Building Business

"We Chose Not to Participate In the Recession"

It's no secret that the housing market has been unkind to to those in the building products sector. Yet, Rick Pogue of Arrowhead Building Supply, unlike his competitors, viewed the recession as an ideal opportunity for growth and expansion. So what exactly has Pogue done to add 700 new accounts in the past two years? Carla Waldemar finds out in her article for Building Products Magazine, Fighting With a Sword (pages 17-18). Pogue discusses his out-of-the-box strategies, including deliveries within three hours, linking to weather reports and shifting internal resources to generate sales through basic followup. The results? In 2009, the company posted $27.5 million in revenues, beating its previous best year, 2002, by more than five million!

@NeilAndrewJames

You Could Be Wasting Money on Paid Search Lead Generation

I still use a phone book. I’ve torn one in half to raise the back legs of my bed slightly off of the ground. My doctor recommended it to treat heartburn, and it works.  

But a sustained power outage is the only thing that would send me away from Google back to the phone book when searching for products and services. Even then, with the lights out, there’s a decent chance I won’t be able to read it. For marketers, promoting one’s brand through search engine visibility reaches consumers at the right time – the exact moment they’re looking for your services – better than any other medium.  

Paid search is the quickest, most versatile way to leverage search engines to generate leads for building products and services. Unfortunately, Google makes it easy for precious marketing dollars to evaporate with little results. Extremely easy.  

Luckily, with a little logical analysis and installation of some free tools, it’s easy to spot and patch leaks in your lead generation ship, ensuring smooth sailing to the land of new business.  

Most building products companies practicing paid search have a dedicated landing page. After hopefully being enticed by compelling body text, the visitor completes an automated form. Thus, a lead is born.  

The act of a visitor completing a desired action upon arrival to a webpage is known as a conversion. Are you tracking your conversions? Most Web analytics programs, including the free Google Analytics (which easily integrates with Google Adwords) can track what percentage of users who arrive via paid search convert into leads.  

Now do a little math. If each click costs you two dollars, and it takes forty clicks to generate a lead (2.5% conversion rate) then you can figure that each lead generated via paid search costs $80. Compare this to your other marketing channels. Is this significantly more, less, or about the same as trade shows, event marketing, direct mail or other sources?  

What percentage of your leads convert into sales? If 20 percent of leads convert into sales, you’re going to need five leads to get one sale. At $80 a lead, you’re looking at $400 cost per sale via paid search. For some companies this is great and for others it’s catastrophe.  

Even that might not give you the complete view. Is each converted lead traced back to its original source? Not all marketing channels produce leads of equal quality. In our previous example, leads in general convert into sales 20 percent of the time. Assume though that paid search leads only convert 10 percent of the time. Now you’re looking at $800 cost per sale. Again, this may merit high fives or disconsolate weeping depending on your business, but at least now you know.  

Paid search is an effective, versatile and affordable means of generating building products leads. That said, a thorough understanding of how it contributes to your sales funnel is the first step in optimizing your search marketing campaign for greater efficiency.

@Neilandrewjames

Image Source - Get Entreprenurial

Companies Remain Uncertain - And Do Little - About Potential Risks of Social Media

Social media has become a fixture on communication agendas across the country, fueled by the fact that Americans' spent 73 percent more time on such social networking sites in the past year alone. But according to a new survey, social media use is also generating its share of corporate heartburn.

Recent research we conducted along with Ethos Business Law confirms that confidence exists in social networking as viable communication outreach, but so do worries about the potential liabilities involved. Concerns regarding social media use were acknowledged by some eight in 10 businesses participating in the national study, which was conducted over the month of July. Fifty-one percent fear social media could be detrimental to employee productivity, while almost half (49%) assert that using social media could damage company reputation.

Despite these apprehensions, social networking is being viewed as a key strategy. According to survey results, eight in 10 senior management, human resource and marketing executives believe social media can enhance relationships with customers/clients and build brand reputation. Almost 70 percent feel such networking can be valuable in recruitment, as a customer service tool (64%) and used to enhance employee morale (46%). The most popular vehicles being used include:

Much of senior management's direct experience with social media appears to be reactive versus proactive, an interesting fact given the confidence they express in these new mediums. The majority (74%) of executives surveyed said they, personally, visit social media sites at least weekly to read what customers may be saying about their company, and routinely monitor competitors' use of social networking. One in three search social media sites to see what their employees are sharing; or check the background of a prospective employee (25%).

Look for the Bathroom Inside®

My computer’s faster because it’s got Intel Inside. My Cole Haan shoes are over-the-top comfortable because they’re made with Nike Air. My Redhook Double Black Stout is creamy and delicious because it was brewed with a Starbuck’s blend.

Everything in my life is better because of something else. At least that’s what it seems like. The idea of adding an endorser brand to a product is nothing new. In fact, it’s been going on for years. If one good brand is good, then two good brands must be great and people clamor to associate with and buy great brands.

Granted, “Look for the Bathroom Inside” may seem like locker room humor a first blush but it raises a point worth considering. Why, for so many years, has the pinnacle of American consumerism – the home – been without a consistent endorser? What could you add to a home to make it better?

Could we start with architecture? Would it be smarter to start with a product? Why not start with a room. Every home going up in America today has at least one bathroom and having more just adds to the value of a home. Now, imagine the resale value of a home featuring “super-endorsed” bathrooms.

Meet Hailey Brownstone

She's a lovely young woman who recently moved to the Des Moines area from Chicago and she's in the market for her first home. It sounds like just about every story of a young professional relocating except for one thing. Ms. Brownstone's got a secret that rivals anything you've seen on Desperate Housewives. She's not real. Ms. Brownstone is the creation of Hubbell Homes and she was developed as the personification of the target buyer for the builder's GreenWay Crossing development. She's smart, attractive, upwardly mobile and a discerning buyer. In other words, she's exactly what Hubbell Homes is looking for. And now she works for them. Read more here.

RH Helps Further Sustainable Design and Construction Initiatives

Other than the unfortunate economy, sustainable design is the hottest topic in building and construction news these days. Not only do many homeowners, design professionals, materials manufacturers and contractors believe it is "the right thing to do", it's proving to make good economic sense.

Russell Herder has worked extensively with numerous industry clients to make sure their legitimate green story gets told. We've also been giving back. Over the past year, RH has been assisting two very different organizations increase awareness of their mission within this growing sector. The Rural Renewable Energy Alliance and Minnesota GreenStar are both helping advance progress in sustainable home design and construction. A little about them.

Some call it Robin Hood philanthropy; others call it advocacy. However the mission of the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance is interpreted, the outcome is the same. RREAL is changing the face of Minnesota's energy landscape. RREAL is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing the benefits of solar heat to low-income families. Begun fewer than 10 years ago, the organization has empowered hundreds of volunteers and a small staff to make a significant impact on reducing rural poverty by increasing self-reliance and providing sustainable living opportunities. The group manufactures high quality solar heating panels in a unique, state-of-the-art facility for two primary purposes. First, they sell solar systems at market rates on a commercial basis, and - secondly - they funnel 100 percent of the proceeds to install these same units in homes of low-income families. Besides directly impacting the lives of these homeowners, over time RREAL's work will help reduce the need for subsidized energy support to these families.

Minnesota GreenStar is a green building standard and certification program for both existing and new homes that promotes healthy, durable, high performance homes. Designed from the ground up to be the best system for Minnesota, the program gives builders and remodelers the tools to excel, and provide homeowners the knowledge with which to compare the performance of their homes. Fundamental to the program is an objective, third-party verification system that assures consumers that the new home or remodeling project performs as promised. The standard is supported by a mandatory education program for participating builders and remodelers, as well as general education and promotion to consumers. With the robust standard as the vehicle, it is GreenStar's aim to bring home buyers and homeowners a verified guideline that will allow them the opportunity to choose more efficient, healthy, and environmentally sensitive design and construction practices for their new or remodeled home.

Over recent moths, RH has been lending strategic marketing assistance and design services to Minnesota GreenStar, and serving as a pro bono consultant to RREAL on critical marketing outreach to architects.

The Buddy System

Lumber Liquidators is riding a recession-proof wave as one of their top competitors files for bankruptcy. So how do they manage to stay in the black while some of their competitors live in the red?

As mentioned in AdAge's article Sponsorships Help Insulate Lumber Liquidators from Housing Crisis "a well-thought-out advertising strategy," is the key says Jeffrey Griffiths, president-CEO of Lumber Liquidators.

Griffiths has positioned his company into the black through fiscal '08 by retaining meaningful partnerships and creating branded content in highly targeted media, resulting in an actual increase in projected marketing dollars to be spent through '09.

A window company partnering with a local sports stadium to furnish the windows of VIP box suites? A retaining wall company branding a "Green Hour" on a local television network to better help people design gardens in hard-to-reach/awkward spaces in the city? The possibilities are endless when a smart, well-thought-out marketing initiative is pursued.