremely important for your long-term success in any professional service. But the SEO algorithms of ranking change periodically. As a result, your company can get bumped from the top of the list on a search results page down to page 5 without warning. However, you have less need to worry about these frequent alterations with a good PPC campaign.
2. Pay Per Click Yahoo/Bing
The Yahoo/Bing Network may have a few extra advantages Adwords does not.
Advantages not found in Adwords – In the robust search traffic of Adwords, a professional restoration service would have to pay a premium to gain access to the click-through rates for local searches. Some ads on Yahoo Bing Network (YBN) were significantly lower than Adwords, as much as 37% to 77% of their rival – compared to several vertical industries.
There are 36 percent fewer active search marketers on YBN to compete against than the other top search engines. YBN has a 76 to 90 percent lower cost PPC for the initial Search Engine Results Page ads, lower than the average of their competitor’s network. AdGooroo studied 6 verticals and with 25,000 paid search advertisers receiving at least one top rank SERP ad results on YBN; they contrasted the 39,000 advertisers with top results on Adwords for the quarter.
What this means for your Ad campaigns – Google offers better click-through rates and remarkable impressions. YBN has a lower cost per click (CPC), cost per impression (CPM), and less competition for ad ranking. As a restoration professional, you make the choice for which search engine works best for your ad campaign: Google or YBN. This maximizes your profit to cost ratio as you advertise which allows a greater chance to reach more potential customers.
3. Facebook PPC
If handled well advertising your service on Facebook can be a valuable advertising resource – emphasis on “if handled well”- because it is one of the leading social media platforms.
Familiarize yourself with FB ad guidelines – If you align with their rules, you can be assured that a number of potential customers will see your ads on Facebook, which will be a plus for your marketing campaign. The rules include no get-rich-quick schemes, no audios that play automatically, and the ads shouldn’t be repetitive. Advertising guidelines on Facebook are very strict, and violations will likely be rejected promptly.
Avoid “annoying” texts – Facebook has a feature that their competition does not; users can close any ad by clicking a grey box located in the top right-hand corner of the ad. When this happens, FB prompts the user for reasons why they closed it. If an ad is closed too many times, it is pulled altogether. Obviously, you want to be seen as a reputable emergency restoration professional, not pushy or offensive. Choose your text carefully or the ad may last only a few days – or a few hours which is worse.
Choose your audience – When advertising, you can be as selective as you like of your target audience. Obviously, you want to appeal to an audience that lives within your service area, so geographic proximity is an important factor. If your office is in Boston, you’re not likely to draw in a Texas customer base. Your preferred audience profile might include other common criteria, such as age range, education level, marital status, political affiliation, or others. You can be very selective about who sees your advertisement.
4. Responsive Website
A “Responsive” website comes highly recommended because it carries a great many advantages.
Super flexible – A flexible website design should reflect the service it represents, letting content fill in space while being consistent with its initial look. The fluidity of a “responsive” web design allows content to move freely across all screen resolutions and devices, allowing both images and grids to adapt to the space allowed by the device.
Giving viewers a great experience – A Responsive design allows your visitors (potential customers) a first-class experience with no concern for the type of device they are using whether it’s a smartphone, smart TV, laptop, or tablet. Whoever the viewer is – an office professional who is searching for a water damage restoration service, or a college student searching late at night – each has a common need: accessing your site at their convenient time on any device. No matter which device they choose, with this kind of site, scrolling and resizing should never be an issue.
You only need one site – Even for a home or business restoration specialist serving only local customers, having one website that responds to the needs of a mobile device is better than paying someone to develop and maintain two sites. For this reason, having one website tends to be more conducive to a stronger profit margin.
Google recommends a responsive website – When someone with a 67 percent market share makes a recommendation on websites or internet marketing, it would be smart to listen to them. They state that a responsive website is one of the industry’s best practices, and it is their recommended mobile configuration. The design uses only one URL, and the HTML coding is the same no matter what device is used, which makes it more efficient for Google to organize the content of the ad.
5. Being Mobile-Friendly
Mobile devices are quickly becoming a tool of common use too many consumers, so as a serious restoration professional, you must be sure your website is compatible with these devices. This is another step to help you build a litany of customers who may use you or refer your service to someone.
Mobile users want a “smooth” experience on your website – According to reports, smartphones prefer sites that offer a smooth experience, using a format compatible with their device. If problems arise while browsing your website, 67% of them never return to that page. Nobody wants to see a string of incoherent symbols on their hand-held device when they are in need of a service. You have to make sure they receive readable and clean text and images.
Time has more value than before – The cliché “time is money” is true even in the digital age. The average visitor has a very short attention span, so your website must be designed to offer a lot of information in a short time if you want them to become a new customer. Your business has a better chance to grow if your pages and content are mobile-friendly.
Gain the competitive edge before someone else does – Any competing restoration service with a mobile-friendly site already has that advantage, so you need to get to work if you want to stay in the market. One survey showed sixty-eight companies out of 200 (1 out of 3) do not have a website compatible with mobiles although the numbers may be different for industries that are more internet progressive. To gain a better perspective of your competitive landscape, visit your competitions’ websites.
6. SEO Helps Get You Noticed
Having a user-friendly website is very important. However, search engine optimization (SEO) will help get your restoration company noticed on the internet. If you’re not on page one of a Google search engine result page (SERP), you are in danger of getting lost in the crowd.
Make your website user-friendly – SEO is about more than just optimizing websites for search engine algorithms. It’s just as important – perhaps, more so – to make sites focus on improving the user’s experience. A clean, uncluttered website encourages visitors (potential customers) to stay on your site a little longer, which improves the bounce rate and page views.
If you can make your viewers happy, then the search engines will prefer your site. Keeping your content fresh and vital with interesting articles and sales pages will improve the viewer’s experience and encourage them to view it longer. Search engines are designed to give preferred ranking to websites that seem to be user-friendly. So, you are more likely to be on page one when someone searches for local “water damage restoration.”
Bring me the customers – It is important to understand the primary reason to have a website is to gain an advantage over your competition who do not have a site. Your chances for attracting consumers or insurance companies to your service increase with an SEO website.
Better conversion rate – Websites that have undergone SEO are easier to find, more pleasant to read, will load faster, and will tend to be mobile-friendly. These sites tend to attract return visitors.
Building your company – Building brand awareness for your service is one of the primary benefits offered by a higher ranking on the SERP. Competitors that don’t invest in a strong web presence are not as likely to be trusted by customers; therefore, they will not rank well enough to be on the first page of a search results list. If you want to build greater public awareness of your business, it is in your best interest to invest in a strong SEO to gain a high ranking. Search engines can play a major role in making or breaking your identity.
If you want to increase online revenue & profits and keep ahead of the competition, contact us at 770-872-8115 today!
