It’s not often that I see local online marketing written about in major media these days. It’s even rarer to see it covered from a “real world” perspective.
That’s why Payam Zamani’s recent article in Forbes, “Why Companies Like Groupon, Yelp And ReachLocal Aren’t Dominating The Local Space“ (March 14, 2013) hit close to home. Zamani is Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Reply.com Inc., a marketplace for local online advertisers.
I have written in the past about the relative effectiveness of some local online channels, and the futility of many others. Zamani’s takes the discussion a step further – proposing solutions to the very real marketing problems home improvement companies face online.
Please read his whole article, because it deserves your attention. Please also consider my own thoughts:
To paraphrase Zamani: “Daily deal and directory Web sites don’t offer a meaningful or profitable opportunity for smaller advertisers to build their businesses.”
I couldn’t agree more. There are thousands of online media properties looking for your local ad dollars. But very few will translate into real revenue opportunities for you. These properties make the same pitch to the local dry cleaner as they do the regional replacement windows company. They pitch the pet groomer the same as the sunroom installer. And it’s not working. Why? Because it’s impossible for broad, untargeted campaigns to succeed across all industries.
Their sales guys will dazzle you with tales of all clicks and phone calls you’ll get. But few will tell you how those clicks and calls will convert into leads, appointments and sales for your business. That’s because either 1) they don’t have the data and/or 2) their data won’t support such claims.
Now to quote directly: “The small local advertiser also has major challenges in order to become SEM enabled and profitably marketed on Google or Bing. Think about the complexities of building the database of right keywords, addressing low quality scores and page ranks, investing in website optimization in order to be able to turn expensive clicks into buyers and so on.”
A few years ago, Google wooed local advertisers with the pitch that “Anyone can run effective paid search campaigns!” That’s just not true. Running these campaigns gets more complex month, not less so. To its credit, Google has since realized that as well. That’s because quality scores change. The competitive landscape shifts. New features come and go. All require ongoing research, and perhaps action, by home improvement companies—time-consuming indeed.
That’s a level of effort and commitment most small businesses simply can’t muster, without negatively impacting the rest of their business.
And Finally: “Most small business owners are interested in real opportunities to offer their services. They are not interested in something abstract such as purchasing clicks or display ads.”
And this is where we come full circle. At Keyword Connects, we generate highly qualified leads and appointments specifically for home improvement companies. All the clicks and impressions in the world won’t matter if they fail to translate into leads, phone calls, appointments, demos and ultimately sales. These are the real building blocks home improvement companies need to grow their businesses.
Full disclosure, Zamani’s company generates sales leads for couple of dozen categories, including home improvement. That said, he has indeed put his finger on the key pain points that so many home improvement companies face.
We join with Zamani in calling for a return to business basics: that is, online marketing that really matters.
Homeowner Connections Through Performance Online Advertising
