fbpx

Category: Google

Helping Your Painting Business Rank in the Google 3-Pack

When you search for a local business on Google, the first three results that appear are known as the Google 3-Pack. The 3-Pack (also known as the local pack or snack pack) is displayed with a map that provides the location of each business as well as basic information about each business. The 3-Pack is above normal search results, which makes it a valuable piece of real estate for any local business that wants to reach people who are looking for something in their area.

Let’s talk about helping your painting business rank in the Google 3-pack.

In our experience, a lot of phone calls come from just showing up below the map in Google when someone is searching for a painter.

The best part about this? These calls are coming to you free of charge. So, how do you get more of these free calls?

To rank in the 3-pack, Google looks at 3 things:

1 – How close your business address is to the searcher, or proximity

2 – How prominent your business and brand are online, or prominence

3 – How related your company is what the person is looking for, or relevance

Now, you can’t do much about the first one, so you need to concentrate on the other 2.

Let’s start with prominence.

For this, Google is going to look at how many other websites link to you online.

This isn’t about the quantity of links, but the quality of the links. So, you want to be sure to have links from all of the organizations that you belong to and if possible, from all of the charities that you participate in. These are the types of high-quality backlinks that Google is looking for.

Google is also going to look at a bunch of different online directories/citations and make sure that your name, address and phone number all match what is in your Google Business Profile and on your website.

If you’ve moved locations a few times, you may want to look into a tool like Yext to help you get that all straightened out. We also offer this service at our company.

Now, let’s move onto relevancy.

It used to be that the closer your company name was as seen in your Google Business Profile to the search terms that someone put in, the more likely it was that you would show in the 3-pack. However, companies started to game this system by naming themselves things like “Pittsburgh House Painters” in their Google Profiles. Once Google became aware of this issue, they replaced looking at the business name with looking at your reviews!

So, Google now wants to see detailed reviews about your company, and they will look at the keywords used within the reviews to determine the relevancy to a person’s search term.

For example, if someone in Oklahoma City was looking for someone to paint their living room, Google would probably expect words like “interior painting”, “painters”, and “OKC” to be in the review text.

So, what does this tell you?

You need to get reviews on a regular basis to establish the relevancy that Google wants to see.

Unfortunately, these can’t just be any reviews.

They need to be high-quality reviews that mention words that Google wants to see…which will help you get more free phone calls.

So, how do you accomplish this seemingly impossible task of putting words into people’s heads? 

You’re not a magician.

Well, when you ask for a review via text or email, we have found that it’s good to provide a nice basis for them, which helps avoid writer’s block and allows you to put ideas in their heads…kinda like Inception, but without Leonardo DiCaprio.

As an example, you could send the following email:

“Mrs. Smith – 

We hope that you found our service to be extraordinary.  If that is the case, we would love for you to leave us a review.

To help you get started (and avoid writer’s block), we have found that the most impactful reviews answer these questions:

  • What work did we do for you and where are you located?
  • Was it done well?
  • Why did you pick our company?
  • What was the best thing about working with our company?
  • Would you recommend us to family and friends?

Please click here and it will take you directly to our Google Review Page: [Link]

Thank you for choosing us and we really appreciate you taking the time to leave a review.” 

By asking these questions, you help guide them to use the words and phrases that will make your reviews relevant to most searchers looking for companies like yours. In addition, they will leave reviews that look non-spammy and well thought out.

The other thing about reviews is that you need to get them regularly…and this is for a few reasons.

Reason 1 – Google wants to see recent reviews to help with relevance

Reason 2 – Prospects want to see recent reviews to help them make a decision

In fact, almost 50% of people won’t even consider a review relevant if it was written over one month ago.

So, you’ll need to create a system that helps you get reviews on a regular basis.  We have a whole video about this, which I’ll link to in the description.

As a bonus, you should respond to reviews to help increase your relevancy. In your response, it gives you a chance to mention the place you worked and what the job was. It also allows you to express your gratitude to the person that took the time to leave you a review.

So, in summation, ranking in the 3-pack requires 3 things:

  • Proximity
  • Prominence
  • Relevance

Because you can’t change the first one, be sure to concentrate on the second two to have the best profile possible and get more phone calls than your competition.

If you have any questions about the topic discussed in this article, or if you need help with ranking in the Google 3-pack, contact IFTS at 412-715-6266 or email Stacey Ivol at si@iftsdesign.com.

Local Lead Generation Techniques for House Painting Companies

Quality leads, better customers, less hassle

LEAD GENERATION FOR HOUSE PAINTERS, PART 2

Last time, we talked about generating leads for your painting business using Google Ads and Website Optimization.

Now, let’s talk about 4 more tactics as well as a plan to bring them all together.

LEAD GENERATION TACTIC #3 – SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

60% of all organic clicks go to the organic top 3 search results.

– Business2Community

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of adjusting a website’s architecture and content such that it receives a higher page rank in search engine results pages in response to certain queries. In an ideal world, customers would just type a few keywords related to your business into Google and learn that you provide the best value for your customers’ money.

76% of people using “near me” searches visit a related business within a day.

– Google

In the real world, there is a long list of known factors that go into how high your website and content will rank in search engine results and SEO works to make your business as attractive as possible.

Organic position 1 receives the highest number of standard SERP clicks.

– BrightLocal, 2019

Search engine optimization is a powerful tool.  It helps with attracting more qualified prospects who are ready to buy. If your website is optimized for search engines like Google and Bing, it will be more likely to be seen by potential clients who are conducting online searches for painting and handyman services.

The constant algorithm changes that Google makes are the largest obstacle to maintaining “good” SEO for your site. 

Businesses that rely on search engine optimization for lead generation often find it difficult to keep up with Google’s changes to search ranking numbers.  This dynamic nature of SEO means that many companies prefer to hire outside professionals to maintain their websites.

SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, outbound leads (ex. direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate.

– Search Engine Journal

LEAD GENERATION TACTIC #4 – EMAIL MARKETING

Email is ideal for generating leads since it can be tailored to each individual recipient and it has a low cost.

Email marketing continues to play an important role in any successful lead generation strategy, as it is widely regarded as one of the finest ways to communicate with consumers and prospects. In terms of bringing in new customers, expanding the reach of an existing brand, and converting existing customers, email marketing remains unrivaled.

42% of organizations believe email is one of their most effective lead generation channels.

– Circle Research

Use Dedicated Landing Pages In Your Emails

Each and every email you send should have a distinct purpose. Having a landing page dedicated just to said goal is a great way to keep your readers on the track you’ve set out for them. Every email must include one clear and concise call to action that instructs the recipient on what to do next.

Some example Calls To Action (CTA):

  • Get A Free Quote
  • Schedule Your Free Home Estimate
  • Download Our Moving Checklist
  • Make An Appointment

Companies see a 55% increase in leads when increasing their number of landing pages from 10 to 15.

– HubSpot

By using a landing page, you can make sure that all of your reader’s attention is on what you want them to do. There are no distractions or offers of other products to give them more choices. Just an easy way for the reader to do what you want, which means a higher conversion rate.

For most painting and handyman companies, a landing page will typically have a form to fill out or an appointment scheduler as the main action.

Bring Prospects Back To Your Website Via List Building

Know that most of the people who visit your website will never come back unless you keep in touch with them regularly.

One of the best ways to do this is to get more people to sign up for your email list.

Only 4% of website visitors are ready to buy.

– Marketo

Email subscribers choose to join your list and confirm who they are by clicking on a link (double-opt-in). They are very interested in what you have to offer, so they are more likely to buy from you. Think of them as leads who have already shown interest but need to be won over and cared for.

No matter what kind of business you run or what industry you’re in, if you have a website and want to turn visitors into repeat customers, you need to get them on your email list.

Email lists also protect you from any sort of changes to a platform or account cancellation.  A lot of companies invested millions of dollars getting Facebook followers so they could communicate with their followers for free.  Then, Facebook changed the rules and a company’s post will typically reach 10% maximum of their followers.  If that company wanted to be sure that their followers saw something they posted, they would need to pay for a Facebook ad to do this.

LEAD GENERATION TACTIC #5 – PAID ADVERTISING WITH FACEBOOK

Companies that engage in social selling get 199% better return on investment.

– Awario

You can show ads to people in your area based on their location, age, gender, interests, and a lot more with a social media business account. And social media sites make it easy to tell your followers what they should do.

31% of consumers say they are using social media channels to browse for new items to purchase.

– Aimia

Because ads on Facebook and other social media sites often target specific people based on their demographics or actions, you can use what you know about your customers to reach out to those you think would be more interested.  You can also retarget people that you know are interested in your services.

Facebook accounts for 50% of total social referrals and 64% of total social revenue.

– Business Insider

Facebook Messenger and Lead Generation Ads

Digital marketing makes it possible for local painting businesses to reach their ideal customers in ways we never thought possible. With Facebook Messenger marketing, you can put your ad in people’s inboxes or chat directly with new and potential customers. This works better and costs less than other digital ads.

Local businesses that use Facebook Messenger to promote their business have a huge advantage in being able to reach out to people who are actually interested in their product and live near them.

Facebook added two new features in 2019 to make it easier for your business to market itself. They added lead generation templates right to the Ads Manager to get people to go to a question-and-answer flow in Messenger that is run automatically.

And an appointment booking interface API that can be connected to a business’s calendaring system so that people can see the most up-to-date available appointments.

Messenger marketing is about SO MUCH MORE than just ads and chatbots

When you use Messenger for marketing, you can put an ad in the chat inbox of your ideal customer, where it will be hard to miss. But there’s more…

You can: make interactive stories, give customer service by answering FAQs, customize product or service suggestions, book appointments, send purchase or shipping confirmations, send newsletters and notifications of new blog posts, deliver downloadable content like lead magnets or catalogs, and send event reminders.

LEAD GENERATION TACTIC #6 – REPUTATION MARKETING

The people who work for you or buy from you now trust you enough to do so.

But how do you get new prospects to trust you and your business?

How do you get leads to turn into sales? 

With reviews and testimonials on your website and on other sites like Google, Yelp, Facebook, and review sites that are specific to your industry, like Angi.

Before making a purchase, over 90% of people in the United States look online for reviews and recommendations.

90% of online users trust reviews.

– Google

If a lead visits your website or your business’s online presence before or after the research phase of their buying cycle, they should get a clear and bold message about how great your business is. 

Make sure that NEW reviews and testimonials are easy to find on your website. No one will be impressed by a testimonial from three years ago, and it won’t show prospects what you can do for them now.

44% of consumers will not consider a review to be relevant if it was written more than one month ago.

Power Reviews

You can easily automate the posting of reviews and testimonials on your website with cheap reputation management services that gather reviews and post them where they matter most. Good star ratings and customer reviews have been shown to have a big impact on how consumers decide what to buy.

HOUSE PAINTING LOCAL LEAD GENERATION

A good lead generation strategy includes elements that draw in the best prospects, which are people who have said they need or are interested in your services offered and want to find out more about what you have to offer.

These leads are most likely to turn into customers quickly and easily because they are ready to buy. That’s why your lead generation strategy should avoid spam and general telemarketing that reaches people who might not be interested in your product. Instead, it should focus on building you a list of qualified leads who are willing to pay good money for a service you sell.

When you have a good lead generation strategy, you can use effective activities and a focused approach to get qualified leads that turn into loyal customers.

Your strategy should try to get prospects’ attention, make it easy for them to find your business, and turn prospects into customers.

Your plan for getting leads needs to be as flexible as the people you’re trying to reach. Make and test appealing offers, calls to action, landing pages, and lead generation forms, and then promote them through a variety of channels and platforms.

Find the ones that work and do more of those.

A good lead generation strategy takes planning and consistent work to bring in good leads for your business, but the return on investment (ROI) is unbeatable when compared to traditional and outbound marketing methods.

NEED HELP?

This publication is not a how-to guide. Instead, it is a source of information that will help you make smart choices when making and putting into action a marketing plan to get more leads for your painting business.

There are some business owners who know enough about online marketing to do it on their own. But because the tools, rules, and best practices that make up online marketing today are always changing and growing, others should think about working with professional digital marketers who have experience with local lead generation to make sure their campaigns are effective and bring in the most money.

Talk with IFTS today for more details at 412.715.6266!

Local Lead Generation Techniques for House Painting Companies-Part 1

Quality leads, better customers, less hassle

LEAD GENERATION FOR HOUSE PAINTERS, PART 1

Are you having trouble locating high-quality leads while employing tried-and-true marketing strategies like networking, word-of-mouth, and referrals to gain more customers?

House painters and handyman are some of the most in demand service professionals, but there is a ton of competition in the marketplace. 

How does a prospect know which company to choose?

As a house painting business, you typically offer similar services to your competition, so how do you stand out amongst the crowd?

It’s by showcasing your differentiators with proven marketing techniques!

Ever wonder how a company gets more customers than you consistently even though their finished product is much worse than yours? 

It’s their marketing.

You don’t have to let this happen!

There are time-tested lead generating techniques that draw in the right clients who are prepared to purchase your services on the spot.

EFFECTIVE LEAD GENERATION STRATEGIES

In a market dominated by internet research, it can be hard for a business that just wants to focus on having the best services to come up with good lead generation strategies. With the internet, smartphones, Google, and social media taking over the world, lead generation has become more competitive and complex. 

How businesses like yours found new clients and customers has changed a lot in the last 20 years. If you’re still marketing like it’s 1999, you won’t grow or remain relevant.

But there is a bright side…even in the most competitive markets, you can find ways to get leads with digital marketing strategies. Keep reading to find out how you can start getting new leads for your painting company.

DEFINITION OF A LEAD

A lead is someone who has shown interest in your business’s product or service and given you their contact information. Every business needs to find new customers and clients in order to grow.

The ways to get these new leads have changed, and while a few old-school methods might still work on a small scale, online local lead generation can help any business grow its audience and customer base in ways that have never been seen before.

LET’S TALK ABOUT LEAD GENERATION

Lead generation is the process of turning people in your market who don’t know about your business into leads who are interested in what services you have to offer.

Your lead generation strategy tells you how to get people interested in your business so they can enter your sales pipeline. When you know what your potential customer wants and can connect that to a good offer, you will always get good leads.

WHY DO YOU NEED A LEAD GENERATION PLAN FOR YOUR PAINTING BUSINESS?

As Zig Zigar says, “You are out of business if you don’t have a prospect.”

To grow your company, you need a steady stream of high-quality, sales-ready leads that are ready to get started with the painting process. When potential customers are interested in your business, they are easier and cheaper to sell to in the future because there is already a trust factor involved.

Even if your business is small, you can still have a large customer base if you have a good plan for getting leads.

As people become more and more dependent on the internet, there have been big changes in how they look for, get, and pay for home services.

Buyers can make most of their decisions based on their access to a lot of information online. Once they complete a form on your website or call, they have already done most of the work. Getting a customer’s attention and keeping it throughout the buying cycle has become even harder.

As a painting business, you need to come up with a creative way to get in front of your ideal customer. This will help you build trust and turn prospects into leads.

Lead generation is the most important thing for a business to do that wants to grow. It helps you spread the word about your brand, connect with your users, get sales-ready leads, and, in the end, increase your conversions.

For 65% of businesses, generating traffic and leads is their top marketing challenge.

– HubSpot

HOW TO GENERATE LEADS FOR YOUR COMPANY

Over the years, the way people buy products and services has changed a lot. With the rise of the Internet and an abundance of information online, buyers today are more likely to make decisions on their own, with no need to talk to a salesperson. About two-thirds to ninety percent of the buying process is now done by the buyer before they even talk to the business.

Companies that do well at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at a 33% lower cost.

– InvespCRO

It is now harder than ever to get a customer’s attention and keep it throughout the buying process. 

So, what should you do?

Businesses must have a clear plan to find new ways to connect with customers and get them interested in their services. 

Let’s talk about some ways to do this!

LEAD GENERATION TACTIC #1 – PAID ADVERTISING WITH GOOGLE

Google paid advertising lets you reach potential customers who don’t know about your painting business yet.

A study by Search Engine Land found that 75% of people say paid search ads make it easier for them to find the information they want on a website or search engine. 33% of people click on a paid search ad because it directly answers what they were looking for.

So, how should you approach paid ads?

Well, there are multiple approaches to discuss:

Paid Advertising with Display Ads

Display ads are the ads you see on multiple search engines and pages that are small embeds throughout the page. They usually have an offer, a company logo, and pictures. They can also be a short video. Most of the time, these ads are very specific to the demographics and actions of prospects and buyers.

Display advertising has proven to increase traffic to websites by 300%.

– Visually

These kinds of ads are better for getting people to learn about your business, but there are other paid options that work well, too.

On average, 41% of clicks go to the top 3 paid ads on the search results page.

– Wordstream

Paid Advertising with PPC Search Ads (Pay-Per-Click)

Pay-per-click ads are a cheap way to advertise online because you only have to pay when someone clicks on your ad, which can lead to any website link or even your phone number.

No matter what business you’re in, a very large number of your potential customers are online and using Google or Bing to find information. With Google AdWords PPC ads, you can reach people based on what they are looking for.

PPC visitors are 50% more likely to purchase something than organic visitors.

– Unbounce

If you are ready to invest time in a process of trial and error to fine-tune your chosen key phrases or utilize a PPC management service with bidding experience, you will be able to appear in front of more people who are relevant to your business.

For high commercial intent searches (someone looking to buy a product), paid ads get 65% of all clicks.

– Wordstream

Paid Advertising with Retargeting (Pay-Per-Click)

Retargeting is a clever way to get prospects to take action. With retargeting, you can find your prospects wherever they are and make sure that they see your business over and over again with images, videos and text ads.

Retargeting helps you get more leads from people that have visited your site, watched your videos, called you or clicked on your ads.

Lead generation outsourcing is 43% more efficient than in-house generating because of their expertise.

– Fearless Competitor

Paid Advertising with Google Local Service Ads (Pay-Per-Click)

Local Services ads help you connect with people who search on Google for the services you offer. 

Customers in your area will see your ads, and you only pay if a customer contacts you directly through an ad. As a Google Guaranteed provider, you gain the trust of new customers and your ads stand out on Google’s search results pages.

Local Service Ads by Google receive 13.8% of local search engine results page clicks.

– BrightLocal

Getting started with Google Local Service Ads is really easy.  It only takes 3 steps:

  1. Sign up on Google as a local service provider
  2. Create a budget based on the number of leads that you want to get
  3. Turn on the ads, then pay only if someone contacts you via the ad

LEAD GENERATION TACTIC #2 – OPTIMIZE YOUR PAINTING BUSINESS WEBSITE

You need a high-quality website and landing pages if you want quality leads.

Website optimization, often lumped in with search engine optimization (SEO), is the process of making a website work well for its users, search engines, and the business…which results in more leads and a better UI experience.

A well-optimized website is a crucial component of any successful lead generation strategy. Your website will sell your business with the SEO already in place. After all, the goal of all your other lead generation strategies is to convert random visitors to your website into paying clients.

According to Marketo, only 4% of people who visit a website are in a purchasing mindset. 

While it sounds like a terrible stat, keep in mind that it only indicates the traffic that is heading for the exit step of your sales funnel. The other 96% are still in the “wait and see” phase, giving you plenty of time to hone your conversion techniques.

Make it obvious on your website where you want visitors to go and what you want them to do when they get there.

Be sure to watch for Part 2 of this blog series, which covers 4 more lead generation tactics for painters and a plan to bring them together!