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Google Forces Site Owners to Buy SSL Certificates Starting July 2018

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Google has announced it will flag all sites that are not encrypted internet by the end of 2017. The words “Not Secure” will in the URL bar, if you don’t purchase and install an SSL Certificate. See the attached photo.

SSL Certificate 2018

Does this apply to you?

It applies if:

  1. Your site has a contact form, search bar login or contact form. That’s nearly every site.
  2. Your website is on HTTP://

If your site has both these conditions, an SSL certificate needs to be purchased and installed. Call Full Orbit Web and Marketing if you have questions or want assistance.

 

What benefits does the SSL Certificate provide?

Here are two great reasons to have SSL Certificates:

1. Protects Information from Hackers

When info is sent from computer to computer by email it is vulnerable to hacking. It’s possible for card numbers, usernames and passwords to be seen in unencrypted emails. That’s why financial institutions and online stores are already using SSL Certificates. With the SSL certificate the info in your messages is unreadable or encrypted until it arrives at its destination computer. So more computers with SSL certificates will cut down on information that can be intercepted by hackers.

2. Creates Trust in Your Website and Brand

Customers seeing the SSL Certificate will have greater confidence in interacting with your website. It also becomes an indicator of how up-to-date the website and the company is.

What does SSL Certificate stand for?

Good question.

The initials SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and means the computer and the server are connected by a secure connection and information can be sent safely. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private.

You can tell if a site has a secure connection because the letters on the url will say “https” instead of “http”. Most online shoppers will avoid a website that is unsecured or lacks the SSL certificate.

SSL Certificate has following information:

  • A domain name, server name, owner’s name and location
  • Serial number and expiration date
  • Copy of the certificate holder’s public key
  • Digital Signature of the certificate-issuing authority

How do I get an SSL Certificate?

You’ll buy the SSL Certificate from your hosting company. Don’t try to buy it from one hosting company and use it on another. With some hosts the process of adding the SSL will be very easy. You’ll select from 3 options, pay and they’ll install it for you. After a couple of days, you can check for “https” in front of your domain to make sure its in place.

With other hosts, there will be more decisions to make. They may ask you to buy an SSL Certificate and an IP Address. You may also need to manually install the SSL Certificate(s).

Feel free to get in touch if you need help with the process.

SSL CertificateFull Orbit Web and Marketing is a well known and respected web firm in the San Francisco East Bay. We specialize in web programming, business web design and business marketing for independent businesses with an emphasis on high end residential contractors.

How to Stop Resisting Marketing

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Contractor MarketingI’ve noticed many residential contractors resist marketing. Rather than just telling you NOT to resist marketing, I’ve been working on identifying the cause and the solution. Of course, contractors aren’t alone in disliking or resisting marketing but there are some factors that are unique to the profession.

Why Contractors Resist Marketing

One factor is that many contractors spend a lot of time on a job site away from computers and thus are less comfortable with computers and the web. That’s why contractors are less likely to have a website or have an out-of-date website.

Another factor is that contracting is a complex profession. One doesn’t just need to know how to build things — contractors also need to know about building materials, personnel, design, budgeting, bookkeeping, proposals and client relationships. Thus contractors are juggling a lot and time strapped.

I think these are the factors that cause contractors to resist marketing. Different ones apply to different individuals: 

Time – Days are full and time is spent on the construction site.

Shame or Embarrassment – about lack of marketing knowledge and the web in particular.

Worry or Fear – about be taken advantage of or buying something unneeded.

Doubt or Confusion – Uncertainty what kinds of marketing to invest in or if it’ll work, or if one thing might be better than another or who to hire, etc.

Dislike – There are a lot of examples of unpleasant marketing in our lives. That includes cold callers, ads on YouTube, political campaign ads, etc.

Money – If your business is young or you lost money in the recession or you are stuck doing small projects, then money may be an issue.

 

In some of the business circle, these are called limiting beliefs. Let’s just call these these negative beliefs. Negative beliefs about marketing are holding you back.

How you can overcome these negative beliefs:

Time – Your days are full and spent on the construction site. If your business growth depended on it, could you carve out 1-2 hours a week to start a new marketing project. Maybe Friday afternoon 3-5 pm. Or is their an individual who knows your business you could delegate the website set up to. I share some other ideas here: How Time-Crunched Contractors Find Marketing Time.

Shame / Confusion / Worry / Fear – You feel you lack marketing knowledge. If that’s the case, write down all your questions and areas of doubt. Who or what resources do you trust to answer these questions? Before you spend money, do some reading or speak to a colleague from NARI or the Chamber of Commerce. If it’s the web that’s holding you back, speak to the teens or young adults in your world. You may want to talk to a marketing coach or business coach.

Dislike – Not all marketing is annoying or bad. It’s the annoying marketing that stands out. You want to look for examples that are positive. Maybe Superbowl ads, informative websites, etc. (Help me out people!)

Money – Money might be an issue if your business is young or you lost money in the recession or you are stuck doing small projects. Start with marketing that costs little money.  Here’s some ideas of cost and where to start: Zero Marketing? How to go from Zero to Smart Marketing. Also, Marketing is an investment in the growth of your company and your future; keep that in mind when saving or allotting resources. Finally, be sure to calculate marketing in as part of your overhead.

 

How Marketing Could Make a Difference to Your Business and Your Life 

How would it be if you had all the clients you needed? How would it be if you had clients who could easily afford your work or larger projects? How would it be if you had more time for yourself and your family?

You don’t have to be stuck taking every project that comes your way. With more leads you could pick your projects more. With more leads you could take better projects and build a good looking portfolio which would attract more and more stellar projects to you.

You could also have more time with yourself and your family. It’s essential you make time to work out, get outside or take some breaks during the year to maintain your health and vitality. All work and no play is no fun!

Picture your best client now…or your dream client. Now picture a bunch more of them. Picture yourself with time off. Maybe you are at a sporting or music event. Maybe you are doing something recreational outdoors. Maybe you are spending the whole day with your loved one(s)!

Hold that picture! When you have a positive picture in your mind of how marketing can have an impact on your business growth — your energy increases and it’s easier to tackle difficult tasks that aren’t your bailiwick.

Want to know more? Here some more short articles to help you start marketing your residential contracting business.

5 Important Strategies for Home Buiders

4 Key Features of General Contractors Websites

One Strategy that will Make You a Multi-Million Dollar Contractor

 

Karen NierlichI’m Karen and I’m co-owner of Full Orbit Web and Marketing at 510-527-9920. Feel free to reach out if you have a question about marketing or the web. I get along well with contractors and have had the privilege of working with contractors all over the country for the last 8 years. Please check out our portfolio for some examples. Go here to learn more about our work with contractors. Stop losing jobs because you don’t have a website and adding projects because prospects can see how stellar your past projects are!

Zero Marketing? How to take your Marketing from Zero to Smart

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Zero MarketingZero Marketing? Sometimes general contractors tell me they have zero marketing. I think there is a feeling of overwhelm that comes from being in business for several years and not having any marketing in place. If I were in your shoes, this is how I’d get started.

I understand that contractors have limited time. You are often on the job site and when you are at your desk there are calls to make, orders to place…

I’m also assuming you are doing off-line marketing. You have yard signs, signs on your trucks, and shirts for your construction team.

1. Houzz – Homeowners are devouring Houzz for ideas. I’ve spoken to plenty of contractors who are getting leads and projects from Houzz. (I wonder if I can get Houzz to pay me for promoting their site.) Therefore, aside from a website, this is probably the most important element to your marketing plan.

Start by adding your contact info, logo, and photos. Be aware Houzz accepts only high quality photos and will take down anything that isn’t up to their standards. If you don’t have good photos…skip to #4 about photos.
Cost: $0 
Time: 1-2 hours

2. Google Plus – This one is baffling to many contractors, because they’ve never heard of it. Google has changed the name of this service several times so it’s not widely known. If you are familiar with Google Maps, this replaced it. Set up a Google Plus page so that your company shows up in local search. (See link for more info at the end of this article.)
Cost: $0
Time: 1-3 hours

3. LinkedIn Profile – Your clients are often executives, CEO’s and business people. They are on LinkedIn and may look for you here. For every polished profile I see, I’m also seeing a slap dash contractor’s LinkedIn profile. Be sure you have a decent headshot and check spelling. There are many good articles on LinkedIn about writing a good LinkedIn profile.
Cost: $0
Time: 2-5 hours

4. Photos – Hire an architectural photographer to shoot one or two of your most impressive projects of the year. Arrange to take photos before your client moves in! Best photos are staged so the house is neither empty nor messy. Contrary to popular belief, you only need a few projects…to start getting contracts for bigger, better projects. Photography is an investment in future leads and larger projects. Also, if an architect or other designer is involved on the project they may split or pay the cost themselves.
Cost: $500-1500 
Time: 0 – 3.5 hours 

5. Logo – If you are or aspire to being a high end residential contractor, you’ll need a professional logo created by a graphic artist or branding person. The logo will help you project a professional and memorable image. If budget is an issue, I’d do photos and website first and add the logo later.
Cost: $500 – $1500
Time: 2-4 hours 

6. Placeholder Website & Website
Website is where you bring it all together — your portfolio, approach, testimonials, experience, affiliations and logo!  As soon as you start the project, have your web person put up a one page website for you…just your logo, a great photo and a blurb. This will help you show up on Google sooner. Whatever you do, don’t write “Website coming soon!” So many people did this in the past and never put up the site that it makes me think it’s an abandoned website.
Cost: $3000-$8000 (depends on where you are)
Time: 10-40 hours (depends if you have photos in folders, copy written, etc.)

 

Now you have a fully loaded web presence.

I’ll cover more advanced marketing like newsletters, networking groups, Houzz and LinkedIn activities, door hangers, postcards…parties or events…in another article soon so be sure to follow me.

Websites for general contractors
Karen Nierlich is co-owner and web marketing consultant at Full Orbit Web and Markting and works with high end residential contractors. Call her at 510-527-9920, if you have questions about Houzz, Google +, websites or marketing. Visit her company website at Full Orbit Web Design to see websites for high end residential contractors.

 

One Strategy You can Use to Create a Multi-Million Dollar Residential Contracting Firm

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My colleague Paul Sanneman gave me permission to share his strategy for taking 1-3 M dollar contracting firms and helping them achieve multi-million dollar status. As he likes to say, “The info is free; the bad news is it takes time.”

Honestly, I’ve found that all marketing takes significant amounts of time.

I’ve had to coax myself many a time to try something new and keep going. Most of the time there has been a positive payoff. When I started going to networking events, I spoke only to smily types. In time I came to love going to events and talking to people regardless of how friendly they appeared initially. Now I remind myself how difficult I’ve found getting started and how in time I’ve found success.

Back to this one strategy.

I’ve known Paul since 2008 and I’ve seen for myself how his clients have been transformed from small operations into much larger residential contracting operations.

What is this strategy?

As you may know, the best architects and contractors in the nation are now easy to find thanks to Houzz. The website Houzz is a magnificent database with the contact info and portfolio of architects all over the country.

Using Houzz, you can identify architects in your region.

Paul will tell you how to approach them and get meetings with them. It won’t be easy but he has a proven strategy for “the brave and the few.”

Watch this 40 m video in which Paul explains how to get work from architects. It’s exclusively for residential contractors.

If you like what you see, contact Paul Sanneman at DreamBusinessCoaching.com about an appointment to learn more. You can also find him on Houzz at Paul Sanneman.

Why am I sharing this info?

I love helping others and I get a long well with contractors. Many of you know I’ve worked with residential contractors for several years. Additionally, contractors who work with Paul often work with me to improve their websites and Houzz pages.

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Karen Nierlich works with high end residential contractors on their marketing and websites. Read her posts on this blog to learn the basics of marketing yourself as a residential contractor. It’s not obvious what works, that’s why it’s important to have help! Call me at 510-527-9920 or email me at Karen@fullorbitweb.com.

Karen’s written several articles on what marketing is relevant and beneficial to contractors:

How to Avoid Gaps between Building Projects
How Do Time-Crunched Contractors Find Marketing Time
How to Attract Bigger Residential Projects

Do you Hate the Term “Work / Life Balance”?

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broken clockI certainly do. I dislike jargon and renaming things that we’ve been talking about for years by other names as if we just discovered them. I’ve found several others had written an article with a similar title. Their complaint is typically it makes it sound like work and life are on balance sheet in which each occupies 50/50 of one’s time. Or that work isn’t life or that work and life can’t be successfully intertwined by those who love their work.

Let’s throw out work / life balance and talk about “overwork”. Overwork is the Achilles Heel of Contractors and other Small Business People. 

You meet plenty of people who never neglect their work but many who do neglect themselves. Neglecting yourself is short-sighted because in time it affects your work! Your mind gets tired, your strength and enthusiasm wain and relationships that could sustain you, weaken. A life that is all work, with no distractions except TV or whatever your favorite online activity is, will leave you depleted.

The Connection between Persistence, Energy and Habits

Business people are constantly being told that persistence is key. If you find you lack persistence or stick-to-it-ness, one thing to look at is energy and another is habits.

 

Persistence and Habits

Habits are a major theme for me as a business person. I had to learn for myself that habits and daily routines are game changing and can vastly increase one persistence, effectiveness and available time. Warning: I’m going to stuff about 20 ideas into this paragraph.

Creative people like myself might think habits and routines aren’t cool. We like to make stuff up as we go. However, when you follow a routine you get some necessary tasks out of the way much faster and thus save time and energy for other activities. Also, studies show we have a finite amount of energy for decision making. By using routines to reduce the number of daily decisions, we free up decision making energy for the out-of-the-ordinary occurrences in the day.

As a mother with teens and co-owner of a business, I have multiple daily and weekly routines. In my business, my routines relate to financials, sales and marketing. At home, I have habits that cover meals, exercise, sleep and household chores. Hopefully, this is a helpful boast.

Persistence and High Energy

How can you be persistent if your energy is low? Sales requires energy. Decision-making requires energy. New ideas and brainstorming all require energy. To be honest, I don’t have to make myself exercise. I’ve been at talks where the presenter says “Who here hates to exercise?” and I’m usually one of two who doesn’t raise my hand. I hate to sit and can’t stop moving.

But, but, but there other things I must encourage myself to do to recharge. Each month I try to balance how many social activities and how many solitary activities I do, as I crave both. When I need to, I plan one “do as little as possible” day. That happens once every month or two.

My colleague and mentor Paul Sanneman shares the following list with his contractor clients. It fits well in this discussion.

How are You Sabotaging Yourself?

  1. Not Eating Right
  2. Not Paying Attention to Intuition
  3. Treating People Poorly
  4. Not Taking Vacations
  5. Not Delegating Enough
  6. Not Using Project Management Tools
  7. Not Spending Time Selling
  8. Not Firing Poor Employees
  9. Not Working on Myself
  10. Not Exercising 

As we cruise towards the end of the year, it’s the ideal time to take stock of your time, energy and habits.

Contractors have had an opportunity to leave behind the dry years of the recession and grow their businesses in 2015! What work or personal habit can you put in place for 2016 that will make you and your business even better! One change can make a positive difference that resonates throughout your life.

If you are a contractor and want help with any of #1-10 above, call my colleague, Paul Sanneman at Dream Business Coaching. When you visit his site, look for his book Contractor Success Tips.

If you want help with the marketing part for your contracting firm, please call me Karen Nierlich at Full Orbit Web and Marketing. I love helping residential contractors focus on their websites and marketing. Oh, and you’ll get extra points for delegating.

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Karen NierlichKaren Nierlich works with high end residential contractors on their marketing and websites. Read the 10 and more posts on this blog to learn the basics of marketing yourself as a contractor. It’s not obvious what works. That’s why it’s important to have help! Call her at 510-527-9920 or email her at karen@fullorbitweb.com.

How to Attract Bigger Residential Projects

How to Avoid Gaps Between Projects

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Avoid Gaps between Building Projects

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contractorsRecently I wrote about photos and the importance of hiring a pro to get stunning photos of your residential remodeling projects. Testimonials are the same deal! When you have these 2 things, you’ll have less down time and less gaps in work.

You need good testimonials to help you close referrals and new people.

Here’s an observation. As a general contractor you are different than the people you sell too. You spend a lot of time at job sites and little time on a computer and using social media.

The executives and business people you sell to spend their work days at desks and online. The majority of them are social media users.

The good news is you don’t have to become a daily social media user to be successful marketing your contracting firm.

Hey, you don’t have to use social media to market your contracting business. However, you do need to accept that your clients are online far more than you.

You can get more business if you have both testimonials and photos on Houzz, your business website and a few other places where people are checking you out online.

Stellar Testimonials and Stunning Photos are what Sell Your Next Project

Repeat that 3 x’s like a mantra. (Yes, I live in NorCal.) This is what you have to do!

You are wasting our own time and money by not having testimonials and photos in place. Every year 1-3 exceptional project needs to be photographed and a few testimonials requested.

Testimonials are more challenging to get then photos and with good reason. You won’t necessarily get a testimonial from everyone you ask. There so many factors that can effect your ability to get testimonials. How you ask, how at ease you are with people, how busy or giving the person you ask is…all these factors. Don’t beat yourself up over it; just proceed as confidently as you can.

Asking for Testimonials

If you ask for testimonials, you’ll get some them. Once you have some, it’ll be easier I hope. If you keep asking, you’ll accumulate more and more and in time you’ll have lots and you won’t worry much about the ones you didn’t get.

Also, ask other professionals like colleagues, business coaches, architects for testimonials. They are all people who need testimonials as well so it’s OK to trade testimonials as long as it’s sincere. Obviously, you don’t want to give or receive testimonials from colleagues who aren’t high integrity.

Look for the Givers

Some clients will be delighted to write you a testimonial. They will offer them or gladly supply them when asked. These folks want to help and are givers.

Other people will never get around to giving you a testimonial even if you did an outstanding job. It may be that they are takers or they are wrapped up in their own world or have real problems at the time. Whatever the reason, you just have to move on and not take it personally. Also, when you take projects, look for givers and avoid takers…as takers won’t help you grow your business by supplying referrals and testimonials for your blood, sweat and tears.

How to Get Testimonials

There’s more than one way to get great referrals; pick one that will work for you.

  1. Ask for a referral at the start of a project when in the honeymoon phase.
  2. Ask for a referral at the end of every project when they really know you and your work.
  3. Tell the client you’ll ask for a referral at the end of the project; tell them to come to you whenever they have a question or a comment so you can be sure they get what they want and are happy throughout the project.
  4. If people gush or say great things to you, ask if you can write it down and send it to them for confirmation. That gets the ball rolling on a testimonials.
  5. Tell clients you are working on your X (marketing, website, Houzz page), and are asking for a testimonial to include.

If you have other ways to get testimonials, please include them in the comments!

General Contractors Marketing
Karen Nierlich works with high end residential contractors on their marketing and websites. Read the 10 or so posts on the blog to learn the basics of marketing yourself as a contractor. It’s not obvious what works, that’s why it’s important to have help! Call her at 510-527-9920 or email her at karen@fullorbitweb.com.

 

How Do Time-Crunched Contractors Find Marketing Time

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If anyone gets to say they’re “too busy” its a general contractor. The daily, weekly, nightly and weekend tasks are endless! I don’t need to tell you that.

I’m pretty certain there are ONLY two ways you can ensure your marketing gets done.

— One — Carve Out the Time in your Schedule

When successful business people make a commitment to getting something done, they assign the time for it on their calendar.

Give it an exact weekly time on the calendar.I probably don’t need to say this but select a time that is likely to work for you. Early morning is excellent and late in the day.

You may even need to go to bed early and get up an hour earlier to fit in a new but highly important commitment.

I do an hour of marketing the first hour of the day when there are few interruptions. Early morning is best but the afternoon or evening hour might work. I recommend early in the day or first hour of the day because later too many things can interrupt.

What if you still don’t do your marketing?

Look at option two or reconsider the time. Pick a better time. Do it the very next day.

Don’t beat yourself up as that’s a waste of your energy.

If you still can’t find 2-4 hours a week for marketing, you’ll need to look at what you are doing with your time.

Look at how your work teams. Is there something you can delegate that will give you a small increase of time in the office?

Are you getting enough sleep? Are you getting some exercise? Are you overdoing it on the weekends? How much time are you spending on TV, movies and /or social media etc.

You may need to give something up temporarily or permanently to make time. I gave up TV when my kids were small so I had enough time for other things I needed or wanted to do.

— Two — Delegate Marketing 

Do you have someone who can help with marketing?

Successful contractors are marketing contractors (and have a number of other qualities of course.) Sometimes it’s the owner of the company who does the marketing. Sometimes it’s a marketing and general office assistance. Sometimes it’s a spouse. Often it’s a spouse! Occasionally it’s the project manager or other web savvy individual in the company.

Marketing is essential if you want to grow your business. Building may be a word-of-mouth industry, but marketing will enhance your word-of-mouth referrals.

You may not need another thing to do, but you need to do your marketing…make sure it gets done one way or another!

Just think, when your business grows you’ll have the opportunity to choose how you spend your time…and take needed time off as well.

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Here a group of tie-in marketing articles from my archive.

True or False: Contractor Kills it Cold Calling Prospects
5 Marketing Strategies for Custom Home Builders
4 Key Features of General Contractors Websites

Books on Time and Habits

Dan Kennedy: No B.S. Ruthless Management: Time Management for Entrepreneurs
Review: Short, funny and effective

Gretchen Rubin: Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives
Review: How to create new and effective habits, details all the ways people try to avoid new habits

David Allen: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
Review: How to clean off your desk, organize tasks, getting more done in less time. A must read!

Websites for general contractorsHi. I’m Karen. I help high end residential contractors with modern websites and marketing. The secrets to marketing success as a general contractor are in the short articles in this blog. If you need help carrying them out, please give me a call to discuss. Call 510-527-9920 or email me at Karen@fullorbitweb.com.

 

 

 

 

True or False: Contractor Kills it Cold Calling Prospects

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general contractor websitesWhat do you think? Would that ever happen? Hope I got your attention with the absurdity of that headline! At our home, we do get cold calls from contractors, but I would never recommend this strategy.

Alternatively, there are 2 marketing approaches that work great for contractors.

First are Keep in Touch strategies I’ll call Referral Marketing.

When you build trust and relationships with the people and clients you know, the result is referrals.

This approach includes building relationships with architects.

I’m not suggesting you do everything listed below. Rather, I’m listing the kinds of marketing that work for the residential contracting industry. Start with one strategy at a time and do it for a few months before adding another.

Referral Marketing strategies include:

newsletter to friends, clients and prospects

cards and postcards to past and current clients

an annual party

home project completion party for neighbors

networking and relationship building with architects

lots of testimonials

high quality photos

modern website

Second are a set of strategies called Attraction Marketing.

These barely existed 5 years ago. These will work better for established and successful residential contractors who have an abundance of top notch photos and lots of testimonials. With this approach you are attracting new business from prospects who don’t know you at all.

Attraction Marketing Strategies:

Houzz

Houzz articles

LinkedIn

postcards to affluent zipcodes

Door knockers in neighborhoods you are working in

lots of testimonials

high quality photos

modern website 

You can try cold calling, but’s it brutal and you won’t have much success. Hiring a contractor is a lot like hiring a financial advisor. For most people their home is their biggest investments. They want to work with someone they know, like and trust, not some dude who calls out of the blue.

 

General Contractors MarketingKaren Nierlich is co-owner and web marketing consultant at Full Orbit Web and Marketing Services. Call her at 510-527-9920, if you wish to discuss a website or marketing for your high end residential contractor business. You’ll also find several one page articles about marketing for general contractors in this blog. Take a look around.

 

How to Attract Bigger Residential Projects

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General ContractorsIs your general contracting business in growth mode? Is your goal to move from smaller projects to 1M projects?  Or from 1M to 3M plus projects?

When you are in this stage, one key investment is professional photos. Obviously having outstanding photos will make your sales process easier and help you attract your next projects and bigger projects.

Sometimes contractors don’t know how to market themselves. Other times, they just resist!

They don’t like it. They say they don’t want to spend the money. They cut corners by doing it themselves. This makes it harder to attract future projects and causes downtime which leads to less annual income.

What’s the difference?

The pro photographer is going to spend several hours photographing your project and knows many techniques to show it in the best light (pun intended.) Like you, they have tools and they know how to use them! I think you know this already.

High end equipment, lighting and knowledge.

They will select angles with care and they will choose the best time of day for your new home. They will take nighttime photos of the home, if relevant, which are enticing.

Start thinking about the project photos as an integral part of running your business! 

The photo session can be on your project calendar from the start. It can be mentioned to your photographer. Let her or him know to call you in 3-6 months as you’ll have a project that’ll need to be photographed. Hire an architectural photographer who knows how to shoot a building as its quite different then other types of photography.

Commit fully to this step.

Also, some photographers have connections to newspapers, architectural magazines and architects. If there is a well-connected photographer like this in your circle, it’ll give you an added reason to have them take your photos.

Schedule the photo shoot before the homeowners move in!

Take photos before the homeowner moves in so you have the most control. Do stage the house! You don’t want to photograph an empty house, because you are selling the picture of luxury living and that includes couches. Sometimes you know that the owner has stellar furnishings, so it might be fine to schedule the shoot just after they move in.

Make taking the very best photos part of your home building process. Then post the images to Houzz, your website, Google +, and your website.

 

General ContractorsHi. I’m Karen. I help high end residential contractors with modern websites and marketing. The secrets to success as a general contractor are in the short articles in this blog. If you need help carrying them out, please give me a call to discuss your business. Call 510-527-9920 or email me at Karen@fullorbitweb.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advanced Marketing for General Contractors

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Marketing for General ContractorsI’ve written about marketing essentials for high end residential contractors here and here: Marketing Essentials and houzz: are you resisting? why?. Don’t overlook the basics. I’m also assuming you have items like yard signs and truck signs etc.

Words the wise.

When starting new marketing add only one strategy at a time. Any of these strategies will take more time then you realize to research, learn and implement. Be patient and persistent.

Choose one that appeals to you.

Don’t beat yourself up if you aren’t a party person or networking person. Go with a strategy that plays to your strengths and other factors.


Now the advanced marketing strategies: 

Outreach to Architects – Start and maintain relationships with architects. Network where architects network. Look up architects in your area and introduce yourself. Keep in touch with the architects you know already.

Outreach to Neighbors – There are many ways to do this. Hang door hangers before, during and after the project. Go door-to-door and knock on doors while hanging door hangers and introduce yourself. See Open House below.

Open House for Neighbors at Project Completion – This works well if you are in a neighborhood full of potential clients and projects. Invite people over to see the beautifully completed remodel or addition and meet you while they are there.

Annual Party for Clients, Prospects and Friends – Invite your VIP’s to a private party once a year. This is a great way to keep in touch, generate referrals and repeat business. It’s also a lot of fun if you like parties.

Postcards to Well-to-Do Neighborhoods – Create a polished postcard using photos from a recent project. Buy a mailing list for the zipcode and demographic you are targeting. Send postcards regularly to that list.

Networking – I’ve mentioned networking with architects. You can also network in your town or business community. Get involved. Talk to people and trade cards with people you get to know. Connect with them on LinkedIn.

Sponsorship of Teams and Community Events – Similar to networking. Keep your name in front of your neighbors and town. Better strategy for smaller communities or communities where you are already well known.

Houzz or LinkedIn posts – If you like to take photos and / or write you could make short posts about your project details like a new faucet or light fixture, or energy efficient solutions, or before and after, or…There are endless possibilities. Post regularly on Houzz or LinkedIn or both, talk to people, answer questions and develop an online following.

YouTube Channel and Videos – See above. The same idea, but use your smart phone to shoot short, short videos. It does take time to edit them but everything takes time. Post on YouTube and your website. Many people love videos.

Tell me if you use these advanced marketing techniques below. How did you select it? How big was the learning curve? What were your results?

General ContractorsKaren Nierlich is co-owner and web marketing consultant at Full Orbit Web and Marketing Services. Call her at 510-527-9920, if you wish to discuss a website or marketing for your high end residential contractor business. You’ll also find several articles about marketing for general contractors in this blog.

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