You Don't Exist Without 'E'

Can you believe there are still remodelers out there who don't have a company Web site? The cute little girl with the braids at the end of our block with the lemonade stand has a Web site. The 10-year-old boy who cuts our grass has one. So does the teenage babysitter down the street from us.

They've been in business for about 10 minutes, and they understand the value of having an online presence. Yet there are still remodelers who don't have company Web sites. I know this because I've been doing a seminar titled "Strategic Marketing for Remodelers" in every major U.S. market for three years. In every city I ask the question, "is there anyone out there who doesn't have a Web site?" And in every city, there are always a few hands that go up, usually very slowly and not very high in the air. You can tell by the body language these remodelers know they should have one.

They might as well just go ahead and create one single Web page so they will have a place to post the "Going Out of Business Soon" sign, because that's what will surely happen if they don't start taking this little thing called the Internet seriously.

I'll even go one step further and say that if you don't have a great site, an enhanced site — with pictures and videos and even a blog or two — you're doing your business a disservice.

I asked Steve Gray, whose three-year-old company is generating a lot of business from its E-newsletter and enhanced Web site (see page 24), why he chooses to invest heavily in electronic marketing over traditional methods. His answer should resonate with those of you who haven't put enough of an emphasis on this area of your company's marketing strategy.

"With E-marketing we spend less, we control our message, and we aren't fighting to stand out on a page with other competitors," says Gray of his decision to opt for E-marketing over traditional marketing methods. "Our marketing budget affords us to do more with E-marketing than we would be able to do in print. This trickles down to lower cost per lead and much larger ROI. We track our results, so we know this works."

Every single day, prospects in your market are out there, clicking away, checking e-mail, buying things and, yes, researching remodeling projects.

If your company doesn't have a Web presence, to that prospect, it's as if you don't exist.

Contact me at michael.morris@reedbusiness.com or 630/288-8057

Understanding the value of having an online presence