Contractors: Be Found - Internet Usage at Work is Up!
Friday, December 14, 2007
More and more of your potential clients are spending time online while they're at work. Almost a full workday, 7.8 hours per week, in fact. That comes out to 31 hours per 4-week month. It's increased 70% since 2001. *What Does this All Mean for Your Contracting Business?
A lot.
More and more people are searching for what they want online, and they're doing it while they are on the job.
Will they find your services while they are searching? They may be searching for a remodeler, plumber, landscaper, or architect by using any of the search engines. They might click on a Pay-per-Click ad but most look at the "natural" or "organic" search results.
How do you show up in the natural or organic search results? The search engines must consider you an "authority" that can provide the searcher with what they're looking for.
How Can ConstructionDeal.com Help My Company Show Up Naturally?
This brings us to a great advantage of listing your company in the ConstructionDeal.com Contractor Directory. Not only will our thousands of daily visitors be able to view your business on our Directory, your listing becomes part of what the popular search engines are looking for. For example, Google and Yahoo! both search our website every day and will discover your business name in our Directory. Even if you have your own website, it's not as popular or as heavily indexed as our site. If you look at your Directory listing, you'll see that we have put your business name within the URL address -- right after our website address. And it looks something like this:
www.ConstructionDeal.com/ company/XYZ_Contractor
Having your business name listed as part of our website gives your company more power when it comes to showing up in the major search engines. It's possible that, after a while, people may be searching online for your business and find your ConstructionDeal.com Contractor Directory listing before they find your own website. It's important to make sure you include lots of potent "keywords" in your company details page that describes what you do.
As more people are utilizing the Internet to find what they need, you want to do everything possible to make sure they can find your business.
Also, don't forget about our Priority Directory Listing Plan -- this puts your company's Business Card at the very top of the page. Very few search three or four pages down into ANY directory so you can make sure your listing gets seen first... this means more calls directly to you and more work. All for only $199 for six months.
* Source - eMarketer
Labels: Directory, Small Business Marketing
Contractor Marketing - Branding: What's In a Name?
Monday, December 10, 2007
What is the name of your company? The name of your business is extremely important, but many contractors don't take advantage of branding their company. By branding, I'm talking about name recognition. Branding is getting the name of your business on everyone's lips. Your company name should be big, bold, and prominent on everything you might put it on: your yard signs, magnetic truck signs, flyers, yellow pages ad, or your radio commercials.Check out this example (right) - I know what the company does, I can easily make out their phone number, but... what is their business name?
If your business name is branded on your materials, people have a better chance of remembering you the next time they need your services. Open up your yellow pages phone book and look up the services you provide. Notice all the ads in there where companies have strong headlines that say, "Save Money!", "7 Days! 24-Hour Service!", or "No Jobs Too Large or Too Small!" Notice most of them don't have their company name as large as their Benefits or Features headlines. You can easily see the phone numbers, but what are the odds their previous customers will be able to find them again? Or will they be enticed to call another service instead?
My HVAC company has a catchy name - NRG - and it's emblazoned on my thermostat, a refrigerator magnet, and on the outside of my air conditioner. I get a personalized holiday card from them every year. I get a maintenance reminder flyer every 6 months. Guess which name pops into my head every time I need those services?
No matter if you're a business with just one person or you've got 100 employees to cover a whole state, you need to make sure your customers remember your name. It's how you get referrals and repeat business which is the life blood of every company. You'd be amazed to see that a few contractors register with ConstructionDeal.com and list their "Company Name" as "None" when they register with us. Guess how much repeat business or referrals they would get if we let them be listed in our Directory with the business name "None".
Exactly.
