Efficiently managing your online presence and advertising campaigns often requires collaboration among team members.
By following these steps, you can grant admin access to various social media and advertising platforms, ensuring that your team can work together seamlessly to achieve your business objectives.
Remember to choose roles carefully to protect the security of your accounts and data.
Have your PPC ad costs gone up over the past year?
We have seen the rising costs of Google ads prompting many painting companies to reduce their advertising spending. However, this shift can be detrimental, potentially allowing competitors to
dominate the market.
Why?
Because whoever is willing and able to spend the most money to acquire a client will ultimately come out on top.
This concept, emphasized by marketing strategist Dan Kennedy, highlights the importance of structuring the economics of your business to support a robust client acquisition strategy.
In this article, we will explore the key numbers that drive your business’s profitability, delve into the concept of cost to acquire a client (CTA) versus average client value (ACV), and discuss how house painters can increase their ACV to gain a competitive advantage in client acquisition.
Two crucial figures play a significant role in your business’s success: the cost to acquire a client (CTA) and the average client value (ACV). The wider the gap between these two values, the higher your profit margin.
In this economy, it’s essential to shift your focus away from reducing CTA. Instead you should concentrate on increasing the amount of money you make from each client.
For example, let’s say the average exterior house painting job in your area is valued at $5,000. A decent return on marketing ad spend is 5:1.
In this scenario, if your ACV to CTA ratio is 5 to 1 or better, you can afford to spend $1,000 on acquiring a client.
However, what if you could elevate your average client value to $10,000?
This improved ratio would allow you to spend $2,000 to acquire a client.
By strategically structuring your company’s economics, you can afford to spend more money to acquire clients and outshine your competitors.
Let’s again consider the scenario where your average revenue per client is $10,000, while your competitor’s average revenue is $5,000. With an increased ACV, you can allocate $2,000 towards client acquisition, whereas your competitor can only invest $1,000.
This substantial investment disparity positions you to win clients consistently, as you have the financial capability to outspend your competitors.
To maintain a winning edge, it’s crucial to continuously evaluate and enhance your business model.
Ask yourself, “What else can we do to increase the average value we make from a client, enabling us to spend more on client acquisition?”
This question will drive innovation and identify additional opportunities to upsell or cross-sell to existing clients, increasing their lifetime value.
In the realm of online marketing, there are three types of traffic:
The ultimate goal is to convert the traffic you control and the traffic you don’t control into traffic you own.
Traffic you own refers to having access to essential user data, such as email addresses and phone numbers, which allows for direct communication and relationship-building. Once you have traffic you own, you gain greater control over converting prospects into clients.
Explore opportunities to expand your services or offer maintenance plans, such as treating a deck annually after building and painting it. Additionally, leverage your existing client base to upsell complementary services or offer discounts on additional projects, creating a cycle of repeat business.
Some examples of this might be:
If you did the exterior painting for someone, maybe you could give them a deal on the interior, or, maybe you could sell them a power washing package to help the paint last longer.
If you did a complete kitchen makeover, you could then sell them interior painting of all of the rooms around the kitchen to make the whole level look new.
Offer a design package on top of painting to help your clients get a “Designer look”.
By understanding and optimizing the economics of client acquisition, house painters can position themselves for success in an increasingly competitive market. By focusing on increasing average client value, rather than solely reducing costs, painters can afford to invest more in client acquisition, outspending competitors and securing a larger market share.
Continually evaluating and enhancing the business model, along with converting traffic into loyal customers, further solidifies long-term success. Embrace these strategies, unlock your business’s potential, and watch your painting business thrive.
Need help implementing any of the ideas discussed in the article? Let IFTS help!
Call 412.715.6266 or send an email to si@iftsdesign.com to get started.
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.
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.
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
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
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):
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
