The Design Builder's Blog

Finding a Good Web Site Designer for Your Contractor Web Site

As a contractor you need to think of your website as a tool.  No contractor would buy a tool before verifying it would do the job intended.  And, if that tool didn’t perform as sold I’m sure you would want to return it.  You can typically return a tool if it’s not working, but you can't return a web site - ever!  

When I was ready to have a web site for my contractor coaching and contractor training business I didn’t just want a tool that listed what I could do.  I could have easily done that with a basic static web site for far less money.  Instead, I wanted a tool that would help my target contractor coaching prospects find me and figure out whether or not they wanted to work with me or not.  I was looking for a way to differentiate myself and my approach from other contractor coaches and trainers.  What I was looking for was an advanced marketing tool, not just a web site.  

Seek referrals before you choose a website designer

In my quest for a web site company to work with I was specifically referred to the one I chose by another business owner I know who had similar goals for his business.  This web site design company owner did what I thought was a great job interviewing me to uncover my purposes before she designed, priced and built my site.  Now, because of her assistance, I can help targeted prospects find me and prevent suspects from wasting my time and resources!  And, if contractors seeking help with their businesses aren’t yet ready to buy, I can nurture them along with more information about me and my business until they are. 

Don’t waste time or money on a bad web site or a bad web site designer

You and your business may not be looking for the same prospects as my business, but I bet you have the same desire to have a web site that will help you find and prequalify the right prospects for your business.  Done right, after the original investment of working with a web site designer, your contractor website can be a very effective and low cost way to attract the right clients for your business.  But if you choose the wrong designer or choose one based on price alone, you will have wasted a lot of time and money.  Even worse, your target customers won’t be able to find you on search engines and you will remain a commodity selling yourself and your service on price.

I hope you found this article helpful.  You might also like my list of red flags to watch out for when selecting your web site designer. 

If you want help planning the purpose and function of your web site, or help with selecting a web site designer, send me an email me now.  I’d be happy to discuss what you want and or need so you can do your first website right the first time.

More articles about creating a contractor website:

Seven Ways Contractors Can Prequalify a Good Web Site Designer

Hate Contractor Lead Generation Services? Why Not Get Some Chickens!

On Your Contractor Web Site, Qualify, Don’t Disqualify Your Prospects

If You Don’t Or Won’t Offer Generation Y Prospects What They Want They Will Go Away

Seven Ways Contractors Can Prequalify a Good Web Site Designer

Having and working on my web site has been a very rewarding and educational experience.  Because the web site company I worked with helped me design the function as well as the appearance of my site it quickly became the primary source of new business for me and my company.  Because they helped me select my hosting service and my content management system (CMS), and because they trained me on how to use my CMS, I can create pages, edit my content and even optimize my site for SEO on my own without needing them to do it for me.  When I want to add a new function to my site they are there to help me do so and will also teach me how to use and maintain the new function.

Win-Win!

All this leads to my ability to help my targeted customer types find me and find out what it will be like to work with me as their coach or mentor before they contact me about my services.  The experience of getting  my own web site up, learning about using it as a marketing tool and the success I have had using it as a tool  has also given me the ability to help my contractor coaching clients get on the right path with their own web sites!

Do you have the right web site and web site designer?

If your business doesn’t yet have a web site, or the one you have isn’t helping your target customers find you like mine helps me, don’t make the mistake of working with the wrong web site designer.  Here are a few “red flags” to watch for as you either work with your current designer or as you interview one to work with.

1. Never work with a designer who doesn’t offer a CMS or requires that he or she be the only one who can add to or edit your web site.
2. Never work with a designer unless their offering includes a way to measure your web site efforts and results (analytics) and you have access to those analytics on demand.
3. If they don’t ask you about and include any calls to action and landing pages, you will probably end up with an on-line brochure that won’t generate quality leads.
4. If the price seems too good to be true, don’t work with them.  Either they don’t know what they are doing, will only be creating an “on-line brochure” or they will get you on “extras” after you’re stuck working with them.
5. If they offer to help you with SEO, but never ask you who your target customers, job types and market area are you may get visits to your site but you will probably never be able to covert those visits into paying customers.
6. If they don’t insist you include a blog they probably don’t understand SEO for contractors.  Also, make sure the blog is part of your site, not linked to another site or service.
7. Never work with a designer who wants to own your URL (web site address).

I hope you found this article helpful.  Please use the comments area below to share your own good experiences and or your own “red flags”.  If you want help planning the purpose and function of your web site, or help with selecting a web site designer, send me an email me now.

Other related articles and information about websites for contractors

Hate Contractor Lead Generation Services?  "Rather than buy all your eggs, why not get some chickens?"

On Your Contractor Web Site, Qualify, Don’t Disqualify Your Prospects

If You Won’t Offer Gen Y Prospects What They Want They Will Go Away

Hate Contractor Lead Generation Services?  "Rather than buy all your eggs, why not get some chickens?"

On discussion groups liked LinkedIn, contractors and remodelers have been bantering about on-line lead generation services.   It seems for every business owner who speaks negatively about using them, there is another who shares stories about how these services have been great for their business.  For the purpose of this blog post I won’t get into the pros and cons of or any specifics about one service vs. another.  Instead I’d like to offer an alternative; take control of your destiny and create your own leads.

What’s the problem?

In my opinion way too many contractors are abdicating their marketing responsibilities to lead generation services without a full understanding of how those services work.  Then they complain they don’t like how they work and or how they are being treated when they seek customer service to resolve problems.   Many others complain that the quality of the leads is very poor and or the same leads are being sold and distributed to way too many other contractors, increasing competition.  Still others complain about negative customer reviews that are libelous and the service won’t help remove them or go after the customer who posted them.  

Why should these business owners be surprised?  

Just a little research on the internet is all it takes to find out what many other businesses have already found; that’s how those services conduct business!

What is sad to me (and really ridiculous if you think about it) is these business owners are doing the same thing many remodeling consumers do.  They hire a service provider to take care of something for them without first being clear on what they expect, or, what they can expect will actually be included if they buy.   Then, rather than take responsibility for their own lack of due diligence before buying that service, they rationalize why it’s the service provider’s fault they are not happy and want their money back.  You can find lots of evidence to back up this reality by reading just a few of the articles on the“Dietz Angie's List and Yelp Reviews Lawsuit Updates” page of my web site.  The page is full of links to articles and blog posts about the nightmares many businesses have experienced with lead generation services.   It also has links to helpful information regarding what to do if you are already having problems with contractor lead generation services.

What’s the solution?

I suggest business owners work to generate their own leads.   Not saying they shouldn't also use a lead gen service, just pointing out that those services often have a history of changing their business model and many have gone out of business.  If your lead generation service leads go away, you might not have any leads at all unless you are creating your own leads as well. 

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket" 

Good quality leads for targeted customer and project types might well be the most significant factor when it comes to creating and growing a healthy and profitable construction or remodeling business.   Without a way to create a sustainable flow of high quality leads the business has to wait for leads to show up out of the blue.   If you wait for leads to happen, or for a lead gen service to send you leads, your business has little or no control over who will be inquiring for your services.   Also, you won’t know whether or not they are the right prospects for what you offer, how you perform your services and or what you have to charge to provide them.   Essentially, you might get leads, but after you get them you will need to still figure out which ones are qualified and which ones aren’t.  Prequalifying leads after they contact you, instead of before they contact you, wastes a lot of everyone’s time.  Think about it.  Are you and or your sales people visiting with people who would have disqualified your business if your business took control of how its leads were generated?

"Rather than buy your eggs, why not get your own chickens?"

Instead of the old outbound marketing methods of buying ads, buying email lists, paying for lead generation services and praying for good leads, consider the new wave in marketing; “Inbound Marketing”.  Inbound marketing focuses on creating quality content on your business’ web site that pulls people toward your company and product.   By aligning the content you publish with your target customer’s interests, you naturally attract inbound traffic that you can then convert, close, and delight over time.  If visitors to your contractors web site don’t like what they find out about your business and how you do business, they won’t call you or waste your time.  In addition to creating high quality leads, done well, inbound marketing can also help you increase the number and quality of referral leads from those customers you have delighted. 

When you own the chickens you know where the eggs came from, and after eating the eggs...

You still have chickens still laying more eggs!

On Your Contractor Web Site, Qualify, Don’t Disqualify Your Prospects

When you write or have others write content for the pages of your web site and your blog, make sure what you write doesn’t offend visitors or make them feel dumb.  (Unless of course that is your plan!)  Recognizing this potential challenge can make the difference between purposely qualifying your web site visitors and making them feel disqualified.  Let me explain.

Help visitors prequalify themselves

One important and valuable way to use your web site is to help visitors prequalify themselves.  By this I mean let them use the content you post as a way to determine whether there is a good fit between what they are looking for and what your business offers.   Think beyond just products and project types.   What is probably more important, to both you and them, should be how you do what you do and how your business operates.   For example, if you charge for design and or estimates, let them know that.   If you don’t leave your proposal behind unless they sign it and give you a check, let them know that too.   Using the two examples, the point is if they want free design and your proposal, to use one or both as bidding tools, they won’t be contacting you.  Instead, they will move on to another contractor who will. 

Now, just because you tell them how you do business doesn’t mean they will be motivated to do business with you.   So, share with them why, what and how you do what you do could have a value to them.  

Never assume they know, tell stories

If they have already experienced what you offer, either from already working with you or from working with another contractor, they might already know the benefit(s).   The thing to keep in mind when you are writing is that you won’t know what they know and what they don’t.  We all know what happens when we assume.   So, don’t just tell them about what you do, tell them stories about how others you have served have benefited already so they can image themselves benefiting in the same way.  If they don’t see enough value to justify contacting you, again, they will move on.  That is how you can qualify them, through what you write, but make them feel like they have qualified you.

On the other hand how you tell your story might just make them feel you have disqualified them.  Do that and they won’t be doing business with you.  Here are a couple of examples of how the way you write your web site content might make them feel disqualified and how to avoid them:

• You talk too much about who you don’t do business with and why.   Sure this may help the people you are describing go away, but it might also make good prospects go away because they find you too negative or judgmental.  Instead, keep it positive and describe the people you want to do business with.  
• You offer your own opinions as to why people who look at or see things differently than you are wrong headed.  Forget about making judgment.  Stick to offering positive reasons for your opinions and your way of doing business.  And if possible, share what your past customers have said to back up your reasoning.
• You use technical language and or industry buzz words that consumers have never heard before and or they don’t know what they mean.  If you do this they may feel dumb, or assume that interacting with you will be over their head.  To avoid these potential challenges skip the buzz words or offer links to definitions they can understand.  

Catch and release prospects?

Keep in mind that visitors to your site might not yet be ready to buy remodeling or construction services.  If they are in their research or discovery stage they will be looking for good information and a good contractor to eventually work with.  Make sure what they find and read on your site helps them in their research and at the same time gives them a good impression of what it would be like working with your company.  If they disqualify themselves from calling you, make sure they feel good about it.  They may come back to nibble on your bait again some day!

If You Don’t Or Won’t Offer Generation Y Prospects What They Want They Will Go Away

Generation Y is getting older, they’re buying homes and they are now starting to improve and remodel the homes they own.  As more and more of them grow older the number of Gen Y homeowners will quickly grow. Therefore, they will quickly become a major share of the potential prospects for remodelers and other contractors.  In an earlier blog about prequalifying and selling to Generation Y, I discussed the fact that members of Gen Y are used to getting information instantly and for free using key word Google searches to find internet content.   Technology and the internet have definitely defined how Generation Y does all their research and makes their remodeling or home improvement buying decisions. Having a contractor web site and what is put on it for information will make or break whether Gen Y prospects will be doing business with a remodeling contractor or not.

There are two ways to think about the title of this blog

First, if you don’t have a web site, or if your site doesn’t offer the information Gen Y is looking for, they won’t bother with your business if another remodeler’s business does.  Second, if your web site doesn’t explain how you do business as well as the kind of projects your willing to do, internet savvy gen Y remodeling prospects will move on. Remember, they’re probably not going to call you to find these things out. They’ll just go back to the Google search page and find another contractor’s site that does. So, if you want them to attract them and you want to motivate them to do business with your remodeling company you better make sure they find what they are looking for when they find your contractor web site.

“Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit.

Wisdom is not using it in a fruit salad.”

What if you want them to go away?

Yes, you read that right. Not all Gen Y prospects will be right for a remodeler’s business. Their motivations to buy and what will be important to them may not be a match with what you offer, who you have on staff or how you do business. Working with the wrong customers can also compromise profits and might not be very satisfying for the business owner or employees. If you want to maintain a defined business process, and remain in control as you do business and produce your projects, you need to avoid working with customers who would probably be better off working with some other remodeling contractor.

To help Gen Y prospects prequalify themselves before they contact you (or for that matter prospects from any generation) make sure the content you put on your site has been strategically decided and written to serve this purpose. For example, if you charge for design services make that clear on your site. Or, if you won’t allow customers to provide any of their own materials make sure you discuss this fact on your web site. Conversely, to attract the right prospects, explain why you charge for design or won’t allow them to provide the materials.  Blogging is a great way to accomplish these goals.  Who knows, your logic might just discourage some prospects from wanting to provide their own materials or go with a contractor who offers free design!

Work towards getting them to stay

The point here is that if your web site visitors like your offerings and your logic you will attract them as prospects. If they don’t like your offerings and or your logic, they will go away and search for another remodeling contractor. Just be careful about how and what you write about. I’ll discuss that consideration in a future blog titled “Qualify, don’t disqualify your remodeling prospects”.

Related topics

Advice For Contractors When Working With Home Buyers Considering Renovations

Advice For Contractors On How To Work With Generation Y From One Of Them

25 Sample Questions Contractors Can Use For Prequalifying Prospects