Website

Yesterday I spoke about the primary goal of any contractor website…sales. Today, I am going to start helping you piece together the components of what makes that happen.

I am going to start with the 10,000 foot view…brand

Contractors are not unlike real estate agents or lawyers in that most try to promote their names as a brand, hell, even I do it. Doing this kills two birds with one stone (which is why the smart ones do it ) because you don’t have to manage both a corporate brand and an individual brand.

Branding is easy to understand, but a pain in the ass to execute on. I mean think about it, Coke spends $5 million a day to make sure you remember their name, logo and image. So, don’t feel bad if everyone in your town doesn’t know who you are or what your website address is. This is why I want you to use…

Your USP as a first line of defense

A lot of contractors do what you do in your area, and many may have websites that look better than yours. What you want your USP to do is tie in your offline marketing with your online presence. That way, when someone finds your site either by accident or by looking for you on purpose, they will KNOW they have the right contractor simply by remembering your tagline.

But USP’s are tough, and I honestly, I hate working on them because I can never be as close to the business as you are. I will try to help, but you really have to be the one that says, ‘yeah, that’s it, let’s go with that one’. In fact, I have spent a few hours kicking around ideas with someone only to walk away with nothing. Meanwhile, a couple of hours later I get a phone call from the client who had his or her “eureka” moment while standing in line at the supermarket. That’s the trick with USP’s, you can’t manufacture them, they are born from the DNA inside your company.

So start with this first

So, your homework assignment over the long weekend is going to be to come up with a solid USP if you don’t already have one. If you do have one, but think it could use some tweaking, do that. Then next week I am going to talk about tying your USP with your logo to really create a kick-ass first impression for 1st time visitors to your site.

So, have a great 4th of July weekend, be safe, and see you next week!