Don’t feel bad if your home improvement business has not yet taken full advantage of digital marketing. We agree with the pundits and other professionals (but seldom the politicians). Failure to leverage digital marketing may eventually lead to the failure of your business. However, not only is it not too late to ramp up a digital marketing program, the timing may never be better.
Digital marketing has passed puberty and come of age. Congratulations, looking before leaping has saved you and your business a lot of headaches caused by the confusion of constant changes in the concept. The dust is beginning to settle, the road ahead is more visible, and a successful plan can be more well-defined.
Sometimes its hard to see the way clearly.
The Dust Is Beginning to Settle
The last decade or so has been crazy when it comes to digital marketing. It has been all about one thing: lead generation. How to best accomplish that successfully is what has stirred up all the dust. Just when we had gotten used to one thing being THE MOST IMPORTANT, it had morphed into another. It was like the Transformers and the Avengers on digital steroids.
Many people – not just you – were confused about SEO and SEM, keywords, Pay-per-click, click-through rates, organic marketing, reach, big data, and analytics. Then along came social media, instant messaging, texting, apps, and mobile optimization. That last one sounds like your pickup needs a tune-up.
I can see clearly now.
The Road Ahead Is More Visible
We have a better vision now of where this is all going and the best way to get there. Just like the Broncos won the Super Bowl by having a plan that envisioned how to get down the field to the end zone, home improvement businesses can feel more confident about the right digital lead generation plan.
A Smart Insights survey in January indicated that the top-three marketing activities with the most marketing impact for 2016 are expected to be marketing automation, content marketing, and big data. There was a tie for fourth place between mobile marketing and conversion rate optimization. Forty percent of businesses surveyed said that they are “making solid progress in integrating digital and traditional marketing.” Only 17% claimed to be fully integrated. There lies the opportunity for 2016.
The best time to start is now.
A Successful Plan Can Be More Well-defined
Although opinions are like belly buttons (everyone has one), there is some general agreement among those that have informed opinions on the subject.
- Content is still king. Informed, insightful, and illuminating content sits on the throne of digital marketing. People are looking for information. Successful digital marketing depends primarily on giving people what they are looking for. Long live the king! According to HubSpot, “Content marketing … generates three times as many leads as traditional outbound marketing, but costs 62% less.”
- SEO is the weapon of choice. Locally-owned businesses need to become masters of local search engine optimization. Optimized local digital marketing, regardless of where it is placed, points potential customers precisely to your place of business.
- Mobile marketing is a game-changer. “Without an optimized digital presence on mobile devices, your overall marketing efforts will never reach their true potential.” The statistics about mobile device usage for credibility and lead generation are astounding (see the link).
Home improvement business lead generation does not have to be complicated. Keyword Connects is happy to share our knowledge base with you because we know that we can help your business grow. Take a minute or two and learn how Keyword Connects works.
