Hook Better Leads: Home Service + Roofing Marketing

When I was just starting out - I walked around Uptown Minneapolis with flyers I designed, I traded services for a spot in a local magazine, I asked on my personal facebook “who needs a website?” I did free work for local non-profit organizations. Be SCRAPPY. Combine... be creative, and don’t just take expert advice, think critically. Local marketing is more of a combination lock than a key lock or a door you can brute force open. 

Posts on Google My Business
Truck Wraps
Yard Signs
Event Marketing - attending festivals, contents, seasonal events, creating events, and sponsoring events.
Referral Systems (calendar reminders to yourself, documented 10% agreements with ‘competitors’, rewarding adjacent providers, BNI and similar) 
Facebook + Instagram - regular posting + talking head videos  (are you their local expert?), tagging referral partners. Don’t underestimate asking for business on your personal social pages.
Testimonial Videos 
A Brand Video… storytelling 1-2 minutes
REVIEWS on Facebook and Google My Business
Linkedin - being the local expert and engaging people. 
Linkedin - reaching out to ideal prospects and providing value.
A big-ass sign on the front of your building
Radio spots
Billboard
Cold calling
Letter campaign or direct mail 
Speaking at organizations, and events.
P.R. / Doing something newsworthy / connecting with local media production teams and personalities. 
Utilizing Influencers
Flyers, business cards, spread it to the people that would be your customers. Where do they hang out, who owns their attention?

 (Influencers + Events + Social Media + Referral Systems = Magic?)

In one minute Tell me about Hover, and how you started with the company

• HOVER transforms smartphone photos of any property into an accurate, interactive 3D model
• Contractors and insurance carriers use us to drive efficiencies, reduce costs, and min closing and/or cycle times 

What are the things that should matter most to roofers regarding estimation?

• Need to think about it from two different perspectives: Sales and Production
• Accuracy
  • Accurate quoting by sales reps at all experience levels
  • On the production side, making sure measurements are accurate to reduce material costs and preserve profit margins
• Errors: eliminating human error & mistakes that come from paper-based systems or point solutions that are disconnected and don’t talk to each other
• Options: think about providing options (i.e. good, better, best) when you are providing your proposal. People like options. And please call out *most popular” where appropriate. Make it easy for people to make a decision. 

What have you seen are the benefits to Onsite vs. Aerial estimation tools?

• In general, proximity to the building -  big impact on the level of accuracy. 
• The fidelity of your captures - accuracy to 1” vs. rounding up to the nearest foot
• Detailed wall measurements - becomes challenging from high altitudes
• Soffit depth. 
  • Something important when you are buying ice and water barrier.  
  • Impossible to do with aerial measurements
• HOVER engaged Haag Engineering to conduct an independent study to determine the accuracy of roof measurements obtained using the HOVER mobile app along with two aerial providers.

 |    HOVER |    AERIAL | Improvement
Variance from Haag measurements |    2.6% |    3.4% |    23%
Failure rate |    0% |    8% |    800%
% roofs that required additional measurements to complete |    0% |    6% |    600%

What are the benefits of Aerial like Eagleview?

• Eagleview is one vendor who provides this capability, but there are others
  • Skymeasure (CoreLogic), Nearmap
• Order ahead (~2 days)
• Roof only measurements & pitch (for their walls, you often get walls light)
• Measurements only (limited 3D model capabilities in the mobile app, and non-existent on their web app)

What other tools should people check out?

• Tech stack ecosystem: CRM, video conferencing, appointment scheduling and integrations 
• CRM: Job Nimbus, Acculynx
• Video: Zoom, Skype
• Appt Scheduling: Calendly
• Integration: Zapier

How to get the most out of Hover / little known tips?

• Reach out to us. 
• Our approach is extremely consultative
• We enabled hundred of contractors to move to a completely digital and remote engagement model during Covid-19
• And use the 3D model to drive incredible customer experiences. This is an amazing opportunity for contractors to help homeowners understand their estimates and see their new roof, siding, and windows with real products on their homes.

We talked about whether contractors should be on Linkedin, what kind of content to publish, and getting more engagement there. 

The Linkedin in Algorithm is favorable for folks that want to post about their business – vs. Facebook. Consider joining and checking out what kinds of audiences you can connect with on there. 5% or less of people post – so visibility is a lot easier! We share some tips for getting higher in the Linkedin Algorithm, and connecting with folks. 

What’s changed in your world right now? How’s everything going? 

What are your favorite things to do in a sales call to help move the process along and get trust?

From your perspective what are your favorite digital tools for selling well?

How does mindset play a role in your ability to be affective?

What do you think will change as we enter the second half of 2020 and into 2021?

How do you keep your people and your team motivated when there’s setbacks?

Local Search / Maps

Medical / corona related shakeups

Thin Content is losing (not unusual)

It takes a while to really analyze this… 3 days ago it just finished rolling out. 

Also shifts in general: 

Look at month over month data - and look what pages lost out

Identify how that might represent algorithmic shifts

Apply what you learn from the losers - improve upon it and spread the love

Post pandemic digital re-think

PHYSICAL ONLY = WEAKNESS I need my systems in place for getting leads without physical stuff

ECOM WINS - Obviously eCommerce boomed and retail suffered, I’d say 30-50% of those ppl stick w new options they found (because convenience)

IS IT HARDER NOW? Love this quote from Steve Toth of https://seonotebook.com/ “A lot of people think #SEO is getting harder because of how much Google has advanced. When really there are two main reasons: an increasingly cluttered SERP with lower CTRs and the fact that more and more people are producing amazing content (especially on established sites).

The moral: build links or you will have no chance 1-2 years from now.” 

1. The Brute - Home Advisor, Yelp, Houzz etc.
2. The Bloat - Big agency bullshit that’s focused on warm & fuzzies not results.
3. The Creep - Email Spam SEO Companies
4. The Bumbler – Your neighbors cousins brother who knows a little SEO, you probably 
5. The Hunter  - Linkedin Spammer, who looks like they might be legit. Spend 2k to find out, & regret it. 
6. The Spitter - “Your Google listing is broken” phone spammers

3 Surges in Home Improvement + How They Affect Lead Generation

1. SALES - People are seeing results from Video Sales Consultations + even saving time.
2. EVENTS / VIDEO  - Home tours, traditionally a huge source of leads for remodelers and home builders are being canceled. Video tours with social push (organic + paid) is huge. 
3. AFTER - Post-COVID pent up demand. Projects on Houzz… Say if / when you’re open for business. (2-3 posts a wk on IG, not a bad call for plumbing/hvac/electricians) Precautions. Bar on the top of the site

According to SparkToro – SEO’s might use SparkToro’s data to “SparkToro can help you find exactly those sources that reach the link-likely, amplification-primed groups you need to grow visibility, rankings, and traffic.”

Audience Intelligence tools 

• Where they spend time online
• Listen to 
• Watch 
• Talk about

The problem with surveys – hard to get data.

• Selection bias when you’re trying to follow

What does the tool claim to do?

• Follows billions of social accounts and makes it easy to distill data / interest from those profiles at scale. 
• Get insights on competitors website visitors. 
• Build a list of websites to get on, podcasts to get on etc… \

Based on these claims I wanted to use it and find what construction companies are watching and listening to most if I can.