But Make Sure Your Website Is in Good Shape First
By Minesh Chandarana
Online marketing is crucial today, with over $150 billion spent to advertise digitally in 2020 just in the United States alone, and that number is projected to continue growing, according to Statista, a leading provider of market and consumer data.
Along with the standard types of digital outreach, such as email campaigns and banner ads, many home-based businesses — especially those in the blue-collar trades — could also benefit from being part of a home services directory, such as Angi (formerly Angie’s List), HomeAdvisor, Yelp or RelyCircle.
Generally speaking, these are like online phone books. Key differences are that many of them also operate as sales lead generators, and nearly all give the public the opportunity to leave comments or reviews of a business, good and bad.
Yelp is more of a review site than a directory but it shares many of the same functions. It’s millions of monthly visitors make it one of the most popular internet sites for consumers who are looking around and reading reviews. But, it is also infamous for attracting scathingly bad reviews — even from people who have never actually done business with the company they’re writing about. It’s free to join, and paying for advertising will give your business more prominent placement, but leads may sometimes just be someone looking at your map or uploading a photo.
Angi is the oldest of the directories, and while often thought of as just a place to find contractors, plumbers and painters, it has expanded its offerings to include jewelry appraisers, camera repairs, dog grooming and much more. It’s free to join, but business owners will need to pay to rise to the top of the list, as well as to see your own reviews. Because it’s so old and trusted by the public, it can be a good source of leads, but that should be balanced against the costs needed to get your company seen before your competitors.
HomeAdvisor has actually bought Angi but continues to run it as a separate company. Sort of. It has been the target of class action lawsuits alleging deception and fraud. Part of that has to do with the fine print consumers agree to when signing up for Angi and the agreement that their information can be shared with certain parties. This is even the case if the consumer is just hunting for quotes and not ready to pay for a job. It is alleged that this contact information is then shared with HomeAdvisor where it is sold to business owners as valid leads.
RelyCircle is the new kid on the block. It is an exception to the already mentioned directories in that it only allows customers to post recommendations after the business has sent them a request while the free email or text tool, pretty much guaranteeing people will only see positive comments. Calling itself a “social-selling app,” RelyCircle is free for both businesses and customers to use. Business owners run a referral promotion via the app and offer customers a cash referral fee to recommend them to friends via in-app email, text or on social media. Those recommendations are tracked, and after a new sale is made, the recommending customer gets the reward each time the promotion is redeemed at the business — in other words, after the sale is completed and the business owner has cash in hand.
Of course, signing up for any of these options should only be seen as PART of a full marketing strategy and not a silver bullet. You’ll also want to monitor whichever of these services you sign up for to counter negative reviews or address complaints or questions. Your own website and online presence will always be your most important communications asset.
You only have 10 to 20 seconds to get a visitor’s attention and keep them on your page. When they leave, it’s the equivalent of a person walking into a physical store and immediately turning around and leaving. It’s a potential lost sale, and a potential loss of referrals, recommendations and good word-of-mouth.
And, there are so many things that can go wrong with websites. Missing calls-to-action, bad choices of fonts, letting visitors “click without supervision,” as one web designer I know puts it — these are just some of the mistakes that can be made, and they are costly.
(Speaking of which, RelyCircle is offering a free website makeover and marketing program for one small business. Valued at $10,000, the prize will go to one of the first 25,000 small businesses to download and register its app for iPhone or Android. Terms can be found here.)
Like every business decision, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to using business directories, and what works for one company may not work for another. But, having a presence in one or more of these networks could prove to be a huge help in tracking down leads and growing your operation.
