Alongside fixing buildings and saving the world, keeping up with regular focus on your website and internet strategy can be daunting. But, if you approach it a little bit at a time, every week, and can sustain that effort, it will result in improved performance. When your website is rocking, your leads are better and more plentiful, and life is good.
Here are six small things that take a total of 40 minutes per week. Do these and sustain the effort and you will see a big difference in your web performance.
1. Create New Content
Estimated time: 15 minutes
Why? Unique content helps you assert yourself as an expert, educates customers, keeps them engaged, and helps with search. Most importantly, it sets you apart from the others.
Things like air leakage, insulation, duct problems, HERS ratings, tax credits & rebates, and Health and IAQ are cornerstones to the home performance industry. It’s important to cover lesser known and popular topics; however, it’s essential to touch on things that everyone (including your potential clients) are familiar with.
Ideas for a new blog post:
- Basics — air leakage, insulation, duct problems, HERS ratings, tax credits & rebates, health and IAQ are cornerstone to the home performance industry.
- Ideas from the buildings you’re in every day
- Photos from job sites
- Horror stories
- Hot Topics
- Energy Circle PRO “Content Ideas”
Content does not equate to a beautifully written masterpiece. Whether its a new testimonial, case study, service description, gallery, paragraph on an existing page or photo — new content all serves the greater purpose of getting people to your site and establishing you as a unique source. It doesn’t need to be the world’s best writing or 800 words, but just a quick update from the innards of your company can do a lot.
Making it Easy: Plan out different subjects for the coming months and go off of that list. A simple brainstorming session can save you lots of time planning.
2. Add Photos, Photos, Photos!
Estimated time: 10 minutes
Why? As previously mentioned, people love pictures, especially original pictures. Home Performance is confusing to most people; a slide show with captions of a typical job is a great way to educate. The old saying goes that “a picture is worth a thousand words”.
Making it Easy: equip your crews with cameras and hold them accountable for capturing images.
3. Use (and credit) Other People's Infographics
Estimated time: 5 minutes
Why? Pictures are great and certainly help your web traffic; however, infographics that are not only visual and attractive to the eye but also helpful in terms of conveying information to potential customers is essential. It may also help them identify problems that they might have been unaware of. Posting infographics gives you the best of both worlds — it utilizes text with information and allows people to quench their thirst for pictures. Infographics are usually created to build links, so just be sure to credit the original author with a link.
Making it Easy: take infographics from the Energy Circle Pinterest board on Energy Information Design.
4. Create a Social Media Post
Estimated time: 5 minutes
Why? Social media is here to stay and an increasingly important part of successful contractor marketing. Creating a post on a social media platform has the ability to put your content ideas and business name out in a very public platform. That said, if your business doesn’t have a facebook page or twitter account, it would be a great idea to create one!
Ideas for social media posts can include a link to your most recent blog, asking a question, or linking to a good article.
Making it Easy: This is already a pretty easy step, as you don’t have to create any original content. Instead, you can link to anything. However, any sort of activity on your page will be noticed by viewers, which is important; having an active social media page is a sign of a prosperous, innovative business.
5. Kick a Friend a Link
Estimated time: Negligible
Why? There is an unwritten ethic on the internet that you “give to get.” By creating a link to a website of someone you know--say as a shoutout for a recent blog post they wrote--you’re sharing the love. And that love is likely to come back to you in the future. Being a good and giving citizen on the web pays dividends.
Making it Easy: This is another step that doesn’t require you creating any original content. Much like social media posts, showing your activity is the important thing here, rather than displaying innovation.
6. Ask for a Google+ Local Review.
Estimated time: Negligible
Why? Testimonials from customers are gold. In our view, it’s important to make clear to customers that you first to hear their feedback and encourage them to get in contact with you after the work is done. But when you find a raving fan, that’s someone to ask for a review. Google+ Local is the number one source for third-party reviews so we suggest starting there. Here's more information on the rapidly changing evolution of Google Places to Google+ Local.
Making it Easy: Develop a system for gathering regular customer feedback, and ask your best promoters to write you a review. A simple, repeatable email with links to your Google+ Local page, or Yelp or Angies List makes it easy.
Total time per week: 40 minutes
The main point is that this shouldn’t be a painstaking process that will take lots of your time. In fact, 40 minutes per week, 50 weeks a year equals a little over 33 hours that you will be putting into your website. 33 hours spread out evenly throughout the year is doable, and will definitely get you more business.
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