In this series, we’re taking on remodeling cont ractors and how their business can be found online by previous and potential customers. If you’re a contractor this marketing model works, we know because we use it. If you are not a remodeling contractor don’t tune out, this advice applies to all companies who want to be found online.

Joe: All right, welcome back to the Being Found Show. I’m your host, Cloud Wise Joe, coming back from break. We’re gonna continue our series and our discussion on the opportunity for being found if you’re a remodeling contractor. We’ve talked about some specific keywords, and Chauncey and I have been going over how we’d handle it.

In this last half of the show, I wanted to dive in and get really specific about where is the opportunity? How do you know what the opportunity is? What do you do about it when you figure out the opportunity? So, this should be a really helpful segment.

I wanted to start off with some numbers. We did some research on what the remodeling forecast looked like, as far as the economy, and if it’s gonna grow as an industry. It appears that the statistics show that remodelers are gonna be looking at some good years. It looks like it’s been consistently growing, and that it’s only gonna get better.

There was a study done that I want to go over with you. This was done with the National Association of Home Builders and they were analyzing Census Bureau data. They’re looking at 2017. They say that homeowners who remodel in 2017 are estimated to spend, roughly, $6,148 per project, compared to $5,800 in 2016. This study was done in about 26,000 US zip codes, considering age of homes, owner’s average income, et cetera.

The average home improvement spending is supposed to range between $2300 and $22,000. Do those numbers surprise you, Chauncey?

Chauncey: Yeah, that’s a drastic jump. When you deal with a number like 5,000 to 6,500, people aren’t, probably, registering that that’s like a 25, 30% jump in a year.

Joe: That’s right. I’m gonna go over some more of the trends and the data, but whenever I see that you’ve got an average possible spend, 2, 3, 4,000, or up to 6,000, I start thinking that that’s good opportunity to get my marketing straight. If I’m selling a widget that’s only $10, I can’t spend a lot of money on marketing. Or, if I do, I gotta make sure I get that marketing perfect. But, when my average sale might be $6,000, or even, $2,000, well, you start to see where if you can line up your marketing and it can bring in leads, or it can bring in people who are interested in your products, that’s worth it to me. It’s worth it to figure out.

Chauncey: Absolutely. Especially when it’s something you should already be doing on some level. It should just be more incentive to dip your toes into where you should, probably, already be.

Joe: I forgot to mention that if you’re listening to our show, you can always go to beingfound.com, and we actually share our screen and you can see what we’re talking about. You can see some of the notes. Right now I’m looking at a Remodeling Spending Project to Strength report, or Projected to Strengthen this year report. It’s actually a map that shows the different areas in the US that they expect remodeling to grow as an industry. In a lot of places, they show it growing at over 10%, 10% or more. We’re looking at places like Sacramento, Oklahoma City, Denver. Here’s the crazy thing. Nashville and Memphis are growing. This forecasts that they’ll grow at over 10% this year.

This study was done, or this particular report I’m talking about was actually done by the Joint Center for Housing Studies, which is, I think, a Harvard study, which is where these reports are coming from. You can actually go to jchs.harvard.edu and get all kinds of great statistics on what your industry’s doing in the remodeling area.

So, Chauncey, what I thought we could do is we could dive into this and help a remodeling contractor figure out how they determine what kind of opportunity, specifically, is available for them, and what they can do about it.

Chauncey: Absolutely. There’s always going to be opportunity, but finding out what opportunity is in your level is definitely good motivation. Once again, I don’t want to get all broken record, but you know, this is stuff that people should already be doing. Especially, when you’re dealing with a high dollar business like remodeling, there’s tools, there’s investments. The jobs are big. You really need to be progressive in order to maintain, much less grow.

Joe: Here’s the crazy thing. When we’re talking about being found, as a marketing model, and earlier in the show we looked at the fact that there are local businesses right in Northern California that aren’t being found, we can start to attribute the expense of not being found. I think that’s another way to look at it. For instance, if somebody’s looking for my business, or my address, or my phone number, or they’re looking for a remodeling contractor near them, if I don’t show up, that is a $6,000 opportunity gone.

I think that if I could ever get something across, it’s that the opportunity missed is the opportunity you’ll never know that didn’t happen. Part of looking at the online statistics of how many people are looking for your services, is a way for you to start to see all the opportunity that you’re missing. For every person that goes online and finds another contractor who did get found when they were specifically looking for your service, or did even get found when they were looking for your name, instead of you being found, that’s six grand. Or whatever your average sale is, in whatever industry you’re in.

Chauncey: Right.

Joe: When we come back, I actually want to talk about the Tennessee area. We’re gonna look at, specifically, what words people are looking for, how many are looking, and I’ve also got the statistics of the average sale in Memphis, Tennessee, and so we’re gonna give you advice on how to handle that.

You are listening to the Being Found Show, and we’ll be right back.