It doesn’t matter if you’re large contractor or small with a huge marketing budget or shallow pockets, you need to prove your ability in your trade through your marketing message. You need to be able to educate your prospects on your product or service offerings, and why you are the clear choice. If your website doesn’t deliver a clear customer focused message then you will have a hard time moving prospects through the sales funnel.
I hope you’re the best painter, kitchen remodeler or window installer in your area, and for your good work I hope you have been able to develop a referral list a mile long. But what about the people who don’t know who you are? Think about it, how many times does someone remodel their kitchen or get windows installed? So if you’re not able to effectively communicate through the content on your website that you are the best at what you do then what’s the point to having a site in the first place?
Many contractors tell me their website is an online brochure. First of all, in 2010 your website better be a lead generation tool and if you’re too lazy or don’t have the knowledge you need to crank up your website then hire someone to do it for you…and I don’t mean your brother-in-law. The Web in 2010 is a place where real commerce is happening every day.
The best way to create the content for your website is to write it as if you’re talking to one person over a cup of coffee or a beer. Developing a one-on-one style to your content to communicate the benefits of using your contracting business will help you book more jobs because:
- People want to do business with people they like, not big, faceless companies
- People like and trust people who respect them, their time and their intelligence
- People are more likely to like and trust someone who is able to communicate effectively
Your website should convey your company’s message to prospects and customers by talking to them in a tone that’s comfortable for them to understand. Since this is where your relationship begins, make sure your message is inviting and promotes further follow-up with a clearly defined next step.
2 responses to “Contractor Website Tip: Develop Your Content to Help Generate Leads”
I agree. Today’s websites are more of a handshake and the beginning of online conversations or extensions of conversations that started via Twitter or Facebook. Websites need to be more dynamic with fresh content. The days of the static brochure websites are dead. Funny, I just did a blog post yesterday about the changes I am making to my website. My site is just a few years old but the explosion of social media is changing the way sites need to work. One of my criteria is that the copy needs to be more conversational as you suggested.
As far as changing the way sites interact, I couldn’t agree more. A year ago you would kill for natural organic traffic from Google, now it doesn’t matter. There are so many other places to drive growth. Thanks for stopping by David.